A shape is a template that determines the type and amount of resources that are allocated to a compute instance. Compute Cloud@Customer offers a choice between a flexible shape for generic workloads, and dedicated shapes for GPU-accelerated workloads.
You choose the shape configuration when you create an instance. See Creating an Instance.
When you create instances using any of the platform images that are provided with Compute Cloud@Customer, all common workloads can be handled with the VM.PCAStandard.E5.Flex shape. Because it's a flexible shape, it lets you customize the number of OCPUs and the amount of memory for each instance. You can optimize instance performance for a specific workload and ensure that resources are used efficiently.
The GPU VM shapes are optimized for enterprise GPU-accelerated workloads. They can only be used if the Compute Cloud@Customer deployment includes a GPU expansion rack. Instances created with a GPU shape have direct (passthrough) access to 1-4 physical GPUs. The ratio between GPUs, OCPUs and memory is fixed.
Generic Flexible Shape
The following table lists the number of OCPUs and the amount of memory you can configure using the VM.PCAStandard.E5.Flex Shape.
The number of OCPUs you select determines the maximum VNIC attachments and the network bandwidth for the instance.
VM.PCAStandard.E5.Flex
Specification
Possible Values
Shape name
VM.PCAStandard.E5.Flex
OCPUs, minimum - maximum
1 to 96
Memory, default
10 GB per OCPU
Memory, minimum
1 GB per OCPU
Memory, maximum
64 GB per OCPU, up to 960 GB
VNICs, maximum
1 OCPU: 2 VNICs
2 to 24 OCPUs: 1 VNIC per OCPU
25 to 96: 24 VNICs
Bandwidth, maximum
1 to 24 OCPUs: 24.6 Gbps
25 to 40 OCPUs: 1 Gbps per OCPU
41 to 96 OCPUs: 40 Gbps
The following table illustrates how the properties of the VM.PCAStandard.E5.Flex Shape can be optimized for each individual instance.
Shape Configuration Examples
OCPUs Selected
Possible Memory Range (GB)
Maximum VNICs
Maximum Bandwidth (Gbps)
4
4 to 256
4
24.6
20
20 to 960
20
24.6
30
30 to 960
24
30
96
96 to 960
24
40
Dedicated GPU Shapes 🔗
For GPU-accelerated workloads, you have a choice between these shapes: VM.GPU.L40S.1, VM.GPU.L40S.2,VM.GPU.L40S.3, VM.GPU.L40S.4. To access these dedicated shapes, you must create an instance based on the Oracle Linux 8 or Oracle Linux 9 platform image.
Note
No GPU drivers are included in the current Oracle Linux platform images. The instance OS detects the allocated GPUs, but to use them, you need the CUDA Toolkit from the NVIDIA developer site to install the required drivers.
The large download and local repository installation need a large amount of disk space. The default 50GB boot volume is insufficient on Oracle Linux 9 and only just large enough on Oracle Linux 8. It is highly recommended to increase the boot volume size to at least 60GB, and extend the file system accordingly.