Creating an Instance

On Compute Cloud@Customer, you can create an instance using the Compute Cloud@Customer Console, CLI, and API.

Before You Begin

See Tutorial: Launching Your First Instance for information about input you need to create an instance.

The following list describes the minimum information that you must provide to create an instance:

A name for the instance
The compartment where you want to create the instance
An image or boot volume
A shape – If you're using a platform image, specify the VM.PCAStandard.E5.Flex shape.
A subnet
A public SSH key

To log in to the instance, users need either an SSH key or a password, depending on how the image was built. If the instance requires SSH keys for authentication, you must provide the public key when you create the instance. You can't provide the public SSH key after the instance is created.

To create an instance using the CLI, you need the same information as previously listed for the Compute Cloud@Customer Console with the following differences:

You need the name of the availability domain where you want to create the instance.
You don't need an instance name. If you don't provide a name for the instance, the default name will be instanceYYYYMMDDhhmmss, where YYYYMMDDhhmmss is the creation date and time.

To modify launch options, use the CLI. You can't change launch options or boot volume VPUs per GB after the instance is created.

An alternative way to create an instance is to create an instance configuration and use that configuration to launch an instance, as described in Working with Instance Configurations. When you use an instance configuration to create an instance, you can specify blockVolumes and secondaryVnics, as shown in the OCI CLI procedure in Creating an Instance Configuration by Entering Configuration Values.

Note

If you specify a boot volume size that's larger than the default, you need to extend the volume to take advantage of the larger size. See Resizing Volumes.

Avoid entering confidential information in names and tags.

1. Create or get the following resources and information:
  
  An image or boot volume and the compartment where the image or boot volume is located
  
  A virtual cloud network (VCN) and subnet and the compartment where the VCN and subnet are located
  
  A public Secure Shell (SSH) key if users will connect to the instance using SSH
2. On the Compute Cloud@Customer Console Dashboard, do one of the following to open the Create Instance dialog box:
  
  Click Compute/Create Virtual Machine Instance.
  
  Click Compute/View Images. For the image that you want to use to create the instance, click Actions menu (), then click the Create Instance From Image. You might have to change the compartment at the top of the image list to see the image you want.
  
  When you use the Create Instance From Image option, the image name is already entered in the Create Instance dialog box and you can't change it. You don't need to enter any of the information described in "Source Image" in the following step.
3. In the Create Instance dialog box, enter the following information:
  
  Name: Enter a name for the instance. Instance names have the following characteristics:
  
  Can be changed after the instance is created.
  
  Doesn't need to be unique.
  
  Can contain only alphanumeric characters and the hyphen (-) character.
  
  Can be a maximum of 63 characters.
  
  Create in Compartment: Select the compartment where you want to create the instance.
  
  Fault Domain: (Optional) Select a fault domain. By default, the system automatically selects the best fault domain for the instance when the instance is created. If you specify a fault domain, and the requested fault domain can't accommodate the instance, instance launch fails. The fault domain can be changed after the instance is created.
  
  Source Image: Select an image or boot volume.
  
  Select the Source Type: Platform Image, Custom Image, or Boot Volume.
  
  If you selected Custom Image or Boot Volume, select the compartment where the image or boot volume that you want to use is located.
  
  Select an image or boot volume from the list.
  
  If you selected Platform Image, you see a tabular list with columns Operating System, OS Version, and Image Build (the date the image was built). You can use the drop-down menu arrow to the right of the OS Version to select a different version. For example, for the Oracle Linux operating system, you can use the drop-down menu to select 9, 8, or 7.9.
  
  If you selected Custom Image, you see a tabular list with columns Name, Operating System, and OS Version. You can use the arrows in the column headings to sort the list. You can filter the list by using the Operating System drop-down menu above the list of images.
  
  If you selected Boot Volume, you see a tabular list with columns Name, Size (GB), and Created (the date the boot volume was created). You can use the arrows in the column headings to sort the list. In the Boot Volume section (after the Shape section), you can customize the boot volume size.
  
  If the list is too long to fit in one view, use the arrow to view another page of the list.
  
  To use a platform image that was previously available but is no longer listed, use the CLI to create the instance and specify the OCID of the image.
  
  The source image can't be changed after the instance is created.
  
  Shape: If you're using a platform image, select the VM.PCAStandard.E5.Flex shape, and configure the number of OCPUs and memory.
  
  For the OCPU and memory values, click inside each value field to see the minimum and maximum allowed values. The OCPU and memory configuration can be changed after the instance is created.
  
  For a description of the supported shape, see Compute Shape.
  
  Boot Volume: (Optional) Check the box to specify a custom boot volume size or volume performance setting.
  
  Boot volume size (GB): The default boot volume size for the selected image is shown. To specify a larger size, enter an integer of gigabytes up to 16384 GB (16 TB) or use the increment and decrement arrows. You can't enter a value smaller than the default.
  
  If you specify a custom boot volume size, you need to extend the partition to take advantage of the larger size. Oracle Linux platform images include the oci-utils package. Use the oci-growfs command from that package to extend the root partition and then grow the file system. For other OSs or for custom images, follow the instructions for that OS.
  
  Boot volume performance (VPUs): Use the increment and decrement arrows to toggle between balanced performance (10 VPUs/GB) and high performance (20 VPUs/GB). For more information see Block Volume Performance Options.
  
  Subnet: Select a subnet.
  
  Select a VCN from the list. You might need to change the compartment to the compartment where the VCN is located.
  
  Select a subnet.
  
  Public IP Address: To connect to the instance using SSH, check the Assign Public IP box to have a public IP address assigned to the instance. This box is checked by default if you specified a public subnet. If you don't check this box, or if you clear this box, and then want to assign a public IP address later, see Assigning an Ephemeral Public IP Address to an Instance for instructions.
  
  Private IP Address: (Optional) Specify an available private IP address from the subnet's CIDR. By default, a private IP address is automatically assigned.
  
  Hostname: (Optional) Enter a hostname if you're using DNS within the cloud network. The hostname must be unique across all VNICs in the subnet.
  
  By default, the instance name is used for the hostname. The hostname can also be configured in the OS after the instance is created.
  
  If this is a UNIX instance, see Creating a Mount Target and Mounting File Systems on UNIX-based Instances for more information about setting the host name correctly for mounting file systems.
  
  SSH Keys: To connect to the instance using SSH, provide a public SSH key.
  
  Note
  
  You can't provide this SSH key after the instance is created.
  
  Initialization Script: (Optional) Provide an initialization script. This is a file of data to be used for custom instance initialization.
  
  Network Security Group: (Optional) By default, the new instance isn't attached to any NSG. Check the box labeled Enable Network Security Group to add the primary VNIC for this instance to one or more NSGs.
  
  Select an NSG from the drop-down list. You might need to change the compartment to find the NSG you want.
  
  Click Add Another NSG if you want to attach to another NSG.
  
  To remove an NSG from the list, click the trash can to the right of that NSG. To remove the last NSG or all NSGs, clear the Enable Network Security Groups box.
  
  To update NSG attachments for this instance later, see Updating a VNIC.
  
  See Controlling Traffic with Network Security Groups for information about NSGs.
  
  Instance Options: Check the box to disable Legacy Instance Metadata Service Endpoints. By default, legacy (/v1) Instance Metadata Service (IMDS) routes are enabled. If you have upgraded your applications to use /v2 endpoints, check this box to disable /v1 endpoints. For more information about the Instance Metadata Service, see Retrieving Instance Metadata from Within the Instance. For more information about upgrading your applications, see Upgrading to IMDS Version 2 Endpoints.
  
  Availability configuration: (Optional) Check the "Restore instance lifecycle state after infrastructure maintenance" box to specify that running instances should be automatically restarted after a maintenance operation such as live migration. This is the default. If this box isn't checked, the instance is recovered in the stopped state.
  
  Tagging: (Optional) Add one or more tags to this resource. If you aren't sure whether to apply tags, skip this option (you can apply tags later). For more information about tagging resources, see Resource Tags.
4. Click Create Instance.
  
  On success, the instance details page is displayed. On the Configuration tab, the Shape Configuration column shows the shape, the number of OCPUs, the network bandwidth, and the total memory. On the Networking tab, the VNIC column shows the VCN and subnet, and the Instance Access column shows the primary private IP address and any assigned public IP address.
  
  To check the status of the instance launch, scroll to the Resources section and click Work Request(s).
  
  If instance launch fails because of resource constraints, try remedies such as the following:
  
  Specify a different fault domain, or don't specify any fault domain and allow the system to choose it.
  
  Specify a less resource-intensive shape.
  
  Stop an instance that you no longer need .
  
  Terminate an instance that you no longer need.
  
  If the status of the work request is Failed, and no reason is listed for the failure, the cause of the failure might be temporary. Wait a short time and then retry the instance create.
Use the oci compute instance launch command and required parameters to create an instance.
oci compute instance launch --availability-domain availability_domain --compartment-id compartment_OCID --shape shape --subnet-id subnet_OCID --source-details file://image_info.json [OPTIONS]
For a complete list of required and optional parameters, use the following command:
```
oci compute instance launch -h
```
For a complete list of CLI commands, flags, and options, see the Command Line Reference.
Procedure

Create or get the following resources and information:

The name of the availability domain that you want to use: oci iam availability-domain list

The OCID of the compartment where you want to create the instance: oci iam compartment list

The name of the shape for this instance.

See Compute Shape.

Use the following command to list the available shapes and their characteristics. Use the OCID of the compartment where you want to create the instance. To list only shapes that are compatible with the image that you plan to use, specify the image OCID.

$ oci compute shape list --compartment-id compartment_OCID --image-id image_OCID

You must also specify the shape configuration, as shown in the following example. You must provide a value for ocpus. The memoryInGBs property is optional; the default value in GBs is 16 times the number of ocpus.

--shape-config '{"ocpus": 32, "memoryInGBs": 512}'

The shape configuration can be changed after the instance is created.

The OCID of the subnet where the VNIC that is attached to this instance will be created: oci compute vnic-attachment list

If you provide a value for the --hostname-label option, see the description of Hostname in the Console tab.

Gather one of the following values to specify the image source – either an image or a boot volume.

The OCID of the image used to boot the instance:
oci compute image list

The OCID of the boot volume used to boot the instance:
oci compute boot-volume-attachment list

A public Secure Shell (SSH) key to connect to the instance using SSH.

Note

You can't provide this SSH key after the instance is created.

For a complete list of required and optional parameters, use the following command:

$ oci compute instance launch -h

For information about --display-name and --hostname-label values, see descriptions in the Console tab.

Construct an argument for the --source-details option.

The --source-details argument can be a JSON file or a command-line string. Use the following command to show the correct format of the JSON properties and values:

$ oci compute instance launch --generate-param-json-input source-details [ "This parameter should actually be a JSON object rather than an array - pick one of the following object variants to use", { "bootVolumeId": "string", "sourceType": "bootVolume" }, { "bootVolumeSizeInGBs": 0, "bootVolumeVpusPerGB": 0, "imageId": "string", "kmsKeyId": "string", "sourceType": "image" } ]

For information about bootVolumeSizeInGBs, see "Boot volume size" in the Console tab.

For information about bootVolumeVpusPerGB, see "High Performance" in the Console tab.

Note

When you later list or get this instance, the value of bootVolumeVpusPerGB is null because this boot volume property isn't stored in the instance object after the instance is created. To check the value after instance launch, use the bv boot-volume list or get command and check the value of vpus-per-gb.

(Optional) Construct an argument for the --launch-options option.

Only the firmware property can be changed. The default value is BIOS. You can alternatively specify UEFI_64. If you don't provide a correct value for firmware, the instance might not launch. You can't update the value of the firmware property with the instance update command.

The following shows the default values:

{ "bootVolumeType": "PARAVIRTUALIZED", "firmware": "BIOS", "isConsistentVolumeNamingEnabled": false, "is-pv-encryption-in-transit-enabled": false, "networkType": "PARAVIRTUALIZED", "remoteDataVolumeType": "PARAVIRTUALIZED" }

To change the value of the firmware property, specify the following option:

--launch-options file://launch_options.json

Where the following is the content of the launch_options.json file:

{ "bootVolumeType": "PARAVIRTUALIZED", "firmware": "UEFI_64", "isConsistentVolumeNamingEnabled": false, "is-pv-encryption-in-transit-enabled": false, "networkType": "PARAVIRTUALIZED", "remoteDataVolumeType": "PARAVIRTUALIZED" }

(Optional) Construct an argument for the --metadata or --extended-metadata option.

Custom user data can be attached to the instance using the --metadata and --extended-metadata options. Metadata key/value pairs are string/string maps in JSON format. Extended metadata can be nested JSON objects. Metadata and extended metadata have the following restrictions:

Keys are limited to 255 characters.

Most key values are limited to 255 characters.

The value of the ssh_authorized_keys key can be more than 255 characters. This value must be a valid public key in OpenSSH format.

The value of user_data can be a maximum of 16KB. This value is data that Cloud-Init can use to run custom scripts or provide custom Cloud-Init configuration.

Metadata can have a maximum of 128 keys.

The combined size of the metadata and extended metadata can be a maximum of 32,000 bytes.

SSH keys can alternatively be provided in the file argument of the --ssh-authorized-keys-file option. User data can alternatively be provided in the file argument of the --user-data-file option. Use the -h option for more information.

In the example in the next step, the authorized keys file contains one or more public SSH keys in the format required by the SSH authorized_keys file. Use a newline character to separate multiple keys. SSH public keys can be provided as the value of the ssh_authorized_keys key in the --metadata option, or in the file argument of the --ssh-authorized-keys-file option. Use -h for more information.

Run the instance launch command.

Syntax:

oci compute instance launch --availability-domain availability_domain_name \ --compartment-id compartment_OCID --shape shape --subnet-id subnet_OCID \ --source-details file://image_info.json

Example:

If you are using a public subnet, a public IP address is assigned by default, or you can set the --assign-public-ip option value to true. If you need to assign a public IP address later, see Assigning an Ephemeral Public IP Address to an Instance for instructions.

If you have upgraded your applications to use /v2 Instance Metadata Service (IMDS) endpoints, use the --instance-options option to set areLegacyImdsEndpointsDisabled to true. By default, legacy (/v1) Instance Metadata Service routes are enabled. For more information about the Instance Metadata Service, see Retrieving Instance Metadata from Within the Instance.

$ oci compute instance launch --availability-domain AD-1 --compartment-id <compartment_OCID> --display-name ops1 --shape VM.PCAStandard.E5.Flex --subnet-id <subnet_OCID> --source-details '{"bootVolumeSizeInGBs":100,"bootVolumeVpusPerGB":20,"imageId":"<image_OCID>","sourceType":"image"}' --assign-public-ip true --ssh-authorized-keys-file ./.ssh/<ssh_key_file> --instance-options '{"areLegacyImdsEndpointsDisabled": true}' { "data": { "agent-config": null, "availability-config": { "is-live-migration-preferred": null, "recovery-action": "RESTORE_INSTANCE" }, "availability-domain": "AD-1", "capacity-reservation-id": null, "compartment-id": "ocid1.compartment.unique_ID", "dedicated-vm-host-id": null, "defined-tags": {}, "display-name": "ops1", "extended-metadata": null, "fault-domain": "FAULT-DOMAIN-1", "freeform-tags": {}, "id": "ocid1.instance.unique_ID", "image-id": "ocid1.image.unique_ID", "instance-options": { "are-legacy-imds-endpoints-disabled": true }, "ipxe-script": null, "launch-mode": "PARAVIRTUALIZED", "launch-options": { "boot-volume-type": "PARAVIRTUALIZED", "firmware": "BIOS", "is-consistent-volume-naming-enabled": false, "is-pv-encryption-in-transit-enabled": false, "network-type": "PARAVIRTUALIZED", "remote-data-volume-type": "PARAVIRTUALIZED" }, "lifecycle-state": "PROVISIONING", "metadata": { "ssh_authorized_keys": <public_ssh_key>" }, "platform-config": null, "preemptible-instance-config": null, "region": "region_name", "shape": "VM.PCAStandard.E5.Flex", "shape-config": { "baseline-ocpu-utilization": null, "gpu-description": null, "gpus": null, "local-disk-description": null, "local-disks": null, "local-disks-total-size-in-gbs": null, "max-vnic-attachments": 16, "memory-in-gbs": 256.0, "networking-bandwidth-in-gbps": 24.6, "ocpus": 16.0, "processor-description": null }, "source-details": { "boot-volume-size-in-gbs": 100, "bootVolumeVpusPerGB": 20, "image-id": "ocid1.image.unique_ID", "kms-key-id": null, "source-type": "image" }, "system-tags": null, "time-created": "2021-09-22T20:20:04.715304+00:00", "time-maintenance-reboot-due": null }, "etag": "92180faa-3660-446c-9559-c12a6e6111f9", "opc-work-request-id": "ocid1.workrequest.unique_ID" }

Use the work-requests work-request get command to monitor the status of the instance launch:

$ oci work-requests work-request get --work-request-id ocid1.workrequest.unique_ID

If the status of the work request is Failed, and no reason is given for the failure, the cause of the failure might be temporary. If no reason is given for the failure, wait a short time and then retry the instance create.
Use the LaunchInstance operation to create an instance.

For information about using the API and signing requests, see REST APIs and Security Credentials. For information about SDKs, see Software Development Kits and Command Line Interface.

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Documentation

Creating an Instance