Oracle Cloud ARM: most generous free tier

 

Oracle Cloud is giving away an impressive ARM-based cloud instance: 4 CPU, 24 GB RAM, 20 TB monthly bandwidth at 4 Gbps speed.

Step 1: create a free Oracle Cloud account

Step 2: go to the Compute > Instances section

Step 3: click the Create Instance button

Step 4: change the auto-generated instance name to something more memorable

Step 5: In the Image and shape section, click the Change Image button

Step 6: check the box next to your desired OS. Note: if you want a Ubuntu instance, you MUST choose a non-minimal OS version (e.g. 20.04 instead of 20.04 Minimal). Then click Select Image.

Step 7: In the Shape section, click the Change Shape button

Step 8: Click the Ampere box. Note: it will look like the only option is a 1 CPU / 6 GB RAM instance but you'll have more options once you click on the checkbox next to VM.Standard.A1.Flex "Always Free Eligible"

Step 9: move the horizontal slider all the way to the right to see the CPU and RAM options and then select 4 CPU (the RAM will automatically change to 24 GB) and then click the Select Shape button

Step 10: verify the image and shape are correct 

Step 11: by default, Oracle will assign the instance an ephemeral public IP address but we want a static IP address so scroll down to the Networking section and select Do not assign a public IPv4 address. (We'll create the static IP address in a moment)

Step 12: in the Add SSH keys section, either download the generated private and public keys (and chmod 400 them) or upload your own

Step 13: after your SSH access is set up, click Create

Step 14: after the instance is created, click on it to view its details. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and in the Resources left-hand menu click on Attached VNICs then click on the Primary VNIC link (noted as grey rectangle below):

Step 15: Scroll down to the bottom of that page and in the Resources left-hand menu click IPv4 Addresses and then the three dots next to your Primary IP and select Edit

Step 16: select Reserved Public IP and Create New Reserved IP Address and give the IP record a name so you can differentiate it from other public IP addresses in your infrastructure. Then click Update.

Step 17: you can now login to the instance using the newly created public IP address and the SSH key downloaded above.

ssh -i /path/to/your/ssh-key-2021-06-16.key ubuntu@12.13.14.15

(replacing the key name and IP with your's of course)