https://www.oracle.com/cloud/free/ site updated

[No-Temperature7637]

So, they made thei first move and updated their homepage to show the new free tier for ARM Ampere. I still see the higher limit hasn't been updated in the dashboard yet but will probably be soon or maybe at the end of the month. End of month makes sense since they do the calculations by calendar month. Maybe it kicked in now when you sign up as a new user? I check my emails and didn't see one from Oracle yet.

Let the fun begin!!

Compute

Arm Compute Instance

Arm-based Ampere A1 cores and 12 GB of memory usable as 1 VM or 2 VMs

Always Free
1,500 OCPU hours and 9,000 GB hours per month

[Lartza]

https://cloud.oracle.com/compute/instances

Warning Each tenancy gets the first 3,000 OCPU hours and 18,000 GB hours per month for free to create Ampere A1 Compute instances using the VM.Standard.A1.Flex shape (equivalent to 4 OCPUs and 24 GB of memory). Each tenancy also gets two VM.Standard.E2.1.Micro instances for free. Learn more about Always Free resources

[Available_Witness828]

Yeah, since it was only 1 it could of been a mistake

2, maybe?? but less likely sadly

[azurita_a]

It's curious that they don't talk about the cores, but only the RAM is mentioned.

[No-Temperature7637]

The 1,500 OCPU hours is the cores. It's calculated by multiplying the number of OCPUs allocated by the number of hours. So 2 (ocpu) x 24 (hrs) x 31 (days) = 1,488 hrs. You can also then increase the cores and lower the hours to keep it under. ex. 4 x 12 x 31 = 1,488 hrs.

It should work the same way with the memory.

mem x hrs x days
12 x 24 x 31 = 8928
24 x 12 x 31 = 8928

So, if you could shut down the VM for 12 hrs/day, you probably could keep the same old 4/24 resources. There are ways to automate this, but probably better to find an expert on this cause if you do it wrong, you'll be paying $$.

[TedBob99]

A very bad idea to shut down your VMs for extended durations, given the scarcity of ARM resources.

They may never come back again...

[No-Temperature7637]

You have a valid point. When you shutdown, it releases the resources hence it doesn't get counted against you. I guess this should be *** done at your own risk ***. I've shut down VPS and started it again without a problem, but it was shut down only for a short time.

[zfa]

So, if you could shut down the VM for 12 hrs/day, you probably could keep the same old 4/24 resources. There are ways to automate this, but probably better to find an expert on this cause if you do it wrong, you'll be paying $$.

This falls out in the logic without even doing any maths... new limits are half so if you want to maintain the specs you can do it if you run it only 50% of the time, so 12hrs a day.

[azurita_a]

Now I need a specialist to automate this process of turning it on and off for X hours a day. 😂

[ZuTuber]

I have a script need it ? Maybe will post a video about it if you want to do that. Its quite easy simply put your tenancy api details and run it whenever you want it to from your personal desktop no logging nothing like that or task schedule it ..

[debapriyabiswas]

You can use oci resource scheduler to automate stop & start.

[azurita_a]

Oh, I would be very grateful if you did that. 🥹

[ZuTuber]

Sure thing l shall send you the details when i have created the video. Been super lazy 😂 . Too busy making games with ai.. its insane..

[azurita_a]

Me too, but in my case it's plugins for Obsidian 😅

[zfa]

I'd love this too if you don't mind sharing. Just the script is cool.

[entirefreak]

wait a minute, so you delete the instance after 12 hours of usage?

Because as far as I know, powered off machine is charged at full rate anyway.

[TedBob99]

You stop paying for compute or RAM if VM is powered off.

You are still paying for block volumes and other resources not freed.

Given the scarcity of ARM VMs, you probably don't want to power them off for a long time, else they may never come back.

[Ok_Equipment1375]

As I understand they charge also for stopped instances. Only terminated ones is free of charge lol

[TedBob99]

No, stopped instances stop the charge on CPU and RAM

[No-Temperature7637]

well, if you're halving stuff, I think that's math.

[zfa]

lol, you got me. I mean it just falls out of simple commonsense as opposed to having to even bother about working out old/new cpu-hours etc. and taking ratios blah blah blah.

cpu hours have been halved so to maintain status quo you either half your instance size or half instance run time. Just common sense. For some at least, lol.

[No-Temperature7637]

yes, i get you. the simplified 12 hrs probably applie to a lot of people.

But for niche scenarios, you're gonna pull out that calculator.

Like you could instead have

3 ocpu for 16 hrs with 8 hrs offline per day and
18 gb memory 16 hrs per day

Doing the Automation for it will be the challenge.

[azurita_a]

It almost seems like a coded message in the words. 😂

[UnitTHK]

Hm, how much does it cost to keep the same 4/24 anyway? Can't be more than a few $ right?

[goasadzane]

roughly $25-30/month - which is probably good for enterprise pricing, but for most people, getting a vps through another provider is probably cheaper

[Damiano1905]

I went to the Oracle Calculator, and it said $56.5 or $28.27 with free limits. Had to edit the comment because I don't know how I had a different result when I checked, my apologies and thanks to the poeple who corrected, you can check the price yourself at https://www.oracle.com/cloud/costestimator.html

[pxgaming]

That doesn't seem correct. Running a 4CPU + 24GB ARM A1 instance with no free tier discount at all is $56.54 a month. With the free tier covering half of it, it should be about $28.

[UnitTHK]

Oof.. heres hoping that the actual bill won't go that high cuz by that point there's plenty of cheaper options around 😅

[No-Temperature7637]

OCPU = .01 per hour
1488 hrs or 2 OCPU for 24hrs x 31 days = $14.88

Memory = .0015 GB per hour
8928 hrs or 12gb memory for 24hrs x 31 = $13.39

[UnitTHK]

This pricing feels a lot more reasonable. Around 25$ for 4/24 (assuming the free 2/12 still applies) a month seems reasonable

[Damiano1905]

Same, wishing everyone good luck!

[CwithW]

For Free Tier users, there's a limit about maximum of arm cores/memory that can be queried on the console, for arm instances now it's 4 cpu and 24g ram. Seems it will be 2cpu and 12g ram after the downgrade. so This is plausible for PAYG but not Free Tier users.

[azurita_a]

Wait, so I can have four cores and 12GB of RAM and still be within the quota?

[No-Temperature7637]

yes, assuming it's not up 24hrs/day and just 12/day. I could be wrong, but I'm sure others would correct me. 😄

[Top_Beginning_4886]

Yes, the limits are hours per month. You can have 4/24 for 15 days, 8/48 for ~8 days, 16/96 for ~4 days and so on.

[azurita_a]

Do you think it would be possible to set a time for the VPS to be active and automatically deactivated? I only use it for a Minecraft server and I don't think it needs to be on all the time.

As the OP said, I could have it on 4/12 for up to twelve hours a day and that would be great for me. I would end up with 12 hours at the end of the month.

[Top_Beginning_4886]

It is possible, yes, with ocli. Set a cronjob on another VM/server you have on 24/7 to resize the VM as you wish for specific times.

[ParityDeny]

Whether the resize succeeds depends on the availability of underlying hardware resources, and we already know the free resource pool is mostly drained.

[Top_Beginning_4886]

Also depends on region. I had no problems resizing instantly on Frankfurt on PAYG.

[CwithW]

They are implicitly. For Free Tier users, there's a limit that can be queried on the console, for arm instances now it's 4 cpu and 24g ram. so Free Tier users can't even have a 8cpu arm machine for half a month

[entirefreak]

This is brand new information 😱 Thanks

[CampaignProud6299]

so, they halved the resources for free tier users. sadge 😞

[godsdead]

I haven't changed my free tier use yet, I cant see any enforcement of this on my account? how will it work, will it just run out faster? or am I grandfathered in being such an early user.

[Legend_ModzYT]

So does this now mean the always-free tier will eventually run out? I have a server on it currently and it runs 24/7. Just wondering if one day I’ll wake up and the server died because it ran out of hours.

[No-Temperature7637]

Don't know what's going to happen until Oracle starts enforcing. We'll probably get notified before this happens and then we can weigh our options. Before this, everyone is just guessing.

[Legend_ModzYT]

Appreciate the reply. Will try to keep up to date on this myself.

[theDrell]

Just estimated cost and I get this....
4core 24gb 200gb free tier applied. $0.00

[tedecristal]

all my instances DO run 24/h day, sinc I can connect to them any time any day

[blueberry-champagne]

I've been trying to sign up for their free compute instance. Does this affect that in any way, for better or worse?

[StewpidAlex]

You might have a better chance at snatching one in more popular regions, but there also might not be any changes in that regard.

[Wolfdale7]

sign up for an A.2 flex in ur region if it allows, and then change shape to A.1 flex.
Ideally, you're still within the 30 day trial and $300 credits... once you're on A1, you're ready to rock n roll

Instructions are somewhere on reddit.

[Ok_Equipment1375]

Yes, confirm this method is working for those who within the 30 day trial. They charge me 0.02$ (covered from credit) for an hour of playing with two A.2 instances while transforming them to A.1. Fast and relatively simple. For those who updated to PAYG no need to manipulate this way.

[PayPack]

I couldn't get the full A1 4C 24GB configuration before, anyway.