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readme.md
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Aug 22, 2023

readme.md

Free Hosting VPS

guide-by-example

Purpose & Overview

Free virtual private server hosting on a cloud.
Here are github repos with details on various providers:

So far I only run Oracle Cloud.
Will add others if I will deal with them, or if Oracle fucks me over.

Oracle Cloud

logo

What Free Tier Offers

As of 2023.

Official docs

  • 1-2 instances of AMD based Compute VMs with 1/8 OCPU and 1 GB ram each
    shape name: VM.Standard.E2.1.Micro
  • 1-4 instances of 4 Arm-based Ampere A1 cores with 24 GB of ram to divide
    shape name: VM.Standard.A1.Flex
  • Block Volumes Storage, 200 GB total, default 50GB for boot of any VM
  • 10 Mbps bandwidth
  • 10 TB per month outbound data transfer

Registration

  • A credit card is needed during the registration.
  • Home region is picked and it can not be changed later. Choise here will impact the IP address location and possibly availability of free instances to create.
  • I read that you wont be able to re-use credit card if you terminate your account.

Seen comments online that some just cant get the registration done.

Instance creaction

insance

Instances > Create instance

  • If none selected, pick Compartment in left column, default root
  • Name - whatever
  • Create in compartment - default
  • Placement - default; Always Free-eligible
  • Security - default - shield disabled
  • Image and shape
    • VM.Standard.E2.1.Micro Always Free-eligible
    • Ubuntu 22.04 Always Free-eligible
  • Networking - edit; create a new virtual cloud network; or pick existing one
    same for subnet
    Assign a public IPv4 address
  • Add SSH keys - Paste public keys. Well it be good if you were not noob, and already have your ssh identiy and that you just paste your public key.
    Noobs will need to pick Generate a key pair for me, then download both public and private keys and google out how to use them to SSH in the VM once it's running.
  • Boot volume - keep default

You can ignore €1.85/month charge for Boot volume displayed, its a bug. After the creation, in Billing & Cost Management - Subscriptions or Cost analysis the ammount displayed should be 0€.

Firewall settings

Oracle network settings ingress rule

  • Virtual Cloud Networks > VNC you got there > Subnet > Securty List > Ingress Rules
  • A rule for port 22 should be there, to let in ssh.
  • Add new rule
    • Source Type - CIDR
    • Source CIDR - 0.0.0.0/0
    • IP Protocol - All Protocols

ingress

firewalld in ubuntu open port

in examples here port will be 7777/tcp

  • sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
  • sudo apt install firewalld
  • sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --permanent --add-port=7777/tcp
  • sudo firewall-cmd --reload

To test

  • ssh in to the VM
  • nc -l 7777 - starts a netcat server listening on port 7777/tcp
  • go on site like yougetsignal.com
    put in IP of the VM, port, test if you get open
  • or from your linux machine nc <ip-of-the-vm> 7777,
    write something, it should appear in the VM

If it works, then depending on the use, one can start securing stuff better. For example, restricing from what public ip connection are accepted - ingress rule has Source CIDR set to lets say 353.749.385.54/32

If set, the online test from a website will fail, but nc from a machine with that public IP will work.

Docker on ubuntu

For some reason its not stupid simple to install docker on ubuntu. You are put to decisions.
I picked the script way, which I guess dont get upated?

  • curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | bash

Prevent reclaim if VM runs idle too much

idle

I will not be running anything for now as a test, if email about idle instance comes.

IF it comes the solution should be to put regular load on the VM. This should do it.

  • echo "*/5 * * * * root timeout 46 nice md5sum /dev/zero" | sudo tee /etc/cron.d/dummy-load

Some discussion on this

Archlinux

arch

I am used to archlinux and everything else feels wrong.
So to get it as a VM on oracle cloud.

Afterwards its going same as with any other instance.

arch/arch for SSH login, recommend disabling password login and do IP restriction

Not tested but theres also this as option:

Links

Some youtube videos and articles