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I have a small website running on the "always free" tier. It's perfect for my needs. After my trial period ended (and I hadn't used any fee-based resoures), I reverted back to "always free." This is fine. This morning, I received an email which read, in part:

Your Always Free resources will remain available to you as long as you actively use your account.

but doesn't define the meaning of "actively use your account." I would just chat online with someone, but that's not available to me. I tried to use their community forums, but their login seems busted, so I landed here. (No offense, but I was under the impression this is mostly for development questions.)

Is having a website running sufficient to qualify as "active use?" Do I need to login to the console periodically? No matter the use, what constitutes "active?" For example, if I am required to login the the console periodically, how often to I have to do that? Weekly? Monthly?

smontanaro
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4 Answers4

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Based on the documentation, Always Free account activity is measured according to the following rules:

Oracle Autonomous Database: "Successfully making a SQL*Net or HTTPS connection resets these measurements to zero"

Per the documentation, you get 7 days before the resource is automatically stopped, and then 90 days before the resource is permanently deleted.

Based on my experience with the database, you get a warning email after 7 days, and then 2 days later the resource is stopped. You get a warning email about permanent deletion after 60 days, and luckily I don't have experience with how long it takes for a resource to be permanently deleted.

APEX: "Successfully making a HTTPS connection resets these measurements to zero."

APEX shares the same 7 and 90 day rules as the autonomous database.

Compute:

Oracle will deem virtual machine and bare metal compute instances as idle if, during a 7-day period, the following are true:

  • CPU utilization for the 95th percentile is less than 15%
  • Network utilization is less than 15%
  • Memory utilization is less than 15% (applies to A1 shapes only)
Martheen
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Jon Heller
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  • Thanks. I admit to finding the console and much of the ancillary material somewhat confusing. I got that stuff working and just ssh to the server. In just using SQLite. Perhaps all the bots hitting my HTTPS port will keep it running. – smontanaro Feb 23 '22 at 08:37
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    What about Compute? I'm using Compute and I can't find any documentation on what specifically counts as active use. – Grant Gryczan Mar 24 '22 at 10:20
  • @GrantGryczan I can't find the documentation either, sorry. – Jon Heller Mar 25 '22 at 04:14
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All I can find about inactivity in compute is that an instance is considered inactive if:

  • Average CPU over a 7 day period hits < 10%
  • Average RAM over a 7 day period hits < 10%

It's not clear to me if your averages have to be OVER 10% for both CPU and RAM to prevent Oracle stopping you.

John Smith
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Thanks for the responses. Oracle solved the problem for me by forcing me to sign up for pay-as-you-go. Keeping under whatever threshold separates the two tiers keeps it always free, but the possibility of selling me compute cycles probably keeps them from shutting me off for lack of resource usage. :-)

smontanaro
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<-- snip

Reclamation of Idle Compute Instances

Idle Always Free compute instances may be reclaimed by Oracle. Oracle will deem virtual machine and bare metal compute instances as idle if, during a 7-day period, the following are true:

CPU utilization for the 95th percentile is less than 10%
Network utilization is less than 10%
Memory utilization is less than 10% (applies to A1 shapes only)

<-- snip

From: https://docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/FreeTier/freetier_topic-Always_Free_Resources.htm#compute__idleinstances

Angus
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