OCI Compute — Launch, Manage & Scale

Overview

Provision and manage OCI compute instances using the Python SDK. Compute is the entry point for most OCI workloads, but "out of host capacity" errors, shape selection confusion (Flex vs Standard, AMD vs ARM vs Intel), and boot volume management make it harder than AWS EC2. This skill covers shape selection, launch with capacity retry across availability domains, instance lifecycle actions, and boot volume management.

Purpose: Launch reliable compute instances with retry logic that survives capacity shortages.

Prerequisites

• OCI Python SDK — pip install oci
• Config file at ~/.oci/config with fields: user, fingerprint, tenancy, region, key_file
• IAM policy — Allow group Developers to manage instances in compartment <name>
• Python 3.8+
• A VCN with at least one subnet (see oraclecloud-core-workflow-b)

Instructions

Step 1: Understand Shape Options