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Oracle Free Cloud Lab Starter: claim the compute, keep it

The problem. I learned on Reddit that Oracle offers free cloud servers: up to three, two small and one big. Obviously I needed all three, and I knew it was possible to get them programmatically.

What I built. I didn't really know what I was doing; I just knew I needed to claim that compute and keep it. So a management VM comes up first, with a dashboard. It spins up a worker VM, and the worker keeps trying to win the big machine, which Oracle hands out as capacity opens, like a lottery. Anyone can fork it, fill in a settings file, run one script and watch it build itself.

What happened. The lab runs on the free tier. I also learned that my region doesn't offer the big machines at all, so my worker asks for one in vain.

What I learned. Check what your region actually offers before you automate the asking.