🤖 Creating an Automated Oracle Cloud A1 VM Bot with Terraform

📚 Introduction

Hello there! Today I’m going to share how to create an automated bot using Terraform and Node.js that creates ARM-based A1 VMs on Oracle Cloud’s Always Free Tier. This project will be particularly useful for those who want to maximize their free VM resources! 😊

🛠️ Prerequisites

• Oracle Cloud account
• Linux environment (Ubuntu-based instructions)
• Basic knowledge of terminal commands and code editing

🔑 Environment Setup

1️⃣ System Update and Essential Tools

First, let’s update our system and install necessary tools:

sudo apt update && apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install -y vim

2️⃣ Install OCI CLI

Install the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) CLI to access Oracle Cloud from the command line:

bash -c "$(curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oracle/oci-cli/master/scripts/install/install.sh)"
exec -l $SHELL

If needed, you can add path settings to your shell:

vi ~/.bashrc
# Add to the last line
export PS1='\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]$(pwd)\[\033[00m\]$ '
source ~/.bashrc

3️⃣ Configure OCI Settings

Configure the CLI settings:

oci setup config

📝 Important: When prompted for a passphrase during API key generation, you can enter “N/A” to set it up without a password.

4️⃣ Upload API Keys

Upload the generated API key (oci_api_key.pem) to the Oracle Cloud console:

1. Log in to the Oracle Cloud console
2. Navigate to Profile > User Settings > API Keys
3. Upload the oci_api_key.pem.pub file

🏗️ Setting Up Terraform

1️⃣ Install Terraform

Download and install Terraform:

mkdir temp
cd temp
wget https://releases.hashicorp.com/terraform/1.7.5/terraform_1.7.5_linux_amd64.zip
unzip terraform_1.7.5_linux_amd64.zip
sudo mv terraform /usr/local/bin/
terraform -v  # Verify installation

2️⃣ Configure Terraform Provider

Create a directory for basic provider settings:

mkdir ~/tf-provider
cd ~/tf-provider

Create a provider configuration file (provider.tf):

vi provider.tf

provider "oci" {
  tenancy_ocid = "your_tenancy_ocid"
  user_ocid = "your_user_ocid"
  private_key_path = "/home/username/.oci/oci_api_key.pem"
  fingerprint = "your_api_key_fingerprint"
  region = "your_region"
}

Create a version information file (versions.tf):

vi versions.tf

terraform {
  required_providers {
    oci = {
      source  = "oracle/oci"
      version = ">=4.67.3"
    }
  }
  required_version = ">= 1.0.0"
}

3️⃣ Availability Domain Setup

Create a file to check availability domain information:

vi availability-domains.tf

data "oci_identity_availability_domains" "ads" {
  compartment_id = var.tenancy_ocid
}

variable "tenancy_ocid" {
  type = string
  default = "your_tenancy_ocid"
}

🖥️ VM Creation Setup

1️⃣ Setup VM Creation Directory

mkdir ~/tf-compute
cd ~/tf-compute
cp ../tf-provider/provider.tf .
cp ../tf-provider/versions.tf .
cp ../tf-provider/availability-domains.tf .

2️⃣ Configure Availability Domain Output

vi outputs.tf

# The "name" of the availability domain to be used for the compute instance.
output "name-of-first-availability-domain" {
  value = data.oci_identity_availability_domains.ads.availability_domains[0].name
}

Initialize and apply Terraform:

terraform init
terraform plan
terraform apply

✅ If successful, you’ll see output like name-of-first-availability-domain = "your-region-AD-1".

3️⃣ VM Creation Configuration

Create a VM configuration file (main.tf):

vi main.tf

resource "oci_core_instance" "generated_oci_core_instance" {
  agent_config {
    is_management_disabled = "false"
    is_monitoring_disabled = "false"
    plugins_config {
      desired_state = "ENABLED"
      name = "Compute Instance Monitoring"
    }
    // Other plugin configurations...
  }
  availability_config {
    is_live_migration_preferred = "true"
    recovery_action = "RESTORE_INSTANCE"
  }
  availability_domain = "your-region-AD-1"
  compartment_id = "your_compartment_id"
  create_vnic_details {
    assign_ipv6ip = "false"
    assign_private_dns_record = "true"
    assign_public_ip = "true"
    subnet_id = "your_subnet_id"
  }
  display_name = "your-vm-name"
  instance_options {
    are_legacy_imds_endpoints_disabled = "false"
  }
  metadata = {
    "ssh_authorized_keys" = "your_ssh_public_key"
  }
  shape = "VM.Standard.A1.Flex"
  shape_config {
    memory_in_gbs = "24"
    ocpus = "4"
  }
  source_details {
    boot_volume_size_in_gbs = "99"
    boot_volume_vpus_per_gb = "10"
    source_id = "your_os_image_id"
    source_type = "image"
  }
}

🚀 Building the Node.js Automation Bot

1️⃣ Install Node.js

# Add NodeSource repository (for latest LTS version 20.x)
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo -E bash -

# Install Node.js
sudo apt install -y nodejs

# Verify installation
node --version
npm --version

2️⃣ Create VM Creation Script

cd ~/tf-compute/
vi create-a1-vm.js

Example script content (modify according to your needs):

const { exec } = require('child_process');
const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');

// VM creation function
function createVM() {
  console.log('🔄 Initializing Terraform...');
  
  exec('terraform init', (error, stdout, stderr) => {
    if (error) {
      console.error(`❌ Initialization error: ${error.message}`);
      return;
    }
    
    console.log('✅ Initialization complete');
    console.log('🚀 Starting VM creation...');
    
    exec('terraform apply -auto-approve', (error, stdout, stderr) => {
      if (error) {
        console.error(`❌ VM creation error: ${error.message}`);
        return;
      }
      
      console.log('✅ VM creation complete!');
      // Output VM information
      console.log(stdout);
      
      // Record creation time
      const timestamp = new Date().toISOString();
      fs.appendFileSync(
        path.join(__dirname, 'vm-creation-log.txt'),
        `${timestamp}: VM creation successful\n`
      );
    });
  });
}

// Run periodically (e.g., every 24 hours)
console.log('🤖 A1 VM Automatic Creation Bot has started');
createVM();

// Run every 24 hours (in milliseconds)
setInterval(createVM, 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);

3️⃣ Run in Background Using PM2

Use PM2 to run the script continuously in the background:

# Install PM2 globally
sudo npm install -g pm2

# Start the script
pm2 start create-a1-vm.js --name "vm-creator" 

# Check status
pm2 status

# View logs
pm2 logs vm-creator

🎉 Completion!

Your automated A1 VM creation bot is now complete! This bot will automatically create and manage VMs according to your configured schedule.

💡 Useful Tips

• Resource Monitoring: Regularly check your created VMs and resource usage in the Oracle Cloud console.
• Cost Management: While A1 VMs are part of the Always Free Tier, other related resources (bandwidth, additional storage, etc.) may incur costs, so be careful.
• Security: In a production environment, securely manage your API keys and sensitive information, and implement appropriate security measures.
• Automatic Recovery: Use PM2’s --restart-delay option to automatically restart the script in case of execution failure.

⚠️ Cautions

• Use the content of this blog post for educational purposes only.
• Comply with Oracle Cloud’s terms of service.
• When using this in practice, protect your personal information and API keys – sensitive information has been redacted in this code.

🙋‍♂️ Questions or Comments?

Feel free to leave them in the comments section below, and I’ll be happy to respond. Wishing you a happy cloud journey! 🚀✨