Yet another banned from Oracle Cloud post

ronaldgrn

I've had an oracle cloud free account for over 2 years now (Oct 2020). During that time I've had a single 1 OCPU ARM instance which I used as a OpenVPN server (solely used by me for occasionally watching USA netflix/youtube).

I tried connecting to the VPN today and noticed it was down... Tried logging into the server but that also failed... I then tried logging into my account but I'm getting the following error after putting in my tenancy id (before even trying to put in my credentials)

{
  "code" : "NotAuthenticated",
  "message" : "The required information to complete authentication was not provided or was incorrect."
}

I never really believed when people said they got banned from oracle cloud for no reason and I'm sure others will think the same about my case. Still, I wanted to get another datapoint/story out there.

I'm personally lucky that I use AWS/DigitalOcean for everything even mildly important but I can imagine the frustration of others, especially as this happened without getting so much as a heads-up email.

FatGrizzly

PAYG user or always free user?

ronaldgrn

Always free user

ns110621

@ronaldgrn said:
Always free user

I'm sure you've received the same email above your forehead many times.

Currently, Oracle is processing always free user that do not make money at the level of burning them.

Therefore, it is better to change your account to Pay As You Go. If you can trust the oracle.

Oracle says that switching to PAYG will not be charged as long as your usage for all OCI resources remains within the Always Free limits.

harrison

oh dear...just read this comment
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29514359

Be extremely wary of Oracle free tiers.

They offered a free tier and forced me to choose a shape. I chose the smallest of the two “shapes” but it was apparently not free. This was not especially clear until I got my first bill (it was extortionate; like 60eur/mo for 1cpu/2g ram) so I stopped/removed the instance.

This did not prevent me from being billed the next month, or the next month. They charged me until my card expired- then they finally cancelled the account and I paid the last bill manually. They then added another 0.1SEK charge (which is not payable, as 1SEK is the lowest denomination of currency).

I still get extremely high quantities of A4 paper through the mail box, at one point it was 29 pages of the same invoice.

I could have done something wrong here, but there is a distinct dark pattern on sign up and there are definitely bugs in the billing system.

Caveat Emptor.

EDIT: in case someone thinks I am joking. This was one of the packs: https://imgur.com/0fbsR3E

kenjing789

@harrison said:
oh dear...just read this comment
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29514359

Be extremely wary of Oracle free tiers.

They offered a free tier and forced me to choose a shape. I chose the smallest of the two “shapes” but it was apparently not free. This was not especially clear until I got my first bill (it was extortionate; like 60eur/mo for 1cpu/2g ram) so I stopped/removed the instance.

This did not prevent me from being billed the next month, or the next month. They charged me until my card expired- then they finally cancelled the account and I paid the last bill manually. They then added another 0.1SEK charge (which is not payable, as 1SEK is the lowest denomination of currency).

I still get extremely high quantities of A4 paper through the mail box, at one point it was 29 pages of the same invoice.

I could have done something wrong here, but there is a distinct dark pattern on sign up and there are definitely bugs in the billing system.

Caveat Emptor.

EDIT: in case someone thinks I am joking. This was one of the packs: https://imgur.com/0fbsR3E

He choosing the wrong one AMD for free tier , Free tier AMD is 1/8vcore and 1gb ram
Also Oracle do show which resources is free so well

cybertech

funny those who believe there's a 100% free stuff.

giang

@ronaldgrn said:
I've had an oracle cloud free account for over 2 years now (Oct 2020). During that time I've had a single 1 OCPU ARM instance which I used as a OpenVPN server (solely used by me for occasionally watching USA netflix/youtube).

I tried connecting to the VPN today and noticed it was down... Tried logging into the server but that also failed... I then tried logging into my account but I'm getting the following error after putting in my tenancy id (before even trying to put in my credentials)

{
  "code" : "NotAuthenticated",
  "message" : "The required information to complete authentication was not provided or was incorrect."
}

I never really believed when people said they got banned from oracle cloud for no reason and I'm sure others will think the same about my case. Still, I wanted to get another datapoint/story out there.

I'm personally lucky that I use AWS/DigitalOcean for everything even mildly important but I can imagine the frustration of others, especially as this happened without getting so much as a heads-up email.

You better stay with paid AWS/DigitalOcean option.

Why you want free VPS will work the same with the paid one?

FatGrizzly

Did you reset your password? IIRC, Oracle forced everyone to change passwords 6-8 months ago.

ralf

@FatGrizzly said:
Did you reset your password? IIRC, Oracle forced everyone to change passwords 6-8 months ago.

I don't think I've been asked to change my password. UK region.

LTniger

I'am in process to upgrade to PAYG. Used my debit card. Now reading all the horror stories about non-stop charges. Did I made a mistake to trust Oracle?

misakablog

Oracle blocks account randomly

FatGrizzly

@ralf said:

@FatGrizzly said:
Did you reset your password? IIRC, Oracle forced everyone to change passwords 6-8 months ago.

I don't think I've been asked to change my password. UK region.

FatGrizzly

@LTniger said:
I'am in process to upgrade to PAYG. Used my debit card. Now reading all the horror stories about non-stop charges. Did I made a mistake to trust Oracle?

no, please be a sane person and check total charges when you're deploying, thats it.

and make sure you don't go above 10tb bw p/m.

shafire

Just set monthly billing limit to $1.

Rosebelle

Let's find out when I also get the ban hammer.
My usage: couple of small websites (most wordpress), using 1 arm instance with 4vcpu and 24G ram. Under 1TB BW per month (thanks cloudflare)
Always free account.

emg

I fell for the same "charged" AMD shape, but it happened to me during the 30 day $300 trial. I noticed the balance dropping slowly, by a few cents a day, so there was time to fix the issue (delete the wrong instance) and create a new free instance before I started to pay money to Oracle.

The problem is that the AMD free tier instance is not under the large "AMD" banner/button, it is hidden in the "Specialty and previous generation" banner/button. Click it, then look for "VM.Standard.E2.1.Micro".

That low-RAM AMD instance type is the only instance type I have been able to create (one Oracle Linux, one Ubuntu). I would like to try an ARM instance (say, 6-12 Gbytes RAM with 1 or 2 cores). Every time I try to create an ARM free tier instance, Oracle is out of capacity. I keep trying once a day. No luck after three weeks so far.

FatGrizzly

@emg said: That low-RAM AMD instance type is the only instance type I have been able to create (one Oracle Linux, one Ubuntu). I would like to try an ARM instance (say, 6-12 Gbytes RAM with 1 or 2 cores). Every time I try to create an ARM free tier instance, Oracle is out of capacity. I keep trying once a day. No luck after three weeks so far.

You can't, just forget it.

There's a bunch of glowies in the dark running automated scripts to provision arm servers.

ralf

@FatGrizzly said:

@ralf said:

@FatGrizzly said:
Did you reset your password? IIRC, Oracle forced everyone to change passwords 6-8 months ago.

I don't think I've been asked to change my password. UK region.

Nope, never got one of those. Just one wanting me to set up 2FA on top.

jmaxwell

@LTniger said:
I'am in process to upgrade to PAYG. Used my debit card. Now reading all the horror stories about non-stop charges. Did I made a mistake to trust Oracle?

Does the card get charged any amount (pre auth or whatever) when you switch to PAYG?

LTniger

@jmaxwell said:

@LTniger said:
I'am in process to upgrade to PAYG. Used my debit card. Now reading all the horror stories about non-stop charges. Did I made a mistake to trust Oracle?

Does the card get charged any amount (pre auth or whatever) when you switch to PAYG?

No, but they look at possibility if they can charge. So if you don't have that sum on the card - it gets declined. But no reserve or charge/refund.

FatGrizzly

@jmaxwell said:

@LTniger said:
I'am in process to upgrade to PAYG. Used my debit card. Now reading all the horror stories about non-stop charges. Did I made a mistake to trust Oracle?

Does the card get charged any amount (pre auth or whatever) when you switch to PAYG?

on a credit card. It charged me 100$ and refunded in 5 minutes

DeadlyChemist

i switched to PAYG 4free so wish me i dont get a ban

emgh

@DeadlyChemist said:
i switched to PAYG 4free so wish me i dont get a ban

wish you you dont get a ban

ronaldgrn

imo I think they're randomly banning always free accounts to scare people into moving to PAYG.... and it looks like it's working

DeadlyChemist

@ronaldgrn said:
imo I think they're randomly banning always free accounts to scare people into moving to PAYG.... and it looks like it's working

sure, my bill comes up to 0.00

Maounique

When I see this I am so happy I have been rejected outright