🚀 Part 2 — Setting Up Your Oracle Cloud Account and Compute Instance for Node.js + React.js Deployment

🌐 Overview

In the previous part, we explored why Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is becoming a top choice for developers deploying full-stack JavaScript apps.
Now, it’s time to get your hands dirty — we’ll create your Oracle Cloud Free Tier account, configure your Virtual Cloud Network (VCN), and set up a Compute Instance (virtual server) to host your Node.js backend and React.js frontend.

This guide will help you go from zero to a live server on OCI, ready for app deployment.

🧭 Step 1: Create an Oracle Cloud Free Tier Account

Oracle Cloud offers one of the most generous free-tier programs among all cloud providers. It includes:

• 2 AMD or Arm-based Compute Instances
• 10 GB Object Storage
• Autonomous Database (Free)
• 10 TB/month outbound bandwidth
• Load balancer, monitoring, and more

🔹 Steps to Register:

1. Visit 👉 https://www.oracle.com/cloud/free/
2. Click Start for Free.
3. Fill in your details:
   • Country and name
   • Valid email address
   • Mobile number for OTP verification
4. Payment Information (Mandatory for verification):
   • You can use a debit or credit card.
   • Oracle only performs a ₹1 authorization hold (not a charge).
   • If your account has insufficient balance, the transaction fails, but no auto-charge will happen later.
5. After verification, your OCI account is created.

💡 Pro Tip: Choose the region closest to your users for better latency (e.g., “Mumbai” for India).

🧰 Step 2: Log In to the Oracle Cloud Console

Once your account is active:

1. Go to https://cloud.oracle.com/
2. Log in using your Cloud Account Name and credentials.
3. You’ll land on the OCI Dashboard, which looks like this:

+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|   Oracle Cloud Console                                   |
|-----------------------------------------------------------|
|  Compute  |  Networking  |  Storage  |  Monitoring  | ... |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+

This dashboard is your control center for managing compute instances, VCNs, and all cloud services.

🌐 Step 3: Create a Virtual Cloud Network (VCN)

Before launching your instance, you must set up a Virtual Cloud Network (VCN) — it’s like a private cloud LAN where your instance lives.

🔹 To Create VCN:

1. From the left menu → Networking → Virtual Cloud Networks
2. Click Create VCN
3. Choose VCN with Internet Connectivity
4. Provide:
   • VCN Name → my-node-react-vcn
   • CIDR Block → default 10.0.0.0/16
5. Check ✅ “Create related resources”
   This automatically creates:
   • Public Subnet
   • Internet Gateway
   • Route Table
   • Security List

Click Create VCN and OCI will handle everything for you.

💻 Step 4: Create a Compute Instance (Virtual Server)

This instance is where your Node.js and React.js apps will live.

🔹 Steps:

1. Navigate to Compute → Instances
2. Click Create Instance
3. Fill in details:
   • Name: node-react-server
   • Placement: Choose a region and availability domain (default is fine)
   • Image: Ubuntu 22.04 (recommended)
   • Shape: Choose Always Free Eligible (Ampere A1 or AMD)
4. Add SSH Keys:

   • Generate SSH keys using:

     ssh-keygen -t rsa
     

   • Copy your public key content into OCI under “Add SSH key”.
   • Keep your private key safe — you’ll use it to connect.

Click Create, and within a few minutes your VM will be ready.

🔐 Step 5: Access Your Instance via SSH

Once the instance is active:

1. Note your Public IP Address from the instance dashboard.
2. Connect using SSH from your local terminal:

ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa ubuntu@<your-public-ip>

If connected successfully, you’ll see:

Welcome to Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (GNU/Linux 5.x aarch64)

🎉 Congratulations! You’re now inside your cloud VM.

🧱 Step 6: Configure Security Rules (Firewall)

By default, OCI blocks all external traffic. You must open required ports for Node.js and React.js.

🔹 To Allow HTTP/HTTPS:

1. Go to Networking → Virtual Cloud Networks → your VCN
2. Click Security Lists → Default Security List
3. Add ingress rules:
   • Port 80 (HTTP): Source CIDR 0.0.0.0/0
   • Port 443 (HTTPS): Source CIDR 0.0.0.0/0
   • Port 3000 (Node.js): Source CIDR 0.0.0.0/0 (optional for testing)

Save changes.

⚙️ Step 7: Basic Server Setup After SSH Login

Before deploying apps, install updates and essential tools:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install git curl nginx -y

✅ Nginx → will serve your React build later
✅ Git → to pull your project from GitHub
✅ Curl → to install Node.js and test endpoints

🧩 Step 8: Verify Instance Health

Test connectivity and uptime:

ping -c 4 google.com

To check system resource usage:

htop

And to confirm your public IP:

curl ifconfig.me

If all commands work — your OCI server is live, healthy, and internet-accessible.

🌍 Step 9: (Optional) Reserve a Static IP Address

Dynamic IPs change after instance restarts. To avoid that:

1. Navigate to Networking → Reserved Public IPs
2. Click Create Reserved Public IP
3. Assign it to your instance.

Now you can safely use this IP in your domain DNS records.

🧠 Pro Tips

• Always use free-tier eligible shapes (e.g., VM.Standard.A1.Flex) to avoid costs.
• Use OCI Monitoring to track usage and CPU load.
• Create snapshots of your instance before major updates.
• Avoid exposing unnecessary ports for better security.

✅ Summary

You’ve successfully:

• Created an Oracle Cloud Free Tier account
• Configured a Virtual Cloud Network (VCN)
• Launched a Compute Instance (Ubuntu)
• Connected via SSH
• Set up networking and firewall rules

Your cloud environment is now fully ready to host Node.js and React.js applications.

In the next tutorial (Part 3), we’ll:

🔧 Install Node.js, npm, and PM2 on the OCI instance,
🧩 Set up your backend server, and
🔍 Test it live over the internet.