How To Get A Free Cloud Server Forever?

Summary

This video explores the availability of free virtual machines from popular cloud providers in 2024. It discusses the limitations and offerings of AWS, Azure, Oracle Cloud, Digital Ocean, and Google Cloud Platform, highlighting that Google Cloud Platform provides a free E2 micro virtual machine instance per month in select regions, making it a viable option for those looking to test virtual machines without incurring costs.

Takeaways

• 😀 The video discusses options for using virtual machines for free without needing a dedicated server or platforms like Proxmox.
• 🌐 It mentions the most common cloud providers, including IBM, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Digital Ocean, Salesforce, Alibaba, and Oracle.
• 🆓 AWS offers a Free Tier with limited-time access to certain products and services, but does not provide free virtual machines without a time limit.
• 🗓️ Azure provides a 12-month free trial for Windows and Linux virtual machines, which is longer than AWS's offering.
• 🚫 Oracle Cloud claims to offer free virtual machines but the presenter was unable to sign up due to persistent errors and design preferences.
• 💳 Most cloud providers require a credit card for verification, even for free tiers, to avoid hidden expenses.
• 🌟 Google Cloud Platform (GCP) stands out for offering a free virtual machine under its 'Always Free' tier with certain limitations.
• 🔢 GCP's free tier includes a non-preemptable E2 micro virtual machine instance per month in select regions, with specific storage and data transfer allowances.
• 📍 The regions available for GCP's free tier are limited, and users must select the correct region and instance specifications to qualify for the free tier.
• 🔄 The presenter demonstrates the process of signing up for GCP and creating a free virtual machine instance, emphasizing the need to adhere to the free tier requirements.
• 🔑 The video concludes by encouraging viewers to try out virtual machines and explore other suggestions from the presenter's other videos.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video script?

The main topic of the video script is exploring the most popular cloud providers to find options for using virtual machines for free without time limitations.

What are the two most common cloud providers mentioned in the script?

The two most common cloud providers mentioned are Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS).

What are the two types of free offerings typically found in cloud services?

The two types of free offerings are a free trial, which is time-limited, and an 'always free' tier, which allows the use of certain services for free without time restrictions.

What is the AWS Free Tier's limitation regarding virtual machines?

The AWS Free Tier does not offer free virtual machines without a time limit. It only provides 1 million free requests per month for AWS Lambda.

How long is the free trial for Azure's virtual machines?

Azure offers a free trial for virtual machines that is limited to 12 months.

What issue did the speaker encounter when trying to sign up for Oracle Cloud?

The speaker encountered a problem with Oracle Cloud's sign-up process, where they were unable to add a payment method despite trying multiple credit cards and receiving an error message about a request rate limit being reached.

What is the main advantage of Google Cloud Platform's (GCP) free tier for virtual machines?

The main advantage of GCP's free tier is that it allows the use of one non-preemptable E2 micro virtual machine instance per month without charge, as long as certain usage limits are not exceeded.

What are the limitations of the free tier for Google Cloud Platform's compute engine?

The limitations include using only one E2 micro instance per month in specific US regions, having only 30 GB of standard persistent disk, and having 1 GB of outbound data transfer from North America to all regions.

How can you maximize the use of GCP's free tier for virtual machines?

You can maximize the use by having multiple instances, as long as the total combined time of these instances does not exceed one month.

What is required to sign up for Google Cloud Platform?

To sign up for GCP, you need to provide personal details such as location, name, phone number, and a credit card for verification, even though you won't be charged if you stay within the free tier limits.

How does the speaker demonstrate the creation of a free virtual machine on GCP?

The speaker demonstrates by logging into the GCP platform, enabling the compute API, selecting the correct specifications to match the free tier requirements, and creating an instance, which includes SSH access to the virtual machine.

Outlines

00:00

💻 Exploring Free Cloud Virtual Machines

This paragraph introduces the concept of exploring cloud providers to find free virtual machines. It mentions the lack of a dedicated server or Proxmox deployment, leading to the search for free options. Popular cloud providers like Azure, AWS, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Digital Ocean, Salesforce, Alibaba, Oracle, and IBM Cloud are considered. The focus is on finding options that offer free virtual machines without time limitations, starting with AWS, which offers free tier services but no free virtual machines.

05:01

🌐 AWS and Azure Free Tier Limitations

The paragraph delves into AWS's free tier, which offers limited resources like Lambda but not free virtual machines. Similarly, Azure provides free virtual machines for a limited time of 12 months. The different offerings and limitations of these two providers are highlighted, emphasizing the need to find a truly free, unlimited virtual machine option.

10:02

🔍 Oracle Cloud's Issues and Digital Ocean

This section discusses Oracle Cloud, which offers free virtual machines but presents significant signup issues, including rate limit errors and mandatory credit card requirements. It also briefly mentions Digital Ocean, which does not offer free virtual machines, before moving on to explore GCP's offerings.

☁️ Google Cloud Platform's Free Tier

The focus shifts to GCP, which provides a free tier with limitations. GCP offers an E2 micro instance per month within certain US regions, with constraints on storage and data transfer. The process of signing up, including the need for a Google account and adding a credit card, is described. Instructions on enabling compute services and creating a virtual machine that fits the free tier criteria are provided.

🔧 Setting Up a GCP Virtual Machine

This paragraph continues the detailed guide on setting up a free GCP virtual machine. It includes steps like selecting the correct machine type (E2 micro), adjusting storage to 30 GB of standard persistent disk, and ensuring network usage stays within the free limits. The process of creating and accessing the virtual machine through SSH is demonstrated, culminating in a functional free virtual machine setup.

🚀 Conclusion and Encouragement

The final paragraph wraps up the video, encouraging viewers to try out the free virtual machine options discussed. It highlights the ease of setup and the potential for exploring and testing various virtual machine configurations. The creator expresses hope that the viewers will find the guide helpful and invites them to watch other related videos for more tips and suggestions.

Keywords

💡Virtual Machines

Virtual Machines (VMs) are software-based simulations of physical computers. They allow users to run multiple operating systems and applications on a single physical server. In the video, the theme revolves around finding free VMs for testing and experimentation without the need for a dedicated server, highlighting the importance of VMs in cloud computing.

💡Cloud Providers

Cloud Providers are companies that offer various cloud computing services, such as storage, databases, networking, and computing power, over the internet. The script discusses popular cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, which are central to the video's exploration of free virtual machine options.

💡Free Tier

The Free Tier refers to a set of cloud services that are available for free up to certain usage limits. The video script explains that while most cloud providers offer a free trial with time limits, the free tier allows users to use specific services without cost, forever, provided the usage stays within the defined limits.

💡AWS Free Tier

AWS (Amazon Web Services) Free Tier is a subset of AWS services available for free up to certain limits. The script mentions that AWS offers Lambda resources with 1 million free requests per month as part of its free tier but does not provide free virtual machines without a time limit.

💡Azure

Azure is a cloud computing service from Microsoft, known for its global network of data centers. The video script discusses Azure's free offerings, which include free virtual machines for 12 months, as part of its free tier, contrasting with AWS's more limited free tier offerings.

💡Oracle Cloud

Oracle Cloud is a cloud computing service that offers various cloud solutions, including virtual machines. The script mentions Oracle Cloud as a provider that was recommended by a user for its free virtual machines but notes the presenter's difficulty in signing up and the required credit card information, despite the free tier.

💡Digital Ocean

Digital Ocean is a cloud infrastructure provider known for its simplicity and ease of use. The script briefly mentions Digital Ocean but clarifies that it does not offer free virtual machines, unlike some other cloud providers discussed in the video.

💡Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Google Cloud Platform, or GCP, is a suite of cloud computing services offered by Google. The video script highlights GCP's free tier, which includes a free virtual machine that meets specific criteria, and demonstrates how to set one up, making it a key part of the video's message.

💡Preemptible VMs

Preemptible VMs are a type of virtual machine instance that can be terminated by the cloud provider if the resources are needed for other purposes. The script does not explicitly mention preemptible VMs, but the concept is relevant to understanding the limitations and cost-saving aspects of cloud computing services.

💡Outbound Data Transfer

Outbound Data Transfer refers to the data sent from a cloud service to the internet or to other destinations outside the cloud provider's network. The script discusses the 1 GB limit of free outbound data transfer from North America in GCP's free tier, which is crucial for understanding the cost implications of using free cloud services.

💡SSH

SSH, or Secure Shell, is a protocol for securely accessing and managing servers over a network. The script mentions SSH as a method for accessing the command line interface of the free virtual machine on GCP, illustrating the practical steps involved in using the free tier services.

Highlights

Exploring the possibility of using virtual machines for free without a dedicated server or platforms like Proxmox.

Introduction of the most popular cloud providers including IBM, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Digital Ocean, Salesforce, Alibaba, and Oracle.

Differentiation between free trials limited by time and 'always free' services with no time limit.

AWS Free Tier does not offer free virtual machines without a time limit, only providing Lambda resources.

Azure offers free virtual machines for 12 months, a longer period compared to AWS's 3 months.

Oracle Cloud claimed to offer free virtual machines but the presenter faced difficulties in signing up.

Oracle Cloud's requirement for a credit card even for free tier usage, which the presenter found off-putting.

Digital Ocean does not offer free virtual machines.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) offers a free tier with a non-preemptable E2 micro virtual machine instance per month.

GCP's free tier limitations include specific regional availability and data transfer caps.

The free tier on GCP is time-limited, not instance-limited, allowing for multiple instances within a month's time limit.

Process of signing up for GCP and the necessity of providing payment information despite the free tier.

Enabling compute services on GCP before creating virtual machines.

Detailed steps to configure a free virtual machine on GCP, including region and disk type selection.

The importance of adhering to free tier specifications to avoid charges at the end of the month.

Demonstration of accessing the CLI for a free virtual machine on GCP through the browser.

Encouragement to explore and utilize free virtual machines for various activities.

Closing remarks and an invitation to watch more videos for additional suggestions and insights.

Transcripts

if you like playing around with the

virtual machines and testing all sort of

different stuff but you don't have your

dedicated server and you don't have a

proxmox or whatever else deployed

there's still an option in this video

we're going to go through the most

popular and known Cloud providers and we

are going to find the one which allows

you to use at least one or maybe even

couple of virtual machines absolutely

free at no cost forever what kind of

most common uh Cloud providers do we

have whenever someone talks about a

cloud we usually think a yes uh probably

Azure those would be the two most common

one and I really did a search today and

uh was trying to look like let's say we

have uh uh top five Cloud providers in

2024 which uh as you can see already

clicked on the IBM Microsoft Azure

Amazon web services so AWS gcp digital

ocean Salesforce Alibaba Oracle and IBM

cloud and and much more but which of

them actually gives us the chance to

have a free virtual machines without a

limitation starting with the what do we

have AWS there we have AWS free tier

which has gain free hands-on experience

with aw's products and services and you

must understand that each cloud provider

basically can divide in uh two different

parts like they do offer a free trial

which is is limited to the time period

and during the free trial most of the

cloud providers do have a free virtual

machines and many other services but

mostly that's only for 3 months and all

of the cloud providers also have such

thing as always free so you can stay on

the free tier pay no money and use the

offered Services Forever at no cost but

of course you must be careful to not

have any hidden expenses uh under that

so if we check a AWS we definitely need

to need to look on the always free and

here is the list of all the resources

and services that are available for free

but we are interesting for compute and

by clicking on a compute we can see that

we don't have virtual machines so for

AWS we get only Lambda resources 1

million free requests per month and

that's it so in AWS you are not able to

get a free virtual machines without a

time limit

let's close this second one the most

popular second most popular whatever

Azure again same story you can have um

you can have the limited trial which is

for some month or you can have 55 plus

other services that are always free so

no matter the time period you can sign

up 3 months 6 months one year those

resources will be free and here

unfortunately right away we can see that

windows and Linux virtual machines are

free but they are limited for 12 months

each and 12 months is not bad it's much

better than 3 months in AWS and uh well

it's one year and you can use the

virtual machine of the windows and Linux

70/50 hours each of B1 B2 pts V2 Arm

based and B2 ATS V2 AMD based burstable

virtual machines for all sort of

different activi that you might have

then the one that I really wanted to try

because in one of my uh previous videos

someone uh commented that Oracle cloud

is the best because it offers like a

free virtual machine without any problem

it just works and and no hustle at all

and I really tried it and as you can see

it's always free compute AMD computer

instances and Aram computer instances um

A1 course 24 gigs of memory usable as

one virtual machine or up to four

virtual machines 3,000 uh ocpu hours and

880,000 GB hours per month it's

fantastic but the problem is I was not

even able to sign up like that's one

thing I was not able to sign up and

second thing let me be honest with you

the visual design of Oracle Cloud page

is not

very pretty in my opinion I didn't like

it from the scratch and of course Oracle

Oracle people might love or hate Oracle

but I wanted to give it a try and I

really couldn't I tried to sign up and

every time when you need it is required

to enter the credit card to uh you need

to add a payment if even if you're

staying as a free tier user and don't

plan to pay anything you still have to

add a credit card it's not going to be

built you're not going to be charged for

anything but you must do that and I

couldn't I tried multiple credit cards

and refreshing and it's all always uh

throws an error message that

uh uh request rate limit reached and try

refreshing the page or reach out to the

support I tried to refresh it and

nothing has changed uh in in multiple

minutes and the most frustrating part

that that I did Google the error message

and uh Oracle cloud and Reddit and

whatever and I found art articles that

are one year 2 year old and that are

complaining about the same problem that

they cannot sign for that were Cloud

because the same error message rate

limit exceeded so I did not spend much

more time and we canceled this one also

there was digital ocean digital ocean

doesn't offer the free virtual machines

and then we found a good one um I

actually never use this but uh and here

we can find the compute age engine

scalable high performance virtual

machines one E2 micro instance per month

which is not actually true let's click

here let's go into more details and here

we can find the compute engine this is

located under the free tier usage limits

free tier resources are available for

the gcp services listed in the following

tables subject to the listed limitations

for information about a Google map

platform see the pricing page so the one

above somewhere here is see the trial

90day 90 days $300 that you can use no

question about that but this one free

tier is free

forever but of course we have a

limitation for the compute engines we

can use n one non preemptable E2 micro

virtual uh machine instance per month in

one of the following us regions here we

have limitation on the regions we have

only 30 GB of the standard persistent

dis and keep this in mind I will show

this why this is important later and 1

gbyte of outbound outbound data transfer

from nor North America to All Region

destination which means that you have

only one gig of the free data transfer

if you will have more you will have to

pay for that even if the virtual machine

is uh um free and very interesting thing

is that your free tier E2 micro instance

limit is by time not by the instance so

you are not limited to have one free

virtual machine you can have two free

virtual machines if each of them uh will

be not used more than 2 weeks so total

combined time of these virtual machines

that match these specs should not exceed

1 month and uh how can you use that very

simple you need to go to the gcp and uh

it's 100% tie to your um Gmail account

not a Gmail Google account right and I

already signed up today but uh basically

if you are trying to sign up yourself um

let me try to do it like this I will

open another

account um let's do this

one there we go we need to try for free

then you will be required to fill in uh

application for uh the payment and of

course all the private details like your

location name last name phone number for

the ver verification City postal code

and stuff like that you are also

required to add a credit card but you

will not be charged and thing it's z0

and it's also possible to add like

single use credit card or any any well

you don't need to have a balance on it

I've added uh an empty single use credit

card just for the verification and it

works fine so then you can log in to the

gcp platform as such you can click here

and find the compute engines and the VM

instances when you first time go here

you will have you will not have the big

blue button with the create instance you

will have a big blue button with

something like enable uh compute API you

need to click that wait for at least a

minute it will enable all the compute

services on your gcp which will allow

you to create the virtual machines so

then you can click create an instance

and it's very important we need to have

handy uh the list of uh all the

requirements for the free tier and

remember us West one as example so Us

West one Oregon and the Zone doesn't

matter but pay attention that all of the

default values they're not matching the

requirements for the free tier so Us

West one 30 gigs standard persistent

discs um first of all it's E2 micro

right E2 micro as we can see it here E2

micro then 30 gigs uh of the standard

persistent dis that also we need to

change uh which is uh which is here

under the boot dis always struggle to

find it so we need to click change and

you can choose the operating system

whatever you want it can be deban sent

toon to whatever version boot dis type

from balanced persistent disc we need to

change to the standard persistent disc

as our requirements and we can change

the size to 30 gabt click select and uh

that's about it that's the only thing

that you have to do to have a free

virtual machine despite the fact that

your monthly estimate is $7 that is if

you are well it actually doesn't count

it as a free tier but whenever the end

of the month comes if you fit in these

requirements and you don't exceed um

Network requirements 1 GB of outbound uh

data transfer from na then you will not

be charged at anything so now you can

click create um it will take couple of

minutes probably to spin it up let's

wait for a minute and there we go the

virtual machine is up and running as you

can see the instance name the status is

running the zone is Us West 1B internal

IP external IP and if you don't believe

that it's running you can click on the

SSH it will take a couple of seconds and

you will see your SSH terminal here in

the browser and for the authentification

it is using the keys and also your

Google account there's going to be a

prompt for to authorize to your SSH so

allow yes click okay it will take one

moment establishing connection to the

SSH server and there we go we have uh

our CLI for our free virtual machine

which took us only a couple of minutes

so this is how you can get a free

virtual machines and uh I hope that this

helps I hope that you will try it out

and play around with virtual machines

and try all the other stuff that I try

to suggest you in the other videos so

thank you for watching see you later