Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Documentation

Oracle Linux Minimal Image

The Oracle Linux 9 Minimal platform image has been optimized to provide a minimum footprint with an accelerated boot time.

Creating an Instance

To create a Compute instance using a platform image, see Creating an Instance.

Note

After the first boot, run sudo dnf update to apply available security and bug fixes.

Key Features

  • Optimized kernels and optimized boot process on the Oracle Linux Minimal instance
  • Fewer default packages installed, which reduces the image size, enables faster booting, and requires fewer security updates over time
  • Access to the same software, and the same security maintenance, as other Oracle Linux platform images
  • Automated deployment at scale, made available across a range of cloud services

Supported Shapes

  • VM shapes in paravirtualized (PV) mode only
  • VM shapes running on x86_64 and AMD

Optimizations

The following changes from the standard Oracle Linux 9 image have been made to optimize efficiency:

  • Ksplice: Not included by default to maintain a lightweight footprint. If needed, Ksplice can be added separately (see Install the Oracle Ksplice packages).
  • SELinux: SELinux access control enforcement is disabled to reduce overhead, providing a simpler security model.
  • OCI Utilities: Not included to minimize the image size. To use the OCI Utilities, see Installing the OCI Utilities.

  • systemd: The following systemd services are disabled by default. These services can be enabled by using the systemctl enable <service-name> command.

    • auditd
    • kdump
    • dnf-makecache.timer
    • oracle-cloud-agent-updater
    • NetworkManager-wait-online
  • Default repositories: The number of default enabled repositories has been reduced. To see the enabled repositories, run the sudo dnf repolist command.

Expanding the image

The oci-image-expand utility lets you install standard Oracle Linux packages if you want to convert an Oracle Linux Minimal instance to a standard Oracle Linux environment. For more information, see Installing the OCI Utilities and oci-image-expand.