Using Oracle Cloud's CLI to manage OCI resources

You probably are aware of the Oracle Cloud console, which is the online web interface on cloud.oracle.com that lets you create and manage resources on the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure through the GUI.

But let's say we want a standardized, predictable way of managing those resources. You know precisely the CPU and memory capacity of a Compute Instance that you want to deploy, along with its other details, and you want to describe that deployment to someone else.

Meet the OCI command line interface (CLI).

What is the CLI?

The CLI is a small-footprint tool that you can use on its own or with the Console to complete Oracle Cloud Infrastructure tasks. The CLI provides the same core functionality as the Console, plus additional commands. Some of these, such as the ability to run scripts, extend Console functionality. (Oracle)

Installing the CLI

These steps are specific to Mac. If you're on another OS, please check out the official Quickstart.

1. Installing using Homebrew

On Mac, you can install the CLI using Homebrew:



brew install oci-cli

Verify installation using oci -v.

2. Set up the OCI Configuration using API Keys

Follow the steps in Setting up the OCI Configuration File using API Keys

3. Verify

Try:



oci iam compartment list

to show a list of all your compartments in your tenancy:

And now you have the power of OCI CLI! If you need to find a command, simply Google it, e.g., oci cli create compartment.

More ways to use the CLI

Interactive mode

Use oci -i to use the interactive mode if you don't want to Google the right command. The tool will show all the possible keywords following the command

Generate JSON parameter inputs

Sometimes the input to the CLI can be a complex JSON type and you want to know the structure of the input. Use --generate-param-json-input to see the structure.

Or --generate-full-command-json-input to see all attributes' formats:

Multiple profiles

If you have multiple profiles, you can select the profile you want to use using --profile MYPROFILE.

Here, we are creating a new compartment:



oci iam compartment create --compartment-id ocid1.compartment.oc1..aaaaaaaakbr7t5yqjirrmwm3yourparentocidhereeejfnkrebnklnfefer --name Compartment2 --description "new compartment" --profile PROFILE2

New compartment:

If you leave out --profile PROFILE2, it will default to the [DEFAULT] profile.

Using a JSON file input

To create a new Identity Domain, let's create a new JSON file called myFile.json:



{
    "compartment_id": "ocid1.tenancy.oc1..aaaaaaaashf677bcolbea4yblgu5jgyourcompartmentocidherefendskjjkewndsjkn",
    "description": "test identity domain",
    "display_name": "cli-id-december",
    "home_region" : "us-ashburn-1",
    "license_type" : "free"
}

Run



oci iam domain create --from-json file://myFile.json

Destroy a resource

Besides creating, the CLI can destroy deployed resources as well. For example:



oci iam compartment delete -c "ocid1.compartment.oc1..aaaaaaaagefmzdurtphobehgivez36nr3rq55wupta4bl4ljygcvaovxspia" --profile PROFILE2

More resources:

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An introduction to OCI CLI