The Oracle Always Free server setup in order — sign up past the catches, build the 2 OCPU / 12 GB Arm VM, put Ollama, n8n, Postgres and a 24/7 agent on it, and keep it

The companion to the reel. Oracle Cloud's Always Free tier includes an Arm virtual machine, in Oracle's own words equivalent to 2 OCPUs and 12 GB of memory, with 200 GB of block volume storage and 10 TB a month of outbound data, as a set of Always Free offers that never expire. PAGE 1 — what you get, quoted from the docs, and the three links. PAGE 2 — sign-up in six steps and the catch table: card and phone (not charged unless you upgrade), one account per person, the home region you cannot change, the out-of-host-capacity error and what to do about it, and the idle rule. PAGE 3 — build the VM: Ubuntu on Ampere A1.Flex at 2 OCPUs / 12 GB, a 150 GB boot volume, SSH, the two-firewall port gotcha that stops most people, swap and Docker. PAGE 4 — what fits on 12 GB and the exact commands: Ollama with llama3.1:8b (a 4.9 GB download), n8n self-hosted with Docker, Postgres bound to localhost, and a 24/7 agent loop as a systemd service. PAGE 5 — keep it alive and lock it down: the idle reclamation rule in Oracle's words and the honest way to pass it, the five free volume backups, and the security checklist. PAGE 6 — what to do after the first week of uptime and the one-page proof checklist. Facts verified September 15, 2026. Independent guide from Hyperautomation Labs — not affiliated with Oracle, Ollama, n8n or the PostgreSQL project.

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