Oracle Cloud Multi-Environment Setup

Overview

OCI has no "accounts" like AWS — you use compartments plus OCI config profiles for dev/staging/prod separation. But profile switching is manual, compartment OCIDs are easy to confuse, and one wrong

--compartment-id

Purpose: Configure safe, repeatable multi-environment OCI workflows that prevent accidental cross-environment operations.

Prerequisites

• OCI Python SDK —

  pip install oci

• OCI CLI — installed and configured (

  oci setup config

  )
• Separate API keys per environment (recommended) or a single key with cross-compartment policies
• Compartment OCIDs for each environment (dev, staging, prod)
• Python 3.8+

Instructions

Step 1: Configure Multi-Profile ~/.oci/config

The OCI config file supports named profiles. Each profile can point to different tenancies, regions, or use different API keys:

# ~/.oci/config

[DEFAULT]
user=ocid1.user.oc1..exampleuniqueID
fingerprint=aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff:00:11:22:33:44:55:66:77:88:99
tenancy=ocid1.tenancy.oc1..exampleuniqueID
region=us-ashburn-1
key_file=~/.oci/oci_api_key.pem

[DEV]
user=ocid1.user.oc1..exampleuniqueID
fingerprint=aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff:00:11:22:33:44:55:66:77:88:99
tenancy=ocid1.tenancy.oc1..exampleuniqueID
region=us-ashburn-1
key_file=~/.oci/oci_api_key_dev.pem

[STAGING]
user=ocid1.user.oc1..exampleuniqueID
fingerprint=11:22:33:44:55:66:77:88:99:aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff:00
tenancy=ocid1.tenancy.oc1..exampleuniqueID
region=us-phoenix-1
key_file=~/.oci/oci_api_key_staging.pem

[PROD]
user=ocid1.user.oc1..exampleuniqueID
fingerprint=ff:ee:dd:cc:bb:aa:00:99:88:77:66:55:44:33:22:11
tenancy=ocid1.tenancy.oc1..exampleuniqueID
region=us-ashburn-1
key_file=~/.oci/oci_api_key_prod.pem

Best practice: Use different API key pairs per environment. If the dev key is compromised, prod is unaffected.

Step 2: Create an Environment Configuration Module

Centralize compartment OCIDs and profile mappings to prevent OCID confusion:

import oci
import os

# Environment configuration — single source of truth for OCIDs
ENVIRONMENTS = {
    "dev": {
        "profile": "DEV",
        "compartment_id": "ocid1.compartment.oc1..dev_example",
        "region": "us-ashburn-1",
        "allow_destructive": True,
    },
    "staging": {
        "profile": "STAGING",
        "compartment_id": "ocid1.compartment.oc1..staging_example",
        "region": "us-phoenix-1",
        "allow_destructive": True,
    },
    "prod": {
        "profile": "PROD",
        "compartment_id": "ocid1.compartment.oc1..prod_example",
        "region": "us-ashburn-1",
        "allow_destructive": False,  # Safety: block destructive ops
    },
}

def get_oci_config(env_name):
    """Load OCI config for the specified environment.

    Validates the environment name and returns a configured
    OCI config dict ready for client construction.
    """
    if env_name not in ENVIRONMENTS:
        raise ValueError(
            f"Unknown environment: {env_name}. "
            f"Valid: {list(ENVIRONMENTS.keys())}"
        )

    env = ENVIRONMENTS[env_name]
    config = oci.config.from_file("~/.oci/config", profile_name=env["profile"])
    oci.config.validate_config(config)
    return config, env

def get_compartment_id(env_name):
    """Get the compartment OCID for an environment."""
    return ENVIRONMENTS[env_name]["compartment_id"]

def is_destructive_allowed(env_name):
    """Check if destructive operations are allowed in this environment."""
    return ENVIRONMENTS[env_name]["allow_destructive"]

Step 3: Build Safe Environment-Aware Clients

Wrap OCI clients with environment validation to prevent cross-environment mistakes:

import oci
import sys

class OCIEnvironment:
    """Environment-aware OCI client factory with safety guardrails."""

    def __init__(self, env_name):
        self.env_name = env_name
        self.config, self.env = get_oci_config(env_name)
        self.compartment_id = self.env["compartment_id"]

        # Verify we can authenticate
        identity = oci.identity.IdentityClient(self.config)
        user = identity.get_user(self.config["user"]).data
        print(f"[{env_name.upper()}] Authenticated as {user.name} "
              f"in {self.config['region']}")

    def compute(self):
        return oci.core.ComputeClient(self.config)

    def network(self):
        return oci.core.VirtualNetworkClient(self.config)

    def storage(self):
        return oci.object_storage.ObjectStorageClient(self.config)

    def database(self):
        return oci.database.DatabaseClient(self.config)

    def safe_delete(self, operation, resource_name):
        """Execute a delete operation with environment safety checks."""
        if not is_destructive_allowed(self.env_name):
            print(f"BLOCKED: Destructive operation on {resource_name} "
                  f"not allowed in {self.env_name.upper()}")
            print("Set allow_destructive=True in ENVIRONMENTS to override")
            sys.exit(1)

        print(f"WARNING: Deleting {resource_name} in {self.env_name.upper()}")
        return operation()

# Usage
dev = OCIEnvironment("dev")
instances = dev.compute().list_instances(compartment_id=dev.compartment_id).data
print(f"Dev instances: {len(instances)}")

prod = OCIEnvironment("prod")
# prod.safe_delete(...) would be blocked by allow_destructive=False

Step 4: CLI Profile Switching

Use profiles with the OCI CLI to target specific environments:

# List instances in dev
oci compute instance list --compartment-id ocid1.compartment.oc1..dev_example --profile DEV

# List instances in prod (read-only)
oci compute instance list --compartment-id ocid1.compartment.oc1..prod_example --profile PROD

# Set default profile via environment variable
export OCI_CLI_PROFILE=DEV

# Override per-command
OCI_CLI_PROFILE=PROD oci compute instance list --compartment-id ocid1.compartment.oc1..prod_example

Shell aliases for safety:

# Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
alias oci-dev='OCI_CLI_PROFILE=DEV oci'
alias oci-staging='OCI_CLI_PROFILE=STAGING oci'
alias oci-prod='OCI_CLI_PROFILE=PROD oci'

# Usage
oci-dev compute instance list --compartment-id ocid1.compartment.oc1..dev_example
oci-prod compute instance list --compartment-id ocid1.compartment.oc1..prod_example

Step 5: Validate Config Before Operations

Always validate the config file and profile before running automation:

import oci

def validate_all_profiles():
    """Validate all OCI config profiles are properly configured."""
    profiles = ["DEFAULT", "DEV", "STAGING", "PROD"]
    results = {}

    for profile in profiles:
        try:
            config = oci.config.from_file("~/.oci/config", profile_name=profile)
            oci.config.validate_config(config)

            # Test authentication
            identity = oci.identity.IdentityClient(config)
            user = identity.get_user(config["user"]).data
            results[profile] = f"OK — {user.name} in {config['region']}"
        except oci.exceptions.ConfigFileNotFound:
            results[profile] = "FAIL — config file not found"
        except oci.exceptions.ProfileNotFound:
            results[profile] = "FAIL — profile not found in config"
        except oci.exceptions.ServiceError as e:
            results[profile] = f"FAIL — {e.status}: {e.code}"
        except Exception as e:
            results[profile] = f"FAIL — {str(e)}"

    print("OCI Profile Validation:")
    for profile, status in results.items():
        print(f"  [{profile}] {status}")

    return all("OK" in s for s in results.values())

validate_all_profiles()

Step 6: Environment Variables for CI/CD

For CI/CD pipelines where config files are impractical, use environment variables:

# Set OCI config via environment variables (CI/CD pipelines)
export OCI_CLI_USER="ocid1.user.oc1..exampleuniqueID"
export OCI_CLI_FINGERPRINT="aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff:00:11:22:33:44:55:66:77:88:99"
export OCI_CLI_TENANCY="ocid1.tenancy.oc1..exampleuniqueID"
export OCI_CLI_REGION="us-ashburn-1"
export OCI_CLI_KEY_FILE="/path/to/key.pem"
# Or use key content directly:
export OCI_CLI_KEY_CONTENT="-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----\n..."

import oci

# Python SDK reads from environment when no config file exists
config = oci.config.from_file()  # Falls back to env vars if ~/.oci/config missing

# Or construct config dict directly for CI/CD
config = {
    "user": os.environ["OCI_CLI_USER"],
    "fingerprint": os.environ["OCI_CLI_FINGERPRINT"],
    "tenancy": os.environ["OCI_CLI_TENANCY"],
    "region": os.environ["OCI_CLI_REGION"],
    "key_file": os.environ["OCI_CLI_KEY_FILE"],
}
oci.config.validate_config(config)

Output

Successful completion produces:

• A

  ~/.oci/config

  file with named profiles for each environment (DEV, STAGING, PROD)
• An environment configuration module mapping profiles to compartment OCIDs
• An environment-aware client factory with safety guardrails blocking destructive prod operations
• Shell aliases for safe CLI profile switching
• Validated authentication for all profiles

Error Handling

from_file()

~/.oci/config

~/.oci/config

oci setup config

oraclecloud-rate-limits

Critical mistake: Using the DEFAULT profile's compartment OCID with the PROD profile's credentials (or vice versa). The environment config module in Step 2 prevents this by coupling profile names to compartment OCIDs.

Examples

Quick profile test from the command line:

# Test all profiles in one shot
for profile in DEFAULT DEV STAGING PROD; do
  echo -n "[$profile] "
  oci iam user get --user-id "$(oci iam user list --profile "$profile" --query 'data[0].id' --raw-output 2>/dev/null)" --profile "$profile" --query 'data.name' --raw-output 2>/dev/null || echo "FAILED"
done

Check which profile is active:

import oci
import os

profile = os.environ.get("OCI_CLI_PROFILE", "DEFAULT")
config = oci.config.from_file("~/.oci/config", profile_name=profile)
print(f"Active profile: {profile}")
print(f"Region: {config['region']}")
print(f"Tenancy: {config['tenancy']}")

Resources

• OCI Config File — config file format and profile syntax
• CLI Environment Variables — OCI_CLI_* variables
• CLI Reference — command-line interface guide
• Python SDK Reference — config loading and client construction
• Compartment Management — organizing resources by environment

Next Steps

After environments are configured, see

oraclecloud-enterprise-rbac

oraclecloud-deploy-integration