Lenovo Tab M10 5G as a Portable Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Administration Workstation

 

1. Introduction

This document describes a real-world validation of administering Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) entirely from a Lenovo Tab M10 5G using a cellular connection. The objective was to determine whether a lightweight Android tablet could act as an emergency or travel administration device for a Cloud Architect/SRE. I have not captured screenshots as I was not sure if this experiment will work properly.

2. Test Hardware

·         Lenovo Tab M10 5G (cellular data mode)

·         Lenovo Tablet Pen Plus

·         Acer Bluetooth Keyboard

·         Chrome Browser

·         Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager (Android)

·         WireGuard Android Client

3. Objectives

·         Provision OCI networking from scratch.

·         Launch Oracle Linux 9 and Windows Server.

·         Validate SSH and RDP administration.

·         Validate Cloud Shell while WireGuard VPN is active.

·         Assess feasibility as a travel workstation.

4. OCI Resources Created

Resource	Status	Remarks
VCN	Success	Created manually
Internet Gateway	Success	Created manually
NAT Gateway	Success	Created manually
Route Tables	Success	Public & Private
Subnets	Success	Public & Private
Security Lists	Success	Added rules
NSG	Success	Added rules
Oracle Linux 9	Success	Public subnet
Windows Server	Success	Public subnet

5. Linux Validation

·         Generated SSH key pair during launch.

·         Downloaded private key to tablet.

·         Configured SSH Key Credential in Devolutions RDM by referencing downloaded key.

·         Created SSH session using public IP.

·         Successful login to Oracle Linux 9.

6. Windows Validation

The default change password workflow for "opc" user might be difficult to work on the tablet, hence used the user data method to create a new admin user and set a password. This will also help to login via cloudshell.

The first attempt failed because the Description parameter supplied to New-LocalUser exceeded the Windows maximum length. Cloudbase-Init logs clearly identified the failure. After shortening the description field, the instance was recreated and login succeeded. 

7. OCI Windows User Data

#ps1
$Username="tabletadmin"
$PlainPassword="ChangeMe123!"
Set-TimeZone -Id "India Standard Time"
$SecurePassword=ConvertTo-SecureString $PlainPassword -AsPlainText -Force
$ExistingUser=Get-LocalUser -Name $Username -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
if(-not $ExistingUser){
 New-LocalUser -Name $Username `
  -Password $SecurePassword `
  -FullName "Tablet Admin" `
  -Description "OCI Tablet Admin" `
  -AccountNeverExpires
}else{
 Set-LocalUser -Name $Username -Password $SecurePassword
}
Add-LocalGroupMember -Group "Administrators" -Member $Username -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Add-LocalGroupMember -Group "Remote Desktop Users" -Member $Username -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Enable-LocalUser -Name $Username
& net.exe user $Username /logonpasswordchg:no

8. OCI Oracle Linux 9 User Data

#!/bin/bash
timedatectl set-timezone Asia/Kolkata

if id opc >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  echo "opc:ChangeMe123!" | chpasswd
elif id ubuntu >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  echo "ubuntu:ChangeMe123!" | chpasswd
fi

dnf -y install oracle-cloud-agent || true
systemctl enable oracle-cloud-agent || true
systemctl start oracle-cloud-agent || true

9. Remote Administration Validation

·         SSH through Devolutions RDM: Successful

·         RDP to Windows Server: Successful

·         WireGuard VPN active while accessing OCI Cloud Shell: Successful

·         Existing Windows servers accessible through RDP.

·         Existing Linux servers accessible through SSH.

10. Lessons Learned

·         Android RDM references SSH key files rather than importing them.

·         Cloudbase-Init logs are essential for troubleshooting Windows user-data.

·         Windows New-LocalUser Description field is limited in length.

·         Bluetooth keyboard significantly improves productivity.

·         Cellular connectivity was sufficient for OCI administration.

·         Used the desktop site mode in Google Chrome browser for OCI Console webpage

·         Used the PC mode of Lenovo Tab to manage multiple windows while working, using the Lenovo pen helped in console navigation and button clicks, however some scrolling was needed.

11. Overall Assessment

The experiment demonstrated that the Lenovo Tab M10 5G can perform the complete lifecycle of basic OCI administration: network provisioning, compute deployment, Linux and Windows administration, VPN connectivity, Cloud Shell usage, and remote management. For advanced scripting, packet analysis, virtualization, or extensive multitasking, a Windows detachable device would still offer advantages. However, as an emergency or travel administration platform, the tested Android setup proved practical and reliable.