Earlier quoted context omitted.
They might be referring to their idle reclamation policy: https://docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/FreeTier/freetier...
Thanks, very useful, I was not aware of this. There really should be a warning before this happens. I really need test my incremental backups now.
I can confirm I was given an email about 4 weeks out before they reclaimed my idle VMs.