Troubleshooting image import and export


This document describes the common issues that you might encounter when you import images to Compute Engine and when you export images to Cloud Storage.

Diagnose image import and export issues

Diagnose the cause of image import or export issues by reviewing the Cloud Build logs and the serial port output of the temporary VMs (or worker VMs).

Review Cloud Build logs

The image import tool uses the Cloud Build API to import and export images. Review the Cloud Build logs to get the status of the running process.

To view Cloud Build logs, do one of the following:

  • If you import or export images by using Google Cloud console, view logs on the Images page in the Google Cloud console, in the Image import history or Image export history tab. Click the Cloud Build ID to view the logs.

    Go to Images

  • If you import or export images by using Google Cloud CLI, you can view the Cloud Build log location at the standard output after running the process.

Review serial port output

Reviewing the serial port output of the worker VMs that are created during the image import or export process might be useful to troubleshoot issues with system-level entities. For more information about these logs, see Viewing serial port output.

Common errors

The following are examples of common errors you might encounter when you import or export images.

ExportFailed error when exporting images larger than 2 TB

The maximum size for images in vmdk, vpc, and vhd formats is limited to 2 TB. Therefore, when you export images larger than 2 TB in these formats, you might see an error message similar to the following in the log:

Error message:

[image -export]: 2022 - 01 - 27T16: 08: 24Z Error running workflow: step
"image-export-export-disk" run error: step "wait-for-inst-image-export-export-disk"
run error: WaitForInstancesSignal FailureMatch found for
"WORKER_VM_NAME--SUFFIX":
"ExportFailed: Failed to export disk source to DESTINATION_URI"

Resolution:

To resolve this issue, specify the image format as vdi, vhdx, or qcow2 and set the --timeout value as 24h when you run the gcloud compute images export command.

If the issue persists, contact Google Cloud Support for assistance.