This page describes how to create and manage instance templates. Instance templates let you specify the machine type, boot disk image, network, and other VM properties that you want to use when creating virtual machine (VM) instances.
You can use instance templates to do the following:
- Create individual VMs.
- Create VMs in a managed instance group (MIG).
- Create reservations for VMs.
- Create future reservations for VMs.
Before you begin
- If you want to use the command-line examples in this guide, do the following:
- Install or update to the latest version of the Google Cloud CLI.
- Set a default region and zone.
- If you want to use the API examples in this guide, set up API access.
- Read when and why to create deterministic instance templates.
- Read about regional and global instance templates.
Limitations
- Shared VPC on interfaces other than
nic0
for instance templates is supported in gcloud CLI and the API, but not in Google Cloud console. - You can't update an existing instance template or change an instance template after it has been created. If an instance template goes out of date, or you need to make changes to the configuration, create a new instance template.
- If you want to specify an image family in an instance template, you can't use the Google Cloud console. You can use the Google Cloud CLI or the Compute Engine API instead.
- If you want to specify regional Persistent Disk in an instance template, you can't use the Google Cloud console. You can use the Google Cloud CLI or the Compute Engine API instead.
- You can create a reservation based on a regional instance template using the Compute Engine API and the gcloud CLI only. Google Cloud console is not supported.
Create a new instance template
Most of the VM properties that you can specify in a request to create an individual VM instance can also be specified for an instance template, including any VM metadata, startup scripts, persistent disks, service accounts, and so on. You must specify the machine type, boot disk, and network.
Create a regional or global instance template through the Google Cloud console, Google Cloud CLI, or the API. To create a global instance template, you can also use the Terraform or the Cloud Client Libraries.
Console
In the Google Cloud console, go to the Instance templates page.
The remaining steps will appear automatically in the Google Cloud console.
- Click
Create instance template . - Select the Location as follows:
- If you want to use the instance template across regions, choose Global.
- If you want to reduce cross-region dependency, choose Regional.
- If you chose regional, then select the Region where you want to create your instance template.
For the following fields, either accept the default values or modify them as required. The default values change based on the machine family that you select.
- Select a
Machine type . - To update the boot disk type or image, in the
Boot disk section, click Change. - To update the network interface or IP address settings, click
Advanced options , then click Networking, and then click the network interface you want to edit.
- Select a
Optional: If you chose an image that supports Shielded VM, change the VM's Shielded VM settings:
- Click Advanced options, and then click the Security tab.
- If you want to disable Secure Boot, clear the Turn on Secure Boot checkbox. Secure Boot helps protect your VM instances against boot-level and kernel-level malware and rootkits. For more information, see Secure boot.
If you want to disable the virtual trusted platform module (vTPM), clear the Turn on vTPM checkbox. The vTPM enables Measured boot, which validates the VM pre-boot and boot integrity. For more information, see Virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM).
If you want to disable integrity monitoring, uncheck the Turn on Integrity Monitoring checkbox. Integrity monitoring lets youn monitor the boot integrity of your Shielded VM instances by using Cloud Monitoring. For more information, see Integrity monitoring.
Optional: Under Advanced options, click the tabs to further customize your template. For example, you can add up to 15 secondary non-boot disks.
Optional: Click Equivalent REST to view the REST request body, which includes the JSON representation of your instance template.
Click Create to create the template.
gcloud
To create a regional or global instance template, use the
instance-templates create
command.
For a regional instance template, you must use the
--instance-template-region
flag to set the region of the template.
Create a regional instance template using the following command:
gcloud compute instance-templates create INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_NAME --instance-template-region=REGION
Create a global instance template using the following command:
gcloud compute instance-templates create INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_NAME
If you do not provide explicit template settings, gcloud compute
uses
the following default values:
- Machine type: the machine type—for example,
n1-standard-1
- Image: the latest Debian image
- Boot disk: a new standard boot disk named after the VM
- Network: the default VPC network
- IP address: an ephemeral external IP address
You can also explicitly provide these configuration settings. For example:
gcloud compute instance-templates create example-template-custom \ --machine-type=e2-standard-4 \ --image-family=debian-10 \ --image-project=debian-cloud \ --boot-disk-size=250GB
You can add up to 15 secondary non-boot disks. Specify the --create-disk
flag for each secondary disk you create. To create secondary disks from a
public or custom image, specify the image
and image-project
properties
for each disk in the --create-disk
flag. To create a blank disk, do not
include these properties. Optionally, include properties for the disk size
and type
. To specify regional persistent disks, use the replica-zones
property.
gcloud compute instance-templates create INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_NAME \ --create-disk= \ image-family=DISK_IMAGE_FAMILY, \ image-project=DISK_IMAGE_PROJECT, \ size=SIZE_GB_DISK1 \ --create-disk= \ device-name=DISK_NAME,type=DISK_TYPE, \ size=SIZE_GB_DISK2 \ replica-zones=^:^ZONE:REMOTE_ZONE, \ boot=false
Replace the following:
INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_NAME
: the name for the new templateREGION
: the region where you want to create the regional instance templateIMAGE_FAMILY
: an image family to use as a non-boot diskFor more information on image families, see best practices when using image families on Compute Engine.
You can use instead the flag
--image=IMAGE
to specify a specific version of an image.For blank disks, don't specify the
image-family
orimage
property.DISK_IMAGE_PROJECT
: the image project that contains the imageFor blank disks, don't specify the
image-project
property. For more information on public images, see Public images.SIZE_GB_DISK1
andSIZE_GB_DISK2
: the size of each secondary diskDISK_NAME
: Optional: the disk name displayed to the guest OS after the VM is created.DISK_TYPE
: Optional: the type of disk to create. If not specified, the default ispd-standard
orpd-balanced
, depending on the machine type.ZONE
andREMOTE_ZONE
: the zone to create the regional Persistent Disk disk in and the zone to replicate it to.For zonal disks, don't include the
replica-zones
property.
If you chose an image that supports Shielded VM, you can optionally change the instance's Shielded VM settings using one of the following flags:
--no-shielded-secure-boot
: turns off Secure BootSecure Boot helps protect your VM instances against boot-level and kernel-level malware and rootkits. For more information, see Secure Boot.
--no-shielded-vtpm
: turns off the virtual trusted platform module (vTPM)The vTPM enables Measured Boot, which validates the VM pre-boot and boot integrity. For more information, see Virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM).
--no-shielded-integrity-monitoring
: turns off integrity monitoringIntegrity monitoring lets you monitor the boot integrity of your Shielded VM instances using Cloud Monitoring. For more information, see Integrity monitoring.
For a list of all available subcommands and flags, see the
instance-templates
reference.
A template with the default configuration settings might look like the following:
gcloud compute instance-templates describe example-template
creationTimestamp: '2019-09-10T16:18:32.042-07:00' description: '' id: '6057583701980539406' kind: compute#instanceTemplate name: example-template properties: canIpForward: false disks: - autoDelete: true boot: true initializeParams: sourceImage: https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/debian-cloud/global/images/family/debian-10 kind: compute#attachedDisk mode: READ_WRITE type: PERSISTENT machineType: e2-standard-2 networkInterfaces: - accessConfigs: - kind: compute#accessConfig name: external-nat type: ONE_TO_ONE_NAT network: https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/myproject/global/networks/default scheduling: automaticRestart: true onHostMaintenance: MIGRATE serviceAccounts: - email: default scopes: - https://www.googleapis.com/auth/devstorage.read_only selfLink: https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/myproject/global/instanceTemplates/example-template
Terraform
To create an instance template, you can use the google_compute_instance_template
resource.
The following Terraform example is similar to the following gcloud CLI command:
gcloud compute instance-templates create my-instance-template \ --machine-type=e2-standard-4 \ --image-family=debian-9 \ --image-project=debian-cloud \ --boot-disk-size=250GB
To learn how to apply or remove a Terraform configuration, see Basic Terraform commands.
API
To create a regional instance template, make a POST
request to the
regionInstanceTemplates.insert
method
as follows:
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/REGION/instanceTemplates
To create a global instance template, make a POST
request to the
instanceTemplates.insert
method:
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/global/instanceTemplates
You can add up to 15 secondary non-boot disks by using the
disks
property, with a field for each additional disk. For each
additional disk, you can do the following:
- Create additional disks with a public or custom image.
- To add a blank disk, define the
initializeParams
entry with nosourceImage
value. - To create regional persistent disks, define the
initializeParams
entry with the propertyreplicaZones
.
In the body of the request, provide the template properties:
{ "name": "INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_NAME", "properties": { "machineType": "MACHINE_TYPE", "networkInterfaces": [ { "network": "global/networks/default", "accessConfigs": [ { "name": "external-IP", "type": "ONE_TO_ONE_NAT" } ] } ], "disks": [ { "type": "PERSISTENT", "boot": true, "mode": "READ_WRITE", "initializeParams": { "sourceImage": "projects/IMAGE_PROJECT/global/images/IMAGE" } }, { "type": "PERSISTENT", "boot": false, "deviceName": "DISK_NAME", "initializeParams": { "replicaZones": [ "projects/PROJECT_NAME/zones/ZONE", "projects/PROJECT_NAME/zones/REMOTE_ZONE" ] } } ] } }
Replace the following:
PROJECT_ID
: your project idREGION
: the region where you want to create your regional instance templateINSTANCE_TEMPLATE_NAME
: the name of the instance templateZONE
: the zone where VMs are locatedMACHINE_TYPE
: the machine type of the VMs-
IMAGE_PROJECT
: the image project that contains the imageFor more information on public images, see Public images.
-
IMAGE
orIMAGE_FAMILY
: specify one of the following:-
IMAGE
: a specific version of the imageFor example,
"sourceImage": "projects/debian-cloud/global/images/debian-10-buster-v20200309"
-
IMAGE_FAMILY
: an image familyThis creates the VM from the most recent, non-deprecated OS image. For example, if you specify
"sourceImage": "projects/debian-cloud/global/images/family/debian-10"
, Compute Engine creates a VM from the latest version of the OS image in the Debian 10 image family.For more information on image families, see best practices when using image families on Compute Engine.
-
DISK_NAME
: Optional: the disk name displayed to the guest OS after the VM is created.PROJECT_NAME
: the project associated with the VMREMOTE_ZONE
: the zone where the regional disk should be replicated to
You can specify one of the following options for the disks
property:
Specify
initializeParams
to create persistent boot disks for each instance. You can add up to 15 secondary non-boot disks by using theinitializeParams
property for each additional disk. You can create disks by using public or custom images (or image families) in thesourceImage
as shown in the preceding example. To add blank disks, do not specify asourceImage
.Specify
source
to attach an existing persistent boot disk. If you attach an existing boot disk, you can only create one instance from your template.
Optionally, you can specify the diskSizeGb
, diskType
, and labels
properties for initializeParams
and the diskSizeGb
property for
source
.
If you chose an image that supports Shielded VM, you can optionally change the VM's Shielded VM settings by using the following Boolean request body items:
enableSecureBoot
: turns on or off Secure BootSecure Boot helps protect your VM instances against boot-level and kernel-level malware and rootkits. For more information, see Secure Boot.
enableVtpm
: turns on or off the virtual trusted platform module (vTPM)The vTPM enables Measured Boot, which validates the VM pre-boot and boot integrity. For more information, see Virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM).
enableIntegrityMonitoring
: turns on or off integrity monitoringIntegrity monitoring lets you monitor and verify the runtime boot integrity of your Shielded VM instances by using Cloud Monitoring reports. For more information, see Integrity monitoring.
To learn more about request parameters, see the instanceTemplates.insert
method.
Go
Java
Node.js
Python
Create an instance template based on an existing instance
You can use the Compute Engine API or gcloud CLI to save the configuration of an existing VM instance as an instance template. You can optionally override how the source disks are defined in the template.
If you need to override other properties, first create an instance template based on an existing instance, then create a similar template with additional overrides.
gcloud
Use the
gcloud compute instance-templates create
command
with the --source-instance
and --source-instance-zone
flags. If you want
to create a regional instance template, then you must also use the
--instance-template-region
flag to specify the region of the instance
template.
To create a regional instance template, use the following command:
gcloud compute instance-templates create INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_NAME \ --source-instance=SOURCE_INSTANCE \ --source-instance-zone=SOURCE_INSTANCE_ZONE \ --instance-template-region=REGION
To create a global instance template, use the following command:
gcloud compute instance-templates create INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_NAME \ --source-instance=SOURCE_INSTANCE \ --source-instance-zone=SOURCE_INSTANCE_ZONE
To override how the source instance's disks are defined, add one or more
--configure-disk
flags.
The following example creates a global instance template from an existing instance and overrides the source instance's disk with the specifications that you provide.
gcloud compute instance-templates create INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_NAME \ --source-instance=SOURCE_INSTANCE \ --source-instance-zone=SOURCE_INSTANCE_ZONE \ --configure-disk= \ device-name=SOURCE_DISK, \ instantiate-from=INSTANTIATE_OPTIONS, \ auto-delete=AUTO_DELETE
Replace the following:
INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_NAME
is the name of the template to create.SOURCE_INSTANCE
is the name of the instance to use as a model for the new template.SOURCE_INSTANCE_ZONE
is the zone that contains the source instance.REGION
is the region where you want to create the regional instance template..SOURCE_DISK
is the name of a source-instance disk that you want to override within the template.INSTANTIATE_OPTIONS
specifies whether to include the disk and which image to use. Valid values depend on the type of disk:source-image
orsource-image-family
(valid only for boot and other persistent read/write disks). Specify this option if you want to use the same source image or source image family that was used to create the disk in the source VM instance.custom-image
(valid only for boot and other persistent read/write disks). If you want to retain applications and settings from the source VMs in your instance template, you can create a custom image and then specify it when you create the template. If specified, then provide the path or URL for the custom image, as shown in the following example. Alternatively, you can specify an image family using the following format:--configure-disk=device-name=DATA_DISK_NAME,instantiate-from=custom-image,
custom-image=projects/PROJECT_ID/global/images/family/IMAGE_FAMILY_NAMEattach-read-only
(valid only for read-only disks).blank
(valid only for non-boot persistent disks and local SSDs). If specified, then, when the template is used to create a new instance, the disk is created unformatted. You must format and mount the disk in a startup script before you can use it in a scalable setup.do-not-include
(valid