Create and start a Compute Engine instance

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Compute Engine lets you create and run instances on Google infrastructure. This document explains how to create a Compute Engine instance.

The terms Compute Engine instance, compute instance or instance are synonymous. Based on the machine type that you specify, an instance can be either a bare metal instance or a virtual machine (VM) instance, as follows:

• If the name of its machine type ends in -metal, an instance is a bare metal instance, which does not have a hypervisor installed.
• Otherwise, an instance is a VM instance. The terms virtual machine instance, VM instance, and VM are synonymous.

Synonymous terms are used interchangeably across the documentation and Google Cloud interfaces such as the Google Cloud console, the gcloud command-line tool, and the REST API.

The instructions in this document only introduce you to instance creation and provide a starting point for creating an instance. For detailed steps to create instances with specific or complicated configurations, see instead the Create and start instances with specific configurations.

Before you begin

• Review the basics about creating instances.
• If you haven't already, then set up authentication. Authentication is the process by which your identity is verified for access to Google Cloud services and APIs. To run code or samples from a local development environment, you can authenticate to Compute Engine by selecting one of the following options:
  

  Select the tab for how you plan to use the samples on this page:

  Console

  When you use the Google Cloud console to access Google Cloud services and APIs, you don't need to set up authentication.

  gcloud

  1. Install the Google Cloud CLI, then initialize it by running the following command:

     gcloud init

     Note: If you installed the gcloud CLI previously, make sure you have the latest version by running gcloud components update.
  2. Set a default region and zone.

  Terraform

  To use the Terraform samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

  1. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

  2. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

     gcloud init

  3. If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:

     gcloud auth application-default login

     You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

  For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

  C#

  To use the .NET samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

  1. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

  2. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

     gcloud init

  3. If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:

     gcloud auth application-default login

     You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

  For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

  Go

  To use the Go samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

  1. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

  2. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

     gcloud init

  3. If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:

     gcloud auth application-default login

     You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

  For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

  Java

  To use the Java samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

  1. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

  2. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

     gcloud init

  3. If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:

     gcloud auth application-default login

     You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

  For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

  Node.js

  To use the Node.js samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

  1. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

  2. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

     gcloud init

  3. If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:

     gcloud auth application-default login

     You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

  For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

  PHP

  To use the PHP samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

  1. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

  2. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

     gcloud init

  3. If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:

     gcloud auth application-default login

     You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

  For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

  Python

  To use the Python samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

  1. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

  2. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

     gcloud init

  3. If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:

     gcloud auth application-default login

     You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

  For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

  Ruby

  To use the Ruby samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

  1. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

  2. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

     gcloud init

  3. If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:

     gcloud auth application-default login

     You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

  For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

  REST

  To use the REST API samples on this page in a local development environment, you use the credentials you provide to the gcloud CLI.

  Install the Google Cloud CLI, then initialize it by running the following command:

  gcloud init

  For more information, see Authenticate for using REST in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.

Required roles

To get the permissions that you need to create instances, ask your administrator to grant you the Compute Instance Admin (v1) (roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1) IAM role on the project. For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

This predefined role contains the permissions required to create instances. To see the exact permissions that are required, expand the Required permissions section:

Required permissions

The following permissions are required to create instances:

• compute.instances.create on the project
• To use a custom image to create the VM: compute.images.useReadOnly on the image
• To use a snapshot to create the VM: compute.snapshots.useReadOnly on the snapshot
• To use an instance template to create the VM: compute.instanceTemplates.useReadOnly on the instance template
• To assign a legacy network to the VM: compute.networks.use on the project
• To specify a static IP address for the VM: compute.addresses.use on the project
• To assign an external IP address to the VM when using a legacy network: compute.networks.useExternalIp on the project
• To specify a subnet for your VM: compute.subnetworks.use on the project or on the chosen subnet
• To assign an external IP address to the VM when using a VPC network: compute.subnetworks.useExternalIp on the project or on the chosen subnet
• To set VM instance metadata for the VM: compute.instances.setMetadata on the project
• To set tags for the VM: compute.instances.setTags on the VM
• To set labels for the VM: compute.instances.setLabels on the VM
• To set a service account for the VM to use: compute.instances.setServiceAccount on the VM
• To create a new disk for the VM: compute.disks.create on the project
• To attach an existing disk in read-only or read-write mode: compute.disks.use on the disk
• To attach an existing disk in read-only mode: compute.disks.useReadOnly on the disk

You might also be able to get these permissions with custom roles or other predefined roles.

Methods to create and start an instance

This section introduces the basic methods that you can use to create and start a Compute Engine instance. Specifically, while you are learning how to create an instance, we recommend you use the Google Cloud console, the Google Cloud CLI, or the REST API. To learn about the general process for creating an instance using each of these methods, review the following instructions.

Important: The instructions in this section are provided for learning purposes. For detailed steps to create and start an instance, see the following Create and start instances with specific configurations section in this document instead.

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Create an instance page.

   Go to Create an instance

   The Create an instance screen appears and displays the Machine configuration pane.

2. To configure instance properties, use the options in the navigation menu as follows.

   Tip: For a summary of the options in the navigation menu, see Configuration options during instance creation.

   1. To configure instance properties related to name, location, or machine configuration, click Machine configuration. In the Machine configuration pane that appears, specify values for the properties that you want to configure.

   2. To configure instance properties related to boot disk, operating system (OS), and additional non-boot storage options, click the OS and storage. In the Operating system and storage pane that appears, specify values for the properties that you want to configure.

   3. To configure instance properties related to network interface and firewall settings, click Networking. In the Networking pane that appears, specify values for the properties that you want to configure.

   4. To configure instance properties related to Ops agent and virtual displays, click Observability. In the Observability pane that appears, specify values for the properties that you want to configure.

   5. To configure instance properties related to security and access, click Security. In the Security pane that opens, specify values for the properties that you want to configure.

   6. To configure instance properties related to metadata, reservations, resource organization, provisioning type, and sole-tenancy, click Advanced. In the Advanced pane that opens, specify values for the properties that you want to configure.

3. To create and start your instance, click Create.

gcloud

To create an instance with your own configuration, use the gcloud compute instances create command.

You can't use this command to create instances in bulk or instances that run container images. Instead, do the following:

• To create instances in bulk, use the gcloud compute instances bulk create command.
• To create instances to deploy containers, use the gcloud compute instances create-with-container command.

REST

To create an instance with your own configuration, make a POST request to the instances.insert method.

You can't use this method to create instances in bulk. Instead, make a POST request to the instances.bulkInsert method.

Tip: You can generate the code to create an instance for Google Cloud CLI, REST, or Terraform by using the Equivalent code button on the Create an instance page in the Google Cloud console. Generating code can help you learn syntax and prevent errors. Learn more about Google Cloud console features for Compute Engine.

Create and start instances with specific configurations

Each of the following documents provides instructions for how to create and start an instance that uses one or more specific configuration options. Based on your use case, you can create an instance that uses configuration options from multiple documents by combining the instructions.

Preconfigured for you

Create a Google-configured, workload-optimized instance

Customized machine configuration

Create an instance with a custom hostname

Create an instance with a custom machine type

Create an instance with attached GPUs

Specify a minimum CPU platform for an instance

Customized OS configuration

Create an instance from a public image

Create an instance from a custom image

Create an instance from a shared image

Create an instance using a RHEL BYOS image

Customized networking configuration

Create an instance in a specific subnet

Create instances that use the gVNIC network interface

Configure an instance with higher bandwidth

Customized observability configuration

Create an instance that's configured for Ops Agent monitoring and logging

Enable virtual displays on an instance

Customized security configuration

Create an instance that uses a user-managed service account

Create VMs with managed workload identities enabled

Enable OS Login during VM creation

From a backup

Create an instance from a machine image

Create an instance from a disk snapshot

Restore an instance from a backup vault

From existing configurations

Create an instance from an instance template

Create an instance similar to an existing instance

Customized for specific workloads

Create an instance to deploy a container

Create Windows Server instances

Create SQL Server instances

Create an instance with a high performance computing (HPC) image

Customized provisioning type

Create a Spot instance

Create instances that consume reserved instances

Multiple VMs and instances at once

Create instances in bulk

Create a managed instance group (MIG)

Sole-tenant nodes

Create instances on sole-tenant nodes

Efficient instances

Create an instance with an attached instance schedule

Troubleshooting

To find methods for resolving common instance creation errors, see Troubleshooting instance creation.

What's next?

• Learn how to check the status of an instance to see when it is ready to use.
• Learn how to connect to your instance.
• Learn how to scale out your instance into a group of instances.
• Learn how to reserve capacity for your instances.
• Learn how to save on instance costs through committed use discounts and sustained use discounts.

Try it for yourself

If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how Compute Engine performs in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

Try Compute Engine free