When you create a compute instance, you can create and attach additional non-boot disks to the instance at the same time. You can also choose existing disks to attach as non-boot disks.
If you want to create a disk in multi-writer mode, you can't create the disk at the same time that you create the instance. You must create the disk first, then you can attach the disk to the instance.
Before you begin
-
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
-
Install the Google Cloud CLI, then initialize it by running the following command:
gcloud init
- Set a default region and zone.
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 an instance with added non-boot disks,
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 an instance with added non-boot disks. To see the exact permissions that are required, expand the Required permissions section:
Required permissions
The following permissions are required to create an instance with added non-boot disks:
-
compute.instances.create
on the project -
To create a new disk for the instance:
compute.disks.create
on the project
You might also be able to get these permissions with custom roles or other predefined roles.
Create an instance with additional non-boot disks
To create an instance that has additional non-boot disks attached, follow these steps:
Console
In the Google Cloud console, go to the Create an instance page.
If prompted, select your project and click Continue.
The Create an instance page appears and displays the Machine configuration pane.
In the Machine configuration pane, do the following:
- In the Name field, specify a name for your instance. For more information, see Resource naming convention.
Optional: In the Zone field, select a zone for this instance.
The default selection is Any. If you don't change this default selection, then Google automatically chooses a zone for you based on machine type and availability.
Select the machine family for your instance. The Google Cloud console then displays the machine series that are available for your selected machine family. The following machine family options are available:
- General purpose
- Compute optimized
- Memory optimized
- Storage optimized
- GPUs
In the Series column, select the machine series for your instance.
If you selected GPUs as the machine family in the previous step, then select the GPU type that you want. The machine series is then automatically selected for the selected GPU type.
In the Machine type section, select the machine type for your instance.
In the navigation menu, click OS and storage. In the Operating system and storage pane that appears, do the following:
To configure your boot disk, click Change. The Boot disk pane appears and displays the Public images tab.
- Choose either a public image or a custom image for your boot disk as follows:
To choose a public image, in the Public images tab, specify the following:
- In the Operating system list, select the OS type.
- In the Version list, select the OS version.
- In the Boot disk type list, select the type of the boot disk.
- In the Size (GB) field, specify the size of the boot disk.
To choose a custom image, click Custom images and, in the Custom images tab that appears, specify the following:
- To select the image project, click Change, and then select the project that contains the image.
- In the Image list, select the image that you want to import.
- In the Boot disk type list, select the type of the boot disk.
- In the Size (GB) field, specify the size of the boot disk.
- Optional: For advanced configuration options, expand the Show advanced configurations section.
- To confirm your boot disk options and return to the Operating system and storage pane, click Select.
To create a new non-boot disk and attach it to your instance, in the Additional storage and VM backups section, click Add new disk.
In the Add new disk pane that appears, do the following:
- In the Name field, specify a name for the non-boot disk.
- In the Disk source type list, select the source type for the non-boot disk.
- In the Disk type list, select a type for the non-boot disk.
- In the Size field, specify the size of the non-boot disk.
- In the Attachment settings section, do the following:
- In the Mode field, select the disk attachment mode.
- In the Deletion rule filed, select an option to specify what happens to the disk when the instance is deleted.
To learn more about the parameters that you can configure while adding new disks, see Add a persistent disk to your instance.
In the navigation menu, click Networking. In the Networking pane that appears, do the following:
- Go to the Firewall section.
To permit HTTP or HTTPS traffic to the instance, select Allow HTTP traffic or Allow HTTPS traffic.
The Compute Engine adds a network tag to your instance and creates the corresponding ingress firewall rule that allows all incoming traffic on
tcp:80
(HTTP) ortcp:443
(HTTPS). The network tag associates the firewall rule with the instance. For more information, see Firewall rules overview in the Cloud Next Generation Firewall documentation.
Optional: Specify other configuration options. For more information, see Configuration options during instance creation.
To create and start the instance, click Create.
gcloud
-
In the Google Cloud console, activate Cloud Shell.
At the bottom of the Google Cloud console, a Cloud Shell session starts and displays a command-line prompt. Cloud Shell is a shell environment with the Google Cloud CLI already installed and with values already set for your current project. It can take a few seconds for the session to initialize.
Run the
gcloud compute instances create
command to create an instance with additional non-boot disks.You can add up to 127 non-boot disks while you're creating your instance. Specify the
--create-disk
flag for each non-boot disk you create.To create non-boot disks from a public or stock image, specify the
image
orimage-family
andimage-project
properties with the--create-disk
flag. To create a blank disk, don't include these properties.You can optionally include properties for:
- Disk size: use the
--size
property. - Disk type: use the
--type
property. - Regional disks:
include the
replica-zones
property.
gcloud compute instances create INSTANCE_NAME \ --zone=ZONE \ --image-project=IMAGE_PROJECT \ IMAGE_FLAG \ --create-disk DISK_IMAGE,image-project=DISK_IMAGE_PROJECT,size=SIZE_GB,type=DISK_TYPE \ --create-disk device-name=DISK_NAME,replica-zones=^:^ZONE:REMOTE-ZONE,boot=false
Replace the following:
INSTANCE_NAME
: name of the new instanceZONE
: zone to create the instance inIMAGE_PROJECT
: project containing the imageIMAGE_FLAG
: specify one of the following:Use the
--image IMAGE_NAME
flag to specify a specific version of a public or custom image. For example,--image debian-12-bookworm-v20241112
.Use the
--image-family IMAGE_FAMILY_NAME
flag to specify an image family. This creates the instance that uses the most recent, non-deprecated OS image in the image family. For example, if you specify--image-family debian-12
, then Compute Engine uses the latest version of the OS image in the Debian 12 image family when creating the instance.
For additional disks, replace the following:
DISK_IMAGE
: Specify one of the following:image=DISK_IMAGE_NAME
: name of the image that you want to use when creating a non-boot diskimage-family=DISK_IMAGE_FAMILY
>: an image family to use when creating a non-boot disk
DISK_IMAGE_PROJECT
: an image project to which the disk image belongsSIZE_GB
: Optional: size of the non-boot diskDISK_TYPE
: Optional: full or partial URL for the type of the diskFor example,
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/diskTypes/hyperdisk-balanced
. To view the available disk types in one or more zones, use thegcloud compute disk-types list --zones=ZONE_LIST
command. ReplaceZONE_LIST
with a comma-separated list of zones.DISK_NAME
: Optional: the disk name displayed to the guest OS after the instance is created.REMOTE_ZONE
: the zone where the disk should be replicated to
For blank disks, don't specify the
image
,image-project
, orimage-family
parameters.For zonal disks, don't specify the disk property
replica-zones
.
- Disk size: use the
Terraform
To generate the Terraform code, you can use the Equivalent code component in the Google Cloud console.- In the Google Cloud console, go to the VM instances page.
- Click Create instance.
- Specify the parameters you want.
- At the top or bottom of the page, click Equivalent code, and then click the Terraform tab to view the Terraform code.
Go
Before trying this sample, follow the Go setup instructions in the Compute Engine quickstart using client libraries. For more information, see the Compute Engine Go API reference documentation.
To authenticate to Compute Engine, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.
Java
Before trying this sample, follow the Java setup instructions in the Compute Engine quickstart using client libraries. For more information, see the Compute Engine Java API reference documentation.
To authenticate to Compute Engine, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.
Node.js
Before trying this sample, follow the Node.js setup instructions in the Compute Engine quickstart using client libraries. For more information, see the Compute Engine Node.js API reference documentation.
To authenticate to Compute Engine, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.
Python
Before trying this sample, follow the Python setup instructions in the Compute Engine quickstart using client libraries. For more information, see the Compute Engine Python API reference documentation.
To authenticate to Compute Engine, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.
REST
You can create up to 127 non-boot disks at the time you create an
instance by using the initializeParams
property for each additional
disk. Create additional disks with a public or private image.
To add a blank disk, define the initializeParams
entry with no
sourceImage
value.
Include the disk property replicaZones
to create
regional disks instead of zonal disks.
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID
/zones/ZONE
/instances { "machineType":"zones/MACHINE_TYPE_ZONE/machineTypes/MACHINE_TYPE", "name":"VM_NAME
", "disks":[ { "initializeParams":{ "sourceImage":"projects/IMAGE_PROJECT/global/images/IMAGE" }, "boot":true }, { "initializeParams":{ "diskSizeGb":"SIZE_GB", "sourceImage":"projects/DISK_IMAGE_PROJECT/global/images/DISK_IMAGE", "diskType":"DISK_TYPE" } }, { "initializeParams":{ "diskSizeGb":"SIZE_GB", "diskType":"DISK_TYPE" }, }, { "boot": false, "deviceName":"DISK_NAME", "initializeParams": { "diskType": "DISK_TYPE", "replicaZones": [ "projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE", "projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/REMOTE_ZONE" ] } } ], "networkInterfaces":[ { "network":"global/networks/NETWORK_NAME" } ], "shieldedInstanceConfig":{ "enableSecureBoot":"ENABLE_SECURE_BOOT" } }
Replace the following:
PROJECT_ID
: ID of the project to create the VM inZONE
: zone to create the VM inMACHINE_TYPE_ZONE
: zone containing the machine type to use for the new VMMACHINE_TYPE
: machine type, predefined or custom, for the new VMVM_NAME
: name of the new VMIMAGE_PROJECT
: project containing the image
For example, if you specifydebian-10
as the image family, specifydebian-cloud
as the image project.IMAGE
: specify one of the following:IMAGE
: a specific version of a public 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 theDebian 10
image family.
-
For additional disks, replace the following:
SIZE_GB
: disk sizeDISK_IMAGE
orDISK_IMAGE_FAMILY
: Specify either a source image or image family for the non-boot disk:DISK_IMAGE
: name of the image that you want to use as a non-boot disk. For example,"sourceImage": "projects/DISK_IMAGE_PROJECT/global/images/DISK_IMAGE"
.DISK_IMAGE_FAMILY
: an image family to use as a non-boot disk. For example,"sourceImage": "projects/DISK_IMAGE_PROJECT/global/images/family/DISK_IMAGE_FAMILY"
.
DISK_TYPE
: full or partial URL for the type of the disk type. For example,https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/diskTypes/hyperdisk-balanced
.DISK_NAME
: Optional. The disk name displayed to the guest OS after the VM is created.REMOTE_ZONE
: the zone to replicate the regional disk to
For blank disks, don't specify the
sourceImage
property.For zonal disks, don't specify the
replicaZones
property. NETWORK_NAME
: the VPC network that you want to use for the VM. You can specifydefault
to use your default network.ENABLE_SECURE_BOOT
: Optional: If you chose an image that supports Shielded VM features, Compute Engine, by default, enables the virtual trusted platform module (vTPM) and integrity monitoring. Compute Engine does not enable Secure Boot by default.If you specify
true
forenableSecureBoot
, Compute Engine creates a VM with all three Shielded VM features enabled. After Compute Engine starts your VM, to modify Shielded VM options, you must stop the VM.
Format and mount the disks before using them.