Creating a VM instance with a custom hostname

Linux VMs Windows VMs

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When you create a virtual machine (VM) instance, Google Cloud creates an internal DNS name from the VM name. Unless you specify a custom hostname, Google Cloud uses the automatically created internal DNS name as the hostname it provides to the VM.

You can create a VM with a custom hostname by specifying any fully qualified DNS name. Custom hostnames are useful to maintain conventions or to support requirements for applications that expect a particular hostname.

Even when you specify a custom hostname, Google Cloud still creates the Compute Engine internal DNS name. You can still contact your VM by using this automatically created DNS record.

Before you begin

• If you want to use the command-line examples in this guide:
  1. Install or update to the latest version of the gcloud command-line tool.
  2. Set a default region and zone.
• If you want to use the API examples in this guide, set up API access.

Limitations

• You must manually configure the DNS record for your custom hostname. Custom hostnames are not resolved by the automatically created records provided by Compute Engine internal DNS. You can use any of the following to host the DNS record for the custom hostname:

  • a Cloud DNS public or private zone

  • any other public DNS name server

• You cannot change a custom hostname after you have created the VM.

Naming convention

Custom hostnames must conform to RFC 1035 requirements for valid hostnames. To meet these requirements, custom hostnames must meet the following format specifications:

• Contain at least two labels described as follows:
  • Each label matching the regular expression [a-z]([-a-z0-9]*[a-z0-9])?
  • Each label is concatenated with a dot
  • Each label can be 1-63 characters long
• The entire hostname must not exceed 253 characters

Not valid — contains a single label

my-host1234

Valid — contains three labels, each concatenated with a dot

my-host1234.example.com

Permissions required for this task

To perform this task, you must have the following permissions:

• compute.instances.create on the project
• compute.instances.updateShieldedVmConfig if you plan to create a Shielded VM instance and you want to be able to change any of the Shielded VM settings
• compute.networks.use on the project if using a legacy network
• compute.subnetworks.use either on the whole project or on the chosen subnet (VPC networks)
• compute.networks.useExternalIp on the project if you need to assign an external IP address (either ephemeral or static) to the instance using a legacy network
• compute.subnetworks.useExternalIp either on the whole project or on the chosen subnet if you need to assign an external IP address (either ephemeral or static) to the instance using a VPC network
• compute.addresses.use on the project if specifying a static address in the project
• compute.instances.setMetadata if setting metadata
• compute.instances.setTags on the instance if setting tags
• compute.instances.setLabels on the instance if setting labels
• compute.images.useReadOnly on the image if creating a new root persistent disk
• compute.disks.create on the project if creating a new root persistent disk with this instance
• compute.disks.useReadOnly on the disk if attaching an existing persistent disk in read-only mode
• compute.disks.use on the disk if attaching an existing disk in read/write mode
• compute.disks.setLabels on the disk if setting labels
• compute.snapshots.create on the project to create a new snapshot if creating an instance from a snapshot
• compute.snapshots.useReadOnly on the snapshot if creating an instance from a snapshot

Create a VM with a custom hostname

Console

1. In the Google Cloud Console, go to the VM instances page.

   Go to VM instances

2. Select your project and click Continue.

3. Click Create instance.

4. Specify a Name for your VM. See Resource naming convention.

5. Expand the Management, security, disks, networking, sole tenancy section.

   1. Click Networking.
   2. Under Hostname, specify the custom hostname.

      

6. Make additional VM customizations as needed.

7. Click the Create button to create and start the VM.

Next step: Configure your DNS records. For more information, see Managing records.

gcloud

Using the gcloud command-line tool, follow the instructions to create an instance from an image or a snapshot, add the --hostname flag, and use the gcloud compute instances create command as follows:

gcloud compute instances create VM_NAME \
    --hostname=HOST_NAME

Replace the following:

• VM_NAME: the name of the VM
• HOST_NAME: the fully qualified domain hostname that you want to assign

For example, to create a VM myinstance with the custom hostname test.example.com. You can run the following command:

gcloud compute instances create myinstance \
    --hostname=test.example.com

Next step: Configure your DNS records. For more information, see Managing records.

API

Follow the API instructions to create an instance from an image or a snapshot, and specify the hostname field in the request body.

POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instances

{
 "name": "VM_NAME",
 "hostname": "HOST_NAME",
 ...
}

Replace the following:

• PROJECT_ID: your project ID
• VM_NAME: the name of the VM
• HOST_NAME: the fully qualified domain hostname that you want to assign
• ZONE: the zone where you want to create the VM

Next step: Configure your DNS records. For more information, see Managing records.

Verifying the custom hostname

For Linux VMs, you can verify the hostname by running the hostname -f command on the VM.

You can also verify the custom hostname by using the Google Cloud Console or the gcloud command-line tool.

Console

1. To view the custom hostname for your VM, go to the VM instances page.

   Go to VM instances

2. Click the instance name to open the VM instance details page.

3. Review the Hostname section. The Hostname field only displays if a custom hostname is set.

   

gcloud

To view the custom hostname for your VM using gcloud compute, use the instances describe sub-command with a --format flag to filter the output. Replace VM_NAME with the name of the VM.

gcloud compute instances describe VM_NAME \
    --format='get(hostname)'

For example, to view the custom hostname for a VM named myinstance, run the following command.

gcloud compute instances describe myinstance \
    --format='get(hostname)'

The output might resemble the following:

test.example.com

If a custom hostname is not set, the output for this command is blank.

What's next

• Connect to Linux VMs.
• Connect to Windows VMs.