Get the ID of a VM instance

Linux Windows

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A virtual machine (VM) instance's ID lets you reference it with an immutable value.

Before you begin

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

Get the ID of a VM instance

Console

1. Go to the VM instances page.

   Go to VM instances

2. Click the Name of the VM instance.

3. In Basic information > Instance Id, view the VM instance ID.

gcloud

Get the instance ID by using the gcloud compute instances describe command. This command returns the instance ID as a string in the id field.

gcloud compute instances describe INSTANCE_NAME

Replace INSTANCE_NAME with the name of the instance.

API

Get the instance ID by using the instances.get method. This method returns the instance ID as a string value for the id in the response body.

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

Replace the following:

• PROJECT_ID: ID of the project containing the instance to get the ID of

• ZONE: zone containing the instance to get the ID of

• INSTANCE_NAME: name of the instance to get the ID of

What's next

• Rename a VM instance

• Stop or start an instance

• Suspend or resume an instance

• Learn about the instance life cycle