This document explains how to view the details of an existing virtual machine (VM) instance.
Viewing the details of a VM is useful to see its configuration and status, such as attached disks, creation timestamp, machine type, and the ID of the VM—which you can use to reference the VM using an immutable value.
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 permission that you need to view the details of a VM,
ask your administrator to grant you the
Compute Instance Admin (v1) (roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1
) IAM role on the VM or project.
For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.
This predefined role contains the
compute.instances.get
permission,
which is required to
view the details of a VM.
You might also be able to get this permission with custom roles or other predefined roles.
View details of a VM
To view the details of a VM, select one of the following options:
Console
In the Google Cloud console, go to the VM instances page.
On the VM instances page, you can view the following information for a compute instance:
- The name of the instance.
- The zone the instance is located in.
- The machine type used by the instance.
- The provisioning model, which indicates if the instance was created as a Spot VM.
- Any available recommendations for the instance.
- Whether the VM instance is part of an instance group
- The IP addresses used by the instance.
The previous list contains the default columns shown on the VM instances page. You can click
Column display options to change what columns are displayed for each VM.In the Name column, click the VM name to view additional details about the VM instance.
gcloud
To view the details of a VM, use the
gcloud compute instances describe
command.
gcloud compute instances describe VM_NAME \
--zone=ZONE
Replace the following:
VM_NAME
: the VM name.ZONE
: the zone where the VM is located.
The output is similar to the following:
canIpForward: false
confidentialInstanceConfig:
enableConfidentialCompute: false
cpuPlatform: Intel Broadwell
creationTimestamp: '2023-08-18T10:00:21.801-07:00'
deletionProtection: false
description: ''
disks:
- architecture: X86_64
autoDelete: true
boot: true
deviceName: example-vm
diskSizeGb: '10'
guestOsFeatures:
- type: UEFI_COMPATIBLE
- type: VIRTIO_SCSI_MULTIQUEUE
- type: GVNIC
- type: SEV_CAPABLE
index: 0
interface: SCSI
kind: compute#attachedDisk
licenses:
- https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/debian-cloud/global/licenses/debian-11-bullseye
mode: READ_WRITE
source: https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/zones/us-central1-a/disks/example-vm
type: PERSISTENT
displayDevice:
enableDisplay: false
fingerprint: CQp-QBEACqw=
id: '6404261768674286922'
keyRevocationActionType: NONE
kind: compute#instance
labelFingerprint: 42WmSpB8rSM=
lastStartTimestamp: '2023-08-18T10:00:28.182-07:00'
machineType: https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/zones/us-central1-a/machineTypes/e2-medium
metadata:
fingerprint: lQ-dD2sMrMY=
items:
- key: enable-oslogin
value: 'true'
kind: compute#metadata
name: example-vm
networkInterfaces:
- accessConfigs:
- kind: compute#accessConfig
name: External NAT
natIP: 34.27.53.198
networkTier: PREMIUM
type: ONE_TO_ONE_NAT
fingerprint: QR3z6TgVFjg=
kind: compute#networkInterface
name: nic0
network: https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/global/networks/default
networkIP: 10.128.0.28
stackType: IPV4_ONLY
subnetwork: https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/regions/us-central1/subnetworks/default
reservationAffinity:
consumeReservationType: ANY_RESERVATION
scheduling:
automaticRestart: true
onHostMaintenance: MIGRATE
preemptible: false
provisioningModel: STANDARD
selfLink: https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/zones/us-central1-a/instances/example-vm
serviceAccounts:
- email: 790569220780-compute@developer.gserviceaccount.com
scopes:
- https://www.googleapis.com/auth/devstorage.read_only
- https://www.googleapis.com/auth/logging.write
- https://www.googleapis.com/auth/monitoring.write
- https://www.googleapis.com/auth/servicecontrol
- https://www.googleapis.com/auth/service.management.readonly
- https://www.googleapis.com/auth/trace.append
shieldedInstanceConfig:
enableIntegrityMonitoring: true
enableSecureBoot: false
enableVtpm: true
shieldedInstanceIntegrityPolicy:
updateAutoLearnPolicy: true
startRestricted: false
status: RUNNING
tags:
fingerprint: 42WmSpB8rSM=
zone: https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/zones/us-central1-a
REST
To view the details of a VM, make a GET
request to
instances.get
method.
GET https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instances/VM_NAME
Replace the following:
PROJECT_ID
: the ID of the project where the VM is located.ZONE
: the zone where the VM is located.VM_NAME
: the VM name.
The output is similar to the following:
{
"canIpForward": false,
"confidentialInstanceConfig": {
"enableConfidentialCompute": false
},
"cpuPlatform": "Intel Broadwell",
"creationTimestamp": "2023-08-18T10:00:21.801-07:00",
"deletionProtection": false,
"description": "",
"disks": [
{
"architecture": "X86_64",
"autoDelete": true,
"boot": true,
"deviceName": "example-vm",
"diskSizeGb": "10",
"guestOsFeatures": [
{
"type": "UEFI_COMPATIBLE"
},
{
"type": "VIRTIO_SCSI_MULTIQUEUE"
},
{
"type": "GVNIC"
},
{
"type": "SEV_CAPABLE"
}
],
"index": 0,
"interface": "SCSI",
"kind": "compute#attachedDisk",
"licenses": [
"https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/debian-cloud/global/licenses/debian-11-bullseye"
],
"mode": "READ_WRITE",
"source": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/zones/us-central1-a/disks/example-vm",
"type": "PERSISTENT"
}
],
"displayDevice": {
"enableDisplay": false
},
"fingerprint": "CQp-QBEACqw=",
"id": "6404261768674286922",
"keyRevocationActionType": "NONE",
"kind": "compute#instance",
"labelFingerprint": "42WmSpB8rSM=",
"lastStartTimestamp": "2023-08-18T10:00:28.182-07:00",
"machineType": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/zones/us-central1-a/machineTypes/e2-medium",
"metadata": {
"fingerprint": "lQ-dD2sMrMY=",
"items": [
{
"key": "enable-oslogin",
"value": "true"
}
],
"kind": "compute#metadata"
},
"name": "example-vm",
"networkInterfaces": [
{
"accessConfigs": [
{
"kind": "compute#accessConfig",
"name": "External NAT",
"natIP": "34.27.53.198",
"networkTier": "PREMIUM",
"type": "ONE_TO_ONE_NAT"
}
],
"fingerprint": "QR3z6TgVFjg=",
"kind": "compute#networkInterface",
"name": "nic0",
"network": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/global/networks/default",
"networkIP": "10.128.0.28",
"stackType": "IPV4_ONLY",
"subnetwork": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/regions/us-central1/subnetworks/default"
}
],
"reservationAffinity": {
"consumeReservationType": "ANY_RESERVATION"
},
"scheduling": {
"automaticRestart": true,
"onHostMaintenance": "MIGRATE",
"preemptible": false,
"provisioningModel": "STANDARD"
},
"selfLink": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/zones/us-central1-a/instances/example-vm",
"serviceAccounts": [
{
"email": "790569220780-compute@developer.gserviceaccount.com",
"scopes": [
"https://www.googleapis.com/auth/devstorage.read_only",
"https://www.googleapis.com/auth/logging.write",
"https://www.googleapis.com/auth/monitoring.write",
"https://www.googleapis.com/auth/servicecontrol",
"https://www.googleapis.com/auth/service.management.readonly",
"https://www.googleapis.com/auth/trace.append"
]
}
],
"shieldedInstanceConfig": {
"enableIntegrityMonitoring": true,
"enableSecureBoot": false,
"enableVtpm": true
},
"shieldedInstanceIntegrityPolicy": {
"updateAutoLearnPolicy": true
},
"startRestricted": false,
"status": "RUNNING",
"tags": {
"fingerprint": "42WmSpB8rSM="
},
"zone": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/zones/us-central1-a"
}
Determine the CPU and memory allocation for an instance
The number of CPUs and memory allocated to a compute instance can be determined from the machine type used by the instance, for example:
c3-standard-22
: C3 is the machine series name,standard
is the memory allocation type for the instance, and22
is the number of vCPUs allocated to the instance. Typically, astandard
machine type uses a ratio of 4 GB memory per vCPU. So, this machine type would have 88 GB of RAM.The memory to CPU ratios for
standard
,highmem
,highcpu
,ultamem
, andmegamem
machine types can vary slightly for each machine series, so refer to the machine series page to determine the exact amount of memory allocated for each machine type.n2-custom-8-16384
: For custom machine types, the first part of the machine type is the machine series, except for N1 machine types, which don't include the machine series at all. The first number aftercustom
is the number of vCPUs and the last number is the amount of memory (in MB) allocated to the instance.
For more information about machine types, see Machine families resource and comparison guide.
What's next
Learn how to rename a VM.
Learn how to stop or start a VM.
Learn how to suspend or resume a VM.
Learn more about the VM life cycle.