Create VMs in bulk

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When you want to create a large number of virtual machine (VM) instances that are identical and independent from each other, create VMs in bulk using the Google Cloud CLI or the Compute Engine API. You can create these VMs across all zones in a region or distributed across certain zones.

For more details and associated limitations, see About bulk creation of VMs.

Before you begin

Create VMs in bulk in a region

To create VMs in bulk in a region, use the gcloud CLI or the Compute Engine API.

If you specify a machine type or support for additional hardware such as a GPU or a local SSD, Compute Engine places the VMs in a zone within the region that supports the machine type and the additional hardware.

gcloud

To create VMs in bulk in a region, use the following gcloud compute instances bulk create command:

gcloud compute instances bulk create \
    ( --name-pattern="NAME_PATTERN" | --predefined-names=[PREDEFINED_NAMES] ) \
    --region=REGION \
    --count=COUNT \
    [ --min-count=MIN_COUNT \ ]
    [--location-policy=LOCATION_POLICY \ ]
    [--target-shape=TARGET_SHAPE ]

Replace the following:

  • NAME_PATTERN: the name pattern for the VMs. Use a sequence of hash (#) characters for Compute Engine to replace with a sequence of numbers. For example, using vm-# for the name pattern generates VMs with names vm-1, vm-2, and so on, up to the number of VMs specified by --count, which must be less than or equal to the number of VMs that the name pattern allows.

    When using a name pattern, Compute Engine tries to avoid name conflicts by checking the names of existing VMs created from previous requests.

  • PREDEFINED_NAMES: a list of predefined names for the VMs to create. If using this flag and specifying COUNT, COUNT must equal the number of names provided.

  • REGION: the region to create the VMs in.

  • COUNT: the number of VMs to create. This must be less than or equal to the number of VMs allowed by NAME_PATTERN. Or, if using --predefined-names, you do not have to specify COUNT, but if you do, it must be equal to the number of names provided.

  • MIN_COUNT: the minimum number of VMs to create. The following table describes the behavior of the request depending on how you set this flag:

    Value Description
    Not set Default value is COUNT. If Compute Engine can't create the number of VMs specified by COUNT, the request fails and no VMs are created.
    1 Compute Engine creates as many VMs as possible, up to COUNT.
    Greater than 1 and less than COUNT Compute Engine creates at least MIN_COUNT VMs up to a maximum of COUNT VMs. If MIN_COUNT VMs can't be created, the request fails and no VMs are created.
  • LOCATION_POLICY: the zones to include or exclude within a region. Use a list of key-value pairs, with the zone as the key and the policy as the value. Valid values for the policy are allow, which is the default, and deny. The following is an example value for this flag:

    --location-policy=us-east1-b=allow,us-east1-c=deny
    
  • TARGET_SHAPE: the distribution of the VMs across the specified zones. Use the --location-policy flag to specify the zones. The following table shows the valid values for this flag:

    Value Description
    any_single_zone Enforces VM placement in a single zone, and prioritizes utilization of unused reservations. Use this to avoid cross-zone network egress or to reduce network latency. This is the default value.
    balanced Attempts to distribute VMs evenly across all zones in the region.
    any Allows distribution of VMs across multiple zones in a region. Chooses zones that have available resources and that maximize unused zonal reservations.

API

To create VMs in bulk in a region, use the following instances.bulkInsert method:

POST https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/REGION/instances/bulkInsert

{
  ...
  "namePattern": "NAME_PATTERN",
  "perInstanceProperties": {
    "PREDEFINED_NAME_1": {},
    "PREDEFINED_NAME_2": {},
    ...
  },
  "count": COUNT,
  "minCount": MIN_COUNT,
  "locationPolicy": {
    "LOCATION_POLICY"
    },
    "targetShape": "TARGET_SHAPE"
  },
  ...
}

Replace the following:

  • PROJECT_ID: the project ID.

  • REGION: the region to create the VMs in.

  • NAME_PATTERN: the name pattern for the VMs. Specify either this or perInstanceProperties. Use a sequence of hash (#) characters for Compute Engine to replace with a sequence of numbers. For example, using vm-# for the name pattern generates VMs with names vm-1, vm-2, and so on, up to the number of VMs specified by --count, which must be less than or equal to the number of VMs that the name pattern allows.

    When using a name pattern, Compute Engine tries to avoid name conflicts by checking the names of existing VMs created from previous requests.

  • PREDEFINED_NAME_1, PREDEFINED_NAME_2, ...: a list of predefined names for the VMs to create. Specify either this or namePattern. If using this flag and specifying COUNT, COUNT must equal the number of names provided.

  • COUNT: the number of VMs to create. This must be less than or equal to the number of VMs allowed by NAME_PATTERN. Or, if using perInstanceProperties, you do not have to specify COUNT, but if you do, it must be equal to the number of names provided.

  • MIN_COUNT: the minimum number of VMs to create. The following table describes the behavior of the request depending on how you set this flag:

    Value Description
    Not set Default value is COUNT. If Compute Engine can't create the number of VMs specified by COUNT, the request fails and no VMs are created.
    1 Compute Engine creates as many VMs as possible, up to COUNT.
    Greater than 1 and less than COUNT Compute Engine creates at least MIN_COUNT VMs up to a maximum of COUNT VMs. If MIN_COUNT VMs can't be created, the request fails and no VMs are created.
  • LOCATION_POLICY: the zones to include or exclude within a region. Use a list of key-value pairs, with the zone as the key and the policy as the value. Valid values for the policy are ALLOW, which is the default, and DENY. The following is an example value for this field:

    "locations": {
      "zones/us-central1-a": { "preference": "ALLOW" },
      "zones/us-central1-c": { "preference": "DENY"  },
      ...
    },
    
  • TARGET_SHAPE: the distribution of VMs across the specified zones. Use the locationPolicy field to specify the zones. The following table shows the valid values for this field:

    Value Description
    ANY_SINGLE_ZONE Enforces VM placement in a single zone, and prioritizes utilization of unused reservations. Use this to avoid cross-zone network egress or to reduce network latency. This is the default value.
    BALANCED Attempts to distribute VMs evenly across all zones in the region.
    ANY Allows distribution of VMs across multiple zones in a region. Chooses zones that have available resources and that maximize unused zonal reservations.

Create VMs in bulk in a zone

To create VMs in bulk in a zone, use the gcloud CLI or the Compute Engine API.

gcloud

To create VMs in bulk in a specific zone, use the following gcloud compute instances bulk create command.

gcloud compute instances bulk create \
    ( --name-pattern="NAME_PATTERN" | --predefined-names=[PREDEFINED_NAMES] ) \
    --zone=ZONE \
    --count=COUNT \
    [ --min-count=MIN_COUNT ]

Replace the following:

  • NAME_PATTERN: the name pattern for the VMs. Use a sequence of hash (#) characters for Compute Engine to replace with a sequence of numbers. For example, using vm-# for the name pattern generates VMs with names vm-1, vm-2, and so on, up to the number of VMs specified by --count, which must be less than or equal to the number of VMs that the name pattern allows.

    When using a name pattern, Compute Engine tries to avoid name conflicts by checking the names of existing VMs created from previous requests.

  • PREDEFINED_NAMES: a list of predefined names for the VMs to create. If using this flag and specifying COUNT, COUNT must equal the number of names provided.

  • ZONE: the zone to create the VMs in.

  • COUNT: the number of VMs to create. This must be less than or equal to the number of VMs allowed by NAME_PATTERN. Or, if using --predefined-names, you do not have to specify COUNT, but if you do, it must be equal to the number of names provided.

  • MIN_COUNT: the minimum number of VMs to create. The following table describes the behavior of the request depending on how you set this flag:

    Value Description
    Not set Default value is COUNT. If Compute Engine can't create the number of VMs specified by COUNT, the request fails and no VMs are created.
    1 Compute Engine creates as many VMs as possible, up to COUNT.
    Greater than 1 and less than COUNT Compute Engine creates at least MIN_COUNT VMs up to a maximum of COUNT VMs. If MIN_COUNT VMs can't be created, the request fails and no VMs are created.

API

To create VMs in bulk in a zone, use the following instances.bulkInsert method.

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

{
  ...
  "namePattern": "NAME_PATTERN",
  "perInstanceProperties": {
    "PREDEFINED_NAME_1": {},
    "PREDEFINED_NAME_2": {},
    ...
  },
  "count": COUNT,
  "minCount": MIN_COUNT,
  ...
}

Replace the following:

  • PROJECT_ID: the project ID.

  • ZONE: the zone to create the VMs in.

  • NAME_PATTERN: the name pattern for the VMs. Specify either this or perInstanceProperties. Use a sequence of hash (#) characters for Compute Engine to replace with a sequence of numbers. For example, using vm-# for the name pattern generates VMs with names vm-1, vm-2, and so on, up to the number of VMs specified by --count, which must be less than or equal to the number of VMs that the name pattern allows.

    When using a name pattern, Compute Engine tries to avoid name conflicts by checking the names of existing VMs created from previous requests.

  • PREDEFINED_NAME_1, PREDEFINED_NAME_2, ...: a list of predefined names for the VMs to create. Specify either this or namePattern. If using this flag and specifying COUNT, COUNT must equal the number of names provided.

  • COUNT: the number of VMs to create. This must be less than or equal to the number of VMs allowed by NAME_PATTERN. Or, if using perInstanceProperties, you do not have to specify COUNT, but if you do, it must be equal to the number of names provided.

  • MIN_COUNT: the minimum number of VMs to create. The following table describes the behavior of the request depending on how you set this flag:

    Value Description
    Not set Default value is COUNT. If Compute Engine can't create the number of VMs specified by COUNT, the request fails and no VMs are created.
    1 Compute Engine creates as many VMs as possible, up to COUNT.
    Greater than 1 and less than COUNT Compute Engine creates at least MIN_COUNT VMs up to a maximum of COUNT VMs. If MIN_COUNT VMs can't be created, the request fails and no VMs are created.

Check the status of a request to create VMs in bulk

When checking the status of a request to create VMs in bulk, the operation status returns as DONE if Compute Engine either successfully creates the minimum number of specified VMs or rolls back the request.

For information about how to check the status of a request create VMs in bulk, see Handling API responses.

Check the status of a single VM

To check the status of a single VM created from a request to create VMs in bulk, use the gcloud CLI or the Compute Engine API.

gcloud

  1. From the Operation returned by the request, get the value of the operationGroupId property.

  2. Use the operationGroupId property as a filter with the gcloud compute operations list command to search across all operations and all zones in the project for VMs associated with the regional or zonal request:

    gcloud compute operations list \
       --filter=(operationGroupId=OPERATION_GROUP_ID)
    
  3. Get the rest of the VM's properties by doing any of the following:

    • From the list of operations, the targetLink represents the path of the VM. Use the gcloud compute instances describe command with this path as the name of the VM to get the VM's properties:

      gcloud compute instances describe VM_NAME
      
    • Use the gcloud compute instances list command with a filter that includes the names of the VMs from the list of operations:

      gcloud compute instances list VM_NAME \
         --filter=(name=VM_NAME_1) OR (name=VM_NAME_2)
      
    • Use the gcloud compute instances list command to get the properties of VMs from across all zones and regions, and filter by either a label that is unique to the instances or by their names:

      gcloud compute instances list \
         --filter=(name=VM_NAME_1) OR (name=VM_NAME_2)
      

API

  1. From the Operation returned by the request, get the value of the operationGroupId property.

  2. Use the operationGroupId property as a filter to get the list of VM operations associated with the regional or zonal request:

    • If you sent a regional request, use the globalOperations.aggregatedList method to search across all operations and all zones in the project:

      GET https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_NAME/aggregated/operations?filter=(operationGroupId=OPERATION_GROUP_ID)
      
    • If you sent a zonal request, use the zoneOperations.get method to list the operations in that zone:

      GET https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_NAME/zones/ZONE/instances/bulkInsert?filter=(operationGroupId=OPERATION_GROUP_ID)
      
  3. Get the rest of the VM's properties by doing any of the following:

    • From the list of operations, the targetLink represents the path of the VM. Use the instances.get method with this path as the name of the VM to get all of the VM's properties:

      GET https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_NAME/zones/ZONE/instances/VM_NAME
      
    • Use the instances.get method with a filter that includes the names of the VMs from the list of operations:

      GET https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_NAME/zones/ZONE/instances?filter=(name=VM_NAME_1) OR (name=VM_NAME_2)
      
    • Use the instances.aggregatedList method to get the properties of VMs from across all zones and regions, and filter by either a label that is unique to the instances or by their names:

      GET https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_NAME/aggregated/instances?filter=(name=VM_NAME_1) OR (name=VM_NAME_2)
      

Pseudocode examples

The following pseudocode examples show how to customize requests for creating VMs in bulk.

Create VMs in bulk in one region from a set of regions

The following pseudocode describes how to create 1,000 VMs in one region from a set of regions. When attempting to create VMs in bulk in one region from a set of regions, the request first checks for capacity. If there is not enough capacity, the request fails immediately and tries again with the next region in the set.

  1. Specify the number of VMs to create within a zone.

    nTarget = 1000
    
  2. Designate the regions to attempt to create the VMs in.

    acceptableRegions = ["us-central1", "us-east1", "us-west1"]
    
  3. Iterate through the regions, and attempt to create the VMs in each region until successful.

    for region in acceptableRegions:
      call bulk API: region=region, location-policy=location-policy, count=nTarget
      if request succeeds and the operation succeeds:
        break
    

Create VMs in bulk in a zone on a machine type

The following pseudocode describes how to create multiple VMs in a zone on a specified machine type. When attempting to create VMs in bulk on the same machine type, the request first checks for availability of those machine types. If there is not enough of the machine type available, the request fails immediately and tries again with the next machine type.

  1. Specify the number of VMs to create and the region to create them in.

    nTarget = 1000
    region = "us-central1"
    
  2. Specify the machine families to attempt to create the VMs on.

    acceptableMachineFamilies = ["n2","c2","e2","n1"]
    
  3. Iterate through the set of machine types and attempt to create the VMs on the machine type until successful.

    for family in acceptableMachineFamilies:
      call bulk APIs: region=region, count=nTarget, machineFamily=family
      if request succeeds and the operation succeeds:
        break
    

Create more than 1,000 VMs in a zone

When creating VMs in bulk, you can only create 1,000 VMs with each request. The following pseudocode describes how to create more than 1,000 VMs in a zone by issuing multiple requests.

  1. Specify the number of VMs to create, a counter to keep track of the total number of created VMs, the region to create the VMs in, and a variable to store the zone that Compute Engine creates the VMs in.

    nTarget = 10000
    nCreated = 0
    region = "us-central1"
    targetZone = ""
    
  2. Issue an initial request to create 1,000 VMs, save the zone returned by the request, and update the counter of the number of VMs created.

    call bulk API: region=region, count=1000
    targetZone = zone chosen by bulk API
    nCreated += # of VMs created
    
  3. Continue issuing requests to create up to 1,000 VMs at a time in the zone until Compute Engine creates the specified number of VMs.

    while(nTarget - nCreated > 0):
      call bulk API: zone=targetZone, count=1000
      nCreated += # of VMs created
    

Create VMs in bulk and view their status

The following procedure shows you how to create a group of VMs that have predefined names and then view their status:

  1. Specify the number of VMs to create, the zone to create them in, and a data structure to store the names in.

    nTarget = 1000
    targetZone = "us-central-1a"
    names = []
    
  2. Generate the patterned names for the VMs and add the names to the data structure.

    for n in range(0, 1000):
      names.push("instance-%d".format(n))
    
  3. Create the VMs, and use perInstanceProperties to specify the names.

    call bulk API(zone=targetZone, count=nTarget, names=perInstanceProperties)
    
  4. Get the details of the VMs by using the instances.list method with a filter for the names of VMs to return the details about.

    instances.list(filter=(name = "instance-1") OR (name = "instance-2") ...)
    

What's next

After creating VMs in bulk, do either or both of the following to simplify management of those VMs: