Create VMs in bulk

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

  • For VMs and any related resources that you plan to create, make sure you have enough quota and the required permissions.
  • 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:

    gcloud

    1. Install the Google Cloud CLI, then initialize it by running the following command: 

      gcloud init
    2. 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 VMs in bulk, 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 VMs in bulk. To see the exact permissions that are required, expand the Required permissions section:

Required permissions

The following permissions are required to create VMs in bulk:

  • compute.instances.create on the project
  • To use a custom image to create the VM: compute.images.useReadOnly on the image
  • To use a snapshot to create the VM: compute.snapshots.useReadOnly on the snapshot
  • To use an instance template to create the VM: compute.instanceTemplates.useReadOnly on the instance template
  • To assign a legacy network to the VM: compute.networks.use on the project
  • To specify a static IP address for the VM: compute.addresses.use on the project
  • To assign an external IP address to the VM when using a legacy network: compute.networks.useExternalIp on the project
  • To specify a subnet for your VM: compute.subnetworks.use on the project or on the chosen subnet
  • To assign an external IP address to the VM when using a VPC network: compute.subnetworks.useExternalIp on the project or on the chosen subnet
  • To set VM instance metadata for the VM: compute.instances.setMetadata on the project
  • To set tags for the VM: compute.instances.setTags on the VM
  • To set labels for the VM: compute.instances.setLabels on the VM
  • To set a service account for the VM to use: compute.instances.setServiceAccount on the VM
  • To create a new disk for the VM: compute.disks.create on the project
  • To attach an existing disk in read-only or read-write mode: compute.disks.use on the disk
  • To attach an existing disk in read-only mode: compute.disks.useReadOnly on the disk

You might also be able to get these permissions with custom roles or other predefined roles.

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-distribution-shape=TARGET_DISTRIBUTION_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 such as vm-1 and vm-2, 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 don't 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_DISTRIBUTION_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.

REST

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

POST https://compute.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_DISTRIBUTION_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 such as vm-1 and vm-2, 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 don't 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_DISTRIBUTION_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 such as vm-1 and vm-2, 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 don't 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.

REST

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

POST https://compute.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 such as vm-1 and vm-2, 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 don't 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.

Create VMs with custom hostnames in bulk

You can create VMs with custom hostnames in bulk in a region or in a zone by using the gcloud CLI or the Compute Engine API.

You must manually configure the DNS record for your custom hostname. For more information, see limitations.

If you don't specify a hostname, Compute Engine sets the hostname for VMs as one of the following:

  • VM_NAME.c.PROJECT_ID.internal when you enable global DNS
  • VM_NAME.ZONE.c.PROJECT_ID.internal when you enable zonal DNS

For more information, see internal DNS names.

gcloud

To create VMs in bulk with custom hostnames in a specific region, use the following gcloud beta compute instances bulk create command.

gcloud beta compute instances bulk create \
    ( --name-pattern="NAME_PATTERN" | --predefined-names=[PREDEFINED_NAMES] ) \
    --per-instance-hostnames=[VM_NAME=HOSTNAME,...] \
    --zone=REGION \
    --count=COUNT \
    [ --min-count=MIN_COUNT ]
    [--location-policy=LOCATION_POLICY \ ]
    [--target-distribution-shape=TARGET_DISTRIBUTION_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 such as vm-1 and vm-2, 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.

  • [VM_NAME=HOSTNAME, ...]: a list of key-value pairs of predefined names for the VMs and fully qualified domain hostnames that you want to assign for the VMs. Custom hostnames must conform to RFC 1035 requirements for valid hostnames.

  • REGION: 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 don't 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_DISTRIBUTION_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.

REST

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

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

{
  ...
  "namePattern": "NAME_PATTERN",
  "perInstanceProperties": {
    "PREDEFINED_NAME_1": {"hostname": HOSTNAME_1},
    "PREDEFINED_NAME_2": {"hostname": HOSTNAME_2},
    ...
  },
  "count": COUNT,
  "minCount": MIN_COUNT,
  "locationPolicy": {
    "LOCATION_POLICY"
    },
    "targetShape": "TARGET_DISTRIBUTION_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 such as vm-1 and vm-2, 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.

  • HOSTNAME_1, HOSTNAME_2, ...: fully qualified domain hostnames that you want to assign for the VMs. Custom hostnames must conform to RFC 1035 requirements for valid hostnames.

    For example, to create two VMs vm-1 and vm-2 with custom hostnames my-host1234.example.com and test.example.com respectively, specify the hostname property in perInstanceProperties as follows:

    {
...
"perInstanceProperties": {
"vm-1": { "hostname": "my-host1234.example.com" },
"vm-2": { "hostname": "test.example.com" },
...
},

  • 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 don't 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_DISTRIBUTION_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.

Check the status of a request to create VMs in bulk

When you create a mutation request, Compute Engine returns an operation resource that you can poll to get the status of the operation. For more information, see Handling API responses.

To get the status of a bulk insert request, send an HTTP GET request to the operation resource:

GET https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/operations/OPERATION_ID

To get the status of a regional bulk insert request, send the following request:

GET https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/REGION/operations/OPERATION_ID

Replace the following:

  • PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project in which you're creating VMs
  • REGION: the region in which you are creating VMs
  • ZONE: the zone in which you are creating VMs
  • OPERATION_ID: the bulk insert operation ID

The instancesBulkInsertOperationMetadata object in the response contains the following details of the operation:

  • status: the status is one of the following:
    • CREATING: VM creation is in progress
    • ROLLING_BACK: the request failed and it's being rolled back
    • DONE: VM creation or rollback has completed successfully
  • targetVmCount: the number of VMs to be created in the specified zone
  • createdVmCount: the number of VMs already created in the specified zone
  • failedToCreateVmCount: the number of VMs that failed to create in the specified zone
  • deletedVmCount: the number of VMs that were deleted as part of rolling back of a failed operation

The progress field in the response represents the percentage of completion of the operation.

The status of the bulk insert operation is RUNNING until Compute Engine successfully creates at least the minimum number of VMs and no more VM creation or rollback of the request happens.

When the bulk insert operation is in progress, you should see a response similar to the following:

{
  "kind" : "compute#operation",
  "id": "4653028658507445766",
  "name": "operation-1587661030638-5a3f823c143e3-e33bbfa3-bd72185c",
  "operationType": "bulkInsert",
  "targetLink":  "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/my-project"
  "targetId": 4653028658507445766,
  "status": "RUNNING",
  "progress": 2,
  "user": "example@google.com",
  "insertTime": "2023-04-23T09:57:13.474-07:00",
  "startTime": "2023-04-23T09:57:13.474-07:00",
  "selfLink": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/my-project/zones/us-central1-a/operations/operation-1587661030638-5a3f823c143e3-e33bbfa3-bd72185c",
  "operationGroupId": "4653028658507445766",
  "metadata":
    "instances_bulk_insert_operation_metadata": {
      "per_location_status": {
         "zones/us-central1-a": {
           "status": "CREATING",
           "targetVmCount": 50,
           "createdVmCount": 1
         }
      }
    }
}

In this example, one instance has been successfully created and the operation is 2% completed.

The operation returns the status DONE when Compute Engine successfully creates at least the minimum number of VMs specified by minCount, or when Compute Engine completes the rollback of the request. After successful creation of the requested number of VMs, you get a response similar to the following:

{
  "endTime": "2023-04-23T09:58:13.474-07:00",
  "id": "5053101474378293244",
  "insertTime": "2023-04-23T09:57:13.474-07:00",
  "instancesBulkInsertOperationMetadata": {
    "perLocationStatus": {
      "zones/us-central1-a": {
        "status": "DONE",
        "createdVmCount": 50,
        "targetVmCount": 50
      }
    }
  },
  "kind": "compute#operation",
  "name": "operation-1587661030638-5a3f823c143e3-e33bbfa3-bd72185c",
  "operationGroupId": "4653028658507445766",
  "operationType": "bulkInsert",
  "progress": 100,
  "selfLink": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/my-project/zones/us-central1-a/operations/operation-1587661030638-5a3f823c143e3-e33bbfa3-bd72185c",
  "startTime": "2023-09-11T16:21:55.629-07:00",
  "status": "DONE",
  "targetId": "625521788110",
  "targetLink": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/my-project",
  "user": "example@google.com",
  "zone": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/my-project/zones/us-central1-a"
}

For more information, see the documentation for the instancesBulkInsertOperationMetadata object.

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)

REST

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

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

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

      GET https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_NAME/aggregated/operations?filter=(operationGroupId=OPERATION_GROUP_ID)

    • If you sent a zonal request, then, to list the operations in that zone, use the zoneOperations.get method and include the operationGroupId property in the body of the request:

      GET https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_NAME/zones/ZONE/instances/bulkInsert

{
...
"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 5,000 VMs in a zone

When creating VMs in bulk, you can only create 5,000 VMs with each request. The following pseudocode describes how to create more than 5,000 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 5,000 VMs, save the zone returned by the request, and update the counter of the number of VMs created.

    call bulk API: region=region, count=5000
targetZone = zone chosen by bulk API
nCreated += # of VMs created

  3. Continue issuing requests to create up to 5,000 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=5000
  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: