Start the instance

Preview

This feature is subject to the "Pre-GA Offerings Terms" in the General Service Terms section of the Service Specific Terms. Pre-GA products and features are available "as-is" and may have limited support. Google Distributed Cloud Sandbox is for building and testing your environments, and not for running production workloads. For more information, see the launch stage descriptions.

This page covers instructions on installing and accessing a Google Distributed Cloud Sandbox (GDC Sandbox) environment. You can access the environment using a Google Compute Engine (Compute Engine) virtual machine (VM), or the Linux, Windows, and macOS operating systems (OS) through a remote desktop client.

Note: Before continuing, you must submit a request to obtain an approval to use the GDC Sandbox environment. To request an approval for an environment, input your details in Google Distributed Cloud Sandbox Interest Form.

If you access the environment through an OS, choose an OS and the supported remote desktop client from the following options:

OS name	OS version	Supported remote desktop client
Windows	11	Microsoft Remote Desktop IAP Desktop
Ubuntu	22.04	Remmina, version 1.4.32
Debian	10 Rodete	Remmina, version 1.4.32
macOS	Any version with Microsoft Remote Desktop support	Microsoft Remote Desktop, latest version

Before you begin

Before you access the GDC Sandbox environment, ensure you complete the following based on your access method:

• Access through your machine or PC:

  1. Install the gcloud CLI.
  2. Initialize the gcloud CLI.
  3. Authorize the gcloud CLI using the same email that you used to register for GDC Sandbox.
  4. Set up the remote desktop client based on your OS:
     • Ubuntu 22.04 and Debian 10 Rodete: see How to install Remmina.
     • Windows 11: follow Get started with the Remote Desktop app for Windows.
     • macOS: follow Get started with the macOS client.

• Access through a Compute Engine VM:

  Important: To access your environment through a Compute Engine connected VM, you must have a Google Cloud account.
  1. Start and set up Cloud Shell.
  2. Install the gcloud CLI.
  3. Initialize the gcloud CLI.
  4. Authorize the gcloud CLI using the same email that you used to register for GDC Sandbox.

Access the environment

To access your GDC Sandbox environment, complete the following sections based on your access method:

Linux

1. Ensure you've installed Remmina:

   sudo apt-get install remmina
   

2. Start the tunnel to your GDC Sandbox instance:

   gcloud compute start-iap-tunnel GDC_SANDBOX_INSTANCE_NAME 3389 --project=PROJECT_NAME \
   --zone=ZONE --local-host-port=localhost:PORT_NUMBER
   

   Replace the following:

   • GDC_SANDBOX_INSTANCE_NAME: the name of your GDC Sandbox instance. You receive this name from the GDC Sandbox team.
   • PORT_NUMBER: a port number you define. For example, 8888.
   • PROJECT_NAME: the name of your project.
   • ZONE: the zone in which your environment is. You receive this name from the GDC Sandbox team.

3. From your local environment, open Remmina.

4. In the address bar, select RDP and enter your URL in the format localhost:PORT_NUMBER.

5. Press ENTER.

6. If successful, a login dialog appears.

7. Enter your email address as your username. For example if your email address is [e-mail], your username becomes hello_abc.

8. Enter your email address as your initial password. For example if your email address is [e-mail], your password becomes hello_abc.

9. Click OK.

10. Change your initial password to a new password:

    1. Open a terminal window.
    2. Type passwd and press Enter.
    3. Enter your current password if prompted.
    4. Enter your new password and confirm it by retyping it.
    5. The terminal window displays Password updated successfully.

11. Open the Chrome browser.

12. In the address bar, enter the URL https://console.org-1.zone1.google.gdch.test to access GDC Sandbox.

13. To sign into the GDC Sandbox environment, follow the steps in Sign in.

Windows

1. Open a PowerShell window.

2. Start the tunnel to your GDC Sandbox instance:

   gcloud compute start-iap-tunnel GDC_SANDBOX_INSTANCE_NAME 3389 --project=PROJECT_NAME \
   --zone=GDC_SANDBOX_INSTANCE_NAME --local-host-port=localhost:PORT_NUMBER
   

   Replace the following:

   • GDC_SANDBOX_INSTANCE_NAME: the name of your GDC Sandbox instance. You receive this name from the GDC Sandbox team.
   • PORT_NUMBER: a port number you define. For example, 8888.
   • PROJECT_NAME: the name of your project.

3. From your local environment, open Microsoft Remote Desktop.

4. In the Computer input field, enter the URL in the format localhost:PORT_NUMBER.

5. Click Connect. If successful, a login dialog appears.

6. Enter your email address as your username. For example if your email address is [e-mail], your username becomes hello_abc.

7. Enter your email address as your initial password. For example if your email address is [e-mail], your password becomes hello_abc.

8. Click OK.

9. Change your initial password to a new password:

   1. Open a terminal window.
   2. Type passwd and press Enter.
   3. Enter your current password if prompted.
   4. Enter your new password and confirm it by retyping it.
   5. The terminal window displays Password updated successfully.

10. Open the Chrome browser.

11. In the address bar, enter the URL https://console.org-1.zone1.google.gdch.test to access the GDC Sandbox environment.

12. To sign into the GDC Sandbox environment, follow the steps in Sign in.

macOS

1. Open a terminal window.

2. Start the tunnel to your GDC Sandbox instance:

   gcloud compute start-iap-tunnel GDC_SANDBOX_INSTANCE_NAME 3389 --project=PROJECT_NAME \
   --zone=GDC_SANDBOX_INSTANCE_NAME --local-host-port=localhost:PORT_NUMBER
   

   Replace the following:

   • GDC_SANDBOX_INSTANCE_NAME: the name of your GDC Sandbox instance. You receive this name from the GDC Sandbox team.
   • PORT_NUMBER: a port number you define. For example, 8888.
   • PROJECT_NAME: the name of your project.

3. Open Microsoft Remote Desktop.

4. Click Add PC.

5. In the PC name input field, enter a URL in the format localhost:PORT_NUMBER.

6. Click Add. If successful, a login dialog appears.

7. Enter your email address as your username. For example if your email address is [e-mail], your username becomes hello_abc.

8. Enter your email address as your initial password. For example if your email address is [e-mail], your password becomes hello_abc.

9. Click OK.

10. Change your initial password to a new password:

    1. Open a terminal window.
    2. Type passwd and press Enter.
    3. Enter your current password if prompted.
    4. Enter your new password and confirm it by retyping it.
    5. The terminal window displays Password updated successfully.

11. In the address bar, enter the URL https://console.org-1.zone1.google.gdch.test to access the GDC Sandbox environment.

12. To sign into the GDC Sandbox environment, follow the steps in Sign in.

Compute Engine VM

To access the GDC Sandbox environment in a Compute Engine VM, you create the VM with a startup script and use the Chrome Remote Desktop. To create the VM and access the environment, do the following:

1. Open a Cloud Shell terminal.

2. View a list of available images:

   gcloud compute images list
   

   Note the Debian-10 image and the project name where the image resides.

3. Create a text file. For example, startup-script.txt.

4. In the file, add in the following startup script:

   sudo apt-get upgrade
   curl https://dl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub \
       | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/chrome-remote-desktop.gpg
   echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome-remote-desktop/deb stable main" \
       | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/chrome-remote-desktop.list
   sudo apt-get update
   sudo DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive \
       apt-get install --assume-yes chrome-remote-desktop
   sudo DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive \
       apt install --assume-yes xfce4 desktop-base dbus-x11 xscreensaver
   sudo bash -c 'echo "exec /etc/X11/Xsession /usr/bin/xfce4-session" > /etc/chrome-remote-desktop-session'
   sudo systemctl disable lightdm.service
   sudo apt install --assume-yes task-xfce-desktop
   curl -L -o google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb \
   https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
   sudo apt install --assume-yes --fix-broken ./google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
   sudo apt install --assume-yes remmina
   

5. Create a Compute Engine VM:

   gcloud compute instances create VM_NAME \
   --image-project=PROJECT_NAME \
   --image-family=debian-10 \
   --metadata=startup-script-from-file=SCRIPT_FILENAME
   

   Replace the following:

   • VM_NAME: the name you give to the VM. For example, test-vm.
   • PROJECT_NAME: the name of the project that contains the image.
   • SCRIPT_FILENAME: the name of the file that contains the startup script. For example, startup-script.txt.

6. Install Chrome Remote Desktop by following Install Chrome Remote Desktop on the VM instance.

7. Activate Chrome Remote Desktop by following Connect to the VM instance.

Configure the screen resolution

1. In the Remmina remote desktop client, click New Connection Profile.
2. Navigate to Resolution, select custom, and pick 1920*1080 in the drop-down list.