The command itself is short, but each part of it is a decision. The name identifies the VM, the machine type sets its power and price, the disk size sets its storage, and the zone sets where it runs. If you do not choose these, gcloud fills them in with defaults that may not be what you wanted, so it is worth knowing which defaults you are accepting.<\/p>\r\n
This walks through opening Cloud Shell and creating a VM with one command, then covers how to choose the zone and image yourself, how to create several VMs at once, how to connect, and how to delete the VM.<\/p>\r\n
Prerequisites:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n Open Cloud Console.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Click on Activate Cloud Shell.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The first time you open it, Cloud Shell asks you to continue. Click Continue and wait for the terminal to start.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Type this command, replacing the placeholders with your own values. The flags have two hyphens, and no space after the equals sign:<\/p>\r\n gcloud compute instances create VM_NAME –zone=ZONE –machine-type=MACHINE_TYPE –boot-disk-size=DISK_SIZE<\/p>\r\n For example:<\/p>\r\n gcloud compute instances create my-vm –zone=us-central1-a –machine-type=e2-medium –boot-disk-size=20GB<\/p>\r\n The original page wrote the flags with an en dash and angle brackets, which does not work. Giving the zone yourself skips the question below. If you leave it out, gcloud proposes a zone and asks Did you mean that zone. Press y to accept it, or n to choose another from a numbered list.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n A VM name can use lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens only. No capital letters and no other symbols, as the original page says. The name also has to begin with a lowercase letter. Google applies the RFC1035 rules to instance names.<\/p>\r\n gcloud compute instances create my-vm –zone=us-central1-a –machine-type=e2-medium –image-family=debian-12 –image-project=debian-cloud –boot-disk-size=20GB<\/p>\r\n To see which images exist, run gcloud compute images list. The gcloud Commands for Working With Google Cloud guide in this series shows how to narrow that long list.<\/p>\r\n Give more than one name in the same command and gcloud creates them all with the same settings, as in Google’s reference example:<\/p>\r\n gcloud compute instances create vm-1 vm-2 vm-3 –zone=us-central1-a<\/p>\r\n Remember that each VM bills separately, so three VMs cost three times as much.<\/p>\r\n After the command finishes, it prints a line for your VM showing its name, zone, machine type, addresses, and status. Back in the console, open Compute Engine, then VM instances, and press the refresh button. The VM you created is listed. You can also check from Cloud Shell:<\/p>\r\n gcloud compute instances list<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n From Cloud Shell, you can open an SSH session with one command, and gcloud sets up the SSH keys for you, which avoids the key problems described in the Creation of SSH Key Using PuTTY guide in this series:<\/p>\r\n gcloud compute ssh VM_NAME –zone=ZONE<\/p>\r\n A VM bills from the moment it is created. A stopped VM generally stops billing for compute, but its disk still costs money, and a deleted VM stops billing for both, since its boot disk is deleted with it by default. When you finish practising, delete the VM:<\/p>\r\n gcloud compute instances delete VM_NAME –zone=ZONE<\/p>\r\n Check the name and zone before you confirm, because deleting cannot be undone. The Deleting an Instance Using the Developers Console guide in this series shows the console route.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Step by Step Process of Creating an Instance using cloud shell<\/h2>\r\n
Step One: Activate Cloud Shell<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/prwatech.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/7-3.jpg\")
<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nStep Two: Click Continue<\/h3>\r\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/prwatech.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/8-1.jpg\")
<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nStep Three: Run the Create Command<\/h3>\r\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/prwatech.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/21-1024x129.jpg\")
<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nNaming Rules<\/h4>\r\n
Choosing the Machine Type, Disk, and Operating System<\/h4>\r\n
\r\n
Creating Several VMs at Once<\/h4>\r\n
Step Four: Check That the VM Exists<\/h3>\r\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/prwatech.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/22-1024x320.jpg\")
<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\nConnecting to the VM<\/h2>\r\n
Cost and Cleanup<\/h2>\r\n
Common Mistakes to Avoid<\/h2>\r\n