Google Compute Engine (GCE) - Creating and Managing Virtual Machines

Google Compute Engine (GCE) is a cloud service that lets you create and manage virtual machines (VMs) on Google’s infrastructure. This guide will help you get started with creating and managing VMs using GCE.

What are Virtual Machines (VMs)?

VMs are software versions of physical computers. They offer a dedicated set of resources like CPU, memory, storage, and an operating system. GCE provides various VM configurations for different needs, such as web servers, databases, and advanced AI applications.

Benefits of Using GCE VMs

• Scalability: Easily adjust your VMs to meet changing demands.

• Cost-Effectiveness: Pay only for what you use with GCE's pay-per-use model.

• High Performance: Use Google’s powerful and reliable cloud infrastructure.

• Variety of Options: Choose from many pre-configured machine types or customize VMs to fit specific needs.

• Managed Service: Google manages the underlying infrastructure so you can focus on your applications.

Getting Started with GCE VMs

There are two main ways to create VMs in GCE:

Cloud Console:

1. A user-friendly web interface for creating and managing VMs. Let me guide you using Google Cloud Console:

   • Navigate to Google Cloud search bar and type "Compute Engine"

     

   • Click on "Create instance"

     

   • Complete the details such as write your VM name, region, zone, machine configuration. If you are using Free tier account, you can use E2 series. In my case I used "e2-medium". You can use "e2-micro".

     

   • Allow HTTP or HTTS traffic if you want

     

   • You can create labels and tags for your VM.

     

   • In the Availability policies, please select the Standard. Don't select the Spot instance because it can be terminated any time.

     

   • Now, click on create and your VM will be create in few seconds. If you are using GCP first time it might take 1-2 minute.

     

gcloud Command-Line Tool:

1. A powerful tool for managing VMs through scripts and automation. Let me guide you how to create a VM using CLI. please follow below URL with complete documentation:

   Read it from here

   Managing VMs

   GCE provides several tools to manage your VMs:

   • Start, Stop, and Reset: Control the power state of your VMs.

   • View VM Details: See detailed information about your VMs, such as resource use and network settings.

   • SSH Access: Securely connect to your VMs using SSH for software management.

   • VNC or Serial Console Access: Use VNC or serial console for GUI-based OS troubleshooting.

   • VM Snapshots: Create snapshots of your VM’s state for backup or rollback purposes.

   • Firewall Rules: Manage firewall rules to control network traffic.

   • Monitoring and Logging: Monitor VM health and performance and access logs for troubleshooting.

Additional Considerations

• Security: Set up firewall rules and access controls to secure your VMs.

• Persistent Disks: Use persistent disks for data that needs to survive VM restarts.

• Auto Scaling: Automatically scale your VMs up or down based on predefined metrics.

• Cost Management: Track your VM resource usage and use features like committed use discounts to save costs.

Resources

• Google Cloud Documentation: https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/create-start-instance

• Creating a Virtual Machine - Skills Boost: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g2Il8cxNv18

• Google Compute Engine: https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/machine-resource