GCP Compute Engine Instance Creation

This page covers how to create a Compute Engine Linux instance on Google Cloud Platform (GCP).


16. Select a Machine Type

What is a Machine Type? A machine type determines the number of virtual CPUs (vCPUs) and memory (GB) allocated to your Compute Engine instance. You should select an appropriate type based on your workload requirements.

Key Considerations:

How to Select:

When creating an instance, in the 'Machine configuration' section, select the 'Series' and 'Machine type'. For initial use or testing purposes, consider 'e2-micro' from the 'E2' series.


17. Configure Boot Disk

What is a Boot Disk? The boot disk is a persistent disk that contains the instance's operating system and startup programs. Here you select the Linux OS image.

Key Considerations:

How to Configure:

In the 'Boot disk' section, click the 'Change' button to set your desired OS image, disk type, and size.


18. Configure Firewall Rules

What are Firewall Rules? GCP firewall rules control network traffic going to and from VM instances. Without opening specific ports, external access to your instance will be blocked.

Key Rules:

How to Configure:

When creating an instance, in the 'Firewall' section, you can simply select the 'Allow HTTP traffic' and/or 'Allow HTTPS traffic' checkboxes to enable these rules. More detailed firewall rules can be configured under 'VPC network > Firewall'.


19. SSH Key Management and Connection

What is SSH Key Management? GCP primarily supports browser-based SSH access and SSH access via the gcloud CLI. These methods automatically manage SSH keys for your convenience. However, you can also register and use your own SSH keys.

How to Connect:


20. External IP Address

What is an External IP Address? An external IP address assigned to a Compute Engine instance allows access to the instance via the internet.

Key Considerations:

How to Allocate:

An ephemeral external IP is automatically assigned during instance creation. To change it to a static IP, you can 'promote' the external IP address to 'Static' in the 'VPC network > IP addresses' menu.