Managing Compute Engine instances

Compared to App Engine, Cloud Functions, or even Kubernetes Engine, Compute Engine introduces a high level of operational complexity. Compute Engine instances can be deeply customized, and there are many aspects to their management. Developing an understanding of these various aspects is critical to operating solutions on Compute Engine.

Creating instances

Creating a virtual machine on compute engine is relatively straightforward. At a minimum, developers specify an instance name, zone, machine type, and boot disk. Several other configuration options are available, and we'll cover these in later sections. As with other products and services on Google Cloud, Compute Engine resources can be created and managed from the Cloud Console, the gcloud command-line tool, or the Google Cloud APIs.

To create a new image using the Cloud Console, navigate to Navigation menu | Compute Engine | VM instances. If this is your first instance, click on the Create button. For this...