By default, every instance has a single network interface that determines the VPC network that the instance uses. You can create an instance with multiple network interfaces , but each interface must connect to a different VPC network. Each network must have at least one subnet, which defines the range of IPv4 or IPv6 addresses that can be assigned to the instance.
For more information, see the following:
By default, Google Cloud creates an auto mode VPC network
called default
for each project. To use a different network or a subnet that
you manually created in an auto mode or custom mode VPC network,
you must specify the subnet when you create the instance and configure the
network interface.
Before you begin
- If you haven't already, set up authentication
.
Authentication verifies your identity for access to Google Cloud services and APIs. To run
code or samples from a local development environment, you can authenticate to
Compute Engine by selecting one of the following options:
Select the tab for how you plan to use the samples on this page:
Console
When you use the Google Cloud console to access Google Cloud services and APIs, you don't need to set up authentication.
gcloud
-
Install the Google Cloud CLI. After installation, initialize the Google Cloud CLI by running the following command:
gcloud init
If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity .
- Set a default region and zone .
REST
To use the REST API samples on this page in a local development environment, you use the credentials you provide to the gcloud CLI.
Install the Google Cloud CLI. After installation, initialize the Google Cloud CLI by running the following command:
gcloud init
If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity .
For more information, see Authenticate for using REST in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.
-
Required roles
To get the permissions that
you need to create an instance with a specific subnet,
ask your administrator to grant you the Compute Instance Admin (v1)
( roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1
)
IAM role on the project.
For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations
.
This predefined role contains the permissions required to create an instance with a specific subnet. To see the exact permissions that are required, expand the Required permissionssection:
Required permissions
The following permissions are required to create an instance with a specific subnet:
-
compute.instances.create
on the project - To specify a subnet for your instance:
compute.subnetworks.use
on the project or on the chosen subnet - To assign an external IP address to the instance when using a VPC network:
compute.subnetworks.useExternalIp
on the project or on the chosen subnet
You might also be able to get these permissions with custom roles or other predefined roles .
Requirements
When you create an instance in a subnet, consider these rules:
- If you don't specify a network or subnet, Compute Engine uses the default VPC network and the auto subnet that's in the same region as the instance.
- If you don't specify a network, Compute Engine infers the network from the subnet specified.
- If you specify a network, you must specify a subnet and it must belong to the same network. Otherwise, instance creation fails.
You must create the subnet that you want to use before you create the instance. For more information, see Create and manage VPC networks .
Create an instance in a specific subnet
To create an instance in a specific subnet, follow these steps:
Console
-
In the Google Cloud console, go to the Create an instancepage.
If prompted, select your project and click Continue.
The Create an instancepage appears and displays the Machine configurationpane.
-
In the Machine configurationpane, do the following:
- In the Namefield, specify a name for your instance. For more information, see Resource naming convention .
-
Optional: In the Zonefield, select a zone for this instance.
The default selection is Any. If you don't change this default selection, then Google automatically chooses a zone for you based on machine type and availability.
-
Select the machine family for your instance. The Google Cloud console then displays the machine series that are available for your selected machine family. The following machine family options are available:
- General purpose
- Compute optimized
- Memory optimized
- Storage optimized
- GPUs
-
In the Seriescolumn, select the machine series for your instance.
If you selected GPUsas the machine family in the previous step, then select the GPU typethat you want. The machine series is then automatically selected for the selected GPU type.
-
In the Machine typesection, select the machine type for your instance.
-
In the navigation menu, click Networking. In the Networkingpane that appears, do the following:
-
To permit HTTP or HTTPS traffic to the instance, go to the Firewallsection and select Allow HTTP trafficor Allow HTTPS traffic.
The Compute Engine adds a network tag to your instance and creates the corresponding ingress firewall rule that allows all incoming traffic on
tcp:80
(HTTP) ortcp:443
(HTTPS). The network tag associates the firewall rule with the instance. For more information, see Firewall rules overview in the Cloud Next Generation Firewall documentation. -
To specify the network interface details, go to the Network interfacessection and click Add a network interface.
In the New network interfacesection that appears, do the following:
- In the Networkfield, select the VPC network that contains the subnet you created.
- In the Subnetworklist, select the subnet for the instance to use.
- In the IP stack typefield, select the IP stack type for the network interface.
- To confirm the network interface details, click Done.
-
-
Optional: Specify other configuration options. For more information, see Configuration options during instance creation .
-
To create and start the instance, click Create.
gcloud
-
In the Google Cloud console, activate Cloud Shell.
At the bottom of the Google Cloud console, a Cloud Shell session starts and displays a command-line prompt. Cloud Shell is a shell environment with the Google Cloud CLI already installed and with values already set for your current project. It can take a few seconds for the session to initialize.
-
Using the Google Cloud CLI, follow the same instructions to create an instance from a public image or a snapshot , and include the networking flags shown in this section when you run the
gcloud compute instances create
command :gcloud compute instances create INSTANCE_NAME \ --zone= ZONE \ --machine-type= MACHINE_TYPE \ --create-disk=boot=yes,image=projects/ IMAGE_PROJECT /global/images/ IMAGE ,size= SIZE \ --network= NETWORK_NAME \ --subnet= SUBNET_NAME \ --stack-type= STACK_TYPE \ --private-network-ip= INTERNAL_IPV4_ADDRESS \ --address= EXTERNAL_IPV4_ADDRESS \ --nic-type=GVNIC
Replace the following:
-
INSTANCE_NAME
: the name of the compute instance -
ZONE
: the zone where the instance is created, such aseurope-west1-b
. The instance's region is inferred from the zone. -
MACHINE_TYPE
: Optional: the machine type to use for the instance. -
IMAGE_PROJECT
: Optional: the image project that contains the image -
IMAGE
: Optional: specify one of the following:- A specific version of the OS image—for example,
rocky-linux-9-optimized-gcp-v20240717
. - An image family
,
which must be formatted as
family/ IMAGE_FAMILY
. This creates the instance from the most recent, non-deprecated OS image. For example, if you specifyfamily/rocky-linux-9-optimized-gcp
, then Compute Engine creates an instance using the latest version of the OS image in the Rocky Linux 9 optimized for Google Cloud image family. For more information about using image families, see Image families best practices .
- A specific version of the OS image—for example,
-
SIZE
: Optional: the size of the new disk. The value must be a whole number. The default unit of measurement is GiB. -
NETWORK_NAME
: Optional: name of the network -
SUBNET_NAME
: name of the subnet to use with the instance.To view a list of subnets in the network, use the
gcloud compute networks subnets list
command . -
STACK_TYPE
: Optional: the stack type for the network interface.STACK_TYPE
must be one of:IPV4_ONLY
,IPV4_IPV6
, orIPV6_ONLY
( Preview ). The default value isIPV4_ONLY
. -
INTERNAL_IPV4_ADDRESS
: Optional: the internal IPv4 address that you want the compute instance to use in the target subnet. Omit this flag if you don't need a specific IP address.To specify an internal IPv6 address, use the flag
--internal-ipv6-address
instead. -
EXTERNAL_IPV4_ADDRESS
: Optional: the static external IPv4 address to use with the network interface. You must have previously reserved an external IPv4 address . Do one of the following:- Specify a valid IPv4 address from the subnet.
- Use the flag
--network-interface=no-address
instead if you don't want the network interface to have an external IP address. - Specify
address=''
if you want the interface to receive an ephemeral external IP address.
To specify an external IPv6 address, use the flag
--external-ipv6-address
instead.
-
Terraform
To create an instance in a specific subnet, you can use the google_compute_instance
resource
.
To learn how to apply or remove a Terraform configuration, see Basic Terraform commands .
To generate the Terraform code, you can use the Equivalent codecomponent in the Google Cloud console.- In the Google Cloud console, go to the VM instancespage.
- Click Create instance.
- Specify the parameters you want.
- At the top or bottom of the page, click Equivalent code, and then click the Terraformtab to view the Terraform code.
Go
Before trying this sample, follow the Go setup instructions in the Compute Engine quickstart using client libraries . For more information, see the Compute Engine Go API reference documentation .
To authenticate to Compute Engine, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment .
Java
Before trying this sample, follow the Java setup instructions in the Compute Engine quickstart using client libraries . For more information, see the Compute Engine Java API reference documentation .
To authenticate to Compute Engine, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment .
Node.js
Before trying this sample, follow the Node.js setup instructions in the Compute Engine quickstart using client libraries . For more information, see the Compute Engine Node.js API reference documentation .
To authenticate to Compute Engine, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment .