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    Install the guest environment

    This page explains how to manually install the guest environment on virtual machine (VM) instances. The guest environment is a collection of scripts, daemons, and binaries that instances require to run on Compute Engine. For more information, see Guest environment .

    In most cases, if you use Google-provided public OS images, the guest environment is automatically included. For a full list of OS images that automatically include the guest environment, see Operating system details .

    If the guest environment is not installed or is outdated, install or update it. To identify these scenarios, see When to install or update the guest environment .

    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

      1. 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 .

      2. Set a default region and zone .

    When to install or update the guest environment

    In most cases, you don't need to manually install or update the guest environment. Review the following sections to see when you might need to manually install or update.

    Check installation requirements

    Before you install the guest environment, use the Validate the guest environment procedure to check if the guest environment runs on your instance. If the guest environment is available on your instance but is outdated, update the guest environment .

    You might need to install the guest environment in the following situations:

    • Your required Google-provided OS image does not have the guest environment installed.

    • You import a custom image or a virtual disk to Compute Engine and choose to prevent automatic installation of the guest environment.

      When you import virtual disks or custom images, you can let Compute Engine install the guest environment for you. However, if you choose not to install the guest environment during the import process, then you must manually install the guest environment.

    • You migrate VMs to Compute Engine using Migrate to Virtual Machines .

    To install the guest environment, see Installation methods .

    Check update requirements

    You might need to update the guest environment in the following situations:

    To update the guest environment, see Update the guest environment .

    Installation methods

    You can install the guest environment in multiple ways. Choose one of the following options:

    Supported operating systems

    You can install or update the guest environment on VMs that use OS image versions in the general availability (GA) lifecycle or extended support lifecycle stage .

    To review a list of OS image versions and their lifecycle stage on Compute Engine, see Operating system details .

    Limitations

    You can't manually install or use the import tool to install guest environments for Fedora CoreOS and Container-optimized (COS) operating systems. For COS, Google recommends using the Google-provided public images , which include the guest environment as a core component.

    Install the guest environment

    To manually install the guest environment, select one of the following methods, depending on your ability to connect to the instance:

    Install the guest environment in-place

    Use this method to install the guest environment if you can connect to the target instance using SSH. If you can't connect to the instance to install the guest environment, you can instead install the guest environment by cloning its boot disk and using a startup script .

    This procedure is useful for imported images if you can connect using SSH password-based authentication. You can also use it to reinstall the guest environment if you have at least one user account with a functional key-based SSH.

    CentOS/RHEL/Rocky

    1. Verify that your operating system version is supported .

    2. Determine the CentOS/RHEL/Rocky Linux version. Then, create the source repository file, /etc/yum.repos.d/google-cloud.repo :

      eval $(grep VERSION_ID /etc/os-release)
sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/google-cloud.repo << EOM
[google-compute-engine]
name=Google Compute Engine
baseurl=https://packages.cloud.google.com/yum/repos/google-compute-engine-el${VERSION_ID/.*}-x86_64-stable
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
repo_gpgcheck=0
gpgkey=https://packages.cloud.google.com/yum/doc/yum-key.gpg
      https://packages.cloud.google.com/yum/doc/rpm-package-key.gpg
EOM

    3. Update package lists:

      sudo yum makecache
sudo yum updateinfo

    4. Install the guest environment packages:

      sudo yum install -y google-compute-engine google-osconfig-agent

    5. Restart the instance . Then, inspect its console log to ensure the guest environment loads as it starts back up.

    6. Connect to the instance using SSH to verify. For detailed instructions, see connect to the instance using SSH .

    Debian

    1. Verify that your operating system version is supported .

    2. Install the public repository GPG key:

      curl https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | sudo apt-key add -

    3. Determine the Debian distro name. Then, create the source list file, /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-cloud.list :

      eval $(grep VERSION_CODENAME /etc/os-release)
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-cloud.list << EOM
deb http://packages.cloud.google.com/apt google-compute-engine-${VERSION_CODENAME}-stable main
deb http://packages.cloud.google.com/apt google-cloud-packages-archive-keyring-${VERSION_CODENAME} main
EOM

    4. Update package lists:

      sudo apt update

    5. Install the guest environment packages:

      sudo apt install -y google-cloud-packages-archive-keyring
sudo apt install -y google-compute-engine google-osconfig-agent

    6. Restart the instance . Then, inspect its console log to ensure the guest environment loads as it starts back up.

    7. Connect to the instance using SSH to verify. For detailed instructions, see connect to the instance using SSH .

    Ubuntu

    1. Verify that your operating system version is supported .

    2. Enable the Universe repository. Canonical publishes packages for its guest environment to the Universe repository .

      sudo apt-add-repository universe

    3. Update package lists:

      sudo apt update

    4. Install the guest environment packages:

      sudo apt install -y google-compute-engine google-osconfig-agent

    5. Restart the instance . Then, inspect its console log to ensure the guest environment loads as it starts back up.

    6. Connect to the instance using SSH to verify. For detailed instructions, see connect to the instance using SSH .

    SLES

    1. Verify that your operating system version is supported .

    2. Activate the Public Cloud Module 

      product=$(sudo SUSEConnect --list-extensions | grep -o "sle-module-public-cloud.*")
[[ -n "$product" ]] && sudo SUSEConnect -p "$product"

    3. Update package lists:

      sudo zypper refresh

    4. Install the guest environment packages:

      sudo zypper install -y google-guest-{agent,configs,oslogin} \
google-osconfig-agent
sudo systemctl enable /usr/lib/systemd/system/google-*

    5. Restart the instance . Then, inspect its console log to ensure the guest environment loads as it starts back up.

    6. Connect to the instance using SSH to verify. For detailed instructions, see connect to the instance using SSH .

    Windows

    Before you begin, verify that your operating system version is supported .

    To install the Windows guest environment , run the following commands in an elevated PowerShell version 3.0 or higher prompt. The Invoke-WebRequest command requires PowerShell version 3.0 or higher.

    1. Download and install GooGet .

      [Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12;
Invoke-WebRequest https://github.com/google/googet/releases/download/v2.18.3/googet.exe -OutFile $env:temp\googet.exe;
& "$env:temp\googet.exe" -root C:\ProgramData\GooGet -noconfirm install -sources `
https://packages.cloud.google.com/yuck/repos/google-compute-engine-stable googet;
Remove-Item "$env:temp\googet.exe"

      During installation, GooGet adds content to the system environment. After installation completes, launch a new PowerShell console. Alternatively, provide the full path to the googet.exe file (C:\ProgramData\GooGet\googet.exe).

    2. Open a new console and add the google-compute-engine-stable repository.

      googet addrepo google-compute-engine-stable https://packages.cloud.google.com/yuck/repos/google-compute-engine-stable

    3. Install the core Windows guest environment packages.

      googet -noconfirm install google-compute-engine-windows `
google-compute-engine-sysprep google-compute-engine-metadata-scripts `
google-compute-engine-vss google-osconfig-agent

    4. Install the optional Windows guest environment package.

      googet -noconfirm install google-compute-engine-auto-updater

      Using the googet command.

      To view available packages, run the googet available command.

      To view installed packages, run the googet installed command.

      To update to the latest package version, run the googet update command.

      To view additional commands, run googet help .

    Clone boot disk and use startup script

    If you can't connect to an instance to manually install the guest environment, install the guest environment using this procedure, which includes the following steps that you can complete in the Google Cloud console or Cloud Shell.

    This method applies only to Linux distributions. For Windows, use one of the other two installation methods .

    Use the Cloud Shell to run this procedure. To run this procedure if you are not using Cloud Shell, install the jq command-line JSON processor . This processor filters gcloud CLI output. Cloud Shell has jq pre-installed.

    CentOS/RHEL/Rocky

    1. Verify that your operating system version is supported .

    2. Create a new instance to serve as the rescue instance. Name this instance rescue. This rescue instance does not need to run the same Linux OS as the problematic instance. This example uses Debian 9 on the rescue instance.

    3. Stop the problematic instance and create a copy of its boot disk.

      1. Set a variable name for the problematic instance. This variable simplifies referencing the instance in later steps.

        export PROB_INSTANCE_NAME= VM_NAME

        Replace VM_NAME with the name of the problematic instance.

      2. Stop the problematic instance.

        gcloud compute instances stop "$PROB_INSTANCE_NAME"

      3. Get the name of the boot disk for the problem instance.

        export PROB_INSTANCE_DISK="$(gcloud compute instances describe \
"$PROB_INSTANCE_NAME" --format='json' |  jq -r \
'.disks[] | select(.boot == true) | .source')"

      4. Create a snapshot of the boot disk.

        export DISK_SNAPSHOT="${PROB_INSTANCE_NAME}-snapshot"

gcloud compute disks snapshot "$PROB_INSTANCE_DISK" \
   --snapshot-names "$DISK_SNAPSHOT"

      5. Create a new disk from the snapshot.

        export NEW_DISK="${PROB_INSTANCE_NAME}-new-disk"

gcloud compute disks create "$NEW_DISK" \
   --source-snapshot="$DISK_SNAPSHOT"

      6. Delete the snapshot:

        gcloud compute snapshots delete "$DISK_SNAPSHOT"

    4. Attach the new disk to the rescue instance and mount the root volume for the rescue instance. Since this procedure attaches only one additional disk, the device identifier of the new disk is /dev/sdb. CentOS/RHEL/Rocky Linux uses the first volume on a disk as the root volume by default; therefore, the volume identifier should be /dev/sdb1. For custom configurations, use lsblk to determine the volume identifier.

      gcloud compute instances attach-disk rescue --disk "$NEW_DISK"

    5. Connect to the rescue instance using SSH :

      gcloud compute ssh rescue

    6. Run the following steps on the rescue instance.

      1. Mount the root volume of the new disk.

        export NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT="/tmp/sdb-root-vol"
DEV="/dev/sdb1"
sudo mkdir "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT"
sudo mount -o nouuid "$DEV" "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT"

      2. Create the rc.local script.

        cat <<'EOF' >/tmp/rc.local
#!/bin/bash
echo "== Installing Google guest environment for CentOS/RHEL/Rocky Linux =="
sleep 30 # Wait for network.
echo "Determining CentOS/RHEL/Rocky Linux version..."
eval $(grep VERSION_ID /etc/os-release)
if [[ -z $VERSION_ID ]]; then
  echo "ERROR: Could not determine version of CentOS/RHEL/Rocky Linux."
  exit 1
fi
echo "Updating repo file..."
tee "/etc/yum.repos.d/google-cloud.repo" << EOM
[google-compute-engine]
name=Google Compute Engine
baseurl=https://packages.cloud.google.com/yum/repos/google-compute-engine-el${VERSION_ID/.*}-x86_64-stable
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
repo_gpgcheck=0
gpgkey=https://packages.cloud.google.com/yum/doc/yum-key.gpg
https://packages.cloud.google.com/yum/doc/rpm-package-key.gpg
EOM
echo "Running yum makecache..."
yum makecache
echo "Running yum updateinfo..."
yum updateinfo
echo "Running yum install google-compute-engine..."
yum install -y google-compute-engine
rpm -q google-compute-engine
if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]; then
  echo "ERROR: Failed to install ${pkg}."
fi
echo "Removing this rc.local script."
rm /etc/rc.d/rc.local
# Move back any previous rc.local:
if [[ -f "/etc/moved-rc.local" ]]; then
  echo "Restoring a previous rc.local script."
  mv "/etc/moved-rc.local" "/etc/rc.d/rc.local"
fi
echo "Restarting the instance..."
reboot
EOF

      3. Back up the existing rc.local file, move the temporary rc.local script into place on the mounted disk, and set the permissions so that the temporary script is executable on boot. The temporary script replaces the original script when it finishes booting. To do this, run the following command:

        if [ -f "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT/etc/rc.d/rc.local" ]; then
  sudo mv "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT/etc/rc.d/rc.local" \
  "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT/etc/moved-rc.local"
fi
sudo mv /tmp/rc.local "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT/etc/rc.d/rc.local"
sudo chmod 0755 "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT/etc/rc.d/rc.local"
sudo chown root:root "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT/etc/rc.d/rc.local"

      4. Un-mount the root volume of the new disk.

        sudo umount "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT" && sudo rmdir \
"$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT"

      5. Exit the SSH session to the rescue instance.

    7. Detach the new disk from the rescue instance.

      gcloud compute instances detach-disk rescue --disk "$NEW_DISK"

    8. Create an instance to serve as the replacement. When you create the replacement instance, specify the new disk as the boot disk. You can create the replacement instance using the Google Cloud console:

      1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the VM instancespage.

        Go to VM instances

      2. Click the problematic instance, then click Create similar.

      3. Specify a name for the replacement instance. In the Boot disksection, click Change, then click Existing Disks. Select the new disk.

      4. Click Create. The replacement instance automatically starts after it is created.

      As the replacement instance boots up, the temporary rc.local script runs and installs the guest environment. To watch the progress of this script, inspect the console logs for lines emitted by the temporary rc.local script. To view logs, run the following command:

      gcloud compute instances get-serial-port-output REPLACEMENT_VM_NAME

      Replace REPLACEMENT_VM_NAME with the name you assigned the replacement instance.

      The replacement instance automatically reboots when the temporary rc.local script finishes. During the second reboot, you can inspect the console log to make sure the guest environment loads.

    9. Verify that you can connect to the instance using SSH .

      After you verify that the replacement instance is functional, you can stop or delete the problematic instance.

    Debian

    1. Verify that your operating system version is supported

    2. Create a new instance to serve as the rescue instance. Name this instance rescue. This rescue instance does not need to run the same Linux OS as the problematic instance. This example uses Debian 9 on the rescue instance.

    3. Stop the problematic instance and create a copy of its boot disk.

      1. Set a variable name for the problematic instance. This variable simplifies referencing the instance in later steps.

        export PROB_INSTANCE_NAME= VM_NAME

        Replace VM_NAME with the name of the problematic instance.

      2. Stop the problematic instance.

        gcloud compute instances stop "$PROB_INSTANCE_NAME"

      3. Get the name of the boot disk for the problem instance.

        export PROB_INSTANCE_DISK="$(gcloud compute instances describe \
"$PROB_INSTANCE_NAME" --format='json' |  jq -r \
'.disks[] | select(.boot == true) | .source')"

      4. Create a snapshot of the boot disk.

        export DISK_SNAPSHOT="${PROB_INSTANCE_NAME}-snapshot"

gcloud compute disks snapshot "$PROB_INSTANCE_DISK" \
   --snapshot-names "$DISK_SNAPSHOT"

      5. Create a new disk from the snapshot.

        export NEW_DISK="${PROB_INSTANCE_NAME}-new-disk"

gcloud compute disks create "$NEW_DISK" \
   --source-snapshot="$DISK_SNAPSHOT"

      6. Delete the snapshot:

        gcloud compute snapshots delete "$DISK_SNAPSHOT"

    4. Attach the new disk to the rescue instance and mount the root volume for the rescue instance. Since this procedure attaches only one additional disk, the device identifier of the new disk is /dev/sdb. Debian uses the first volume on a disk as the root volume by default; therefore, the volume identifier should be /dev/sdb1. For custom configurations, use lsblk to determine the volume identifier.

      gcloud compute instances attach-disk rescue --disk "$NEW_DISK"

    5. Connect to the rescue instance using SSH :

      gcloud compute ssh rescue

    6. Run the following steps on the rescue instance.

      1. Mount the root volume of the new disk.

        export NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT="/tmp/sdb-root-vol"
DEV="/dev/sdb1"
sudo mkdir "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT"
sudo mount "$DEV" "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT"

      2. Create the rc.local script.

        cat <<'EOF' >/tmp/rc.local
#!/bin/bash
echo "== Installing Google guest environment for Debian =="
export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
sleep 30 # Wait for network.
echo "Determining Debian version..."
eval $(grep VERSION_CODENAME /etc/os-release)
if [[ -z $VERSION_CODENAME ]]; then
 echo "ERROR: Could not determine Debian version."
 exit 1
fi
echo "Adding GPG key for Google cloud repo."
curl https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | apt-key add -
echo "Updating repo file..."
tee "/etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-cloud.list" << EOM
deb http://packages.cloud.google.com/apt google-compute-engine-${VERSION_CODENAME}-stable main
deb http://packages.cloud.google.com/apt google-cloud-packages-archive-keyring-${VERSION_CODENAME} main
EOM
echo "Running apt update..."
apt update
echo "Installing packages..."
for pkg in google-cloud-packages-archive-keyring google-compute-engine; do
 echo "Running apt install ${pkg}..."
 apt install -y ${pkg}
 if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]; then
    echo "ERROR: Failed to install ${pkg}."
 fi
done
echo "Removing this rc.local script."
rm /etc/rc.local
# Move back any previous rc.local:
if [[ -f "/etc/moved-rc.local" ]]; then
 echo "Restoring a previous rc.local script."
 mv "/etc/moved-rc.local" "/etc/rc.local"
fi
echo "Restarting the instance..."
reboot
EOF

      3. Back up the existing rc.local file, move the temporary rc.local script into place on the mounted disk, and set the permissions so that the temporary script is executable on boot. The temporary script replaces the original script when it finishes booting. To do this, run the following command:

        if [[ -f "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT/etc/rc.local" ]]; then
   sudo mv "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT/etc/rc.local" \
   "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT/etc/moved-rc.local"
fi
sudo mv /tmp/rc.local "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT/etc/rc.local"
sudo chmod 0755 "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT/etc/rc.local"
sudo chown root:root "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT/etc/rc.local"

      4. Un-mount the root volume of the new disk.

        sudo umount "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT" && sudo rmdir "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT"

      5. Exit the SSH session to the rescue instance.

    7. Detach the new disk from the rescue instance.

      gcloud compute instances detach-disk rescue --disk "$NEW_DISK"

    8. Create a new instance to serve as the replacement. When you create the replacement instance, specify the new disk as the boot disk. You can create the replacement instance using the Google Cloud console:

      1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the VM instancespage.

        Go to VM instances

      2. Click the problematic instance, then click Create similar.

      3. Specify a name for the replacement instance. In the Boot disksection, click Change, then click Existing Disks. Select the new disk.

      4. Click Create. The replacement instance automatically starts after it is created.

      As the replacement instance boots up, the temporary rc.local script runs and installs the guest environment. To watch the progress of this script, inspect the console logs for lines emitted by the temporary rc.local script. To view logs, run the following command:

      gcloud compute instances get-serial-port-output REPLACEMENT_VM_NAME

      Replace REPLACEMENT_VM_NAME with the name you assigned the replacement instance.

      The replacement instance automatically reboots when the temporary rc.local script finishes. During the second reboot, you can inspect the console log to make sure the guest environment loads.

    9. Verify that you can connect to the instance using SSH .

      After you verify that the replacement instance is functional, you can stop or delete the problematic instance.

    Ubuntu

    1. Verify that your operating system version is supported

    2. Create a new instance to serve as the rescue instance. Name this instance rescue. This rescue instance does not need to run the same Linux OS as the problematic instance. This example uses Debian 9 on the rescue instance.

    3. Stop the problematic instance and create a copy of its boot disk.

      1. Set a variable name for the problematic instance. This variable simplifies referencing the instance in later steps.

        export PROB_INSTANCE_NAME= VM_NAME

        Replace VM_NAME with the name of the problematic instance.

      2. Stop the problematic instance.

        gcloud compute instances stop "$PROB_INSTANCE_NAME"

      3. Get the name of the boot disk for the problem instance.

        export PROB_INSTANCE_DISK="$(gcloud compute instances describe \
"$PROB_INSTANCE_NAME" --format='json' |  jq -r \
'.disks[] | select(.boot == true) | .source')"

      4. Create a snapshot of the boot disk.

        export DISK_SNAPSHOT="${PROB_INSTANCE_NAME}-snapshot"

gcloud compute disks snapshot "$PROB_INSTANCE_DISK" \
   --snapshot-names "$DISK_SNAPSHOT"

      5. Create a new disk from the snapshot.

        export NEW_DISK="${PROB_INSTANCE_NAME}-new-disk"

gcloud compute disks create "$NEW_DISK" \
   --source-snapshot="$DISK_SNAPSHOT"

      6. Delete the snapshot:

        gcloud compute snapshots delete "$DISK_SNAPSHOT"

    4. Attach the new disk to the rescue instance and mount the root volume for the rescue instance. Since this procedure attaches only one additional disk, the device identifier of the new disk is /dev/sdb. Ubuntu labels its root volume 1 by default; therefore, the volume identifier should be /dev/sdb1. For custom configurations, use lsblk to determine the volume identifier.

      gcloud compute instances attach-disk rescue --disk "$NEW_DISK"

    5. Connect to the rescue instance using SSH :

      gcloud compute ssh rescue

    6. Run the following steps on the rescue instance.

      1. Mount the root volume of the new disk.

        export NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT="/tmp/sdb-root-vol"
DEV="/dev/sdb1"
sudo mkdir "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT"
sudo mount "$DEV" "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT"

      2. Create the rc.local script.

        cat <<'EOF' >/tmp/rc.local
#!/bin/bash
echo "== Installing a Linux guest environment for Ubuntu =="
sleep 30 # Wait for network.
echo "Running apt update..."
apt update
echo "Installing packages..."
echo "Running apt install google-compute-engine..."
apt install -y google-compute-engine
if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]; then
 echo "ERROR: Failed to install ${pkg}."
fi
echo "Removing this rc.local script."
rm /etc/rc.local
# Move back any previous rc.local:
if [[ -f "/etc/moved-rc.local" ]]; then
 echo "Restoring a previous rc.local script."
 mv "/etc/moved-rc.local" "/etc/rc.local"
fi
echo "Restarting the instance..."
reboot
EOF

      3. Back up the existing rc.local file, move the temporary rc.local script into place on the mounted disk, and set the permissions so that the temporary script is executable on boot. The temporary script replaces the original script when it finishes booting. To do this, run the following command:

        if [[ -f "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT/etc/rc.local" ]]; then
   sudo mv "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT/etc/rc.local" \
   "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT/etc/moved-rc.local"
fi
sudo mv /tmp/rc.local "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT/etc/rc.local"
sudo chmod 0755 "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT/etc/rc.local"
sudo chown root:root "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT/etc/rc.local"

      4. Un-mount the root volume of the new disk.

        sudo umount "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT" && sudo rmdir "$NEW_DISK_MOUNT_POINT"

      5. Exit the SSH session to the rescue instance.

    7. Detach the new disk from the rescue instance.

      gcloud compute instances detach-disk rescue --disk "$NEW_DISK"

    8. Create a new instance to serve as the replacement. When you create the replacement instance, specify the new disk as the boot disk. You can create the replacement instance using the Google Cloud console:

      1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the VM instancespage.

        Go to VM instances

      2. Click the problematic instance, then click Create similar.

      3. Specify a name for the replacement instance. In the Boot disksection, click Change, then click Existing Disks. Select the new disk.

      4. Click Create. The replacement instance automatically starts after it is created.

      As the replacement instance boots up, the temporary rc.local script runs and installs the guest environment. To watch the progress of this script, inspect the console logs for lines emitted by the temporary rc.local script. To view logs, run the following command:

      gcloud compute instances get-serial-port-output REPLACEMENT_VM_NAME

      Replace REPLACEMENT_VM_NAME with the name you assigned the replacement instance.

      The replacement instance automatically reboots when the temporary rc.local script finishes. During the second reboot, you can inspect the console log to make sure the guest environment loads.

    9. Verify that you can connect to the instance using SSH .

      After you verify that the replacement instance is functional, you can stop or delete the problematic instance.

    Update the guest environment

    If you receive a message that the guest environment is outdated, update the packages for your operating system as follows:

    CentOS/RHEL/Rocky

    To update CentOS, RHEL and Rocky Linux operating systems, run the following commands:

    sudo yum makecache
sudo yum install google-compute-engine google-compute-engine-oslogin \
google-guest-agent google-osconfig-agent

    Debian

    To update Debian operating systems, run the following commands:

    sudo apt update
sudo apt install google-compute-engine google-compute-engine-oslogin \
google-guest-agent google-osconfig-agent

    Ubuntu

    To update Ubuntu operating systems, run the following commands:

    sudo apt update
sudo apt install google-compute-engine google-compute-engine-oslogin \
google-guest-agent google-osconfig-agent

    SLES

    To update SLES operating systems, run the following commands:

    sudo zypper refresh
sudo zypper install google-guest-{agent,configs,oslogin} \
google-osconfig-agent

    Windows

    To update Windows operating systems, run the following command:

    googet update

    Validate the guest environment

    You can check if a guest environment is installed by inspecting system logs that are emitted to the console while an instance boots up, or by listing the installed packages while connected to the instance.

    View expected console logs for the guest environment

    This table summarizes expected output for console logs emitted by instances with working guest environments as they start up.

    Operating system Service management Expected output
    CentOS/RHEL/Rocky Linux
    Debian
    Ubuntu
    SLES
    Container-Optimized OS 89 and newer
    		 systemd 
    google_guest_agent: GCE Agent Started (version YYYYMMDD.NN)
google_metadata_script_runner: Starting startup scripts (version YYYYMMDD.NN)
OSConfigAgent Info: OSConfig Agent (version YYYYMMDD.NN)
    Container-Optimized OS 85 and older
    		 systemd 
    Started Google Compute Engine Accounts Daemon
Started Google Compute Engine Network Daemon
Started Google Compute Engine Clock Skew Daemon
Started Google Compute Engine Instance Setup
Started Google Compute Engine Startup Scripts
Started Google Compute Engine Shutdown Scripts
    Windows
    		 
    GCEGuestAgent: GCE Agent Started (version YYYYMMDD.NN)
GCEMetadataScripts: Starting startup scripts (version YYYYMMDD.NN)
OSConfigAgent Info: OSConfig Agent (version YYYYMMDD.NN)

    To view console logs for an instance, follow these steps.

    Console

    1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the VM instancespage.

      Go to VM instances

      1. Select the instance you need to examine.
      2. Restart or reset the instance .
      3. Under Logs, click Serial port 1 (console).
      4. Search for the expected output in the table that precedes these steps.

    gcloud

    1. Restart or reset the instance .

    2. Use the gcloud compute instances get-serial-port-output sub-command to connect using the Google Cloud CLI. For example:

      gcloud compute instances get-serial-port-output VM_NAME

      Replace VM_NAME with the name of the instance you need to examine.

    3. Search for the expected output in the table that precedes these steps.

    View loaded services by operating system version

    This table summarizes the services that should be loaded on instances with working guest environments. You must run the command to list services after connecting to the instance. Therefore, you can perform this check only if you have access to the instance.

    Operating system Command to list services Expected output
    CentOS/RHEL/Rocky Linux
    Debian
    		 
    sudo systemctl list-unit-files \
| grep google | grep enabled
     
    google-disk-expand.service             enabled
google-guest-agent.service             enabled
google-osconfig-agent.service          enabled
google-shutdown-scripts.service        enabled
google-startup-scripts.service         enabled
google-oslogin-cache.timer             enabled
    Ubuntu
    		 
    sudo systemctl list-unit-files \
| grep google | grep enabled
     
    google-guest-agent.service             enabled
google-osconfig-agent.service          enabled
google-shutdown-scripts.service        enabled
google-startup-scripts.service         enabled
google-oslogin-cache.timer             enabled
    Container-Optimized OS
    		 
    sudo systemctl list-unit-files \
| grep google
     
    var-lib-google.mount                   disabled
google-guest-agent.service             disabled
google-osconfig-agent.service          disabled
google-osconfig-init.service           disabled
google-oslogin-cache.service           static
google-shutdown-scripts.service        disabled
google-startup-scripts.service         disabled
var-lib-google-remount.service         static
google-oslogin-cache.timer             disabled
    SLES 12+
    		 
    sudo systemctl list-unit-files \
| grep google | grep enabled
     
    google-guest-agent.service              enabled
google-osconfig-agent.service           enabled
google-shutdown-scripts.service         enabled
google-startup-scripts.service          enabled
google-oslogin-cache.timer              enabled
    Windows
    		 
    Get-Service GCEAgent
Get-ScheduledTask GCEStartup
     
    Running    GCEAgent   GCEAgent
\          GCEStartup Ready

    View installed packages by operating system version

    This table summarizes the packages that should be installed on instances with working guest environments. You must run the command to list installed packages after connecting to the instance. Therefore, you can perform this check only if you have access to the instance.

    For more information about these packages, see Guest environment components .

    Operating system Command to list packages Expected output
    CentOS/RHEL/Rocky Linux
    		 
    rpm -qa --queryformat '%{NAME}\n' \
| grep -iE 'google|gce'
     
    google-osconfig-agent
google-compute-engine-oslogin
google-guest-agent
gce-disk-expand
google-cloud-sdk
google-compute-engine
    Debian
    		 
    apt list --installed \
| grep -i google
     
    gce-disk-expand
google-cloud-packages-archive-keyring
google-cloud-sdk
google-compute-engine-oslogin
google-compute-engine
google-guest-agent
google-osconfig-agent
    Ubuntu
    		 
    apt list --installed \
| grep -i google
     
    google-compute-engine-oslogin
google-compute-engine
google-guest-agent
google-osconfig-agent
    SUSE (SLES)
    		 
    rpm -qa --queryformat '%{NAME}\n' \
| grep -i google
     
    google-guest-configs
google-osconfig-agent
google-guest-oslogin
google-guest-agent
    Windows
    		 
    googet installed
     
    certgen
googet
google-compute-engine-auto-updater
google-compute-engine-driver-gga
google-compute-engine-driver-netkvm
google-compute-engine-driver-pvpanic
google-compute-engine-driver-vioscsi
google-compute-engine-metadata-scripts
google-compute-engine-powershell
google-compute-engine-sysprep
google-compute-engine-vss
google-compute-engine-windows
google-osconfig-agent

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