Unless otherwise configured, the client libraries useApplication Default Credentialsto authenticate with Google Cloud Services. While this works for most applications, in some cases you may need to override this default. You can do so by providing theUnifiedCredentialsOptionThe following example shows how to explicitly load a service account key file:
[](std::string const& keyfile) {
auto is = std::ifstream(keyfile);
is.exceptions(std::ios::badbit); // Minimal error handling in examples
auto contents = std::string(std::istreambuf_iterator<char>(is.rdbuf()), {});
auto options =
google::cloud::Options{}.set<google::cloud::UnifiedCredentialsOption>(
google::cloud::MakeServiceAccountCredentials(contents));
return google::cloud::vmmigration_v1::VmMigrationClient(
google::cloud::vmmigration_v1::MakeVmMigrationConnection(options));
}
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-09-04 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eThe latest release candidate version available is 2.37.0-rc, while the most recently released version is 2.36.0, and the webpage lists available releases down to version 2.11.0.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe client libraries by default utilize Application Default Credentials for authenticating with Google Cloud Services.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eUsers can override the default authentication method by providing a UnifiedCredentialsOption, such as loading a service account key file explicitly.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe example provided demonstrates how to load a service account key file and create a VmMigrationClient using the specified credentials.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eFor more details on managing service account keys and creating Credentials objects, the "Best practices for managing service account keys" guide and the "Authentication Components" documentation are available.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["Version 2.21.0keyboard_arrow_down\n\n- [2.42.0-rc (latest)](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/latest/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.41.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.41.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.40.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.40.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.39.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.39.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.38.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.38.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.37.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.37.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.36.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.36.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.35.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.35.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.34.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.34.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.33.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.33.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.32.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.32.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.31.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.31.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.30.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.30.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.29.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.29.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.28.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.28.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.27.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.27.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.26.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.26.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.25.1](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.25.1/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.24.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.24.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.23.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.23.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.22.1](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.22.1/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.21.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.21.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.20.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.20.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.19.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.19.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.18.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.18.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.17.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.17.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.16.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.16.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.15.1](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.15.1/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.14.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.14.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.13.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.13.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.12.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.12.0/vmmigration-override-authentication)\n- [2.11.0](/cpp/docs/reference/vmmigration/2.11.0/vmmigration-override-authentication) \n\nHow to Override the Authentication Credentials\n==============================================\n\nUnless otherwise configured, the client libraries use [Application Default Credentials](https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication#adc) to authenticate with Google Cloud Services. While this works for most applications, in some cases you may need to override this default. You can do so by providing the [UnifiedCredentialsOption](https://cloud.google.com/cpp/docs/reference/common/latest/structgoogle_1_1cloud_1_1UnifiedCredentialsOption.html) The following example shows how to explicitly load a service account key file: \n\n [](std::string const& keyfile) {\n auto is = std::ifstream(keyfile);\n is.exceptions(std::ios::badbit); // Minimal error handling in examples\n auto contents = std::string(std::istreambuf_iterator\u003cchar\u003e(is.rdbuf()), {});\n auto options =\n google::cloud::Options{}.set\u003cgoogle::cloud::UnifiedCredentialsOption\u003e(\n google::cloud::MakeServiceAccountCredentials(contents));\n return google::cloud::vmmigration_v1::VmMigrationClient(\n google::cloud::vmmigration_v1::MakeVmMigrationConnection(options));\n }\n\nKeep in mind that we chose this as an example because it is relatively easy to understand. Consult the [Best practices for managing service account keys](https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/best-practices-for-managing-service-account-keys) guide for more details.\n\n###### See Also\n\n[Authentication Components](https://cloud.google.com/cpp/docs/reference/common/latest/group__guac.html) - for more information on the factory functions to create [`google::cloud::Credentials`](https://cloud.google.com/cpp/docs/reference/common/latest/classgoogle_1_1cloud_1_1Credentials.html) objects."]]