gcloud compute instances import - create Compute Engine virtual machine instances from virtual appliance in OVA/OVF format
gcloud compute instances import INSTANCE_NAME --source-uri=SOURCE_URI [--no-address] [--async] [--byol] [--can-ip-forward] [--compute-service-account=COMPUTE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT] [--deletion-protection] [--description=DESCRIPTION] [--no-guest-environment] [--guest-os-features=[GUEST_OS_FEATURE,...]] [--hostname=HOSTNAME] [--labels=[KEY=VALUE,...]] [--log-location=LOG_LOCATION] [--machine-type=MACHINE_TYPE] [--network=NETWORK] [--network-tier=NETWORK_TIER] [--os=OS] [--private-network-ip=PRIVATE_NETWORK_IP] [--no-restart-on-failure] [--subnet=SUBNET] [--tags=TAG,[TAG,...]] [--timeout=TIMEOUT; default="2h"] [--zone=ZONE] [--custom-cpu=CUSTOM_CPU --custom-memory=CUSTOM_MEMORY : --custom-extensions --custom-vm-type=CUSTOM_VM_TYPE] [--node=NODE | --node-affinity-file=NODE_AFFINITY_FILE | --node-group=NODE_GROUP] [--scopes=[SCOPE,...] | --no-scopes] [--service-account=SERVICE_ACCOUNT | --no-service-account] [GCLOUD_WIDE_FLAG ...]
gcloud compute instances import creates Compute Engine virtual machine instances from virtual appliance in OVA/OVF format.
Importing OVF involves:
Unpacking OVF package (if in OVA format) to Cloud Storage.
Import disks from OVF to Compute Engine.
Translate the boot disk to make it bootable in Compute Engine.
Create a VM instance using OVF metadata and imported disks and boot it.
OVF import tool requires Cloud Build to be enabled. See https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/import/import-ovf-files#enable-cloud-build Virtual machine instances, images and disks in Compute engine and files stored on Cloud Storage incur charges. See https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/images/importing-virtual-disks#resource_cleanup.
To import an OVF package from Cloud Storage into a VM named my-instance, run:
$ gcloud compute instances import my-instance \ --source-uri=gs://my-bucket/my-dir
- INSTANCE_NAME
Name of the instance to import. For details on valid instance names, refer to the criteria documented under the field 'name' at: https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/reference/rest/v1/instances
- --source-uri=SOURCE_URI
Cloud Storage path to one of: OVF descriptor OVA file Directory with OVF package. For more information about Cloud Storage URIs, see https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/request-endpoints#json-api.
- --no-address
If provided, the instances are not assigned external IP addresses. To pull container images, you must configure private Google access if using Container Registry or configure Cloud NAT for instances to access container images directly. For more information, see:
- --async
Return immediately, without waiting for the operation in progress to complete.
- --byol
Specifies that you want to import an image with an existing license. Importing an image with an existing license is known as bring your own license (BYOL).
--byol can be specified in any of the following ways:
+ `--byol --os=rhel-8`: imports a RHEL 8 image with an existing license. + `--os=rhel-8-byol`: imports a RHEL 8 image with an existing license. + `--byol`: detects the OS contained on the disk, and imports the image with an existing license.
For more information about BYOL, see: https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/nodes/bringing-your-own-licenses
- --can-ip-forward
If provided, allows the instances to send and receive packets with non-matching destination or source IP addresses.
- --compute-service-account=COMPUTE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT
A temporary virtual machine instance is created in your project during instance import. Instance import tooling on this temporary instance must be authenticated.
A Compute Engine service account is an identity attached to an instance. Its access tokens can be accessed through the instance metadata server and can be used to authenticate instance import tooling on the instance.
To set this option, specify the email address corresponding to the required Compute Engine service account. If not provided, the instance import on the temporary instance uses the project's default Compute Engine service account.
At minimum, the specified Compute Engine service account needs to have the following roles assigned:
- —
roles/compute.storageAdmin
- —
roles/storage.objectViewer
- --deletion-protection
Enables deletion protection for the instance.
- --description=DESCRIPTION
Specifies a textual description of the VM instances.
- --guest-environment
The guest environment will be installed on the instance. Enabled by default, use --no-guest-environment to disable.
- --guest-os-features=[GUEST_OS_FEATURE,...]
Enables one or more features for VM instances that use the image for their boot disks. See the descriptions of supported features at: https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/images/create-delete-deprecate-private-images#guest-os-features. GUEST_OS_FEATURE must be (currently only one value is supported): UEFI_COMPATIBLE.
- --hostname=HOSTNAME
Specify the hostname of the VM instance to be imported. The specified hostname must be RFC1035 compliant. If hostname is not specified, the default hostname is [INSTANCE_NAME].c.[PROJECT_ID].internal when using the global DNS, and [INSTANCE_NAME].[ZONE].c.[PROJECT_ID].internal when using zonal DNS.
- --labels=[KEY=VALUE,...]
List of label KEY=VALUE pairs to add.
Keys must start with a lowercase character and contain only hyphens (-), underscores (_), lowercase characters, and numbers. Values must contain only hyphens (-), underscores (_), lowercase characters, and numbers.
- --log-location=LOG_LOCATION
Directory in Cloud Storage to hold build logs. If not set, gs://<project num>.cloudbuild-logs.googleusercontent.com/ is created and used.
- --machine-type=MACHINE_TYPE
Specifies the machine type used for the instances. To get a list of available machine types, run 'gcloud compute machine-types list'. If unspecified, the default type is n1-standard-1.
- --network=NETWORK
Specifies the network that the VM instances are a part of. If --subnet is also specified, subnet must be a subnetwork of the network specified by this --network flag. If neither is specified, the default network is used.
- --network-tier=NETWORK_TIER
Specifies the network tier that will be used to configure the instance. NETWORK_TIER must be one of: PREMIUM, STANDARD, FIXED_STANDARD. The default value is PREMIUM.
- --os=OS
Specifies the OS of the image being imported. OS must be one of: centos-7, debian-10, debian-11, debian-8, debian-9, opensuse-15, rhel-6, rhel-6-byol, rhel-7, rhel-7-byol, rhel-8, rhel-8-byol, rhel-9, rhel-9-byol, rocky-8, sles-12, sles-12-byol, sles-15, sles-15-byol, sles-sap-12, sles-sap-12-byol, sles-sap-15, sles-sap-15-byol, ubuntu-1404, ubuntu-1604, ubuntu-1804, ubuntu-2004, ubuntu-2204, windows-10-x64-byol, windows-10-x86-byol, windows-11-x64-byol, windows-2008r2, windows-2008r2-byol, windows-2012, windows-2012-byol, windows-2012r2, windows-2012r2-byol, windows-2016, windows-2016-byol, windows-2019, windows-2019-byol, windows-2022, windows-2022-byol, windows-7-x64-byol, windows-7-x86-byol, windows-8-x64-byol, windows-8-x86-byol.
- --private-network-ip=PRIVATE_NETWORK_IP
Specifies the RFC1918 IP to assign to the instance. The IP should be in the subnet or legacy network IP range.
- --restart-on-failure
The instances will be restarted if they are terminated by Compute Engine. This does not affect terminations performed by the user. Enabled by default, use --no-restart-on-failure to disable.
- --subnet=SUBNET
Specifies the subnet that the VM instances are a part of. If --network is also specified, subnet must be a subnetwork of the network specified by the --network flag.
- --tags=TAG,[TAG,...]
Specifies a list of tags to apply to the instance. These tags allow network firewall rules and routes to be applied to specified VM instances. See gcloud compute firewall-rules create(1) for more details.
To read more about configuring network tags, read this guide: https://cloud.google.com/vpc/docs/add-remove-network-tags
To list instances with their respective status and tags, run:
$ gcloud compute instances list \ --format='table(name,status,tags.list())'
To list instances tagged with a specific tag, tag1, run:
$ gcloud compute instances list --filter='tags:tag1'
- --timeout=TIMEOUT; default="2h"
Maximum time an import can last before it fails as "TIMEOUT". For example, if you specify 2h, the process fails after 2 hours. See $ gcloud topic datetimes for information about duration formats.
This timeout option has a maximum value of 24 hours.
- --zone=ZONE
Zone of the instance to import. If not specified and the compute/zone property isn't set, you might be prompted to select a zone (interactive mode only).
To avoid prompting when this flag is omitted, you can set the compute/zone property:
$ gcloud config set compute/zone ZONE
A list of zones can be fetched by running:
$ gcloud compute zones list
To unset the property, run:
$ gcloud config unset compute/zone
Alternatively, the zone can be stored in the environment variable CLOUDSDK_COMPUTE_ZONE.
- Custom machine type extensions.
- --custom-cpu=CUSTOM_CPU
A whole number value specifying the number of cores that are needed in the custom machine type.
For some machine types, shared-core values can also be used. For example, for E2 machine types, you can specify micro, small, or medium.
This flag argument must be specified if any of the other arguments in this group are specified.
- --custom-memory=CUSTOM_MEMORY
A whole number value indicating how much memory is desired in the custom machine type. A size unit should be provided (eg. 3072MB or 9GB) - if no units are specified, GB is assumed.
This flag argument must be specified if any of the other arguments in this group are specified.
- --custom-extensions
Use the extended custom machine type.
- --custom-vm-type=CUSTOM_VM_TYPE
Specifies a custom machine type. The default is n1. For more information about custom machine types, see: https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/general-purpose-machines#custom_machine_types
- Sole Tenancy.
At most one of these can be specified:
- --node=NODE
The name of the node to schedule this instance on.
- --node-affinity-file=NODE_AFFINITY_FILE
The JSON/YAML file containing the configuration of desired nodes onto which this instance could be scheduled. These rules filter the nodes according to their node affinity labels. A node's affinity labels come from the node template of the group the node is in.
The file should contain a list of a JSON/YAML objects. For an example, see https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/nodes/provisioning-sole-tenant-vms#configure_node_affinity_labels. The following list describes the fields:
- key
Corresponds to the node affinity label keys of the Node resource.
- operator
Specifies the node selection type. Must be one of: IN: Requires Compute Engine to seek for matched nodes. NOT_IN: Requires Compute Engine to avoid certain nodes.
- values
Optional. A list of values which correspond to the node affinity label values of the Node resource.
- --node-group=NODE_GROUP
The name of the node group to schedule this instance on.
- At most one of these can be specified:
- --scopes=[SCOPE,...]
If not provided, the instance will be assigned the default scopes, described below. However, if neither --scopes nor --no-scopes are specified and the project has no default service account, then the VM instance is imported with no scopes. Note that the level of access that a service account has is determined by a combination of access scopes and IAM roles so you must configure both access scopes and IAM roles for the service account to work properly.
SCOPE can be either the full URI of the scope or an alias. Default scopes are assigned to all instances. Available aliases are:
DEPRECATION WARNING: https://www.googleapis.com/auth/sqlservice account scope and sql alias do not provide SQL instance management capabilities and have been deprecated. Please, use https://www.googleapis.com/auth/sqlservice.admin or sql-admin to manage your Google SQL Service instances.
- --no-scopes
Import instance without scopes
- At most one of these can be specified:
- --service-account=SERVICE_ACCOUNT
A service account is an identity attached to the instance. Its access tokens can be accessed through the instance metadata server and are used to authenticate applications on the instance. The account can be set using an email address corresponding to the required service account.
If not provided, the instance will use the project's default service account.
- --no-service-account
Import instance without service account
These flags are available to all commands: --access-token-file, --account, --billing-project, --configuration, --flags-file, --flatten, --format, --help, --impersonate-service-account, --log-http, --project, --quiet, --trace-token, --user-output-enabled, --verbosity.
Run $ gcloud help for details.
These variants are also available:
$ gcloud alpha compute instances import
$ gcloud beta compute instances import