A Virtual Machine (VM) is a software-based simulation of a physical computer. Google Cloud Platform (GCP) allows users to create and configure virtual machines using its Compute Engine service.
Steps to Create a Virtual Machine in GCP:
Step 1: Login to Google Cloud Console
- Visit: https://console.cloud.google.com
- Sign in using a Google account.
- Select or create a new project.
Step 2: Open Compute Engine
- In the left-side menu, go to:
- Compute Engine > VM Instances
- Click on “Create Instance”.
Step 3: Configure VM Name and Region
- Give a name to the VM (e.g., student-vm).
- Choose a Region and Zone (e.g., us-central1-a).
Step 4: Select Machine Type
- Click on “Machine type” dropdown.
- Select number of vCPUs (e.g., 2 vCPU).
- Select amount of Memory (e.g., 4 GB RAM).
- Or choose “Customize” to set your own values.
Step 5: Select Boot Disk
- Choose the OS (e.g., Ubuntu, Debian, Windows).
- Choose the Boot disk type (e.g., standard persistent disk).
- Set disk size (e.g., 20 GB).
Step 6: Configure Firewall and Networking
- Tick the options:
- Allow HTTP traffic
- Allow HTTPS traffic
- Leave other settings as default (or modify as needed).
Step 7: Create the VM
- Click the “Create” button.
- The VM will be launched and listed under VM Instances.
- Click on the SSH button to open the terminal of the VM.
Example Configuration:
AWS CloudShell is a browser-based shell environment provided by AWS to manage cloud resources using CLI commands. No setup is needed — it runs directly in the browser.
Here are 5 commonly used commands in AWS CloudShell:
1. aws s3 ls
Use: Lists all S3 buckets in your AWS account.
Example Output:
2023-06-21 bucket-for-projects
2023-06-21 logs-storage-bucket
2. aws ec2 describe-instances
Use: Displays details about EC2 virtual machines running in your account.
Example: Shows instance IDs, public IPs, states (running/stopped), etc.
3. aws configure
Use: Configures access credentials (AWS Access Key ID, Secret Key, Region).
Example:
AWS Access Key ID [None]: ********
AWS Secret Access Key [None]: ********
Default region name [None]: us-east-1
4. aws iam list-users
Use: Lists all IAM users in the account. Useful for managing permissions.
5. aws lambda list-functions
Use: Lists all serverless Lambda functions created in the AWS account.
Example:
FunctionName: processData
Runtime: python3.8
Handler: index.handler