Gcp Compute Engine

Compute-optimized:

• c3-* / c3d-*: Highest per-core performance (HPC, gaming, single-threaded)
• h3-*: High-performance computing

Memory-optimized:

• m3-*: Large in-memory databases (SAP HANA, in-memory analytics)

Accelerator-optimized:

• a2-* / a3-*: NVIDIA GPUs (ML training, rendering)
• g2-*: NVIDIA L4 GPUs (inference, graphics)

Step 3: Generate instance configuration

gcloud CLI - single instance:

gcloud compute instances create my-instance \
  --project=$PROJECT_ID \
  --zone=us-central1-a \
  --machine-type=e2-standard-4 \
  --image-family=debian-12 \
  --image-project=debian-cloud \
  --boot-disk-size=50GB \
  --boot-disk-type=pd-balanced \
  --network-interface=network=my-vpc,subnet=my-subnet,no-address \
  --service-account=my-instance-sa@$PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com \
  --scopes=cloud-platform \
  --metadata-from-file=startup-script=startup.sh \
  --tags=http-server,https-server \
  --labels=env=production,team=backend \
  --shielded-secure-boot \
  --shielded-vtpm \
  --shielded-integrity-monitoring

Instance with attached persistent disk:

# Create additional data disk
gcloud compute disks create data-disk \
  --zone=us-central1-a \
  --size=200GB \
  --type=pd-ssd

# Create instance with attached disk
gcloud compute instances create my-instance \
  --zone=us-central1-a \
  --machine-type=n2-standard-4 \
  --image-family=ubuntu-2204-lts \
  --image-project=ubuntu-os-cloud \
  --boot-disk-size=20GB \
  --boot-disk-type=pd-balanced \
  --disk=name=data-disk,device-name=data-disk,mode=rw,auto-delete=no

Instance with GPU:

gcloud compute instances create gpu-instance \
  --zone=us-central1-a \
  --machine-type=g2-standard-4 \
  --accelerator=count=1,type=nvidia-l4 \
  --image-family=common-cu123-debian-12 \
  --image-project=deeplearning-platform-release \
  --boot-disk-size=200GB \
  --boot-disk-type=pd-ssd \
  --maintenance-policy=TERMINATE \
  --restart-on-failure

Step 4: Startup scripts

Linux startup script:

#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail

# Log startup
echo "Starting instance configuration..." | logger -t startup-script

# Update and install packages
apt-get update -y
apt-get install -y nginx docker.io

# Mount data disk
if [ -e /dev/disk/by-id/google-data-disk ]; then
  mkdir -p /mnt/data
  if ! blkid /dev/disk/by-id/google-data-disk; then
    mkfs.ext4 -m 0 -E lazy_itable_init=0,lazy_journal_init=0 /dev/disk/by-id/google-data-disk
  fi
  mount -o discard,defaults /dev/disk/by-id/google-data-disk /mnt/data
  echo '/dev/disk/by-id/google-data-disk /mnt/data ext4 discard,defaults 0 2' >> /etc/fstab
fi

# Fetch config from metadata
APP_ENV=$(curl -s "http://metadata.google.internal/computeMetadata/v1/instance/attributes/app-env" \
  -H "Metadata-Flavor: Google")

# Fetch secrets from Secret Manager
DB_PASSWORD=$(gcloud secrets versions access latest --secret="db-password" --project="$PROJECT_ID")

# Configure application
cat > /etc/app/config.yaml <<EOF