8/23/2020 Cloud Console | Compute Engine Documentation

Google Cloud Console

Compute Engine offers the browser-based Google Cloud Console tool that lets you manage your Compute Engine resources through a graphical interface. Use the Cloud Console to manage your resources if you prefer using a user-interface through the browser.

Alternatively, you can also use the command-line tool, gcloud (/compute/docs/gcloud-compute), or the RESTful API (/compute/docs/api/prereqs).

This document briey describes how to access the console and describes some unique features that the console offers.

Access the console

Go to the Cloud Console (https://console.cloud.google.com/)

Console features

The console provides:

Easy access to all your Google Cloud Platform projects.

Access to the Google Cloud Shell (/shell/docs).

A customizable project dashboard, with an overview of Google Cloud resources, billing, and a lterable activity listing.

Easy access to all Google Cloud Platform APIs, with a dashboard specic to each API, and access to manage your resources.

Links to Google Cloud Platform starting points, news, and documentation.

Generate REST requests

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When you create a resource using the Cloud Console, Compute Engine also shows the REST request that is used to create this resource. This is a good way to view a sample REST request or to build your own REST request using a graphical interface. To see an example of this:

1. Go to the VM instances (https://console.cloud.google.com/compute/instances) page in the Cloud Console.

2. Click Create instance.

3. Specify your desired parameters for the instance.

4. Click REST at the bottom of the page to view the REST details for creating your new instance.

Generate commands for the command-line tool

When you create a resource using the Cloud Console, the console generates the equivalent command for the gcloud tool that would perform the same action. You can copy and paste the command into a terminal and use the command to create the same resource with the gcloud command-line tool instead of the console.

For example, you can ll out the properties to create a new virtual machine instance on the Create an instance (https://console.cloud.google.com/compute/instancesAdd) page, and then click command line at the bottom of the page to get the command for creating the instance.

This is an easy way to create complex commands if you want to use the gcloud tool but aren't sure which command and ags would make the request you want. This can also be useful if you are unfamiliar with the gcloud tool and want some example commands to start with.

Additional resources

Some common Compute Engine actions are:

Managing SSH Keys (/compute/docs/instances/managing-ssh-keys#sshkeys)

Creating a non-boot persistent disk (/compute/docs/disks/add-persistent-disk)

Creating a boot persistent disk (/compute/docs/disks/create-root-persistent-disks)

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Using persistent disks snapshots (/compute/docs/disks/create-snapshots)

To get additional help with the console, read the help documentation located at the Google Support (https://support.google.com/cloud) page.

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Last updated 2020-07-30 UTC.

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