Configure a Compute Engine instance template

A Compute Engine instance template lets you describe a VM instance. You can then create groups of identical instances based on the template. For more information, see the following:

• Compute Engine overview
• Instance templates

This document describes the connections and parameters you can configure when using App Design Center to create a Compute Engine instance template. The configuration parameters are based on the instance_template Terraform module.

Component connections

The following table includes the components that you can connect to a Compute Engine instance template, and the resulting updates to your application and its generated Terraform code.

Connected component	Application updates	Background information
Service Account	The Compute Engine instance template uses the connected service account instead of creating a new service account. The connected service account is used for authentication and authorization to other Google Cloud services. The service account email and IAM information are added to the Compute Engine instance template.	Create a VM that uses a user-managed service account
AlloyDB for PostgreSQL	The Compute Engine instances can connect to the AlloyDB for PostgreSQL instance. The AlloyDB for PostgreSQL resource metadata information is added to the instance template. The roles/alloydb.admin role is added to the Compute Engine instance template service account.	Connect from Compute Engine
BigQuery	The Compute Engine instances can read and write data to the BigQuery dataset. The BigQuery resource metadata is added to the Compute Engine instance template. The roles/bigquery.dataEditor role is added to Compute Engine instance template service account.	BigQuery overview
Bigtable	The Compute Engine instances can access the Bigtable instance. The Bigtable resource metadata information is added to the instance template. The roles/bigtable.admin role is added to the Compute Engine instance template service account.	Bigtable overview
Cloud SQL (MySQL)	The Compute Engine instances can connect and read and write data to the Cloud SQL (MySQL) instance. The Cloud SQL connection metadata is added to the Compute Engine instance template. The roles/cloudsql.instanceUser and roles/cloudsql.client roles are added to the Compute Engine instance template service account. The Compute Engine service account is added as an IAM user to the Cloud SQL instance.	Connect from Compute Engine
Cloud SQL (PostgreSQL)	The Compute Engine instances can connect and read and write data to the Cloud SQL (PostgreSQL) instance. The Cloud SQL connection metadata is added to the Compute Engine instance template. The roles/cloudsql.instanceUser and roles/cloudsql.client roles are added to the Compute Engine instance template service account. The Compute Engine service account IAM information is added to the Cloud SQL instance.	Connect from Compute Engine
Cloud Storage	The Compute Engine instances can control bucket objects, including listing, creating, viewing, and deleting objects. The roles/storage.objectAdmin role is assigned to the Compute Engine instance template service account.	Set and manage IAM policies on buckets
Memorystore	The Compute Engine instances can manage and cache data in the Memorystore instance. The Pub/Sub topic ID is added to the Compute Engine instance template metadata.	Deployment options for Redis on Google Cloud
Pub/Sub	The Compute Engine instances can publish to and receive messages from the Pub/Sub topic. The Pub/Sub topic ID is added to the Compute Engine instance template metadata.	Subscription overview
Regional Cloud Load Balancing frontend	The Compute Engine instances can redirect traffic to the regional Cloud Load Balancing frontend. The Cloud Load Balancing address is added to the Compute Engine instance template.	Forwarding rules overview
Spanner	The Compute Engine instances can read and write data in the Spanner instance. The roles/spanner.databaseAdmin role is added to the Compute Engine instance template service account. The Compute Engine IAM information is added to the Spanner instance.	Using Spanner in a virtual machine instance
Vertex AI	The Compute Engine instances can interact with Vertex AI services. The roles/aiplatform.user role is added to the Compute Engine instance template service account.	Vertex AI access control with IAM
Compute Engine (MIG)	The Compute Engine instance template is used to create instances in the managed instance group. The instance template self link is added to the Compute Engine MIG.	Basic scenarios for creating managed instance groups (MIGs)

Required configuration parameters

If your template includes a Compute Engine instance template component, you must configure the following parameters before you deploy.

Parameter name	Description and constraints	Background information
Project ID	The project where you want to create the Compute Engine instance template.	Configure components
Region	The region where the instance template is created.	Regional and global instance templates

Optional configuration parameters

The following parameters are optional. To display advanced parameters, in the Configuration area, select Show advanced fields.

Feature	Parameter name	Description and constraint information	Background information
	Name Prefix	The name prefix for the instance template.	name_prefix
	Machine Type	properties.machineType	Machine families resource and comparison guide
	Spot	spot	Spot VMs
	Description	A description for the instance template.	description
	Instance Description	A description for the instances generated by the template.	properties.description
	Automatic Restart	properties.scheduling.automaticRestart	Maintenance and restart behaviors
	Threads Per Core	properties.advancedMachineFeatures.threadsPerCore	Set the number of threads per core
	Source Image	properties.disks[].initializeParams.sourceImage	OS images
	Source Image Project	Project where the source image comes from. The default project contains Rocky Linux images.	Image families
	Disk Size GB	properties.disks[].initializeParams.diskSizeGb	Create a customized boot disk
	Disk Type	properties.disks[].initializeParams.diskType	Choose a disk type
	Network	properties.networkInterfaces[].network	Networking overview for VMs
	Subnetwork	properties.networkInterfaces[].subnetwork	Networks and subnets
	Create Service Account	create_service_account	Service accounts
	Min CPU Platform	properties.minCPUPlatform	Specify a minimum CPU platform for VM instances
	Can IP Forward	properties.canIpForward	Enable IP forwarding for instances
	Tags	properties.tags	Manage tags for resources
Labels	Key	properties.labels	Organize resources using labels
	Value	properties.labels	Organize resources using labels
	Preemptible	properties.scheduling.preemptible	Preemptible VM instances
	Maintenance Interval	The frequency of planned maintenance events.	Enable advanced maintenance control on a sole-tenant node
	On Host Maintenance	properties.scheduling.onHostMaintenance	Set the host maintenance policy for a compute instance
	Spot Instance Termination Action	properties.scheduling.instanceTerminationAction	Preemption process
	Enable Nested Virtualization	properties.advancedMachineFeatures.enableNestedVirtualization	About nested virtualization
	Resource Policies	properties.resourcePolicies[]	REST Resource: resourcePolicies
	Source Image Family	properties.disks[].initializeParams.sourceImage	Image families
Disk Labels	Key	properties.disks[].initializeParams.labels	Organize resources using labels
	Value	properties.disks[].initializeParams.labels	Organize resources using labels
	Disk Encryption Key	properties.disks[].diskEncryptionKey	Encrypt disks with customer-supplied encryption keys
	Auto Delete	properties.disks[].autoDelete	Set the auto-delete state of a Persistent Disk volume
Additional Disks	Boot	properties.disks[].boot	Create a customized boot disk
	Device Name	properties.disks[].deviceName	Adding a non-boot disk to your VM
	Disk Name	properties.disks[].initializeParams.diskName	Adding a non-boot disk to your VM
	Interface	properties.disks[].interface	Storage interface types
	Mode	properties.disks[].mode	Create a regional disk
	Source	properties.disks[].source	Create a regional disk
	Source Image	The source image to create this disk.	properties.disks[].initializeParams.sourceImage
	Source Snapshot	The source snapshot to create this disk.	properties.disks[].initializeParams.sourceSnapshot
	Disk Resource Policies	properties.disks[].initializeParams.resourcePolicies[]	REST Resource: resourcePolicy
	Subnetwork Project	The ID of the project in which the subnetwork belongs. If it is not provided, the provider project is used.	subnetwork_project
	Network IP	properties.networkInterfaces[].networkIP	Internal IP addresses
	NIC Type	properties.networkInterfaces[].nicType	Using Google Virtual NIC
	Stack Type	properties.networkInterfaces[].stackType	Stack types
Additional Networks	Network	properties.networkInterfaces[].network	Networking overview for VMs
	Subnetwork	properties.networkInterfaces[].subnetwork	Networks and subnets
	Queue Count	properties.networkInterfaces[].queueCount	Default queue allocation
	Total Egress Bandwidth Tier	properties.networkPerformanceConfig.totalEgressBandwidthTier	Network bandwidth
	Startup Script	A script that executes when the instances start.	About startup scripts
Metadata	Key	properties.metadata	About VM metadata
	Value	properties.metadata	About VM metadata
Service Account	Email	email	Service accounts
	Service Account Project Roles	project_roles	Manage access to service accounts
	Enable Shielded VM	Select the checkbox to enable Shielded VM, if supported by the selected instance image.	About Shielded VM
Shielded Instance Config	Enable Secure Boot	properties.shieldedInstanceConfig.enableSecureBoot	Secure boot
	Enable vTPM	properties.shieldedInstanceConfig.enableVtpm	Virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM)
	Enable Integrity Monitoring	properties.shieldedInstanceConfig.enableIntegrityMonitoring	Integrity monitoring
	Enable Confidential VM	properties.confidentialInstanceConfig.enableConfidentialCompute	About Confidential VM
	Confidential Instance Type	properties.confidentialInstanceConfig.confidentialInstanceType	Supported configurations
Access Config	NAT IP	properties.networkInterfaces[].accessConfigs[].natIP	External IP addresses
	Network Tier	properties.networkInterfaces[].accessConfigs[].networkTier	Network Service Tiers
IPv6 Access Config	Network Tier	properties.networkInterfaces[].ipv6AccessConfigs[].networkTier	Network Service Tiers
GPU	Type	properties.guestAccelerators[].acceleratorType	GPU machine types
	Count	properties.guestAccelerators[].acceleratorCount	GPU machine types
Alias IP Range	IP CIDR Range	properties.networkInterfaces[].aliasIpRanges[].ipCidrRange	IP addresses
	Subnetwork Range Name	properties.networkInterfaces[].aliasIpRanges[].subnetworkRangeName	Networks and subnets