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START A VIRTUAL MACHINE IN GOOGLE CLOUD ENGINE

1. Prerequisite

Before following this section, you have to complete successfully all the instructions given in "Spin off a VM with your Google Cloud Account"

2. Spin off a virtual Machine ansible-galaxy with Google Cloud Engine

Before starting, we recommend you to pay extra attention any time you see the ⚠ signal.

  • Connect to your Google Compute Instances dashboard

  • Create a Virtual Machine Instance

with the following settings

  • Name: ansible-galaxy
  • Region europe-west6 (Zurich) 👈 Check your Region in the popup table bellow
  • Zone: europe-west6-a (or -b or -c) 👈 Check your Zone in the popup table bellow
  • Configuration de la machine
    • USAGE général
    • Série: E2
    • Type de machine: PRÉDEFINI ▶ Standard ▶ e2-standard-8
  • Disque de démarrage (Modifier)
    • IMAGES PUBLIQUES
    • Système d'exploitation: Ubuntu
    • Version: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 👈 ⚠ Watch to the version number (20.04). When several processor types are available (eg x86, amd, ...) you can choose anyone.
    • Type de disque de démarrage: Disque persistant avec équilibrage
    • Taille (Go): 200
    • SELECTIONNER
  • Pare-feu
    • Check Autoriser le trafic HTTP
Region assignments to students ⚠

As it is possible that a single Google region is not able to provide enough resources to support 18 virtual machines at the same time, we will distribute our instances to different regions in Europe.

The following table assigns the instances by name to different Regions.

Please respect this attribution for your final instance, the one you will use during your practical work.

Email prefix Region Zone
alleon.gaelle europe-west1 (Belgique) let Google decide
enzo.becherel europe-west1 (Belgique) let Google decide
emma.benbakir europe-west1 (Belgique) let Google decide
samuel.bensoussan europe-west2 (Londres) let Google decide
tberthom europe-west2 (Londres) let Google decide
gregblavier76 europe-west2 (Londres) let Google decide
faroukbouraima europe-west3 (Francfort) let Google decide
lunadebarbarin europe-west3 (Francfort) let Google decide
baptiste.demaret europe-west3 (Francfort) let Google decide
nicolas.doucet europe-west6 (Zurich) let Google decide
maeva.drai europe-west6 (Zurich) let Google decide
yoann.gonneau europe-west6 (Zurich) let Google decide
sarah.graine europe-west9 (Paris) let Google decide
margot.hully europe-west9 (Paris) let Google decide
nathan.lacombe europe-west9 (Paris) let Google decide
jules.richez.22 europe-west10 (Berlin) let Google decide
loann.paterour europe-west10 (Berlin) let Google decide
mathilde.quibeuf europe-west10 (Berlin) let Google decide
michiel.tawdarous europe-southwest1 (Madrid) let Google decide
oceane.wauthier europe-southwest1 (Madrid) let Google decide

These settings should be similar to this:

When

  • you have double-checked all indicated settings
  • you are sure that your instance will start in the zone assigned to you

Then you can start you instance by clicking the button

Trouble shouting

In some occasions, launching of your VM may fail as illustrated bellow:

  1. Maybe you are not, indeed, using the billing account associated to your Google coupon, but instead using a billing account associated to a "Free Trial".

    • If it is not already done, activate your coupon by following the received instructions, and be sure that you activate a project associated with the billing account of the coupon.

  2. The Region and Zone which you have chosen (in the example, europe-west6-a) is overloaded.

    • In this case, try another Zone (-b or -c), and/or another Region, in Europe or America.

3. Connect to the VM using the ssh web console and check that everything is fine

  • Roll down the ssh menu in the control pannel and select the first option

Ouvrir dans une fenêtre du navigateur

Select ssh session in browser

This opens a web ssh shell session to control your VM:

  • Assuming that you have reached this point you can now type in the web console the following command (you can copy it from the box bellow)
lsb_release -a && lscpu | grep 'CPU(s):' && free -h | grep 'Mem:' && df -h | grep '/$'
  • Then, copy the text returned by the command (no screenshot, please) in a separate post (one by student) in this GitHub discussion

This is the first check of three (2 more to come)

4. Suspend or continue

If you intend to go through the next section, there is no other action to complete here.

In contrast, if it is late or you are planing to do something else, suspend your VM, using the small pop up menu (with 3 vertical dots) :