View the details of a VM

Linux Windows

This document explains how to view the details of an existing virtual machine(VM) instance.

Viewing the details of a VM is useful to see its configuration and status, suchas attached disks, creation timestamp, machine type, and the ID of theVM—which you can use to reference the VM using an immutable value.

Before you begin

Required roles

To get the permission that you need to view the details of a VM, ask your administrator to grant you theCompute Instance Admin (v1) (roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1) IAM role on the VM or project. For more information about granting roles, seeManage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

This predefined role contains the compute.instances.get permission, which is required to view the details of a VM.

You might also be able to get this permission withcustom roles or otherpredefined roles.

View details of a VM

To view the details of a VM, select one of the following options:

Console

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to theVM instances page.

    Go to VM instances

  2. On theVM instances page, you can view the following information for a compute instance:

    • The name of the instance.
    • The zone the instance is located in.
    • The machine type used by the instance.
    • Theprovisioning model.
    • Any available recommendations for the instance.
    • Whether the VM instance is part of aninstance group
    • The IP addresses used by the instance.

    The previous list contains the default columns shown on theVM instances page. You can clickColumn display options to change what columnsare displayed for each VM.

  3. In theName column, click the VM name to view additional detailsabout the VM instance.

gcloud

To view the details of a VM, use thegcloud compute instances describe command.

gcloud compute instances describeVM_NAME \    --zone=ZONE

Replace the following:

  • VM_NAME: the VM name.

  • ZONE: the zone where the VM is located.

The output is similar to the following:

canIpForward: falseconfidentialInstanceConfig:  enableConfidentialCompute: falsecpuPlatform: Intel BroadwellcreationTimestamp: '2023-08-18T10:00:21.801-07:00'deletionProtection: falsedescription: ''disks:- architecture: X86_64  autoDelete: true  boot: true  deviceName: example-vm  diskSizeGb: '10'  guestOsFeatures:  - type: UEFI_COMPATIBLE  - type: VIRTIO_SCSI_MULTIQUEUE  - type: GVNIC  - type: SEV_CAPABLE  index: 0  interface: SCSI  kind: compute#attachedDisk  licenses:  - https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/debian-cloud/global/licenses/debian-11-bullseye  mode: READ_WRITE  source: https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/zones/us-central1-a/disks/example-vm  type: PERSISTENTdisplayDevice:  enableDisplay: falsefingerprint: CQp-QBEACqw=id: '6404261768674286922'keyRevocationActionType: NONEkind: compute#instancelabelFingerprint: 42WmSpB8rSM=lastStartTimestamp: '2023-08-18T10:00:28.182-07:00'machineType: https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/zones/us-central1-a/machineTypes/e2-mediummetadata:  fingerprint: lQ-dD2sMrMY=  items:  - key: enable-oslogin    value: 'true'  kind: compute#metadataname: example-vmnetworkInterfaces:- accessConfigs:  - kind: compute#accessConfig    name: External NAT    natIP: 34.27.53.198    networkTier: PREMIUM    type: ONE_TO_ONE_NAT  fingerprint: QR3z6TgVFjg=  kind: compute#networkInterface  name: nic0  network: https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/global/networks/default  networkIP: 10.128.0.28  stackType: IPV4_ONLY  subnetwork: https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/regions/us-central1/subnetworks/defaultreservationAffinity:  consumeReservationType: ANY_RESERVATIONscheduling:  automaticRestart: true  onHostMaintenance: MIGRATE  preemptible: false  provisioningModel: STANDARDselfLink: https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/zones/us-central1-a/instances/example-vmserviceAccounts:- email: 790569220780-compute@developer.gserviceaccount.com  scopes:  - https://www.googleapis.com/auth/devstorage.read_only  - https://www.googleapis.com/auth/logging.write  - https://www.googleapis.com/auth/monitoring.write  - https://www.googleapis.com/auth/servicecontrol  - https://www.googleapis.com/auth/service.management.readonly  - https://www.googleapis.com/auth/trace.appendshieldedInstanceConfig:  enableIntegrityMonitoring: true  enableSecureBoot: false  enableVtpm: trueshieldedInstanceIntegrityPolicy:  updateAutoLearnPolicy: truestartRestricted: falsestatus: RUNNINGtags:  fingerprint: 42WmSpB8rSM=zone: https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/zones/us-central1-a

REST

To view the details of a VM, make aGET request toinstances.get method.

GET https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instances/VM_NAME

Replace the following:

  • PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project where the VM islocated.

  • ZONE: the zone where the VM is located.

  • VM_NAME: the VM name.

The output is similar to the following:

{  "canIpForward": false,  "confidentialInstanceConfig": {    "enableConfidentialCompute": false  },  "cpuPlatform": "Intel Broadwell",  "creationTimestamp": "2023-08-18T10:00:21.801-07:00",  "deletionProtection": false,  "description": "",  "disks": [    {      "architecture": "X86_64",      "autoDelete": true,      "boot": true,      "deviceName": "example-vm",      "diskSizeGb": "10",      "guestOsFeatures": [        {          "type": "UEFI_COMPATIBLE"        },        {          "type": "VIRTIO_SCSI_MULTIQUEUE"        },        {          "type": "GVNIC"        },        {          "type": "SEV_CAPABLE"        }      ],      "index": 0,      "interface": "SCSI",      "kind": "compute#attachedDisk",      "licenses": [        "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/debian-cloud/global/licenses/debian-11-bullseye"      ],      "mode": "READ_WRITE",      "source": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/zones/us-central1-a/disks/example-vm",      "type": "PERSISTENT"    }  ],  "displayDevice": {    "enableDisplay": false  },  "fingerprint": "CQp-QBEACqw=",  "id": "6404261768674286922",  "keyRevocationActionType": "NONE",  "kind": "compute#instance",  "labelFingerprint": "42WmSpB8rSM=",  "lastStartTimestamp": "2023-08-18T10:00:28.182-07:00",  "machineType": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/zones/us-central1-a/machineTypes/e2-medium",  "metadata": {    "fingerprint": "lQ-dD2sMrMY=",    "items": [      {        "key": "enable-oslogin",        "value": "true"      }    ],    "kind": "compute#metadata"  },  "name": "example-vm",  "networkInterfaces": [    {      "accessConfigs": [        {        "kind": "compute#accessConfig",        "name": "External NAT",        "natIP": "34.27.53.198",        "networkTier": "PREMIUM",        "type": "ONE_TO_ONE_NAT"        }      ],      "fingerprint": "QR3z6TgVFjg=",      "kind": "compute#networkInterface",      "name": "nic0",      "network": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/global/networks/default",      "networkIP": "10.128.0.28",      "stackType": "IPV4_ONLY",      "subnetwork": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/regions/us-central1/subnetworks/default"    }  ],  "reservationAffinity": {    "consumeReservationType": "ANY_RESERVATION"  },  "scheduling": {    "automaticRestart": true,    "onHostMaintenance": "MIGRATE",    "preemptible": false,    "provisioningModel": "STANDARD"  },  "selfLink": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/zones/us-central1-a/instances/example-vm",  "serviceAccounts": [    {    "email": "790569220780-compute@developer.gserviceaccount.com",    "scopes": [        "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/devstorage.read_only",        "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/logging.write",        "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/monitoring.write",        "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/servicecontrol",        "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/service.management.readonly",        "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/trace.append"      ]    }  ],  "shieldedInstanceConfig": {    "enableIntegrityMonitoring": true,    "enableSecureBoot": false,    "enableVtpm": true  },  "shieldedInstanceIntegrityPolicy": {    "updateAutoLearnPolicy": true  },  "startRestricted": false,  "status": "RUNNING",  "tags": {    "fingerprint": "42WmSpB8rSM="  },  "zone": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/zones/us-central1-a"}

Determine the CPU and memory allocation for an instance

The number of CPUs and memory allocated to a compute instance can be determinedfrom the machine type used by the instance, for example:

  • c3-standard-22: C3 is the machine series name,standard is the memoryallocation type for the instance, and22 is the number of vCPUs allocated tothe instance. Typically, astandard machine type uses a ratio of 4 GBmemory per vCPU. So, this machine type would have 88 GB of RAM.

    The memory to CPU ratios forstandard,highmem,highcpu,ultamem,andmegamem machine types can vary slightly for each machine series, sorefer to the machine series page to determine the exact amount of memoryallocated for each machine type.

  • n2-custom-8-16384: For custom machine types, the first part of the machinetype is the machine series, except for N1 machine types, which don't includethe machine series at all. The first number aftercustom is thenumber of vCPUs and the last number is the amount of memory (in MB)allocated to the instance.

For more information about machine types, seeMachine families resource and comparison guide.

What's next

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Last updated 2026-02-19 UTC.