Detect if a VM is running in Compute Engine

Linux VM

1. From the Linux VM, run the following command:

   curl metadata.google.internal -i
   

2. Verify that Metadata-Flavor: Google exists in output similar to the following:

   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
   Metadata-Flavor: Google
   Content-Type: application/text
   Date: 2021年11月23日 01:27:16 GMT
   Server: Metadata Server for VM
   Content-Length: 22
   X-XSS-Protection: 0
   X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
   0.1/
   computeMetadata/
   

   The existence of Metadata-Flavor: Google in the output indicates that a Compute Engine VM sent the request.

Windows VM

1. From the Windows VM, run the following command:

   curl metadata.google.internal -i
   

2. Verify that Metadata-Flavor: Google exists in output similar to the following:

   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
   Metadata-Flavor: Google
   Content-Type: application/text
   Date: 2021年11月23日 20:48:50 GMT
   Server: Metadata Server for VM
   Content-Length: 22
   X-XSS-Protection: 0
   X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
   0.1/
   computeMetadata/
   

   The existence of Metadata-Flavor: Google in the output indicates that a Compute Engine VM sent the request.

Linux VM

1. From the Linux VM, run the following dmidecode command:

   sudo dmidecode -s system-product-name | grep "Google Compute Engine"
   

   This dmidecode command directly accesses the System Management BIOS information in /proc/mem.

2. Verify that Google Compute Engine exists in the output.

Windows VM

1. From the Windows Command Prompt, run the WMI command-line utility:

   wmic.exe computersystem get model,manufacturer
   

2. Verify that the System Manufacturer is Google and the System Model is Google Compute Engine.

For information about how to programmatically determine whether a Windows VM is running Compute Engine, see the following:

• Create a WMI application using C++
• Getting manufacturer and model from the Windows registry in C++