Quickstart: Create a VM instance using Terraform

In this quickstart, you learn how to use Terraform to create a Compute Engine Virtual Machine (VM) instance and connect to that VM instance.

Hashicorp Terraform is an Infrastructure as code (IaC) tool that lets you provision and manage cloud infrastructure. Terraform provider for Google Cloud (Google Cloud provider) lets you provision and manage Google Cloud infrastructure.

Before you begin

To use an online terminal with the gcloud CLI and Terraform already set up, activate Cloud Shell:

At the bottom of this page, a Cloud Shell session starts and displays a command-line prompt. It can take a few seconds for the session to initialize.
Create or select a Google Cloud project.
Roles required to select or create a project
- Select a project: Selecting a project doesn't require a specific IAM role—you can select any project that you've been granted a role on.
- Create a project: To create a project, you need the Project Creator (roles/resourcemanager.projectCreator), which contains the resourcemanager.projects.create permission. Learn how to grant roles.
Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.
- Create a Google Cloud project:
```
gcloud projects create PROJECT_ID
```
  Replace PROJECT_ID with a name for the Google Cloud project you are creating.
- Select the Google Cloud project that you created:
```
gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID
```
  Replace PROJECT_ID with your Google Cloud project name.
Verify that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.
Enable the Compute Engine API:

Roles required to enable APIs
To enable APIs, you need the Service Usage Admin IAM role (roles/serviceusage.serviceUsageAdmin), which contains the serviceusage.services.enable permission. Learn how to grant roles.
```
gcloudservicesenablecompute.googleapis.com
```
Grant roles to your user account. Run the following command once for each of the following IAM roles: roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1
```
gcloudprojectsadd-iam-policy-bindingPROJECT_ID--member="user:USER_IDENTIFIER"--role=ROLE
```
Replace the following:
- PROJECT_ID: Your project ID.
- USER_IDENTIFIER: The identifier for your user account. For examples, see Represent workforce pool users in IAM policies.
- ROLE: The IAM role that you grant to your user account.

Prepare the environment

Clone the GitHub repository containing Terraform samples:

gitclonehttps://github.com/terraform-google-modules/terraform-docs-samples.git--single-branch

Go to the directory that contains the quickstart sample:
```
cdterraform-docs-samples/compute/quickstart/create_vm
```

Review the Terraform files

Review the main.tf file. This file defines the Google Cloud resources that you want to create.

catmain.tf

The output is similar to the following

resource "google_compute_instance" "default" {
 name = "my-vm"
 machine_type = "n1-standard-1"
 zone = "us-central1-a"
 boot_disk {
 initialize_params {
 image = "ubuntu-minimal-2210-kinetic-amd64-v20230126"
 }
 }
 network_interface {
 network = "default"
 access_config {}
 }
}

This file describes the google_compute_instance resource, which is the Terraform resource for the Compute Engine VM instance. google_compute_instance is configured to have the following properties:

name is set to my-vm.
machine_type is set to n1-standard-1.
zone is set to us-central1-a.
boot_disk sets the boot disk for the instance.
network_interface is set to use the default network in your Google Cloud project.

Create the Compute Engine VM instance

In Cloud Shell, run the following command to verify that Terraform is available:

terraform

The output should be similar to the following:


Usage:terraform[globaloptions]<subcommand>[args]
Theavailablecommandsforexecutionarelistedbelow.
Theprimaryworkflowcommandsaregivenfirst,followedby
lesscommonormoreadvancedcommands.
Maincommands:
initPrepareyourworkingdirectoryforothercommands
validateCheckwhethertheconfigurationisvalid
planShowchangesrequiredbythecurrentconfiguration
applyCreateorupdateinfrastructure
destroyDestroypreviously-createdinfrastructure

Initialize Terraform by running the following command. This command prepares your workspace so Terraform can apply your configuration.

terraforminit

The output should be similar to the following:


Initializingthebackend...
Initializingproviderplugins...
-Findinglatestversionofhashicorp/google...
-Installinghashicorp/googlev5.35.0...
-Installedhashicorp/googlev5.35.0(signedbyHashiCorp)
Terraformhascreatedalockfile.terraform.lock.hcltorecordtheprovider
selectionsitmadeabove.Includethisfileinyourversioncontrolrepository
sothatTerraformcanguaranteetomakethesameselectionsbydefaultwhen
yourun"terraform init"inthefuture.
Terraformhasbeensuccessfullyinitialized!

Validate the Terraform configuration by running the following command. This command takes the following actions:
- Verifies that the syntax of main.tf is correct.
- Shows a preview of the resources that will be created.
```
terraformplan
```
The output should be similar to the following:
```
Plan:1toadd,0tochange,0todestroy.
Note:Youdidn't use the -out option to save this plan, so Terraform can't
guaranteetotakeexactlytheseactionsifyourun"terraform apply"now.
```
Apply the configuration to provision resources described in the main.tf file:
```
terraformapply
```
When prompted, enter yes.

Terraform calls Google Cloud APIs to create the VM instance defined in the main.tf file.

The output should be similar to the following:
```
Applycomplete!Resources:1added,0changed,0destroyed
```

Connect to the VM instance

Connect to the VM instance you just created by running the following command:

gcloudcomputessh--zone=us-central1-amy-vm

Clean up

To avoid incurring charges to your Google Cloud account for the resources used on this page, delete the Google Cloud project with the resources.

In Cloud Shell, run the following command to delete the Terraform resources:

terraformdestroy

When prompted, enter yes.

The output should be similar to the following:

Destroycomplete!Resources:1destroyed.

What's next

Learn how to deploy a basic Flask web server using Terraform.
Learn how to store Terraform state in a Cloud Storage bucket.