GCP PlayCloud Labs Guided Lab: Creating a Custom Image from a VM Instance with Web Server in Google Cloud

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Guided Lab: Creating a Custom Image from a VM Instance with Web Server in Google Cloud

Jon-Bonso

Description

In Compute Engine, a machine image is a resource that preserves all VM details—including configuration, metadata, permissions, and data across multiple disks. Machine images are commonly used for maintenance tasks, backup and recovery operations, and creating identical VM clones.

In this guided lab, you will learn how to create a custom image in Google Cloud Compute Engine from a VM instance that has been configured with a simple web server. This image acts as a reusable blueprint, allowing you to launch new VM instances with the same setup.

Prerequisites

To ensure the successful completion of this lab, you must have prior experience in creating VM instances and be familiar with their essential components. If you feel that your knowledge in this area is insufficient, we highly recommend taking this lab to gain the necessary understanding:

Objectives

In this lab, you will:

Create a VM instance in Google Cloud.
Configure a simple Nginx web server for verification.
Create a custom image from the configured VM.
Launch a new VM instance from the custom image.
Verify that the web server configuration is preserved.

Subscribe to access GCP PlayCloud Labs

Lab Steps

Create a Compute Engine VM Instance

1. Create a VM instance using the following machine configurations:

Name: Enter your desired instance name.
Machine type: Choose e2-micro (Preset)

2. Under Network → Firewall, check:

Allow HTTP traffic

3. Leave other configurations at their default values.

4. Once done, click the Create button.

Set Up a Web Server

1. SSH into the VM from the console.

2. Run the following commands:

# Update system
sudo apt update -y

# Install Nginx
sudo apt install nginx -y

# Start Nginx
sudo systemctl start nginx

# Create a custom HTML page in the HTML directory
echo '<h1>Welcome to my web page!</h1>' | sudo tee /usr/share/nginx/html/mypage.html > /dev/null

# Add the configuration directly
echo 'server {
    listen 80 default_server;
    server_name _;
    root /usr/share/nginx/html;
    
    location / {
        index mypage.html;
    }
}' | sudo tee /etc/nginx/conf.d/server.conf > /dev/null

# Remove the default site to avoid duplicate default_server errors:
sudo unlink /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

# Test and Reload Nginx for the changes to take effect
sudo nginx -t && sudo service nginx reload

# Enable Nginx at boot
sudo systemctl enable nginx

Verify Web Server

1. From your local browser, visit:

http://<VM_EXTERNAL_IP>

2. You should see your custom HTML page.

Create a Custom Image from the VM

1. In the VM instances page, click the three dots next to your VM.

2. Select Create new machine image.

3. Configure the image:

Name: Enter your desired name.
Location: choose Regional.
Leave other settings at defaults.

4. Click Create.

5. Wait until the image status changes to Ready.

Launch a New VM from the Custom Image

1. Navigate to Compute Engine → Machine images.

2. Select the image you created, click Actions → Create instance.

2. Leave the configurations at their default values.

3. Click Create.

Verify the Web Server on the New VM

1. Once the new VM is running, click SSH to connect.

2. Confirm Nginx is running

systemctl status nginx

3. Visit the new VM’s external IP address in a browser. You should see the same custom HTML page (Welcome to my web page!).

Congratulations! You have successfully created a custom image in Google Cloud from a VM instance with a configured web server. You then launched a new VM from that image and verified that the web server setup was preserved. This workflow demonstrates how custom images allow you to quickly replicate environments, ensuring consistency and saving time when deploying multiple instances.