Guided Lab: Reserving or Promoting a Static IP Address for a 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.

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

1. From your local browser, visit:

http://<VM_EXTERNAL_IP>

2. You should see your custom HTML page.

1. In the Google Cloud Console, go to Compute Engine → VM instances.

2. Identify the VM you want to configure.

3. Note the External IP currently assigned to the VM. This is ephemeral by default.

1. In the Google Cloud Console, navigate to VPC Network → IP addresses.

2. Find the external IP assigned to your VM in the list.

3. In the Actions column for that IP, click Promote to static IP address.

4. Enter a name (e.g., static-ip-demo).

5. Click Reserve.

The IP is now static and will remain assigned to your VM.

1. Go back to your VM instance from the Compute Engine → VM instances page

2. Select the Instance, then go to the Network interfaces.

It should remain the same, confirming that the IP is static.

2. Stop and start the VM to test persistence.

3. Once restarted, test by visiting:

http://<STATIC_IP>

3. You should still see your custom HTML page. This confirms that the web server remains accessible and the IP address is now persistent after being changed from ephemeral to static.

Congratulations! You have successfully promoted an ephemeral external IP to a static IP address for your VM instance in Google Cloud. This ensures that your VM retains the same public IP address even after restarts, making it reliable for hosting websites, connecting DNS records, or running applications that require consistent external access.