Create a Google Cloud Platform Compute Engine instance

GCP Compute Engines are virtual machines (VM) that run in the cloud. When you create a Compute Engine instance, GCP places it within logical and network groups associated with your project. When you create and manage a web server at this level, you are working in the infrastructure layer and are using GCP as an infrastructure as a service provider.

Perform the following steps to create a GCP Compute Engine instance that will become your production web server:

1. Select the navigation menu in the upper left corner of the page:

   

2. Select Compute Engine from the dropdown:

   

3. Select CREATE INSTANCE at the top of the VM instances page:

   

4. Configure, then create a new instance using the following guidelines:

   • Name: a descriptive name
   • Region: as close as possible to your target traffic sources
   • Machine type: f1-micro
   • Boot disk: standard persistent disk, 10GB, Debian
   • Firewall: Allow HTTP traffic, allow HTTPS traffic