Can I change the network of an existing Google Compute Engine VM

Question

I have a couple of Google Compute Engine (GCE) virtual machines spread across two GCE networks. Now I want to move them all to one shared network but I can't find a way to change the network of an existing VM. Is there a way to do this or do I have to recreate the VMs in the new network?

Solution 1

Yes, you can do this and it's quite simple.

Use the Instance-DeleteAccessConfig and Instace-AddAccessConfig methods to hot-remove & hot-add network configurations on running instances.

In this case, you'll first call deleteAccessConfig on the instance to remove it from the first network, then call addAccessConfig to add it to the second.

Documentation here: https://developers.google.com/compute/docs/reference/latest/instances/deleteAccessConfig https://developers.google.com/compute/docs/reference/latest/instances/addAccessConfig

Solution 2

You have to recreate the VM's in the new network.

Solution 3

Google Developers Console

Although you cannot directly move an instance, the Google Developers Console now has the function to Clone this instance. Go to Google Developers Console, navigate to Project ID -> Compute Engine -> VM Instances -> . Scroll down to the end and you should see the option

After clicking on Clone this instance, you will be brought to the new instance creation page, with an option to select which Zone you wish to clone the target instance.

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gcutil

You can use the gcutil moveinstances command to move an instance from a zone to another zone. You can even move a list of instances using regular expression, for example:

gcutil moveinstances --source_zone=zone-a
                             --destination_zone=zone-b "i-[0-9]" "b-.*"

For more information, type gcutil help moveinstances

Solution 4

Google has recently added this feature and you are now able to edit the network.

Simply select the VM you want to change the network for and hit the 'Edit' button at the top. Then scroll down to 'Network Interfaces' and you will see a pencil next to the nic.

Solution 5

Just create a snapshot of the vm instance, then create a new vm instance from that snapshot and specify a different network.

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