An instance is a virtual machine. It boots from an image, runs with the vCPU and memory of its instance type, and keeps its identity, addresses and volumes for its whole life, across stops and starts. You decide when it runs. The platform reports both what you asked for (status) and what it can observe (healthChecks).
The following diagram shows the main path through an instance’s life.
The full set of eight statuses, including FAILED, is on Instance lifecycle.
Key concepts
Lifecycle
The eight statuses an instance moves through, which ones resolve on their own, and which ones you’re billed for. See Instance lifecycle.
Instance type
The size of an instance: its vCPU count and memory, from a catalog of types. See Instance types.
Health checks
What the platform observes about a running instance, separate from its status, and whether a problem is the platform’s or yours. See Instance health checks.
Machine failure
What happens to an instance when the physical machine under it fails or is taken out of service. See When the machine under an instance fails.
Guest environment
What the platform sets up inside the guest: the login user, time synchronization and machine identity. See Guest environment.
What you can do
Limits and quotas
Launching an instance counts against your instance-count and vCPU quotas, at both the organization and the project level. See Limits.
Related
- Instance storage – the root disk and extra volumes
- Images – what an instance boots from
- Key pairs – how you log in
- Security groups – what traffic reaches an instance
origin computecommands