Import virtual appliances

gcloud

To import a machine image to Compute Engine using the Google Cloud CLI, use the following request.

gcloud alpha migration vms machine-image-imports create IMAGE_NAME \
--source-file=SOURCE_FILE \
--location=REGION_ID \
--target-project=projects/HOST_PROJECT_ID/locations/global/targetProjects/TARGET_PROJECT

Replace the following:

• IMAGE_NAME: the name of the machine image that you want to create. For more information on the naming rules, see Naming convention.
• SOURCE_FILE: the file from which you want to import the machine image. Enter the path in the format gs://bucket/folder/file. To get the path of an object inside a bucket, see View object metadata. Note that you can only import images from .ovf and .ova files.
• REGION_ID: the region in which you want the machine image import process to run. The machine image is created in the closest multi-region. If you want the machine image to be created in a region, ensure that singleRegionStorage is set to true. For a list of supported regions, see Regions and Zones.
• HOST_PROJECT_ID: the name of the host project from which you want to migrate the machine image.
• TARGET_PROJECT: the target project in which you want to create the machine image. If you've not already added a target project, do so using the instructions given in Add a target project.
• REGION_ID: the region in which you want the machine image import process to run. The machine image is created in the closest multi-region. If you want the machine image to be created in a region, ensure that singleRegionStorage is set to true. For a list of supported regions, see Regions and Zones.

For more information, see gcloud migration vms machine-image-imports.

REST API

To import a machine image to Compute Engine using the REST API, use the following steps.

1. Create a machine image import resource using the following request.

   POST https://vmmigration.googleapis.com/v1/projects/HOST_PROJECT_ID/locations/REGION_ID/imageImports?imageImportId=IMPORT_NAME
   {
   "cloudStorageUri": "SOURCE_FILE",
   "machineImageTargetDefaults": {
   "imageName": "IMAGE_NAME",
   "targetProject": "projects/HOST_PROJECT_ID/locations/global/targetProjects/TARGET_PROJECT",
   ...
   }
   }
   

   Replace the following:

   • HOST_PROJECT_ID: the name of the host project from which you want to migrate the machine image.
   • REGION_ID: the region in which you want the machine image import process to run. The machine image is created in the closest multi-region. If you want the machine image to be created in a region, ensure that singleRegionStorage is set to true. For a list of supported regions, see Regions and Zones.
   • SOURCE_FILE: the file from which you want to import the machine image. Enter the path in the format gs://bucket/folder/file. To get the path of an object inside a bucket, see View object metadata. Note that you can only import machine images from .ova and .ovf files.
   • IMAGE_NAME: the name of the machine image that you want to create. For more information on the naming rules, see Naming convention.
   • TARGET_PROJECT: the target project in which you want to create the machine image. If you've not already added a target project, do so using the instructions given in Add a target project.

   In this example, IMPORT_NAME is an ID that represents the machine image import resource. When you import an machine image to Compute Engine, Migrate to Virtual Machines creates an first creates an machine image import resource. The machine image import resource represents the machine image import process. You can use the IMPORT_NAME to get the link to the machine image that was imported as part of the machine image import process.

   See the following table for the full list of machine image import create request fields supported fields.

   Field name	Description
   cloudStorageUri	The path of the file from which you want to import the machine image. Enter the path in the format gs://bucket/folder/file. To get the path of an object inside a bucket, see View object metadata. Note that you can only import machine images from .ovf and .ova files.
   machineImageTargetDefaults.targetProject	The target project in which you want to create the machine image. For more information, see target project API reference. For example, projects/HOST_PROJECT_ID/locations/global/targetProjects/TARGET_PROJECT In the example, replace the following: HOST_PROJECT_ID: the name of the host project from which you want to migrate the machine image. TARGET_PROJECT: the target project in which you want to create the image.
   machineImageTargetDefaults.machine_image_name	The name of the machine image to be created. For more information on the naming rules, see resource naming convention.
   machineImageTargetDefaults.description	(Optional) A description of the machine image.
   machineImageTargetDefaults.machine_type	(Optional) The machine to create the machine image with. If you don't specify the machine type, Compute Engine chooses a relevant machine type based on the information from the source machine image.
   machineImageTargetDefaults.labels	To organize your project, add labels as key-value pairs to your resources. See Labeling resources.
   machineImageTargetDefaults.tags	Add any tags that you want to attach to the machine image. See Manage tags for resources.
   machineImageTargetDefaults.additionalLicenses	You can add up to 10 additional licenses to the VM instance created from the imported machine image using a valid URL format. For example, you can add additional licenses using the following URL format: https://www.googleapis.com/compute/beta/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2012-enterprise
   machineImageTargetDefaults.service_account	Specify the service account on the target project used by the machine image. By default, no service account is assigned to the machine image. If you create a Compute Engine instance from a machine image and plan to run an application on it, the instance might need access to other gcloud CLI services and APIs. Create a service account in the target project with the necessary permissions to access these services and APIs before creating the Compute Engine instance. Then, specify that service account here. For more information, see set up a VM to run as a service account. To attach the service account to the Compute Engine instance, your user account on the Compute Engine host project requires the necessary permissions. For more information, see Configuring permissions on target project service account.
   machineImageTargetDefaults.shielded_instance_config	(Optional) Enable Shielded VM on this instance. Shielded VMs are hardened by a set of security controls that help defend against rootkits and bootkits. See What is Shielded VM?
   machineImageTargetDefaults.singleRegionStorage	Set this flag to true if you want the machine image storageLocations to be a region. If you set this flag to false, the closest multi-region is selected.
   machineImageTargetDefaults.skip_os_adaptation	Set this flag to true if you want to skip OS adaptation. To function properly on Google Cloud, VMs created from imported machine images require changes to be made to their configuration. These changes are referred to as OS adaptations. Compute Engine performs OS adaptations automatically in the machine image import process. For more information, see Adapt VM instances to run on Google Cloud.
   machineImageTargetDefaults.osAdaptationParameters.licenseType	The license type you want to use for your machine image. Compute Engine supports pay as you go (PAYG) licenses and bring your own licenses (BYOL) for your deployed VMs. The default license type for a migrated VM is assigned by Compute Engine based on the migrated operating system, as described in Supported operating systems. If your operating system supports multiple license types, you can override the default license type to explicitly specify a license type of PAYG or BYOL.
   machineImageTargetDefaults.osAdaptationParameters.network_interfaces	Compute Engine lets you optionally create a machine images with multiple network interfaces (NICs). Each interface is attached to a different VPC network, giving that machine image access to different VPC networks in gcloud CLI. Before you add additional network interfaces, be aware of the following considerations: Attaching multiple network interfaces to the same VPC network is not supported. While the configuration might get save, the instantiation of the VM will fail. After a Compute Engine instance is instantiated from a machine image, by using test-clone or cut-over, you cannot add or remove a network interface on the created instance. You can repeat test-clone or cut-over with different target details to recreate the instance. To add or remove a network interface: Select Add network interface to add an additional network interface to the Compute Engine instance. You can set all of the same options as you do with the initial network interface. For more information, see Creating instances with multiple network interfaces.
   machineImageTargetDefaults.osAdaptationParameters.generalize	Set this flag to true if you want to generalize the machine image. When you create an instance from an machine image, Windows adds some unique information to the instance. Generalization is a process that removes this information so that you can create multiple instances from the same machine image.
   machineImageTargetDefaults.encryption	The Google-owned and Google-managed encryption key that you want to use to encrypt your data during the import process. For more information, see Default encryption at rest. Use customer-managed encryption keys (CMEK) to encrypt the data of the machine image. These encryption keys are created, managed, and owned by you. For more information, see Protect resources by using Cloud KMS keys. When you add a CMEK, you must grant permissions as described in the following table. Role Permissions required Description Cloud VM Migration Service Account roles/vmmigration.serviceAgent Grant this permission to the Compute Engine service account to encrypt data of the machine image created during the import process. Compute Engine Service Agent roles/compute.serviceAgent Grant this permission to the Compute Engine service agent to encrypt the data during the import process.

   You should see a response similar to the following sample response.

   {
     "name": "projects/HOST_PROJECT_ID/locations/REGION_ID/operations/OPERATION_ID",
     "metadata": {
       "createTime": "2023-10-31T09:12:26.94928636Z",
       "target": "projects/HOST_PROJECT_ID/locations/us-central1/imageImports/IMPORT_NAME",
       "verb": "create",
       "apiVersion": "v1",
       "@type": "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.vmmigration.v1.OperationMetadata"
     }
   }
   

2. Check if the machine image import job is complete by polling the operation using the following command.

   GET https://vmmigration.googleapis.com/v1/projects/HOST_PROJECT_ID/locations/REGION_ID/operations/OPERATION_ID
   

   Replace the following:

   • HOST_PROJECT_ID: the name of the host project from which you are migrating the machine image.
   • REGION_ID: the region in which you want the machine image import process to run. The machine image is created in the closest multi-region. If you want the machine image to be created in a region, ensure that singleRegionStorage is set to true. For a list of supported regions, see Regions and Zones.
   • OPERATION_ID: the operation ID of the migrate job.

   You should see an operation completion response similar to the following sample response.

     {
       "done": true,
       "name": "projects/HOST_PROJECT_ID/locations/REGION_ID/operations/OPERATION_ID",
       "response": {
         "@type": "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.vmmigration.v1.ImageImport",
         "name": "projects/HOST_PROJECT_ID/locations/us-central1/imageImports/IMPORT_NAME",
         "cloudStorageUri": "SOURCE_FILE",
         "createTime": "2023-10-31T09:04:04.413664947Z",
         "machineImageTargetDefaults": {
           "imageName": "IMAGE_NAME",
           "targetProject": "projects/HOST_PROJECT_ID/locations/global/targetProjects/TARGET_PROJECT"
         },
         "recentImageImportJobs": [
           {
             "name": "projects/HOST_PROJECT_ID/locations/us-central1/imageImports/IMPORT_NAME/imageImportJobs/image-import-job",
             "diskImageTargetDetails": {
              "imageName": "IMAGE_NAME",
              "targetProject": "projects/HOST_PROJECT_ID/locations/global/targetProjects/TARGET_PROJECT"
           },
            "state": "PENDING"
          }
         ]
       },
       "metadata": {
         "createTime": "2023-10-31T09:04:04.416740716Z",
         "endTime": "2023-10-31T09:05:36.79987142Z",
         "target": "projects/HOST_PROJECT_ID/locations/us-central1/imageImports/IMPORT_NAME",
         "verb": "create",
         "apiVersion": "v1",
         "@type": "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.vmmigration.v1.OperationMetadata"
       }
     }
   

3. Monitor the machine image import job for completion using the following command.

   GET https://vmmigration.googleapis.com/v1/projects/HOST_PROJECT_ID/locations/REGION_ID/imageImports/IMPORT_NAME/imageImportJobs/image-import-job
   

   Replace the following:

   • HOST_PROJECT_ID: the name of the host project from which you are migrating the machine image.
   • REGION_ID: the region in which you want the machine image import process to run. The machine image is created in the closest multi-region. If you want the machine image to be created in a region, ensure that singleRegionStorage is set to true. For a list of supported regions, see Regions and Zones.
   • IMPORT_NAME: the ID that represents the machine image import resource. When you import an machine image to Compute Engine, Migrate to Virtual Machines creates an first creates an machine image import resource. The machine image import resource represents the machine image import process. You can use the IMPORT_NAME to get the link to the machine image that was imported as part of the machine image import process.

   You should see a job completion response similar to the following sample response.

   {
     "createTime":"2023-10-31T09:12:27.053788394Z",
     "createdResources":[
       "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/USER_PROJECT/global/images/IMAGE_NAME"
     ],
     "diskImageTargetDetails": {
       "imageName":"IMAGE_NAME",
       "targetProject":"projects/HOST_PROJECT_ID/locations/global/targetProjects/TARGET_PROJECT"
     },
     "endTime":"2023-10-31T09:16:50.224865783Z",
     "name":"projects/HOST_PROJECT_ID/locations/us-central1/imageImports/IMPORT_NAME/imageImportJobs/image-import-job",
     "state":"SUCCEEDED"
   }