How to create a new instance with ubuntu12.04 LTS server in GCE

Question

How to create a new instance with "ubuntu 12.04 - LTS server" in Google Compute Engine? I have seen there are options for "Centos and Debian", but I couldnt find any option for Ubuntu 12.04.

Is there any steps to create a ubuntu instance in Google Compute engine?

Answer 1

Firstly, I'd recommend against this, unless you're a very advanced user. If you're just hoping to use Ubuntu because you're used to it, you should be fine "settling" for debian. They function almost identically, and you'll be able to use apt-get and almost all guides geared toward Ubuntu. This being said, if you REALLY want to use Ubuntu, and you're okay jumping through a lot of hoops, here's the link you're looking for.

https://developers.google.com/compute/docs/images#buildingimage

Again, I'd highly advise against it unless you know exactly what you're doing.

Answer 2

As per this announcement, Google Compute Engine now have Ubuntu images curated by Canonical available.

You can find more information on how to spin up instances using these image in the GCE documentation.

Answer 3

You can use this for creating an image from the Ubuntu cloud images website.

Simply download the disk image (named something like *-cloudimg-amd64-disk1.img), convert it from QCOW2 format to RAW format using qemu-img tool and pack it inside a tar.gz.

The rest of the procedure is covered in the GCE documentation link above.

You can find a more thorough guide on my blog post