GCP - Copying VMs between projects

Guilherme Mazzariol — Tue, 21 Jun 2022 19:50:24 +0000

These days at work, I had to move some virtual machines (VM's) between different projects.
After doing a quick search and spending some time, this was the result.
Hope this helps you too.

Before you begin

Be familiar with gcloud cli

Any questions, consult the gcloud reference

How to copy VM with single boot disk

Create a snapshot of persistent disk:

gcloud compute snapshots SRC_SNAPSHOT_NAME \
    --source-disk SRC_DISK_NAME \
    --source-disk-zone ZONE \
    --project SRC_PROJECT

Create a disk image from snapshot:

gcloud compute snapshots SRC_SNAPSHOT_NAME \
    --source-disk SRC_DISK_NAME \
    --source-disk-zone ZONE \
    --project SRC_PROJECT

Create the virtual machine:

gcloud compute instances create DST_VM_NAME \
    --image-project SRC_PROJECT \
    --image SRC_IMG_NAME \
    --project DST_PROJECT

How to copy VM with boot disk and, at least one, attach disk

Create snapshots from persistent disks:

gcloud compute disks snapshot BOOT_DISK_NAME DATA_DISK_NAME \
    --snapshot-names SRC_SNAPSHOT_NAME_BOOT,SRC_SNAPSHOT_NAME_DATA \
    --zone ZONE \
    --project SRC_PROJECT`

Create the disk image from boot snapshot:

gcloud compute images create SRC_IMG_NAME_BOOT \
    --source-snapshot=SRC_SNAPSHOT_NAME_BOOT \
    --storage-location=ZONE \
    --project=SRC_PROJECT

Create the disk image from data snapshot:

gcloud compute images create SRC_IMG_NAME_DATA \
    --source-snapshot=SRC_SNAPSHOT_NAME_DATA \
    --storage-location=ZONE \
    --project=SRC_PROJECT

Create the virtual machine using boot disk image:

gcloud compute instances create DST_VM_NAME \
    --image-project SRC_PROJECT \
    --image SRC_IMG_NAME_BOOT \
    --project=DST_PROJECT

Create persistent disk from data disk image:

gcloud compute disks create DISK_NAME_DATA \
    --image-project SRC_PROJECT \
    --image SRC_IMG_NAME_DATA \
    --project=DST_PROJECT

Attach data disk into the instance:

gcloud compute instances attach-disk DST_VM_NAME \
    --disk DISK_NAME_DATA \
    --project=DST_PROJECT

Mount the new disk:

# connect to the instance
gcloud compute ssh DST_VM_NAME --zone ZONE --project GCP_PROJECT
# change to root user
sudo su
# indetify the new disk (probably will be 'sdb')
lsblk
# create new folder
mkdir /FOLDER_NAME
# mount the disk
mount -o discard,defaults /dev/sdb /FOLDER_NAME
# check files
ls /FOLDER_NAME/
# add write permission for all
chmod a+w /FOLDER_NAME
# create new entry to fstab
echo UUID=`sudo blkid -s UUID -o value /dev/sdb` /FOLDER_NAME ext4 discard,defaults,nofail 0 2 | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

Any questions or suggestions, please write to me :)

DEV Community: Guilherme Mazzariol

GCP - Copying VMs between projects

Before you begin

How to copy VM with single boot disk

How to copy VM with boot disk and, at least one, attach disk