Last updated on May 11th, 2023
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Google compute engine services allows users to create and run virtual machines on Google cloud infrastructure using (IAAS).
If you are new to Google cloud platform refer our article on Google cloud free tier account – Full Stack Tutorials Hub .
In this article you would learn about Internal/External and static IP Address in Google cloud virtual Machines
What is Internal and External IP address of Cloud VM?
Wheneve a new VM Instance is created it will have at least one Internal IP address attached. Internal IP Address is specific to a corporate network and is used for Internal communication within google cloud network. Even if VM instance is stopped Internal IP Address remains attached to the VM.
VM Instance may or may not have an external IP Address and it depends on VM configuration set up. Refer this article on How to Create Virtual Machines in Cloud – Full Stack Tutorials Hub . In this configuration http communication is enable in VM set up. Apache server has been installed to handle http traffic.
External IP Address is used for communication with the external source.
This VM instance can be reached by accessing External IP Address http://34.125.52.82/ in the browser.
Now stop this VM Instance by clicking on the stop button. It would ideally take 2-3 minutes to completely stop a VM instance. Once the instance is stopped, we would no longer see the External IP Address and VM instance is not accessible using old external IP address. Everytime a VM instance restarts new External IP address is assigned.
The internal IP Address still exists and would remain the same.
Instance Stopped: There is no green status.
Instance Restarted: Dynamically new External IP Address is assigned.
Working with Static IP Address
Under VPC Network navigate into IP Address and click on Reserve external Static Address.
Configure to create a new static external IP Address.
External Static IP Address name has been assigned to the VM instance devserver. It is important that the IP Address and VM instance has to be in the same region.
Stop the VM instance. Even if VM instance is stopped IP Address is attached to it and when it is started again same External IP Address is retained.
Points to Remember while working with Static External IP Address
- It has to be removed explicitly and will not be deleted automatically.
- It is billed even when VM is not in use.
- It can be assigned to any VM instance.
- The billing cost when it is in use is less than when it is not in use.
Delete VM Instance and Release static IP Address
Navigate to Compute engine and select VM instance to delete. Click on delete and it would delete the VM instance.
Navigate to IP address and select static IP address to delete. Right click and select Release Static Address.