Getting Started with Compute Engine and the Google Python Client Library

Google Compute Engine features a RESTful API that allows developers to run virtual machines in the cloud. This sample python command-line application demonstrates how to access the Compute Engine API using the Google Python API Client Library. For more information about the library, read the Getting Started: Google Python Client Library documentation.

To run the demo:

• Update the variables in the settings.json file.
  • <your-project-id>: your Compute Engine project ID.
• Update the client_secrets.json file with your client id and secret found in the Google APIs Console.
• Run the sample using the command:

python main.py

Demo steps:

• Create an instance with a start up script and metadata.
• Print out the URL where the modified image will be written.
• The start up script executes these steps on the instance:
  • Installs Image Magick on the machine.
  • Downloads the image from the URL provided in the metadata.
  • Adds the text provided in the metadata to the image.
  • Copies the edited image to Cloud Storage.
• After recieving input from the user, shut down the instance.

Products

• Google Compute Engine
• Google Cloud Storage

Language

• Python

Dependencies

• Google APIs Client Library for Python
• python-gflags
• httplib2

Python dependencies can be installed via pip:

pip install -r requirements.txt