Vertical Scaling of Compute VM's

Google Cloud Compute Infrastructure
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Consider if we opt for a specific vm and later some days we want to change its location or else we want to upgrade or downgrade its size or else we may want to change its family like from general to memory optimized like this

Does the above case requires entire new setup of compute vm or else just with some downtime we can do the upgradation.

I mean do we need to create new vm and installing all techstack and setup everything from beginning or else with just some downtime we can do this and is there any serverless approach is there if so then how do they manage the above situation.

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Hi @raj_ambadipelli ,

Welcome to Google Cloud Community!

Here’s a breakdown of the different scenarios and whether you need to create a new VM or can upgrade/downgrade with some downtime.

  1. If you’re planning to change VM location, then it requires a new VM since it cannot move an existing VM between regions or zones.

Create a Snapshot of the Disk:
gcloud compute disks snapshot SOURCE_DISK \

–snapshot-names=my-snapshot

Create a New Disk from the Snapshot in the Target Zone:
gcloud compute disks create NEW_DISK_NAME \

–source-snapshot=my-snapshot \

–zone=NEW_ZONE

Create a New VM using the New Disk:
gcloud compute instances create NEW_VM_NAME \

–machine-type=e2-standard-4 \

–zone=NEW_ZONE \

–boot-disk=auto-delete=yes,device-name=NEW_DISK_NAME

  1. If Upgrading or Downgrading VM Size (CPU/RAM):

Stop the VM:
gcloud compute instances stop INSTANCE_NAME

Resize the VM:
gcloud compute instances set-machine-type INSTANCE_NAME --machine-type=e2-standard-8

Start the VM:
gcloud compute instances start INSTANCE_NAME

  1. For changing VM Family (e.g., General to Memory-Optimized)
  • Here’s how to change your VM Family:

Stop the VM:
gcloud compute instances stop INSTANCE_NAME

Create a new instance with the desired machine family:
gcloud compute instances create NEW_INSTANCE \

–machine-type=m2-ultramem-208 \

–zone=us-central1-a \

–boot-disk=auto-delete=no,source=EXISTING_DISK_NAME

Delete the old instance (optional):
gcloud compute instances delete OLD_INSTANCE_NAME

  1. For Changing Disk Size (with no downtime required - live resize supported)

Resize the disk (even while running):
gcloud compute disks resize DISK_NAME --size=200GB

Resize the file system inside the VM:
sudo resize2fs /dev/sda1 # For Linux

Changing the zone or region requires creating a new VM, while adjusting the size (CPU/RAM) only requires a restart. Switching the machine family allows disk reuse but still requires a restart. Increasing disk size can be done live without any downtime.

VM scaling and migration usually don’t require a full reinstallation, with most changes needing only a restart. For stateful applications, Compute Engine with auto-scaling and disk snapshots is ideal.

If you need further assistance, you can reach out to Google Cloud Support at any time.

Was this helpful? If so, please accept this answer as “Solution”. If you need additional assistance, reply here within 2 business days and I’ll be happy to help.

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