Compute Engine VM instances can utilize a wide range of boot disks; Google Cloud currently offers well over 50 disk images to choose from. Cloud computing professionals must be adept in spinning up a variety of operating systems, including Windows server. In this hands-on lab, you’ll experience the creation of a Windows-based Compute Engine VM instance, set up an IIS server, and push your first web page live to confirm the server’s operation.
Learning Objectives
Successfully complete this lab by achieving the following learning objectives:
- Create a Compute Engine VM instance.
- From the main navigation, choose Compute Engine > VMs.
- In the VM Instances area, click Create.
- With New VM instance chosen from the options on the left, configure your instance:
- In the name field, provide a relevant name using hyphens, like
la-windows-1. - Keep the suggested Region and Zone.
- Use Series: N1 and Machine type: n1-standard-1
- In the Boot Disk section, click Change and select Windows Server 2019 Datacenter, Server with Desktop Experience from the list; click Select.
- Under Firewall, choose the Allow HTTP traffic option.
- In the name field, provide a relevant name using hyphens, like
- Click Create.
- Set Windows password.
- From the RDP options, click Set Windows password.
- In the dialog, confirm your username is correct and click Set.
- Copy the supplied password and click Close.
- Launch RDP window.
- Launch the RDP window by using one of the following methods:
- If you’re on a Windows system, click RDP.
- If you’re on a Mac using Chrome in a standard window, first install the Chrome RDP extension, and then click RDP.
- If you’re on a Mac using another browser or Incognito window, from the App Store, download and install the latest version of the Microsoft Remote Desktop app. Then, choose Download the RDP file from the RDP options and open the file.
- Launch the RDP window by using one of the following methods:
- Install IIS.
From the Windows Start menu, right-click on Windows Powershell and choose Run as administrator.
In the PowerShell window, enter the following commands to set install IIS, starting with:
import-module servermanagerSet up the web server:
add-windowsfeature web-server -includeallsubfeatureCreate the
index.htmlpage:echo '<!doctype html><html><body><h1>Greetings from Linux Academy!</h1></body></html>' > C:inetpubwwwrootindex.html
- Test your page.
- From the Compute Engine VM page, click the External link for your Windows VM instance.
- Review the page in your browser.
