Add user while instance creation in google cloud

Question

I want to create users in windows server on google cloud during instance creation. Searched in google cloud documentation and other sites but could not find answers. I am aware of startup scripts but those are great when you want to do something every time machine boots up. Please help.

Answer 1

You can use GCP startup script to do it. Please have a look at the documentation Running startup scripts . For example, you can easily add a user John and add him to the group Remote Desktop Users by using metadata :

and, as a result, you'll be able to login via RDP to your VM instance with login John and password fadf24as.FD* .

By default such script will be executed during each start cycle of VM instance:

Compute Engine lets you create and run your own startup scripts on your virtual machine (VM) instances to perform automated tasks every time your instance boots up .

To change this default behavior you can add there additional step like creating some folder or file and use them as a flag: if folder or file already exist than rest part of the script should be skipped. In such case PowerShell looks more suitable than cmd , final script could be uploaded from Google Cloud Bucket .