gcloud-help/gcloud/beta/compute/instances/add-metadata

NAME
    gcloud beta compute instances add-metadata - add or update instance
        metadata

SYNOPSIS
    gcloud beta compute instances add-metadata INSTANCE_NAME
        [--metadata=KEY=VALUE,[KEY=VALUE,...]]
        [--metadata-from-file=KEY=LOCAL_FILE_PATH,[...]] [--zone=ZONE]
        [GCLOUD_WIDE_FLAG ...]

DESCRIPTION
    (BETA) gcloud beta compute instances add-metadata can be used to add or
    update the metadata of a virtual machine instance. Every instance has
    access to a metadata server that can be used to query metadata that has
    been set through this tool. For information on metadata, see
    https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/metadata

    Only metadata keys that are provided are mutated. Existing metadata entries
    will remain unaffected.

    In order to retrieve custom metadata, run:

        $ gcloud compute instances describe example-instance --zone
        us-central1-a --format="value(metadata)"

    where example-instance is the name of the virtual machine instance you're
    querying custom metadata from. For more information about querying custom
    instance or project metadata through the Cloud Platform Console or the API,
    see
    https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/storing-retrieving-metadata#querying_custom_metadata.

    If you are using this command to manage SSH keys for your project, please
    note the risks
    (https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/adding-removing-ssh-keys#risks)
    of manual SSH key management as well as the required format for SSH key
    metadata, available at
    https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/adding-removing-ssh-keys.

EXAMPLES
    To add metadata under key important-data to an instance named
    test-instance, run:

        $ gcloud beta compute instances add-metadata test-instance \
            --metadata=important-data="2 plus 2 equals 4"

    To add multiple key-value pairs at once, separate them with commas:

        $ gcloud beta compute instances add-metadata test-instance \
            --metadata=important-data="2 plus 2 equals \
        4",unimportant-data=zero

POSITIONAL ARGUMENTS
     INSTANCE_NAME
        Name of the instance to set metadata on. For details on valid instance
        names, refer to the criteria documented under the field 'name' at:
        https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/reference/rest/v1/instances

FLAGS
     --metadata=KEY=VALUE,[KEY=VALUE,...]
        Metadata to be made available to the guest operating system running on
        the instances. Each metadata entry is a key/value pair separated by an
        equals sign. Each metadata key must be unique and have a max of 128
        bytes in length. Each value must have a max of 256 KB in length.
        Multiple arguments can be passed to this flag, e.g., --metadata
        key-1=value-1,key-2=value-2,key-3=value-3. The combined total size for
        all metadata entries is 512 KB.

        In images that have Compute Engine tools installed on them, such as the
        official images (https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/images), the
        following metadata keys have special meanings:

         startup-script
            Specifies a script that will be executed by the instances once they
            start running. For convenience, --metadata-from-file can be used to
            pull the value from a file.

         startup-script-url
            Same as startup-script except that the script contents are pulled
            from a publicly-accessible location on the web.

            For startup scripts on Windows instances, the following metadata
            keys have special meanings: windows-startup-script-url,
            windows-startup-script-cmd, windows-startup-script-bat,
            windows-startup-script-ps1, sysprep-specialize-script-url,
            sysprep-specialize-script-cmd, sysprep-specialize-script-bat, and
            sysprep-specialize-script-ps1. For more information, see Running
            startup scripts
            (https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/startupscript).

            At least one of [--metadata] or [--metadata-from-file] is required.

     --metadata-from-file=KEY=LOCAL_FILE_PATH,[...]
        Same as --metadata except that the value for the entry will be read
        from a local file. This is useful for values that are too large such as
        startup-script contents.

        At least one of [--metadata] or [--metadata-from-file] is required.

     --zone=ZONE
        Zone of the instance to set metadata on. If not specified, you might be
        prompted to select a zone (interactive mode only). gcloud attempts to
        identify the appropriate zone by searching for resources in your
        currently active project. If the zone cannot be determined, gcloud
        prompts you for a selection with all available Google Cloud Platform
        zones.

        To avoid prompting when this flag is omitted, the user can set the
        compute/zone property:

            $ gcloud config set compute/zone ZONE

        A list of zones can be fetched by running:

            $ gcloud compute zones list

        To unset the property, run:

            $ gcloud config unset compute/zone

        Alternatively, the zone can be stored in the environment variable
        CLOUDSDK_COMPUTE_ZONE.

GCLOUD WIDE FLAGS
    These flags are available to all commands: --access-token-file, --account,
    --billing-project, --configuration, --flags-file, --flatten, --format,
    --help, --impersonate-service-account, --log-http, --project, --quiet,
    --trace-token, --user-output-enabled, --verbosity.

    Run $ gcloud help for details.

NOTES
    This command is currently in beta and might change without notice. These
    variants are also available:

        $ gcloud compute instances add-metadata

        $ gcloud alpha compute instances add-metadata