.TH "GCLOUD_ALPHA_COMPUTE_INSTANCES_DESCRIBE" 1



.SH "NAME"
.HP
gcloud alpha compute instances describe \- describe a virtual machine instance



.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.HP
\f5gcloud alpha compute instances describe\fR \fIINSTANCE_NAME\fR [\fB\-\-guest\-attributes\fR=[\fIGUEST_ATTRIBUTE_KEY\fR,...]] [\fB\-\-view\fR=\fIVIEW\fR] [\fB\-\-zone\fR=\fIZONE\fR] [\fIGCLOUD_WIDE_FLAG\ ...\fR]



.SH "DESCRIPTION"

\fB(ALPHA)\fR \fBgcloud alpha compute instances describe\fR displays all data
associated with a Compute Engine virtual machine instance.

It's possible to limit the the scope of the description by using the
\'\-\-format' flag. For details, see Filtering and formatting fun with gcloud
(https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/gcp/filtering\-and\-formatting\-fun\-with).



.SH "EXAMPLES"

To describe an instance named \f5\fItest\-instance\fR\fR, run:

.RS 2m
$ gcloud alpha compute instances describe test\-instance
.RE

To output only a set of fields from the available information, specify it using
the '\-\-format' flag:

.RS 2m
$ gcloud alpha compute instances describe test\-instance \e
    \-\-format="yaml(name,status,disks)"
.RE



.SH "POSITIONAL ARGUMENTS"

.RS 2m
.TP 2m
\fIINSTANCE_NAME\fR

Name of the instance to describe. 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


.RE
.sp

.SH "FLAGS"

.RS 2m
.TP 2m
\fB\-\-guest\-attributes\fR=[\fIGUEST_ATTRIBUTE_KEY\fR,...]

Instead of instance resource display guest attributes of the instance stored
with the given keys.

.TP 2m
\fB\-\-view\fR=\fIVIEW\fR

Specifies the information that the output should contain. \fIVIEW\fR must be one
of:

.RS 2m
.TP 2m
\fBBASIC\fR
Default output view. Output contains all configuration details of the instance,
except partner metadata.
.TP 2m
\fBFULL\fR
Output contains all configuration details of the instance, including partner
metadata.
.RE
.sp


.TP 2m
\fB\-\-zone\fR=\fIZONE\fR

Zone of the instance to describe. If not specified, you might be prompted to
select a zone (interactive mode only). \f5gcloud\fR attempts to identify the
appropriate zone by searching for resources in your currently active project. If
the zone cannot be determined, \f5gcloud\fR 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
\f5\fIcompute/zone\fR\fR property:

.RS 2m
$ gcloud config set compute/zone ZONE
.RE

A list of zones can be fetched by running:

.RS 2m
$ gcloud compute zones list
.RE

To unset the property, run:

.RS 2m
$ gcloud config unset compute/zone
.RE

Alternatively, the zone can be stored in the environment variable
\f5\fICLOUDSDK_COMPUTE_ZONE\fR\fR.


.RE
.sp

.SH "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 \fB$ gcloud help\fR for details.



.SH "NOTES"

This command is currently in alpha and might change without notice. If this
command fails with API permission errors despite specifying the correct project,
you might be trying to access an API with an invitation\-only early access
allowlist. These variants are also available:

.RS 2m
$ gcloud compute instances describe
.RE

.RS 2m
$ gcloud beta compute instances describe
.RE