# Modify VM Instance for Cost Optimization (Solution)

## Overview

*   Labs are timed and cannot be paused. The timer starts when you click **Start Lab**.
    
*   The included cloud terminal is preconfigured with the gcloud SDK.
    
*   Use the terminal to execute commands and then click **Check my progress** to verify your work.
    

## Challenge scenario

You work as a cloud administrator for a technology company that utilizes Google Cloud extensively for its operations. Today, you have been tasked with modifying a virtual machine (VM) instance to better align with updated resource requirements by using a specific General purpose Machine type with low cost.

*   Currently, you have an existing VM instance named `lab-vm` with high cost. Your task is to update the machine type with `e2-medium` suitable for the VM instance with low cost.
    

Click **Check my progress** to verify the objective.

Update the Machine type of the VM instance.

* * *

## Solution of Lab

<iframe type="youtube" src="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlPbr1A1dOw" data-node-type="hn-embed"></iframe>

We gratefully acknowledge Google's learning resources that make cloud education accessible

```plaintext
export VM_NAME="lab-vm"
export ZONE="us-east4-c"  # Replace with your actual zone

gcloud compute instances stop lab-vm --zone [YOUR_ZONE]
# Example:
# gcloud compute instances stop lab-vm --zone us-east4-c

gcloud compute instances set-machine-type $VM_NAME \
  --machine-type e2-medium \
  --zone $ZONE

gcloud compute instances start lab-vm --zone us-east4-c

```

#### **If you get an error, run**

```plaintext

gcloud auth list

export ZONE=$(gcloud compute project-info describe --format="value(commonInstanceMetadata.items[google-compute-default-zone])")

export PROJECT_ID=$(gcloud config get-value project)

gcloud config set compute/zone "$ZONE"

gcloud compute instances stop lab-vm --zone="$ZONE"

sleep 10

gcloud compute instances set-machine-type lab-vm --machine-type e2-medium --zone="$ZONE"

sleep 10

gcloud compute instances start lab-vm  --zone="$ZONE"
```