GCEguestagent instance automatically got created

[astha]

I recently faced an issue, I just logged in to one of the project, opened cloud console and then just connected to cluster, I didn't perform any activity related to VM creation, but in the background one vm instance got created automatically "guest-agent" (GCEguestagent). I wanted to know, how it happened?

[DamianS · Accepted solution]

Hello @astha  ,Welcome on Google Cloud Community.

The "guest-agent" VM instance you mentioned is likely part of the infrastructure required for managing and monitoring your GKE cluster. It's not uncommon for Google Cloud services to automatically provision resources like this to ensure that your cluster operates smoothly and efficiently. If you dealing with GKE cluster, especially with autoscaling, this agent is mandatory to handle scaling requests. It's also being used for provisioning and deprovisioning accounts if OS Login is not configured.  More info about guest-agent:

1. https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/guest-agent

2. https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/images/guest-environment

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cheers,
DamianS
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