Google Cloud Nightscout » Virtual Machine
In this guide, we will create a free virtual machine in our Google project. Only one virtual machine per Google account will be free.
For additional assistance, a video clip on this page may be helpful. The process should take approximately 5 minutes to complete.
The virtual machine you create here is exclusively for hosting Nightscout. Do not use it for banking, trading, development, writing, shopping, web browsing, or any other personal or work-related activities.
Go to dashboard. Select “Compute Engine”. Select the “VM instances” tab in the left pane if it’s not already selected.
Select “Create Instance”.
Set name to whatever you like. Select all the items mentioned below and marked in the images as specified (those marked with stars affect cost). Leave everything else as is.
Select a region that qualifies for free tier. Those are 
, 
or 
.
Set machine type to “e2-micro”.
Under “Os and storage”, click on Change and modify as shown below.
Click on “Select”.
Under “Networking”, enable both http and https.
Click on “Create”* to create the virtual machine. Google will now bring up your virtual machine. Wait for it to come up. It could take a minute. When the external IP column appears, you should be good to go.
*
You will not be able to change any of this after you create. The only way to change is to delete the machine and create a new one.
Before clicking on create, ensure the following settings are correct:
| Parameters | Requirements | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Machine Region | Oregon, Iowa or South Carolina | Free Tier |
| Machine Type | e2-micro | Free Tier |
| Disk type | persistent disk | Free Tier |
| Disk size | Less than or equal to 30GB | Free Tier |
| Operating system | Ubuntu | Compatibility |
| Version | 24.04 LTS Minimal x86 /64, amd64 noble … | Nightscout compatibility |
| Firewall | Allow HTTP traffic | Nightscout access |
| Firewall | Allow HTTPS traffic | Nightscout access |
The estimate shown at the top right on the same page will not be 0. As long as you satisfy the conditions listed in the above table, it’s OK. You can ignore that non-0 estimate.
You can also use the calculator to confirm the price.
If you see a red exclamation mark after creating your virtual machine and hovering over it shows an error message stating that the instance is unavailable, follow these steps:
1- Dismiss the request by clicking the trash can icon on the right.
2- Reattempt creation in a different region.
3- Unfortunately, you will need to reconfigure all settings from scratch for the new request.
Now that your virtual machine is set up, you can proceed to the next step in the Nightscout installation process.
