Metadata server
A very powerful tool for managing instances is the Compute Engine metadata server. The metadata server provides instances with an API to access various information in the form of key-value pairs. Metadata is organized in a hierarchical manner, and can be either per-instance or project-wide.
Compute Engine instances are able to query metadata by making API calls to the URL at http://metadata.google.internal/computeMetadata/v1/. This URL resolves internally to the instance and requests are fulfilled without ever leaving the physical machine that the instance is running on. By fulfilling requests locally, the metadata server can provide a high level of security, making the metadata server a valid option for providing instances ...
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