Help with Cloud Shell regarding Instance

[Servant]

Hi,

I am on free trial for Google Cloud Shell.  I uploaded a program to run in the cloud, and it was doing fine for a few hours until it stopped.  When I got to the program, I noticed that my instance had reverted to the "Welcome" prompt command in the Cloud Shell Terminal.  I typed in ./start.sh in order to re-start the program, and it asked me to input the instance name.  When I did that, it said that there is no such container and failure to start container.  I looked in the Cloud Shell Editor, and I can still see my instance files there, so I don't understand why it would say no such container and failure to start.

Is my ability to run the program in the Cloud limited, timewise, due to the free trial?  Do I not have the ability to run the program continuously until I choose to stop it?

Thanks.

[Shanewaz Ahmed]

From the description it looks like the program was running fine using the cloud shell for a certain period and after that it stopped working.You tried to restart the program using the Cloud Shell and it failed to start the container though you can still see the instance file in the cloud shell editor.

According to the limitation of Cloud Shell, The virtual machine instance that backs your Cloud Shell session is not permanently allocated and terminates if the session is inactive for 20 minutes. After the instance is terminated, any modifications that you made to it outside your $HOME are lost [1].To see more details on the working procedure of Cloud Shell, document [2] might be helpful.

Considering your question, this is not due to free trial rather the session time mentioned in the limitation of Cloud Shell as the session is not permanently allocated.

I am attaching document [3] for reference in order to explore examples of things you can do in Cloud Shell.

[1]https://cloud.google.com/shell/docs/limitations

[2]https://cloud.google.com/shell/docs/how-cloud-shell-works

[3]https://cloud.google.com/shell/docs/quickstart

[Servant]

Thank you.  I'm reading the docs, and I'm understanding the cause of the problem, but not the solution to the problem.  How do I make it permanently allocated, so that it runs continuously, and does not terminate after 20 minutes of inactivity?

[Kamelia Y]

Hello,

In the first documentation [1] that Shanewaz provided already explains "Consider customizing your environment if you'd like to have your configurations persist across sessions." Please check this section [2].

[1]https://cloud.google.com/shell/docs/limitations

[2]https://cloud.google.com/shell/docs/configuring-cloud-shell#environment_customization_script