AgentAura on Google Cloud: Set Up a Compute Engine VM ☁️

By the end of this guide you will have an Ubuntu 24.04 virtual machine in your own Google Cloud project, a private key that logs in to it, and the four values that AgentAura's My Server option asks for. On Google Cloud, My Server is the only path: you create the VM in the Google Cloud console, and AgentAura logs in to it over SSH.

The server requirements and the key rules that apply to every provider are in our overview, Getting a Server for AgentAura. The Google Cloud console changes from time to time, so a label may look slightly different from ours.

1. Create a Google Cloud Account

Sign in to Google Cloud with a Google Account and start the Free Trial. You must provide a credit card or other payment method, and in some countries also verify a bank account. Google places a temporary authorization hold of up to one US dollar, which is not a charge.

At the time of writing (September 2026), the Free Trial gives new customers $300 of credit to use within 90 days, and you are not billed during the trial. You qualify if you have never been a paying customer of Google Cloud, Google Maps Platform or Firebase, and have not had the trial before.

When the 90 days pass or the credit is spent, a trial that was not upgraded to a Paid billing account closes: all its resources are stopped, and after a 30-day grace period they are deleted. To keep your agent running, select Activate in the console to upgrade before then.

The always-free tier includes one e2-micro VM in certain US regions, but it has 1 GB of memory, which is too tight for us to recommend. The size we use below is paid; during the trial the credit covers it.

2. Create a Project and Turn On Compute Engine

The trial creates a project called "My First Project", which you can use. We suggest a new project, for example agentaura, so that cleanup later can be a single delete. In the console:

1. Open the project selector and create or select the project.
2. Check that billing is enabled for it.
3. Enable the Compute Engine API.

3. Make an SSH Key

Google Cloud does not generate a downloadable key for you here, so make one just for this server, without a passphrase:

# macOS or Linux
mkdir -p ~/.ssh
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f ~/.ssh/agentaura -N "" -C "agentaura"

# Windows 10 or 11, in PowerShell. When asked for a passphrase, press Enter twice.
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force "$HOME\.ssh" | Out-Null
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f "$HOME\.ssh\agentaura" -C "agentaura"

This creates the private key agentaura and the public key agentaura.pub. Show the public key with cat ~/.ssh/agentaura.pub or Get-Content "$HOME\.ssh\agentaura.pub". It is one line that ends in agentaura. Google Cloud reads that last word as the username it creates on the VM, and it cannot be root.

4. Create the VM

1. Go to Compute Engine, VM instances, and open the Create an instance page.
2. In Machine configuration, name the VM and choose a region near you. Under the E2 series, pick e2-medium: 2 vCPUs and 4 GB, on Intel or AMD x86 processors. It is a shared-core type, so the two vCPUs together sustain one full core and can burst above that briefly. If you want full cores, e2-standard-2 has 2 vCPUs and 8 GB. Avoid C4A, N4A and Tau T2A: they are Arm.
3. In OS and storage, click Change. On Public images, choose Ubuntu, then Ubuntu 24.04 LTS in its x86/64 (amd64) version, not Arm64. A newer Ubuntu may be listed; stay on 24.04, which AgentAura is built and run against. The image is 10 GB by default; raise the size here if you expect large projects. Click Select.
4. In Networking, leave Allow HTTP traffic and Allow HTTPS traffic unticked. Keep the default network, and check that the network interface has an External IPv4 address (Ephemeral is fine).
5. In Security, expand Manage access. If Control VM access through IAM permissions is ticked, clear it; that is OS Login, and with it on the VM ignores the key you are about to add. Under Add manually generated SSH keys, click Add item and paste the whole line from agentaura.pub.
6. Click Create. When the VM shows a green status on the VM instances page, copy its external IP.

5. Keep SSH Open, and Only SSH

A new project's default network comes with a firewall rule named default-allow-ssh, which allows TCP port 22 from 0.0.0.0/0. That is the rule AgentAura needs. Keep its source at 0.0.0.0/0. AgentAura connects from its own cloud, not from your computer, both for the install and later for logs, restarts, reconnecting a credential, adding agents and updates. A rule narrowed to your IP breaks all of those. If you use another network, or deleted that rule, create an ingress rule allowing tcp:22 from 0.0.0.0/0.

Key-only login is what keeps the open port safe. Google's Ubuntu images turn off SSH password login and do not allow root to log in with a password. Do not open other ports: the installer sets up an outbound Cloudflare Tunnel, which needs no inbound rule.

If your Google Account belongs to a company or school, an administrator may enforce OS Login through an organization policy (compute.requireOsLogin). The key in metadata is then ignored; use a project outside that organization, or ask the administrator.

About the address: an ephemeral external IP is, in general, released when you stop or delete the VM, so it can change after a stop and start. Promote it to a static address if you need it fixed. Google charges by the hour for external IP addresses in use, and more for a reserved static address that is not attached to anything.

6. Log In Once Yourself

On macOS or Linux:

ssh -i ~/.ssh/agentaura agentaura@203.0.113.10

On Windows, in PowerShell:

ssh -i "$HOME\.ssh\agentaura" agentaura@203.0.113.10

Use your VM's address instead of 203.0.113.10. Users created from metadata keys get sudo without a password, which the installer needs. Check it:

sudo -n true && echo "passwordless sudo OK"

Google's Ubuntu images install security updates automatically. If apt reports a lock right after creation, the first-boot run is still going; give it a few minutes before deploying.

7. Fill In AgentAura

In AgentAura, add a server with My Server and enter:

To print the private key, run cat ~/.ssh/agentaura or Get-Content "$HOME\.ssh\agentaura". Start the deployment and watch the output; the quick start covers what comes next.

8. Costs and Cleanup

• Running: vCPUs and memory are billed.
• Stopped: no vCPU or memory charges, but the boot disk and external IP addresses are billed while they exist. The agent is offline while the VM is stopped.
• Deleted: the VM's charges end.

When you are finished, go to VM instances, select the VM, click Delete and confirm. Release any static IP you reserved, or delete the whole agentaura project. Removing the agent in AgentAura does not delete anything in Google Cloud.

Common Problems

• "Permission denied (publickey)". The login user does not match the last word of the public key, OS Login is on (the checkbox or an organization policy), or root was used.
• Connection timed out. The SSH rule was deleted or narrowed, the VM has no external IP, or it is stopped.
• The install fails early. Check for an Arm machine type (C4A, N4A, T2A) or an Arm64 image and create the VM again on x86.
• AgentAura cannot reach the VM after a stop and start. The ephemeral IP changed. Use a static address if you plan to stop the VM.
• Everything stopped after 90 days. The Free Trial ended without an upgrade to a Paid billing account.

Google Cloud's references: Free Trial and Free Tier · Add SSH keys to VMs · VPC firewall rules · Instance lifecycle and billing