Google Compute Engine loses static ip when started and stopped

Question

I had a Google Compute Engine Wordpress application running on a dedicated ip number, with cloud DNS also set up. I needed to start and stop the apache web server in order to change the debut settings of php.ini. So I looked around for how to do it from gcloud or google's gui based interface, and decided after reading about stopping and starting and instance that that would be the way to go.

When I restarted the instance though, it had now assigned a 'ephemeral' ip address to the instance. To add insult to injury the ephemeral instance would not allow outside connections. Nor does the old static ip work.

I'm not pleased with having to delete everything and start from scratch, but I may have to .

Can anybody tell me what I did wrong. How should I reboot the virtual machine without losing my ip and my stored configurations?

Answer 1

The restart of the virtual machine wouldn't release the reserved static IP address. Check in VPC network > External IP addresses. There you should be able to find the IP that was attached to the instance.

If it isn't there, means you never really reserved it, and a ephemeral one was attach to your instance.

I believe you already have read it, but I attach the docs anyways if it can help you.

By the way, you shouldn't need to remake everything, just attach the IP to your instance again.