Google Cloud Compute Engine API Key To Manage VMs

Question

I'd like to start/stop/restart VMs in GCP through scripts. There are OAuth2.0 and API key methods for this.

For OAuth 2.0, I can generate access token through "gcloud auth print-access-token" I get the key and it works.

I want to the same to work with API keys, but not able to find API key for "Compute Engine", there are service account, but keys.

curl --request POST \ 'https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/xxxx/zones/xxx/instances/xxx/stop?key=[YOUR_API_KEY]' \ --header 'Accept: application/json' \ --compressed

what I am missing?

thanks.

Answer 1

You cannot use an API key for this purpose. This is because the GCE API needs to know who is sending the request¹ but the API key doesn't provide this information.

API keys are used when an API can be accessed by anyone, for example a Google Maps box embedded in a website, but usage needs to be accounted to one particular customer.

¹ Identity is needed to enforce IAM permission, collect audit logs and other such tools.