Can Google Compute instances be started and stopped on a schedule?

Question

I run a simple task 3 times a day from my desktop computer. It connects to a certain website at 4pm, 8pm, and 1am, downloads a small amount of data (less then 50mb), and stores

Answer 1

I still wonder why gcp has still not have this feature in the first place like other platforms. Anyways These simple steps did the job for me using Job Scheduler Pub/Sub option.

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To stop

• Create a new JobScheduler.
• Fill in the required details
• Choose frequency which suits your requirement.
• Choose the target to Pub/Sub.
• Choose the topic name (Create a new topic if not created ).
• In the payload section use this stop script gcloud compute instances stop instance-name.

To verify the change you can run the job manually and check.

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To start, same procedures as mentioned above the only change you need to have is the payload script ie gcloud compute instances start instance-name