Customize your development environment

This page describes the workstation configuration parameters that allow you to customize the Cloud Workstations environment, including the VM type , home disk size, base container image, and more. In the API, these workstation configuration parameters are collectively referred to as the WorkstationConfig.

Before you use these workstation configuration parameters, familiarize yourself with the following:

REST Resource: projects.locations.workstationClusters.workstationConfigs

Resource: WorkstationConfig

A workstation configuration resource in the Cloud Workstations API.

Workstation configurations act as templates for workstations. The workstation configuration defines details such as the workstation virtual machine (VM) instance type, persistent storage, container image defining environment, which IDE or Code Editor to use, and more. Administrators and platform teams can also use Identity and Access Management (IAM) rules to grant access to teams or to individual developers.

JSON representation 
{
  "name": string,
  "displayName": string,
  "uid": string,
  "reconciling": boolean,
  "annotations": {
    string: string,
    ...
  },
  "labels": {
    string: string,
    ...
  },
  "createTime": string,
  "updateTime": string,
  "deleteTime": string,
  "etag": string,
  "idleTimeout": string,
  "runningTimeout": string,
  "maxUsableWorkstations": integer,
  "host": {
    object (Host)
  },
  "persistentDirectories": [
    {
      object (PersistentDirectory)
    }
  ],
  "ephemeralDirectories": [
    {
      object (EphemeralDirectory)
    }
  ],
  "container": {
    object (Container)
  },
  "encryptionKey": {
    object (CustomerEncryptionKey)
  },
  "readinessChecks": [
    {
      object (ReadinessCheck)
    }
  ],
  "replicaZones": [
    string
  ],
  "degraded": boolean,
  "conditions": [
    {
      object (Status)
    }
  ],
  "enableAuditAgent": boolean,
  "disableTcpConnections": boolean,
  "allowedPorts": [
    {
      object (PortRange)
    }
  ],
  "grantWorkstationAdminRoleOnCreate": boolean
}
Fields
name

string

Identifier. Full name of this workstation configuration.
displayName

string

Optional. Human-readable name for this workstation configuration.
uid

string

Output only. A system-assigned unique identifier for this workstation configuration.
reconciling

boolean

Output only. Indicates whether this workstation configuration is currently being updated to match its intended state.
annotations

map (key: string, value: string)

Optional. Client-specified annotations.

An object containing a list of "key": value pairs. Example: { "name": "wrench", "mass": "1.3kg", "count": "3" }.
labels

map (key: string, value: string)

Optional. Labels that are applied to the workstation configuration and that are also propagated to the underlying Compute Engine resources.

An object containing a list of "key": value pairs. Example: { "name": "wrench", "mass": "1.3kg", "count": "3" }.
createTime

string (Timestamp format)

Output only. Time when this workstation configuration was created.

Uses RFC 3339, where generated output will always be Z-normalized and use 0, 3, 6 or 9 fractional digits. Offsets other than "Z" are also accepted. Examples: "2014-10-02T15:01:23Z", "2014-10-02T15:01:23.045123456Z" or "2014-10-02T15:01:23+05:30".
updateTime

string (Timestamp format)

Output only. Time when this workstation configuration was most recently updated.

Uses RFC 3339, where generated output will always be Z-normalized and use 0, 3, 6 or 9 fractional digits. Offsets other than "Z" are also accepted. Examples: "2014-10-02T15:01:23Z", "2014-10-02T15:01:23.045123456Z" or "2014-10-02T15:01:23+05:30".
deleteTime

string (Timestamp format)

Output only. Time when this workstation configuration was soft-deleted.

Uses RFC 3339, where generated output will always be Z-normalized and use 0, 3, 6 or 9 fractional digits. Offsets other than "Z" are also accepted. Examples: "2014-10-02T15:01:23Z", "2014-10-02T15:01:23.045123456Z" or "2014-10-02T15:01:23+05:30".
etag

string

Optional. Checksum computed by the server. May be sent on update and delete requests to make sure that the client has an up-to-date value before proceeding.
idleTimeout

string (Duration format)

Optional. Number of seconds to wait before automatically stopping a workstation after it last received user traffic.

A value of "0s" indicates that Cloud Workstations VMs created with this configuration should never time out due to idleness. Provide duration terminated by s for seconds—for example, "7200s" (2 hours). The default is "1200s" (20 minutes).

A duration in seconds with up to nine fractional digits, ending with 's'. Example: "3.5s".
runningTimeout

string (Duration format)

Optional. Number of seconds to wait before automatically stopping a workstation. We recommend that workstations be stopped daily so that security updates can be applied upon restart. The idleTimeout and runningTimeout fields are independent of each other. Note that the runningTimeout field stops workstations after the specified time, regardless of whether or not the workstations are idle.

Provide duration terminated by s for seconds—for example, "54000s" (15 hours). Defaults to "43200s" (12 hours). A value of "0s" indicates that workstations using this configuration should never time out. If encryptionKey is set, it must be greater than "0s" and less than "86400s" (24 hours).

Warning: A value of "0s" indicates that Cloud Workstations VMs created with this configuration have no maximum running time. This is strongly discouraged because you incur costs and will not pick up security updates.

A duration in seconds with up to nine fractional digits, ending with 's'. Example: "3.5s".
maxUsableWorkstations

integer

Optional. Maximum number of workstations under this configuration a user can have workstations.workstation.use permission on.

Only enforced on CreateWorkstation API calls on the user issuing the API request. Can be overridden by:

  • granting a user workstations.workstationConfigs.exemptMaxUsableWorkstationLimit permission, or
  • having a user with that permission create a workstation and granting another user workstations.workstation.use permission on that workstation.

If not specified, defaults to 0, which indicates unlimited.
host

object (Host)

Optional. Runtime host for the workstation.
persistentDirectories[]

object (PersistentDirectory)

Optional. Directories to persist across workstation sessions.
ephemeralDirectories[]

object (EphemeralDirectory)

Optional. Ephemeral directories which won't persist across workstation sessions.
container

object (Container)

Optional. Container that runs upon startup for each workstation using this workstation configuration.
encryptionKey

object (CustomerEncryptionKey)

Immutable. Encrypts resources of this workstation configuration using a customer-managed encryption key (CMEK).

If specified, the boot disk of the Compute Engine instance and the persistent disk are encrypted using this encryption key. If this field is not set, the disks are encrypted using a generated key. Customer-managed encryption keys do not protect disk metadata.

If the customer-managed encryption key is rotated, when the workstation instance is stopped, the system attempts to recreate the persistent disk with the new version of the key. Be sure to keep older versions of the key until the persistent disk is recreated. Otherwise, data on the persistent disk might be lost.

If the encryption key is revoked, the workstation session automatically stops within 7 hours.

Immutable after the workstation configuration is created.
readinessChecks[]

object (ReadinessCheck)

Optional. Readiness checks to perform when starting a workstation using this workstation configuration. Mark a workstation as running only after all specified readiness checks return 200 status codes.
replicaZones[]