Configure the instance metadata service

Enable the metadata service for an existing instance by using the UI

Use the UI to enable the metadata service on an existing instance.

1. Go to the list of instances. In the IBM Cloud console, click the Navigation Menu icon > VPC Infrastructure > Compute > Virtual server instances.

2. Click the name of an instance to go to the details page.

3. On the details page, scroll to Metadata.

4. Click the toggle (appears green).

Enable the metadata service when you create a new instance by using the UI

The following procedure shows how to enable the metadata service when you create a new virtual server instance.

1. In the IBM Cloud console, click the Navigation Menu icon > VPC Infrastructure > Compute > Virtual server instances.

2. Click Create.

3. Provision the instance.

4. Navigate to Advanced options and enable Metadata.

For more information about creating virtual server instances, see Creating virtual server instances by using the UI.

Enable or disable the metadata service when you create an instance by using the CLI

Run the ibmcloud is instance-create command and set the metadata-service property to true. The metadata service is disabled by default. In the response, you see Metadata service enabled set to true.

ibmcloud is instance-create test-instance-1 7002c1cd-9b0b-43ee-8112-5124dedbe84b us-south-1  bx2-2x8  0711-08206578-d749-49ea-86c9-1014622d1c6f --image-id 9f0050d0-636b-4fe6-82ea-931664fd9d91 --metadata-service true

Creating instance test under account VPC1 as user myuser@mycompany.com...

ID                         264060c2-e5e9-44d4-994f-eea4a6688172
Name                       test-instance-1
CRN                        crn:v1:public:is:us-south-1:a/a1234567::instance:264060c2-e5e9-44d4-994f-eea4a6688172
Status                     pending
Startable                  true
Profile                    bx2-2x8
Architecture               amd64
vCPUs                      2
Memory(GiB)                8
Bandwidth(Mbps)            4000
Metadata service enabled   true
Image                      ID                                          Name
                           9f0050d0-636b-4fe6-82ea-931664fd9d91        ibm-ubuntu-20-04-minimal-amd64-1

VPC                        ID                                          Name
                           7002c1cd-9b0b-43ee-8112-5124dedbe84b        test-vpc1

Zone                       us-south-1
Resource group             ID                                  Name
                           21cabbd983d9c4beb82690daab08717e8   Default

Created                    2022-08-08T22:12:11+05:30
Boot volume                ID   Name           Attachment ID                               Attachment name
                           -    PROVISIONING   954c1c47-906d-423f-a8c8-dd3adfafd278        my-vol-attachment1

Enable or disable the metadata service for an existing instance from the CLI

Run the ibmcloud is instance-update command and specify the instance ID. To enable the metadata service, set the metadata-service parameter to true; to disable, set it to false. An example command for enabling the service looks like this:

ibmcloud is instance-update e219a883-41f2-4680-810e-ee63ade35f98 --metadata-service true

Enable or disable the metadata service when you create new instance templates by using the CLI

When you create an instance template from the CLI, you can indicate whether metadata is collected for instances created based on this template.

Use the ibmcloud is instance-create-from-template command and specify metadata-service true to enable or metadata-service false to disable. After you set the template value, you can't change it.

For example, to create an instance template with the metadata service enabled, run this command:

ibmcloud is instance-template-create my-template-name {template_id} us-south-1 mx2-2x16 {subnet_id} --image-id {image_id} --metadata-service true

When you create an instance from this template, specify metadata-service true again to enable the service on the new instance:

ibmcloud is instance-create-from-template --template-id {template_id} --name my-instance --metadata-service true

If you override the instance template by running the ibmcloud is instance-template-create-override-source-template command, you can enable or disable the metadata service by specifying the metadata-service parameter with true or false.

For more information about these commands, see the VPC CLI Reference. For more information about creating an instance template from the CLI, see Creating an instance template.

Enable or disable the metadata service when you create a new instance by using the API

The metadata service is disabled by default when you create a new instance by making a POST /instances call.

You can enable the service by specifying the metadata_service parameter and setting enabled to true.

This example shows enabling the metadata service at instance creation:

curl -X POST "$vpc_api_endpoint/v1/instances?version=2022-08-08&generation=2"\
-H "Authorization: Bearer $iam_token"\
-d '{
      "image": {
         "id": "9aaf3bcb-dcd7-4de7-bb60-24e39ff9d366"
      },
      "keys": [
         {
           "id": "363f6d70-0000-0001-0000-00000013b96c"
         }
      ],
      "name": "my-instance",
      "metadata_service": {
         "enabled": true
      },
      .
      .
      .
   }'

The response shows that the metadata parameter set to true when you enable the service. You can also verify the metadata service setting by making a GET /instance/{id} call.

Enable or disable the metadata service for an existing instance from the API

To enable or disable the service from an existing instance, make a PATCH /instance/{instance_id} call and specify the metadata_service parameter. By default, the enabled property is set to false. To enable the service, set it to true.

This example call shows enabling the metadata service for an instance:

curl -X PATCH "$vpc_api_endpoint/v1/instances/$instance_id?version=2022-08-08&generation=2"\
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $iam_token"\
    -d '{
          "metadata_service": {
            "enabled": true
          }
      }'

The response shows that the metadata parameter set to true when you enable the service. You can also verify the metadata service setting by making a GET /instance/{id} call.

Enable or disable the metadata service when you create new instance templates by using the API

When you create an instance template, you can set this value by making a POST /instance/templates call. By default, the enabled property is set to false. To enable it, set it to true.

For example,

curl -X POST "$vpc_api_endpoint/v1/instance/templates?version=2022-08-08&generation=2"\
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $iam_token"\
    -d '{
         "image": {
           "id": "3f9a2d96-830e-4100-9b4c-663225a3f872"
         },
         "keys": [
           {
             "id": "363f6d70-0000-0001-0000-00000013b96c"
           }
         ],
         "name": "my-instance-template",
         "metadata_service": {
             "enabled": true
         },
         "primary_network_interface": {
           "subnet": {
             "id": "0d933c75-492a-4756-9832-1200585dfa79"
           }
         },
         "profile": {
           "name": "bx2-2x8"
         },
         "vpc": {
           "id": "dc201ab2-8536-4904-86a8-084d84582133"
         },
         "zone": {
           "name": "us-south-1"
         }
       }'

You can't use the API to change the metadata-service setting after the instance template is created. If you disabled it for a template, create a new instance template with the metadata-service enabled set to true.