Google ACE Practice Question: Ensuring Successful Operation of a Cloud Solution
You have a Compute Engine instance that is running a CPU-intensive workload. After monitoring, you realize the machine type needs to be upgraded to a larger CPU. What is the correct sequence to change the machine type?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is assuming machine type can be changed live like a CPU hot-add — candidates pick the running-instance option, forgetting that GCE requires the instance to be stopped (TERMINATED) before the machine type can be modified.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Stop the instance, run gcloud compute instances set-machine-type, then start the instance
Changing a Compute Engine instance's machine type requires the instance to be stopped first, because the machine type determines the underlying host resources. The correct sequence is to stop the instance, run `gcloud compute instances set-machine-type`, then start the instance.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Stop the instance, run gcloud compute instances set-machine-type, then start the instance
Why this is correct
The correct sequence is to first stop the instance with `gcloud compute instances stop INSTANCE_NAME`, then run `gcloud compute instances set-machine-type INSTANCE_NAME --machine-type MACHINE_TYPE` while the instance is in the TERMINATED state, and finally start it again with `gcloud compute instances start INSTANCE_NAME`. This preserves the instance's boot disk, persistent disks, static IP, metadata, and other configuration, and is the standard non-destructive way to resize a VM.
- ✗
Run gcloud compute instances set-machine-type while the instance is running
Why it's wrong here
Running `gcloud compute instances set-machine-type` on a RUNNING instance fails because Compute Engine requires the instance to be in a TERMINATED state before the machine type can be changed. The API will return an error indicating that the instance must be stopped first, so this option is invalid. You must explicitly stop the instance, change the machine type, and then start it again.
- ✗
Delete the instance and create a new one with the desired machine type
Why it's wrong here
Deleting the instance and creating a new one is an unnecessarily destructive approach that is not recommended when resizing is possible. While you could attach the same boot disk to a new instance, you would have to recreate or manually reapply metadata, custom tags, IAM policies, and possibly reassign static IPs, risking misconfiguration and downtime. The preferred method is the stop-change-start sequence, which modifies only the machine type and retains all other instance configuration.
- ✗
Use gcloud compute instances update to change the machine type
Why it's wrong here
The `gcloud compute instances update` command does not support changing the machine type; it is used for other properties such as updating metadata, removing labels, or changing `--deletion-protection`. To resize a VM, the dedicated command is `gcloud compute instances set-machine-type`, and it must be run against a stopped instance. Therefore, this option is not valid.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
App Engine Security and IAP
Key term
Compute Engine
Compute Engine is Google Cloud's Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offering that lets you create and run virtual machines on Google's infrastructure.
Key term
Machine type
A machine type defines the virtual hardware resources (vCPU, memory, and sometimes GPU) assigned to a virtual machine instance in a cloud computing environment.
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This ACE question is part of Courseiva's 775-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Google Cloud exam blueprint
This ACE practice question is part of Courseiva's free Google Cloud certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the ACE exam.