How to create a stopped Google Compute Engine instance?

Question

How do I create a new GCE instance and not have it start up after creation?

I want to create a clone of a running instance.

No problem to create the disk from a snapshot, but creating the new instance automatically runs it and I don't see a way to stop it from doing that.

Answer 1

Sadly we don't have feature to create VM instance without running it immediately. The best you can do is to add shutdown command to your startup script.

Answer 2

According to GCE Instance Life Cycle, after PROVISIONING and STAGING states instance always enters into RUNNING state, so there are no way to create stopped instance in TERMINATED state after PROVISIONING and STAGING states.