3.1 Connect and verify the machine

Connect from the workstation or Cloud Shell using IAP.

gcloud compute ssh "$VM_NAME" --project="$PROJECT_ID" --zone="$ZONE" --tunnel-through-iap

Run these checks inside the VM before installing Docker.

uname -m
cat /etc/os-release
free -h
df -h / /var/lib

Expect an ARM64 guest (aarch64) on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS with sufficient memory and free storage. For a connection failure, confirm the VM is running, your OS Login role permits access, the IAP rule targets the instance, and no higher-priority firewall policy blocks the tunnel.