OAuth: Starting a Google Compute Instance from within Google App Engine

Question

I have a Google App Engine web app that runs the majority of my site. However, for certain functions, I need a linux machine. I would like my Google App Engine app to automatica

Answer 1

Here is a complete example of using service accounts and App Engine cron tasks to stop instances after they've been running for a while: (opposite of starting instances, but the authorization code will be the same)

https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/compute-appengine-timeout-python

AppAssertionCredentials handles the access token using this code:

# Obtain App Engine AppAssertion credentials and authorize HTTP connection.
# https://developers.google.com/appengine/docs/python/appidentity/overview
credentials = AppAssertionCredentials(
    scope='https://www.googleapis.com/auth/compute')
HTTP = credentials.authorize(httplib2.Http(memcache))

# Build object for the 'v1beta15' version of the GCE API.
# https://developers.google.com/compute/docs/reference/v1beta13/
compute = build('compute', 'v1beta15', http=HTTP)