<p>I don't know of a way to get the actual GCE VM images.</p>

<p>But it's possible to <a href="https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/images/export-image" rel="nofollow noreferrer">export the images to GCS</a> (as a <code>tar.gz</code> archive):</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>If you need to move your Compute Engine boot disk data outside of your
  Compute Engine project, you can export a boot disk image to Cloud
  Storage as a <code>tar.gz</code> file. </p>
  
  <p>You can export a custom image as backup or for sharing by exporting
  the image to Cloud Storage. This method is ideal for sharing
  individual images with other projects that do not have access to your
  images.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>You can then download this <code>tar.gz</code> file and, I guess, create a VM image from it to run on your local machine. I imagine the process would contain steps similar  to those detailed in <a href="https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/vm-migration/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Migrating VMs to Compute Engine</a> and <a href="https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/images/import-existing-image" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Importing Boot Disk Images to Compute Engine</a>, only seen from your VirtualBox perspective instead of the GCE one. </p>

<p>These guides are making it easy to transfer VM loads <strong>to</strong> GCE. I guess they don't have incentives to do the same for transfers <strong>from</strong> GCE, which probably explains why there is no guide for it ;)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-07T04:55:07.683Z
2019-07-07T04:55:07.683Z
Dan Cornilescu
<p>I do not see a download button. I would like to download a VM image that was created on GCP using Packer and I would like to run it locally in Virtualbox.</p>

<packer><gcp><virtualbox><images><vm>
How to download a VM image from GCP?
030
# How to download a VM image from GCP?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-06-04)

I do not see a download button. I would like to download a VM image that was created on GCP using Packer and I would like to run it locally in Virtualbox.

**Tags:** packer, gcp, virtualbox, images, vm


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2019-07-07. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

I don't know of a way to get the actual GCE VM images.

But it's possible to [export the images to GCS](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/images/export-image) (as a `tar.gz` archive):

> If you need to move your Compute Engine boot disk data outside of your
> Compute Engine project, you can export a boot disk image to Cloud
> Storage as a `tar.gz` file.
>
> You can export a custom image as backup or for sharing by exporting
> the image to Cloud Storage. This method is ideal for sharing
> individual images with other projects that do not have access to your
> images.

You can then download this `tar.gz` file and, I guess, create a VM image from it to run on your local machine. I imagine the process would contain steps similar to those detailed in [Migrating VMs to Compute Engine](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/vm-migration/) and [Importing Boot Disk Images to Compute Engine](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/images/import-existing-image), only seen from your VirtualBox perspective instead of the GCE one.

These guides are making it easy to transfer VM loads **to** GCE. I guess they don't have incentives to do the same for transfers **from** GCE, which probably explains why there is no guide for it ;)


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