Connecting VSCode and GCP - visual-studio-code

Question

I have a google cloud compute instance that I connect to with
INSTANCE_NAME='sam_vm'
gcloud beta compute ssh --zone "us-central1-a" $INSTANCE_NAME --project sam_project
when I try to connect with cmd-p then typing in that command, I get:
ssh: Could not resolve hostname gcloud beta compute ssh --zone "us-central1-a" "shleifer-v1-vm" --project $hf_proj: nodename nor servname provided, or not known
How can I connect?

Answer 1

run
gcloud compute config-ssh
then in the vscode remote-ssh popup,
ssh {instance_name}.{zone}.{project_name}

Answer 2

Even though it has been 2 years since this questions has been asked, I am providing instructions for those who are still trying to figure out how to set up ssh to GCP in VSCode on macOS.
Once you have Google Cloud CLI installed and have been granted access to the VM instance, login to your Google Cloud account by running in terminal:
gcloud auth login
Setup following variables which will be used in gcloud commands:
gcloud config set project <your project name>
gcloud config set compute/zone <your GCP zone>
Then you can establish SSH tunnel between VM and your local machine:
gcloud compute ssh [YOUR-VM-NAME] --tunnel-through-iap
Setup VS Code and install Remote Development extension.
Run the following command in terminal to obtain internal SSH command used by gcloud compute ssh to connect to VM:
gcloud compute ssh [YOUR-VM-NAME] --tunnel-through-iap --dry-run
The output may look similar to following:
/usr/bin/ssh -t -i /Users/<User_ID>/.ssh/google_compute_engine -o CheckHostIP=no
-o HashKnownHosts=no -o HostKeyAlias=compute.8972912327831725343 -o IdentitiesOnly=yes
-o StrictHostKeyChecking=yes
-o UserKnownHostsFile=/Users/<User_ID>/.ssh/google_compute_known_hosts
-o "ProxyCommand /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.10/bin/python3
/Library/google-cloud-sdk/lib/gcloud.py compute start-iap-tunnel <instance name>
%p --listen-on-stdin --project=<your project name> --zone=<your zone> --verbosity=warning"
-o ProxyUseFdpass=no <Gcloud_Username>#compute.8972912327831725343
Copy this SSH command and remove ‘/usr/bin/’:
ssh -t -i /Users/<User_ID>/.ssh/google_compute_engine -o CheckHostIP=no
-o HashKnownHosts=no -o HostKeyAlias=compute.8972912327831725343 -o IdentitiesOnly=yes
-o StrictHostKeyChecking=yes
-o UserKnownHostsFile=/Users/<User_ID>/.ssh/google_compute_known_hosts
-o "ProxyCommand /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.10/bin/python3
/Library/google-cloud-sdk/lib/gcloud.py compute start-iap-tunnel <instance name>
%p --listen-on-stdin --project=<your project name> --zone=<your zone> --verbosity=warning"
-o ProxyUseFdpass=no <Gcloud_Username>#compute.8972912327831725343
In VS Code:
Press 'Cmd' + 'Shift' + 'P'
Select 'Remote-SSH: Add New Host'
Press 'Enter'
Select the config file /Users/<User_ID>/.ssh/config
Press 'Cmd' + 'Shift' + 'P'
Select 'Remote-SSH: Connect Host'
Select Compute instance as Linux.
VS Code should establish SSH tunnel to the VM and you should be able to open root folder.
Hope that this will help someone save hours of efforts.

Answer 3

First execute gcloud compute config-ssh
Open ~/.ssh/config file
Find
Host {instance_name}.{zone}.{project_name}
HostName {ip_name_google_provided}
IdentityFile /Users/youruser/.ssh/google_compute_engine
UserKnownHostsFile=/Users/youruser/.ssh/google_compute_known_hosts
HostKeyAlias=compute.123423
IdentitiesOnly=yes
CheckHostIP=no
and convert to
Host {ip_name_google_provided}
HostName {ip_name_google_provided}
IdentityFile /Users/youruser/.ssh/google_compute_engine
UserKnownHostsFile=/Users/youruser/.ssh/google_compute_known_hosts
HostKeyAlias=compute.123423
IdentitiesOnly=yes
CheckHostIP=no
Simply use ip ({ip_name_google_provided}) at HostName as Host name and try to connect {ip_name_google_provided} as a solution.
Note: Problem is computer can not resolve DNS {instance_name}.{zone}.{project_name} from ssh config file.