Google Cloud nuked the web server on my VM

I wasn’t paying for my Google Cloud VM, and it turns out the price was right.

Since I started working on my own server in the coat closet, I haven’t been using my free Google VM.

I got an email today saying that it’s been 120 days since I’ve opened Google Cloud Shell. If I didn’t log in, “in 7 days, your Cloud Shell home directory will be automatically scheduled for deletion.”

What they didn’t tell me was that EVERYTHING ELSE in my VM had already been deleted. All the packages I added are gone. All my config files in /etc are gone. All my web files in /var/www/html are gone.

There was no warning about all of that.

Yes, I was paying nothing, and that’s pretty much what I have now.