An engineer stops a VM to save compute cost but keeps its boot disk attached. What happens to the disk contents?
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C
Stopping a VM shuts down the guest and ends its vCPU and memory charges, but a persistent disk is separate from the instance. Its data remains intact, and the disk keeps billing at storage rates for its provisioned size. Deleting the disk, or deleting the VM with its disk set to delete on termination, is what ends those storage charges. Disks are not automatically exported or locked when a VM stops.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Persistent disks are network-attached and independent of the instance lifecycle. Stopping a VM does not wipe the data on its attached disk.
- B. Compute Engine does not copy disks to Cloud Storage when a VM stops. Exporting data to a bucket is a separate step the engineer must perform.
- D. Persistent disks are not locked when a VM stops. The data remains available to the same instance or to another VM that attaches the disk, and nothing is hidden from it.