[akramer]

The GCE API can be idempotent if you'd like. Fill out the requestId field with the same UUID in multiple instances.insert calls (or other mutation calls) and you will receive the same operation Id back in response.

Disclaimer: I work on GCE.

[jsolson]

Today I learned! I'll admit I didn't know this functionality existed, and I've instead had used instances.insert following by querying the VM resource.

This is nicer!