--- title: Target Instance description: Datadog, the leading service for cloud-scale monitoring. breadcrumbs: Docs > DDSQL Reference > Data Directory > Target Instance --- # Target Instance A Target Instance in Google Cloud is a single virtual machine instance used as a target for traffic from a forwarding rule in a network load balancing configuration. It allows direct routing of traffic to a specific VM without using an instance group, making it suitable for simple or single-instance load balancing scenarios. ``` gcp.compute_target_instance ``` ## Fields | Title | ID | Type | Data Type | Description | | -------------------- | ---- | ------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------- | | _key | core | string | | ancestors | core | array | | creation_timestamp | core | timestamp | Output only. [Output Only] Creation timestamp inRFC3339 text format. | | datadog_display_name | core | string | | description | core | string | An optional description of this resource. Provide this property when you create the resource. | | id | core | string | [Output Only] The unique identifier for the resource. This identifier is defined by the server. | | instance | core | string | A URL to the virtual machine instance that handles traffic for this target instance. When creating a target instance, you can provide the fully-qualified URL or a valid partial URL to the desired virtual machine. For example, the following are all valid URLs: - https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/project/zones/zone/instances/instance - projects/project/zones/zone/instances/instance - zones/zone/instances/instance | | kind | core | string | Output only. [Output Only] The type of the resource. Alwayscompute#targetInstance for target instances. | | labels | core | array | | name | core | string | Name of the resource. Provided by the client when the resource is created. The name must be 1-63 characters long, and comply withRFC1035. Specifically, the name must be 1-63 characters long and match the regular expression `[a-z]([-a-z0-9]*[a-z0-9])?` which means the first character must be a lowercase letter, and all following characters must be a dash, lowercase letter, or digit, except the last character, which cannot be a dash. | | nat_policy | core | string | Must have a value of NO_NAT. Protocol forwarding delivers packets while preserving the destination IP address of the forwarding rule referencing the target instance. | | network | core | string | The URL of the network this target instance uses to forward traffic. If not specified, the traffic will be forwarded to the network that the default network interface belongs to. | | organization_id | core | string | | parent | core | string | | project_id | core | string | | project_number | core | string | | region_id | core | string | | resource_name | core | string | | security_policy | core | string | [Output Only] The resource URL for the security policy associated with this target instance. | | self_link | core | string | [Output Only] Server-defined URL for the resource. | | tags | core | hstore_csv | | zone | core | string | Output only. [Output Only] URL of the zone where the target instance resides. You must specify this field as part of the HTTP request URL. It is not settable as a field in the request body. | | zone_id | core | string |