Triage and Remediation
- Remediation
Remediation
Using Console
Using Console
Below are step-by-step GCP Console instructions to ensure Secure Boot is enabled for Vertex AI notebook instances. The key point: Secure Boot (a Shielded VM feature) can only be enabled when the VM is created. So existing notebook instances generally need to be recreated with Secure Boot enabled.
A. Create a new Vertex AI Workbench notebook with Secure Boot enabled
-
Open Vertex AI Workbench
- Go to Google Cloud Console.
- In the left menu, navigate to:
Vertex AI → Workbench.
-
Start creating a new notebook
- Click + New notebook.
- Choose the type (e.g., User-managed notebooks or Managed notebooks) and select an image / environment.
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Open advanced VM configuration
- After selecting the base image/config:
- For Managed notebooks:
- In the notebook creation panel, click Advanced options or Customize to show VM-level settings.
- For User-managed notebooks:
- After selecting the image, scroll down to the Machine configuration, then expand Advanced options or Security (wording may vary slightly by UI version).
- For Managed notebooks:
- After selecting the base image/config:
-
Enable Shielded VM and Secure Boot
- Look for a section named Security, Shielded VM, or Security and access.
- Ensure Shielded VM is enabled (if it’s a separate checkbox).
- Then check the box for Secure Boot (sometimes labeled as Turn on Secure Boot).
- Optionally also enable:
- vTPM (virtual TPM)
- Integrity monitoring, if available (both part of Shielded VM).
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Finish notebook creation
- Complete any remaining fields (name, region/zone, machine type, disk, networking, etc.).
- Click Create.
- The resulting Vertex AI notebook VM will now have Secure Boot enabled.
B. Handling existing Vertex AI notebook instances
Secure Boot cannot be toggled on/off on an already-created VM; it’s a creation-time setting. To “enable” Secure Boot for an existing workload:-
Identify the existing notebook
- Go to Vertex AI → Workbench.
- Find the notebook instance that does not have Secure Boot enabled.
-
Export / back up work
- Open the notebook (JupyterLab/Jupyter).
- Copy notebooks, scripts, and data to a durable location:
- A Cloud Storage bucket, or
- A Git repository, or
- Another shared storage solution.
-
Recreate the notebook with Secure Boot
- Stop the old instance if you wish (optional, for cost).
- Follow Section A above to create a new notebook instance with the same:
- Region/Zone
- Machine type
- Image / environment
- Disk size
- Ensure you enable Shielded VM + Secure Boot in the advanced/security settings.
-
Restore your work
- Open the new notebook instance.
- Pull your notebooks and data back from Cloud Storage / Git / other backup.
- Validate the environment and dependencies (packages, libraries) match your prior setup.
-
Decommission the old instance
- Once the new Secure-Boot-enabled notebook is working, return to Vertex AI → Workbench.
- Select the old instance and click Delete (if no longer needed), or leave it stopped.
C. Verify Secure Boot is enabled (optional)
You can verify from the underlying VM:- Go to Compute Engine → VM instances in the console.
- Locate the VM created for your Vertex AI notebook (name will match or be similar).
- Click the instance name.
- In the Details tab, look at the Security or Shielded VM section.
- Confirm that Secure Boot is shown as On / Enabled.
Using CLI
Using CLI
Below are CLI-focused steps to ensure Secure Boot is enabled on Vertex AI Workbench (Notebooks) instances.
or for a specific region:Note the values:
Wait until it reaches the
If this command succeeds, Secure Boot is now enabled.If you get an error indicating the setting cannot be updated (e.g., instance type or image doesn’t support Shielded VM), proceed to recreate with Secure Boot enabled (next section).
Ensure
These steps ensure Secure Boot is enabled on your Vertex AI notebook instances using the GCP CLI.
Note: Secure Boot is a Shielded VM feature. It can only be enabled on instances that support Shielded VM. For some existing instances, you may need to recreate them with Secure Boot enabled.
1. Identify your notebook instance
List your instances to find theINSTANCE_ID and REGION:INSTANCE_IDREGION(e.g.,us-central1)
2. Stop the notebook instance
You must stop the instance before updating Shielded VM settings:STOPPED state.3. Enable Secure Boot on the instance (if supported)
Try updating in place:4. Verify Secure Boot is enabled
Describe the instance and check Shielded VM settings:enableSecureBoot: true is present in shieldedInstanceConfig.5. If update fails: recreate the notebook with Secure Boot
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Export the configuration (for reference):
-
(Optional) Back up important data (e.g., copy notebooks to a GCS bucket):
-
Delete the old instance (if acceptable):
-
Recreate with Secure Boot enabled (adjust flags to match your previous config: machine type, image family, etc.):
- Restore your notebooks/data from backup if needed.
These steps ensure Secure Boot is enabled on your Vertex AI notebook instances using the GCP CLI.
Using Python
Using Python
Below is how to enable Secure Boot on Vertex AI notebook instances (user‑managed or classic/AI Platform Notebooks) using Python.
Important: For Shielded VM options (including Secure Boot), the instance must be stopped before updating.
1. Prerequisites
- Install the Notebooks client library
- Authenticate
gcloud auth application-default login has been run, or a service account with at least:roles/notebooks.admin(or equivalent permissions)roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1(for Shielded VM config on underlying VM)
2. Python script to enable Secure Boot
This script:- Stops the notebook instance (if needed).
- Updates the Shielded VM configuration to enable Secure Boot.
- Restarts the instance.
3. Notes / Variations
- New instances: To enforce Secure Boot for all new user-managed notebook instances, always set
shielded_instance_config.enable_secure_boot = Truein your creation code. - Managed notebooks: Fully managed Vertex AI Workbench notebooks may not expose Shielded VM settings directly; in that case, you must enforce Secure Boot at the project / organization policy level for Shielded VMs or use user‑managed notebooks where this option is configurable.
Using Terraform
Using Terraform
terraform plan should show shielded_instance_config.enable_secure_boot being added or changing from false to true on the google_notebook_instance.VERTEX_AI_NOTEBOOK resource.
