Metadata-based virtual machine configuration

The invention provides methods, systems, and an apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for associating one or more of a plurality of metadata collections with one or more respective identifiers, wherein each metadata collection includes one or more pairings of metadata attributes with metadata values, and wherein each identifier is one of a project identifier, a tag identifier or an instance identifier; identifying, based on identifier information associated with a virtual machine instance, one or more metadata values to be provided to the virtual machine instance, wherein the identifier information specifies one or more of a project identifier, a tag identifier and an instance identifier, and wherein each identified metadata value belongs to a metadata collection associated with an identifier that is specified in the identifier information; and providing, to the virtual machine instance, the identified one or more metadata values.