[Yandex Cloud documentation](../../../index.md) > [Yandex Compute Cloud](../../index.md) > [Concepts](../index.md) > VM instance metadata > Identity document

# Identity document

When you create a VM, an identity document that stores information about the VM is generated. It contains the IDs of the VM, Marketplace product, disk image, etc. VMs can request information about themselves from the metadata service.

For more information on how to get an identity document, see [Getting a VM instance identity document](../../operations/vm-metadata/get-identity-document.md).

## Signed identity documents {#signed-identity-documents}

If intending to use the contents of an identity document for critical tasks, you should check its contents and confirm its authenticity prior to using it.

Apart from identity documents, the VM [metadata service](../vm-metadata.md) provides their cryptographic signatures. You can use these signatures to verify the document's origin, authenticity, and integrity.

For more information on how to check an identity document for integrity and authenticity, see [Checking identity document signature](../../operations/vm-metadata/get-identity-document.md#check-id-signature).

#### See also {#see-also}

* [Getting a VM identity document](../../operations/vm-metadata/get-identity-document.md)
* [VM metadata](../vm-metadata.md)
* [Metadata folders](directories.md)
* [Keys processed in public images Yandex Cloud](public-image-keys.md)
* [Transferring metadata to VM instances](sending-metadata.md)
* [Access to VM instance metadata](accessing-metadata.md)