How to Interact with Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

 

GKE Foundations — Section: How to Interact with Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Let's understand this video from zero, with simple examples and practical commands. This topic is important because, while learning Kubernetes Engine (GKE), you'll use tools like Google Cloud Console, Cloud Shell, gcloud, and kubectl.

1. What is GCP?

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is Google's cloud computing platform. Instead of purchasing and maintaining physical servers, you can use Google's infrastructure to run applications.

For example, imagine you have a Java Spring Boot application that you want to deploy.

You might need:

  • A virtual machine or Kubernetes cluster to run your application.

  • Storage to store files.

  • A network to connect services.

  • Monitoring to check CPU usage and application errors.

GCP provides these services, and you need tools to manage them.

2. The four ways to interact with GCP

Enable informed decision making with a conversational agent that uses generators and data stores | Google Skills

1. Google Cloud Console

GUI

A website where you manage cloud resources using your mouse and keyboard.

Example: Open the GKE section and create a Kubernetes cluster by filling in a form.

Kubernetes 101 - a brief tutorial - FOTC

2. Cloud Shell and Cloud SDK

CLI

Command-line tools for managing cloud resources.

Example: Run gcloud container clusters list to list GKE clusters.

Google Cloud mobile app overview | Google Cloud Blog

3. Cloud Console Mobile App

Manage and monitor certain cloud resources from your phone.

Example: Check billing information, view logs, and monitor metrics.

Get Started with Google Cloud APIs

4. REST-based APIs

Allow applications to communicate with Google Cloud services programmatically using HTTP requests.

Example: A custom automation application requests the creation or modification of a cloud resource through an API.

For this course, focus primarily on the Console, Cloud Shell, gcloud, and kubectl.

3. Google Cloud Console

The Google Cloud Console is a web-based graphical user interface (GUI).

Website: Open Google Cloud Console

You can use it to:

  • Create and manage virtual machines.

  • Create Kubernetes clusters.

  • View cloud resources.

  • Check monitoring and billing.

  • Configure cloud services.

Example: Suppose you want to create a GKE cluster. In the Console, you can navigate to Kubernetes Engine, choose Create, configure the cluster, and submit the form.

You don't need to remember a command for every operation.

One important concept is the GCP project. Resources are organized under projects, which help you manage access, billing, and resources.

4. Cloud SDK and its important commands

The video introduces the Cloud SDK, which provides command-line tools for interacting with GCP. In current Google Cloud terminology, the main command-line package is the Google Cloud CLI.

Here are the tools you should remember.

Tool

Purpose

Example

gcloud

Manage Google Cloud resources

List GKE clusters

kubectl

Manage Kubernetes resources

List Pods

gsutil

Work with Cloud Storage

Copy files to a bucket

bq

Work with BigQuery

Run data queries

Understand gcloud vs kubectl

This is one of the most important distinctions in the course.

gcloud — Google Cloud level

Used to manage the cloud infrastructure, including GKE clusters.

gcloud container clusters list

This lists the Kubernetes clusters in your selected GCP project.

kubectl — Kubernetes level

Used to manage workloads and resources inside a Kubernetes cluster.

kubectl get pods

This lists Pods in the currently selected Kubernetes namespace.

Think of it this way:

  • gcloud helps you create or manage the Kubernetes cluster itself.

  • kubectl helps you manage what runs inside that cluster.

5. What is Cloud Shell?

Cloud Shell is a command-line environment available directly inside your web browser.

You can open the Google Cloud Console and click the Activate Cloud Shell terminal icon.

Why is it useful?

Normally, to run cloud commands on your own computer, you may need to install and configure command-line tools. Cloud Shell provides a ready-to-use environment with Google Cloud tools already installed and authentication integrated.

For example, you can run:

gcloud --version
kubectl version --client

You can also use a terminal editor or a browser-based code editor to edit files.

How does Cloud Shell work?

The video explains these key characteristics:

  • Managed environment: It runs on a Google-managed Compute Engine virtual machine.

  • Temporary compute: The VM can stop when inactive and restart when you return.

  • Persistent storage: Your home directory has persistent disk storage, historically described in the video as 5 GB.

  • Authentication: It integrates with your Google Cloud identity and authorization.

  • Web preview: It can preview web applications running in the environment.

Cloud Shell is convenient for learning and administration, but it is not intended to host your production application. Also, check current Google Cloud documentation for the latest storage, lifecycle, and billing terms.

6. How Cloud Shell fits into GKE

Imagine you are deploying your Spring Boot application to GKE.

Your browser -> Google Cloud Console ->Cloud Shell ->Run gcloud and kubectl ->GCP / GKE ->

Infrastructure and clusters ->Kubernetes ->Pods and deployments


A typical sequence of commands looks like this:

# 1. Check the active GCP project
gcloud config get-value project

# 2. List available GKE clusters
gcloud container clusters list

# 3. Configure kubectl to access a cluster
gcloud container clusters get-credentials CLUSTER_NAME \
    --location=REGION

# 4. Check the cluster nodes
kubectl get nodes

# 5. Check the Pods
kubectl get pods

Replace CLUSTER_NAME and REGION with your actual cluster name and location. These commands require an appropriately configured project, permissions, and (for the GKE steps) an existing cluster.

7. What is the Cloud Console Mobile App?

Google also provides a mobile app for Android and iOS.

It can help you:

  • Check project billing.

  • View supported resource logs.

  • Monitor metrics such as CPU and network usage.

  • Receive billing alerts and review dashboards, where supported.

You don't need to use the mobile app for this specialization. It is simply another way to access cloud management features.

8. Quick revision notes

Concept

Remember this

Cloud Console

Graphical interface for GCP

Cloud Shell

Browser-based command-line environment

Cloud SDK / Google Cloud CLI

Tools for running Google Cloud commands

gcloud

Manages Google Cloud resources

kubectl

Manages Kubernetes resources

gsutil

Cloud Storage command-line utility

bq

BigQuery command-line utility

REST APIs

Let applications interact with cloud services programmatically

Mobile app

Access selected management and monitoring features


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Async/await

  Async/await An async function is a function declared with the async keyword, and the await keyword is permitted within them. The async and await keywords enable asynchronous, promise-based behavior to be written in a cleaner style, avoiding the need to explicitly configure promise chains. "async and await make promises easier to write" async  makes a function return a Promise await  makes a function wait for a Promise  Async functions Let’s start with the async keyword. It can be placed before a function, like this: async function f() {   return 1; } The word “async” before a function means one simple thing: a function always returns a promise. Other values are wrapped in a resolved promise automatically. For instance, this function returns a resolved promise with the result of 1; let’s test it: async function f() {   return 1; } f().then(alert); // 1 …We could explicitly return a promise, which would be the same: async function f() {   return Promis...
Read more

Valid Parentheses

Given a string s containing just the characters '(', ')', '{', '}', '[' and ']', determine if the input string is valid. An input string is valid if: Open brackets must be closed by the same type of brackets. Open brackets must be closed in the correct order. Every close bracket has a corresponding open bracket of the same type.   Example 1: Input: s = "()" Output: true Example 2: Input: s = "()[]{}" Output: true Example 3: Input: s = "(]" Output: false Example 4: Input: s = "([])" Output: true   Stack-Based Logic: Traverse each character in the string. If it's an opening bracket ( '(' , '{' , '[' ), push it onto the stack. If it's a closing bracket ( ')' , '}' , ']' ): If the stack is empty , return false (nothing to match). If the top of the stack is the corresponding opening bracket , pop it. Otherwise, return false . ...
Read more

kafka

  ✅ spring.kafka.bootstrap-servers=localhost:9092 🧠 Meaning: The address of the Kafka broker (the server that stores and processes messages). ✅ Why: This tells Spring Boot where to send/receive Kafka messages. 🛠 If you’re running Kafka locally, use localhost:9092 . In production, you may have multiple brokers: kafka1:9092,kafka2:9092,... ✅ spring.kafka.consumer.group-id=my-group 🧠 Meaning: Assigns the consumer group ID to your consumer. ✅ Why: Kafka uses this to track which consumer read which message. If two consumers share the same group ID, Kafka will load-balance messages between them. 🔄 Helps in parallel processing and message tracking ✅ spring.kafka.consumer.key-deserializer=org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.StringDeserializer ✅ spring.kafka.consumer.value-deserializer=org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.StringDeserializer 🧠 Meaning: Kafka sends binary data . These settings tell Kafka how to convert data back into Java strings (deserialize). ✅ W...
Read more