Google Cloud Platform Development Skill

This skill provides comprehensive guidance for working with Google Cloud Platform (GCP), covering project setup, service deployment, infrastructure management, security, and operational best practices.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when: - Setting up new GCP projects or organizations - Deploying applications to GCP services (Cloud Run, App Engine, Kubernetes Engine) - Managing GCP infrastructure with Terraform, Deployment Manager, or gcloud - Working with GCP databases (BigQuery, Cloud SQL, Firestore, Spanner) - Configuring GCP networking, load balancing, and CDN - Implementing security, IAM, and compliance measures - Setting up monitoring, logging, and alerting with Cloud Operations - Optimizing costs and managing billing - Troubleshooting GCP service issues or performance problems - Migrating applications to GCP from other platforms

Prerequisites

• Active Google Cloud account with billing enabled
• gcloud CLI installed and configured (gcloud init)
• Appropriate IAM permissions for the tasks
• Basic understanding of cloud computing concepts
• Project-specific requirements (APIs enabled, service accounts created)

Instructions

1. Project and Environment Setup

1. Authenticate and Configure gcloud

   gcloud auth login
   gcloud config set project YOUR_PROJECT_ID
   gcloud config set compute/region us-central1
   gcloud config set compute/zone us-central1-a
   

2. Enable Required APIs

   gcloud services enable run.googleapis.com
   gcloud services enable container.googleapis.com
   # Enable other APIs as needed
   

3. Create Service Accounts (if needed)

   gcloud iam service-accounts create my-service-account \
     --description="Service account for my application" \
     --display-name="My Service Account"
   

2. Infrastructure Management

1. Use Terraform for Infrastructure as Code
2. Initialize Terraform: terraform init
3. Plan changes: terraform plan

4. Apply changes: terraform apply

5. Follow GCP Resource Naming Conventions

6. Use consistent prefixes and suffixes
7. Include environment indicators (dev, staging, prod)
8. Use hyphens for readability

3. Application Deployment

1. Choose the Right Compute Service
2. Cloud Run: For containerized applications
3. App Engine: For web applications
4. Kubernetes Engine: For complex, scalable applications

5. Compute Engine: For custom VMs

6. Deploy to Cloud Run (Example)

   gcloud run deploy my-service \
     --source . \
     --platform managed \
     --region us-central1 \
     --allow-unauthenticated \
     --set-env-vars ENVIRONMENT=production
   

7. Set Up CI/CD Pipelines

8. Use Cloud Build for automated builds
9. Integrate with GitHub Actions or other CI tools
10. Implement blue-green or canary deployments

4. Database and Storage

1. Select Appropriate Database Service
2. BigQuery: For data analytics and warehousing
3. Cloud SQL: For relational databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL)
4. Firestore: For NoSQL document database

5. Cloud Spanner: For globally distributed relational database

6. Configure Backups and High Availability

   # Cloud SQL backup example
   gcloud sql backups create my-instance-backup \
     --instance my-instance
   

7. Use Cloud Storage for Static Assets

   gsutil mb gs://my-bucket
   gsutil cp file.txt gs://my-bucket/
   

5. Security and Networking

1. Implement Least Privilege IAM

   gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding YOUR_PROJECT_ID \
     --member="user:email@example.com" \
     --role="roles/viewer"
   

2. Configure VPC Networks

   gcloud compute networks create my-network \
     --subnet-mode=custom
   

3. Set Up Load Balancers and CDN

   gcloud compute url-maps create my-load-balancer \
     --default-service my-backend-service
   

6. Monitoring and Operations

1. Enable Cloud Monitoring and Logging

   gcloud monitoring dashboards create my-dashboard \
     --config-from-file=dashboard.json
   

2. Set Up Alerts and Notifications

   gcloud alpha monitoring policies create my-alert-policy \
     --policy-from-file=alert-policy.json
   

3. Use Cloud Trace for Performance Monitoring

4. Enable tracing in your applications
5. Analyze latency and bottlenecks

Examples

Example 1: Deploying a Web Application to App Engine

# app.yaml
runtime: python39
env: standard

handlers:
- url: /.*
  script: auto

gcloud app deploy
gcloud app browse

Example 2: Creating a BigQuery Dataset and Loading Data

# Create dataset
bq mk --dataset \
  --description "My dataset description" \
  my_dataset

# Create table
bq mk --table my_dataset.my_table schema.json

# Load data
bq load --source_format=CSV \
  my_dataset.my_table \
  gs://my-bucket/data.csv \
  column1:STRING,column2:INTEGER

Example 3: Setting Up a Kubernetes Cluster

# Create cluster
gcloud container clusters create my-cluster \
  --num-nodes=3 \
  --zone=us-central1-a

# Get credentials
gcloud container clusters get-credentials my-cluster \
  --zone=us-central1-a

# Deploy application
kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml

Best Practices

• Resource Organization: Use folders, projects, and labels for organization
• Cost Management: Set up billing budgets and alerts
• Security: Implement defense in depth with IAM, VPC, and security scanning
• Performance: Use appropriate machine types and autoscaling
• Reliability: Implement multi-region deployments for critical applications
• Monitoring: Set up comprehensive logging and monitoring from day one
• Automation: Use Infrastructure as Code for reproducible deployments
• Compliance: Follow GCP compliance certifications and regional requirements

Common Issues and Solutions

Issue: gcloud: command not found Solution: Install gcloud CLI from https://cloud.google.com/sdk/docs/install

Issue: Authentication timeout Solution: Run gcloud auth login to refresh authentication

Issue: API not enabled error Solution: Enable the required API in GCP Console or use:

gcloud services enable SERVICE_NAME.googleapis.com

Issue: Quota exceeded Solution: Check quotas in GCP Console and request increases if needed

Issue: Deployment failures Solution: Check Cloud Build logs and ensure proper permissions

Issue: High costs Solution: Use cost calculators, set budgets, and monitor usage with billing reports

Additional Resources

• GCP Documentation
• gcloud CLI Reference
• GCP Best Practices
• GCP Pricing Calculator
• GCP Well-Architected Framework

Related Skills

• terraform-infrastructure: For advanced Infrastructure as Code
• kubernetes-management: For container orchestration
• database-administration: For database-specific tasks
• security-auditing: For security assessments