Kubernetes on GCP: Setting up a cluster on Google Cloud Platform (with GKE)

Prerequisites

Before you begin, you will need the following:

A Google Cloud Platform account with administrative access
A basic understanding of Kubernetes concepts
A local machine with the gcloud and kubectl command-line tools installed

Step 1: Create a GKE Cluster

Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) is a managed Kubernetes service that makes it easy to run Kubernetes on GCP without the need to manage your own Kubernetes control plane. To create a GKE cluster, follow these steps:

Open the GCP Console and navigate to the GKE console.
Click on “Create cluster”.
Choose a name for your cluster and select the region and zone where you want to create it.
Choose the number and type of nodes you want to create in your cluster.
Choose the machine type and size for your nodes.
Choose the networking options for your cluster.
Review your settings and click on “Create”.

After you click “Create”, the GKE service will create your cluster and the necessary GCP resources, such as Compute Engine instances and firewalls. This process may take several minutes.

Step 2: Configure kubectl

Once your cluster is created, you need to configure kubectl to access it. Follow these steps:

Install the gcloud CLI tool if you haven’t already done so.
Run the following command to authenticate kubectl with your GCP account:
gcloud auth login
This command opens a web page and asks you to log in to your GCP account.
Run the following command to configure kubectl to use your GKE cluster:
gcloud container clusters get-credentials my-cluster --zone us-central1-a --project my-project
Replace my-cluster with the name of your GKE cluster, us-central1-a with the zone where your cluster is located, and my-project with your GCP project ID.
This command updates your kubectl configuration to use the GCP account that you used to create your cluster. It also sets the current context to your GKE cluster.

Step 3: Verify Your Cluster

To verify that your cluster is working correctly, run the following command:

kubectl get nodes

This command should return a list of nodes in your cluster. If you see a list of nodes, your cluster is working correctly.

Step 4: Deploy Applications to Your Cluster

Now that you have a working GKE cluster, you can deploy applications to it. You can use Kubernetes manifests to deploy applications to your cluster.

Here’s an example manifest that deploys a simple nginx application:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: nginx
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: nginx
  replicas: 3
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: nginx
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: nginx
        image: nginx:latest
        ports:
        - containerPort: 80
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: nginx
spec:
  selector:
    app: nginx
  ports:
  - name: http
    port: 80
    targetPort: 80
  type: LoadBalancer

Save this manifest to a file named nginx.yaml, then run the following command to deploy it to your cluster:

kubectl apply -f nginx.yaml

This command will create a deployment with three replicas of the nginx container and a Service to expose the nginx Deployment.

In this tutorial, we explored how to set up a Kubernetes cluster on Google Cloud Platform using Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). By following these steps, you can quickly create a Kubernetes cluster on GCP and deploy your applications to it.

Running Kubernetes on GCP has many advantages, such as easy management of your cluster and integration with other GCP services. With GKE, you can focus on deploying and managing your applications, and let GCP handle the underlying infrastructure.

If you’re interested in learning more about Kubernetes, check out my book: Learning Kubernetes — A Comprehensive Guide from Beginner to Intermediate by Lyron Foster ( https://a.co/d/aLXDvsZ )