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Linux_gcp

Chapter 93: Linux on Google Cloud Platform

Section titled “Chapter 93: Linux on Google Cloud Platform”

Comprehensive Guide to Linux Administration on GCP

Section titled “Comprehensive Guide to Linux Administration on GCP”

93.1 Google Compute Engine

Section titled “93.1 Google Compute Engine”

Understanding GCE

Section titled “Understanding GCE”

Google Compute Engine (GCE) provides virtual machines running in Google’s infrastructure. It’s known for high performance and custom machine types.

                 Compute Engine Machine Types
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                                   |
|    Machine Families:                                                |
|                                                                   |
|    +---------------------------+----------------------------------+|
|    | Family      | Examples   | Use Case                        ||
|    | ------------|------------|----------------------------------|
|    | E2          | e2-medium | Cost-optimized                   ||
|    | N1          | n1-std-1 | General purpose                   ||
|    | N2          | n2-std-2 | General purpose (newer)          ||
|    | N2D         | n2d-std-2 | AMD-based                        ||
|    | C2          | c2-std-4 | Compute optimized                 ||
|    | C2D         | c2d-std-4 | AMD compute optimized            ||
|    | M1          | m1-ultramem| Memory optimized                ||
|    | M2          | m2-ultramem| Ultra memory                    ||
|    | A2          | a2-highgpu | GPU (NVIDIA A100)              ||
|    +---------------------------+----------------------------------+|
|                                                                   |
|    Storage:                                                         |
|    +----------------------------------------------------------+  |
|    | Zonal PD   | Persistent Disk (HDD/SSD)                   |  |
|    | Regional PD| Replicated across zones                     |  |
|    | Local SSD  | Local NVMe (ephemeral)                     |  |
|    | Cloud Storage | Object storage                          |  |
|    +----------------------------------------------------------+  |
|                                                                   |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+

gcloud SDK Setup

Section titled “gcloud SDK Setup”
Terminal window
# Install gcloud SDK
# Debian/Ubuntu
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg] https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt cloud-sdk-main" | \
    sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-cloud-sdk.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install google-cloud-sdk


# RHEL/CentOS
sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/google-cloud-sdk.repo << EOF
[google-cloud-sdk]
name=Google Cloud SDK
baseurl=https://packages.cloud.google.com/yum/repos/cloud-sdk-el7-x86_64
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://packages.cloud.google.com/yum/doc/yum-key.gpg
EOF
sudo yum install google-cloud-sdk


# Initialize
gcloud init


# Authenticate
gcloud auth login
gcloud auth activate-service-account --key-file=key.json


# Set project
gcloud config set project my-project


# Set default region/zone
gcloud config set compute/region us-central1
gcloud config set compute/zone us-central1-a

VM Instance Management

Section titled “VM Instance Management”
Terminal window
# List instances
gcloud compute instances list
gcloud compute instances list --filter="zone:us-central1-a"


# Create instance
gcloud compute instances create my-instance \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --machine-type=e2-medium \
    --image-family=ubuntu-2204-lts \
    --image-project=ubuntu-os-cloud \
    --boot-disk-size=20GB \
    --boot-disk-type=pd-ssd \
    --network-interface=subnet=my-subnet,aliases=10.0.0.0/24


# Create with startup script
gcloud compute instances create my-instance \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --machine-type=e2-medium \
    --image-family=ubuntu-2204-lts \
    --image-project=ubuntu-os-cloud \
    --metadata-from-file startup-script=startup.sh


# Start instance
gcloud compute instances start my-instance --zone=us-central1-a


# Stop instance
gcloud compute instances stop my-instance --zone=us-central1-a


# Restart
gcloud compute instances reset my-instance --zone=us-central1-a


# Delete instance
gcloud compute instances delete my-instance --zone=us-central1-a


# Get instance details
gcloud compute instances describe my-instance --zone=us-central1-a


# Connect to instance
gcloud compute ssh my-instance --zone=us-central1-a


# Connect using external IP
ssh -i ~/.ssh/google_compute_engine user@external-ip

Instance Groups

Section titled “Instance Groups”
Terminal window
# Create managed instance group
gcloud compute instance-groups managed create my-group \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --template=my-template \
    --size=3


# Resize instance group
gcloud compute instance-groups managed resize my-group \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --size=5


# Create instance template
gcloud compute instance-templates create my-template \
    --machine-type=e2-medium \
    --image-family=ubuntu-2204-lts \
    --image-project=ubuntu-os-cloud \
    --boot-disk-size=20GB

93.2 Persistent Disk Storage

Section titled “93.2 Persistent Disk Storage”

Storage Types

Section titled “Storage Types”
                 Persistent Disk Types
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                                   |
|    Type          | Performance        | Use Case                  |
|    --------------|-------------------|---------------------------|
|    Standard HDD | 0.01 IOPS/GB     | Cold storage, backups    |
|    Balanced SSD | 1.5 IOPS/GB      | General purpose          |
|    Performance SSD| 3 IOPS/GB      | High performance         |
|    Extreme PD    | 30 IOPS/GB      | I/O intensive workloads |
|                                                                   |
|    Local SSD:                                                       |
|    +----------------------------------------------------------+  |
|    | • NVMe SSD attached to host                            |  |
|    | • Up to 8 x 375GB per instance                       |  |
|    | • Ephemeral (lost on reboot)                          |  |
|    | • Highest performance                                 |  |
|    +----------------------------------------------------------+  |
|                                                                   |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
Terminal window
# Create disk
gcloud compute disks create my-disk \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --size=50GB \
    --type=pd-ssd


# Attach disk to instance
gcloud compute instances attach-disk my-instance \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --disk=my-disk


# Detach disk
gcloud compute instances detach-disk my-instance \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --disk=my-disk


# Create snapshot
gcloud compute snapshots create my-snapshot \
    --source-disk=my-disk \
    --source-disk-zone=us-central1-a


# Create disk from snapshot
gcloud compute disks create new-disk \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --source-snapshot=my-snapshot


# Resize disk
gcloud compute disks resize my-disk \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --size=100GB

Mounting Disks

Section titled “Mounting Disks”
Terminal window
# List disks
lsblk


# Create filesystem
sudo mkfs.ext4 -m 0 -F /dev/sdb


# Mount
sudo mkdir /mnt/data
sudo mount -o discard,defaults /dev/sdb /mnt/data


# Add to /etc/fstab
# Get UUID
sudo blkid /dev/sdb
# Add to fstab
# UUID=xxx /mnt/data ext4 discard,defaults,nofail 0 2

93.3 Cloud Storage (gsutil)

Section titled “93.3 Cloud Storage (gsutil)”

Storage Classes

Section titled “Storage Classes”
                 Cloud Storage Classes
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                                   |
|    Class        | Min Storage   | Retrieval Cost | Use Case       |
|    -------------|---------------|---------------|----------------|
|    Standard     | $0.020/GB    | None          | Hot data       |
|    Nearline     | $0.010/GB    | $0.01/GB      | 30-day access  |
|    Coldline     | $0.004/GB    | $0.02/GB      | 90-day access  |
|    Archive      | $0.001/GB    | $0.05/GB      | 365-day access |
|                                                                   |
|    Features:                                                       |
|    +----------------------------------------------------------+  |
|    | • 99.999999999% durability                               |  |
|    | • Lifecycle management                                   |  |
|    | • Versioning                                            |  |
|    | • CORS configuration                                    |  |
|    | • Object versioning                                     |  |
|    +----------------------------------------------------------+  |
|                                                                   |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
Terminal window
# List buckets
gsutil ls
gsutil ls -p my-project


# Create bucket
gsutil mb -p my-project -l us-central1 gs://my-bucket/


# Copy files
gsutil cp file.txt gs://my-bucket/
gsutil cp -r folder/ gs://my-bucket/
gsutil cp gs://source-bucket/file.txt gs://dest-bucket/


# Download
gsutil cp gs://my-bucket/file.txt ./


# List objects
gsutil ls gs://my-bucket/


# Move/rename
gsutil mv gs://my-bucket/old.txt gs://my-bucket/new.txt


# Remove
gsutil rm gs://my-bucket/file.txt


# Set permissions
gsutil iam ch allUsers:objectViewer gs://my-bucket


# Make publicly readable
gsutil iam ch allUsers:objectViewer gs://my-bucket


# Set lifecycle
gsutil lifecycle set lifecycle.json gs://my-bucket

Lifecycle Configuration

Section titled “Lifecycle Configuration”
{
  "rule": [
    {
      "action": {"type": "SetStorageClass", "storageClass": "NEARLINE"},
      "condition": {"age": 365}
    },
    {
      "action": {"type": "Delete"},
      "condition": {"age": 730}
    }
  ]
}

93.4 VPC Networking

Section titled “93.4 VPC Networking”

VPC Networks

Section titled “VPC Networks”
Terminal window
# Create VPC network
gcloud compute networks create my-vpc \
    --subnet-mode=custom \
    --bgp-routing-mode=regional


# Create subnet
gcloud compute networks subnets create my-subnet \
    --network=my-vpc \
    --region=us-central1 \
    --range=10.0.0.0/24


# Create firewall rules
gcloud compute firewall-rules create allow-ssh \
    --network=my-vpc \
    --allow=tcp:22 \
    --source-ranges=0.0.0.0/0


gcloud compute firewall-rules create allow-http \
    --network=my-vpc \
    --allow=tcp:80 \
    --source-ranges=0.0.0.0/0


# Create static IP
gcloud compute addresses create my-ip \
    --region=us-central1


# List IPs
gcloud compute addresses list


# Create route
gcloud compute routes create my-route \
    --network=my-vpc \
    --destination-range=10.0.0.0/24 \
    --next-hop-instance=my-instance

93.5 Load Balancing

Section titled “93.5 Load Balancing”

Load Balancer Types

Section titled “Load Balancer Types”
                 GCP Load Balancers
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                                   |
|    Type             | Traffic Type    | Scope                     |
|    -----------------|-----------------|---------------------------|
|    External HTTP(S)| Global HTTP(S) | Geographic                |
|    External TCP     | Global TCP     | Regional                 |
|    Internal HTTP(S)| Regional HTTP  | VPC network              |
|    Internal TCP/UDP| Regional TCP   | VPC network              |
|    SSL Proxy       | Global SSL     | Non-HTTP(S)             |
|    TCP Proxy       | Global TCP     | Non-HTTP(S)             |
|                                                                   |
|    Components:                                                      |
|    +----------------------------------------------------------+  |
|    | • Backend service (instance group)                       |  |
|    | • Health check                                          |  |
|    | • Forwarding rules                                      |  |
|    | • Target proxy                                          |  |
|    | • URL map                                               |  |
|    +----------------------------------------------------------+  |
|                                                                   |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
Terminal window
# Create health check
gcloud compute health-checks create tcp my-health-check \
    --port 80


# Create backend service
gcloud compute backend-services create my-backend \
    --protocol HTTP \
    --port-name http \
    --health-checks my-health-check


# Add instance group to backend
gcloud compute backend-services add-backend my-backend \
    --instance-group my-group \
    --instance-group-zone=us-central1-a \
    --balancing-mode=UTILIZATION \
    --max-utilization=0.8


# Create URL map
gcloud compute url-maps create my-url-map \
    --default-service my-backend


# Create target HTTP proxy
gcloud compute target-http-proxies create my-proxy \
    --url-map my-url-map


# Create forwarding rule
gcloud compute forwarding-rules create my-rule \
    --IP-protocol HTTP \
    --ports=80 \
    --target-http-proxy my-proxy \
    --region=us-central1

93.6 IAM and Security

Section titled “93.6 IAM and Security”

Identity and Access Management

Section titled “Identity and Access Management”
Terminal window
# List service accounts
gcloud iam service-accounts list


# Create service account
gcloud iam service-accounts create my-sa \
    --display-name "My Service Account"


# Add IAM policy binding
gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding my-project \
    --member=serviceAccount:my-sa@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com \
    --role=roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1


# Grant compute instance admin
gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding my-project \
    --member=user:admin@example.com \
    --role=roles/compute.admin


# Create service account key
gcloud iam service-accounts keys create key.json \
    --iam-account=my-sa@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com


# Get instance service account info
gcloud compute instances describe my-instance \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --format="get(serviceAccounts)"

OS Login

Section titled “OS Login”
Terminal window
# Enable OS Login at project level
gcloud compute project-info add-metadata \
    --metadata enable-oslogin=TRUE


# Enable OS Login at instance
gcloud compute instances add-metadata my-instance \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --metadata enable-oslogin=TRUE


# SSH using OS Login
gcloud compute ssh my-instance --zone=us-central1-a

93.7 Cloud Monitoring

Section titled “93.7 Cloud Monitoring”

Stackdriver Monitoring

Section titled “Stackdriver Monitoring”
Terminal window
# Install monitoring agent
curl -sSO https://dl.google.com/cloudagents/add-monitoring-agent-repo.sh
sudo bash add-monitoring-agent-repo.sh
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install stackdriver-agent


# Install logging agent
curl -sSO https://dl.google.com/cloudagents/add-logging-agent-repo.sh
sudo bash add-logging-agent-repo.sh
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install stackdriver-agent


# View metrics
gcloud monitoring metrics list


# Create alerting policy
gcloud alpha monitoring policies create \
    --notification-channels=channels \
    --display-name="High CPU" \
    --condition-display-name="CPU usage" \
    --condition-threshold-value=0.8 \
    --condition-threshold-duration=300s \
    --condition-filter="resource.type=\"gce_instance\" AND metric.type=\"compute.googleapis.com/instance/cpu/utilization\""


# View logs
gcloud logging read "resource.type=gce_instance" --limit=10
gcloud logging read "resource.type=gce_instance AND logName:syslog" --limit=10

93.8 Deployment Manager

Section titled “93.8 Deployment Manager”

Infrastructure as Code

Section titled “Infrastructure as Code”
Terminal window
# Create deployment
gcloud deployment-manager deployments create my-deployment \
    --config=config.yaml


# List deployments
gcloud deployment-manager deployments list


# Update deployment
gcloud deployment-manager deployments update my-deployment \
    --config=new-config.yaml


# Delete deployment
gcloud deployment-manager deployments delete my-deployment

Example Configuration (YAML)

Section titled “Example Configuration (YAML)”
resources:
  - name: my-instance
    type: compute.v1.instance
    properties:
      machineType: zones/us-central1-a/machineTypes/e2-medium
      disks:
        - deviceName: boot
          type: PERSISTENT
          boot: true
          autoDelete: true
          initializeParams:
            sourceImage: projects/ubuntu-os-cloud/global/images/ubuntu-2204-lts
      networkInterfaces:
        - network: global/networks/default
          accessConfigs:
            - name: External NAT
              type: ONE_TO_NAT

93.9 Interview Questions

Section titled “93.9 Interview Questions”

Basic Questions

Section titled “Basic Questions”

  1. What is Google Compute Engine?

    • IaaS virtual machines in Google Cloud

  2. How do you connect to a GCE instance?

    • gcloud compute ssh or standard SSH

  3. What is gsutil?

    • CLI tool for Cloud Storage

  4. What are the machine type families?

    • E2 (cost-optimized), N1/N2 (general), C2 (compute), M1/M2 (memory)

  5. What is Persistent Disk?

    • Network storage that persists independently

Intermediate Questions

Section titled “Intermediate Questions”

  1. What’s the difference between preemptible and regular instances?

    • Preemptible can be terminated, much cheaper

  2. What is Cloud CDN?

    • Content delivery network integrated with Load Balancing

  3. How do you secure GCE instances?

    • Firewall rules, IAM, OS Login, shielded VMs

  4. What are instance groups?

    • Groups of instances for load balancing and scaling

  5. What is the local SSD?

    • Ephemeral high-performance NVMe storage

Advanced Questions

Section titled “Advanced Questions”

  1. What is Live Migration?

    • Migrating VM without downtime

  2. How do you set up autoscaling?

    • Managed instance groups with autoscaling policy

  3. What is VPC Service Controls?

    • Security perimeters around GCP resources

  4. How do you monitor GCE?

    • Cloud Monitoring, Cloud Logging, agents

  5. What is Deployment Manager?

    • Infrastructure as code in GCP

Summary

Section titled “Summary”
                 Quick Reference
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                                   |
|    gcloud Commands:                                                |
|    +----------------------------------------------------------+  |
|    | gcloud compute instances list     | List VMs              |  |
|    | gcloud compute instances create  | Create VM              |  |
|    | gcloud compute instances ssh     | SSH connect            |  |
|    | gcloud compute disks create      | Create disk            |  |
|    | gcloud compute snapshots create  | Create snapshot        |  |
|    +----------------------------------------------------------+  |
|                                                                   |
|    gsutil Commands:                                               |
|    +----------------------------------------------------------+  |
|    | gsutil ls                        | List buckets           |  |
|    | gsutil cp file gs://bucket/     | Upload                 |  |
|    | gsutil cp gs://bucket/file .    | Download              |  |
|    | gsutil mb gs://bucket           | Create bucket          |  |
|    +----------------------------------------------------------+  |
|                                                                   |
|    Networking:                                                    |
|    +----------------------------------------------------------+  |
|    | gcloud compute networks create  | Create VPC             |  |
|    | gcloud compute firewall-rules   | Create firewall        |  |
|    | gcloud compute addresses create | Create static IP       |  |
|    +----------------------------------------------------------+  |
|                                                                   |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+