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Interacting with
Google Cloud

In this module, we will provide you with an introduction to Google Cloud by building on
what you learned about the Google Cloud infrastructure from the course introduction.

This module is focused on how to interact with Google Cloud.

In the labs of this module, you will explore both Google Cloud’s graphical user
interface and its command-line interface. You will also deploy a solution from the
Google Cloud Marketplace without having to manually configure the software, virtual
machine instances, storage, or network settings.

To complete your learning experience, I will provide a quick demo of projects.

Let’s get started!

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There are four ways to interact with Google Cloud

01 02
Google Cloud console Cloud Shell and Google Cloud CLI
Web user interface Command-line interface
>_

03 04

REST-based API Cloud Mobile App

For custom applications For iOS and Android

There are four ways you can interact with Google Cloud, and we’ll talk about each in
turn.

There’s the Google Cloud console, Cloud Shell and the Google Cloud CLI, the APIs,
and the Cloud Mobile App.
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Google Cloud console, Cloud Shell and Google Cloud CLI

Google Cloud console

console.cloud.google.com

$ gcloud compute instances list

Cloud Shell
NAME ZONE INTERNAL_IP EXTERNAL_IP
nginxstack-1 us-central1-f 10.128.0.3 35.238.84.245
nginxstack-2 us-central1-f 10.128.0.4 35.225.177.18
Google Cloud CLI nginxstack-3 us-central1-f 10.128.0.2 35.239.250.238

The Google Cloud console provides a web-based, graphical user interface that you
access through console.cloud.google.com. For example, you can view your virtual
machines and their details, as shown on the top.

If you prefer to work in a terminal window, the Google Cloud CLI provides the gcloud
command-line tool. For example, you can list your virtual machines and their details
as shown on the bottom with the “gcloud compute instances list” command.

Google Cloud also provides Cloud Shell, which is a browser-based, interactive shell
environment for Google Cloud that you can access from the Google Cloud console.
Cloud Shell is a temporary virtual machine with 5 GB of persistent disk storage that
has the Google Cloud CLI pre-installed.
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How to interpret lab instructions

“On the Navigation menu, click Compute Engine > VM instances”

01

02 03

Throughout this course, you will apply what you learn in different labs. These labs will
have instructions to use the Google Cloud console, such as, “On the Navigation
menu, click Compute Engine > VM instances.” Let me dissect these instructions.

First, within the console you will click on the icon with the three horizontal lines, which
is the Navigation menu, as shown on the left.

This opens a menu, as shown on the right. All of the major products and services are
listed on this menu.

Then, within the menu, hover over “Compute Engine” to open a submenu.

Finally, click on “VM instances” on the submenu.

You will get more comfortable with these instructions and the console as you work on
labs.

Now, labs will also use command-line instructions. You will enter these instructions
either in Cloud Shell or an SSH terminal by simply copying and pasting them. In some
cases, you will have to modify these commands, for example, when choosing a
globally unique name for a Cloud Storage bucket.
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API interfaces
OAuth 2 is used for
Google all authentication
Cloud
Google Cloud CLI RESTful API
get, post, put, delete
JSON

Google Cloud Client Libraries

Java Python Node.js Ruby Go PHP …

In addition to the Google Cloud CLI, you can also use client libraries that enable you
to easily create and manage resources. Google Cloud client libraries expose APIs for
two main purposes:

● App APIs provide access to services, and they are optimized for supported
languages, such as Node.js or Python.
● Admin APIs offer functionality for resource management. For example, you
can use admin APIs if you want to build your own automated tools.
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Cloud Mobile App

● Manage virtual machines and database instances.

● Manage apps in App Engine.

● Manage your billing.

● Visualize your projects with a customizable dashboard.

The Cloud Mobile App is another way to interact with Google Cloud. It allows you to
manage Google Cloud services from your Android or iOS device. For example, you
can start, stop, and SSH into Compute Engine instances and see logs from each
instance. You can also set up customizable graphs showing key metrics such as CPU
usage, network usage, requests per second, and server errors. The app even offers
alerts and incident management and allows you to get up-to-date billing information
for your projects and get billing alerts for projects that are going over budget.

You can download the Cloud Mobile App from Google Play or from the App Store.
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Lab Intro
Console and Cloud Shell

Slides are great for explaining concepts, but let’s apply what we just talked about.
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Lab objectives

01 Get access to Google Cloud

Create a Cloud Storage bucket using the

02 Google Cloud console

Create a Cloud Storage bucket using

03 Cloud Shell

04 Become familiar with Cloud Shell features

In this first lab, you'll explore the GCP interface and the entry point of the graphical
user interface that's called the GCP Console. Within the GCP Console, you will create
a storage bucket in Cloud Storage, which is Google’s unified object storage. Then you
will repeat the same task using Cloud Shell, which is the command-line interface in
GCP.

I encourage you to develop familiarity with both the GCP Console and Cloud Shell
and to become comfortable moving back and forth between them.
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Lab Review
Console and Cloud Shell

In this lab, you created a Cloud Storage bucket using both the GCP Console and
Cloud Shell within GCP. The GCP Console can do things Cloud Shell can't do, and
vice versa. For example, the GCP Console can keep track of the context of your
configuration activities; it can use the Cloud API to determine from current system
state what options are valid; and it can perform repetitive and more leveraged
activities on your behalf.

Cloud Shell, in contrast, offers detailed and precise control and—through its
commands—a way to script and automate activities. However, don’t think of the
Console and Cloud Shell as alternatives: think of them as one extremely flexible and
powerful interface.

You can stick around for a lab walkthrough, but remember that GCP's user interface
can change, so your environment might look slightly different.
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Lab Intro
Infrastructure Preview

In this lab, you're going to experience the power of GCP automation by setting up a
complete Jenkins continuous integration environment using the GCP Marketplace.
You will then verify that you can manage the service from the Jenkins UI and
administer the service from the VM host through SSH.

Now, you could accomplish a very similar result through manual configuration in a
couple of hours or days. But in this lab, you'll see it set up in only a few minutes.
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Lab Review
Infrastructure Preview

In this lab, you were able to launch a complete continuous integration solution in a
few minutes.

You demonstrated that you had user access through the Jenkins UI, and that you had
administrative control over Jenkins by using SSH to connect to the VM where the
service is hosted and by stopping and then restarting the services.

Many of the activities that occurred in that lab were nearly transparent, and they used
resources and methods that you'll learn about in the rest of this course. Examples of
this include the acquisition and configuration of a network IP address; the provisioning
of a virtual machine instance along with the installation of software on that machine;
and the passing of default state information from the environment during the setup
process.

You can stick around for a lab walkthrough, but remember that GCP's user interface
can change, so your environment might look slightly different.
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Review: Introduction
to Google Cloud

In this module, we looked at how to use GCP, which you got to experience first-hand
in two short labs. I also gave a demonstration of how to use projects, which are the
key organizer of infrastructure resources.

Now that you can interact with GCP, it’s time to explore two of the foundational
components of GCP’s infrastructure: virtual networks and virtual machines. So what
are you waiting for? Move on to the next module to learn more.