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Create Kubernetes cluster on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)

This guide will walk you through creating a Kubernetes cluster on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE).

All commands from this guide can be run either in the Google Cloud shell or your local shell.

Prerequisites

  • A Google Cloud account with billing enabled.
  • Basic understanding of Kubernetes concepts.

Environment Setup

Google Cloud Shell

To use Google Cloud shell, you need only a modern web browser. Open the Google Cloud Console and click on the Cloud Shell icon at the top-right corner.

image

Local Shell

If you would like to use your local shell, install the following:

  1. gcloud. This tool is part of the Google Cloud SDK. To install it, select your operating system on the official Google Cloud SDK documentation page and then follow the instructions.

  2. kubectl. It is the Kubernetes command-line tool you will use to manage and deploy applications. To install the tool, run the following command:

$ gcloud auth login
$ gcloud components install kubectl

Create and configure the GKE cluster

You can configure the settings using the gcloud tool. You can run it either in the Cloud Shell or in your local shell (if you have installed Google Cloud SDK locally on the previous step).

Step 1: Create the Cluster

The following command will create a cluster named my-cluster-name:

$ gcloud container clusters create my-cluster-name --project <project ID> --zone us-central1-a --cluster-version 1.27 --machine-type n1-standard-4 --num-nodes=3

Note

  • Replace with your actual Google Cloud project ID (see available projects with gcloud projects list command).
  • You may also need to edit the zone location, which is set to us-central1-a in the example above.

This command creates a cluster with 3 nodes, each with a machine type of n1-standard-4 (4 vCPUs). The creation process may take a few minutes.

You may wait a few minutes for the cluster to be generated.

When the process is over, you can see it listed in the Google Cloud console

Select Kubernetes EngineClusters in the left menu panel:

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Step 2: Configure Command-Line Access

Now you should configure the command-line access to your newly created cluster to make kubectl be able to use it.

In the Google Cloud Console, select your cluster and then click the Connect shown on the above image. You will see the connect statement which configures the command-line access. You need to run the command in your local shell:

$ gcloud container clusters get-credentials my-cluster-name --zone us-central1-a --project <project name>

Step 3: Set Up Cluster Role Binding

Finally, use your Cloud Identity and Access Management (Cloud IAM) to control access to the cluster. The following command will give you the ability to create Roles and RoleBindings:

kubectl create clusterrolebinding cluster-admin-binding --clusterrole cluster-admin --user $(gcloud config get-value core/account)
Expected output
clusterrolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/cluster-admin-binding created

Congratulations! You have successfully created and configured a Kubernetes cluster on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE).

Remove the GKE cluster

Once you are done with your cluster, cleaning up the resources is a good practice to avoid unnecessary charges You can clean up the cluster with the gcloud command as follows:

$ gcloud container clusters delete <cluster name> --zone us-central1-a --project <project ID>

This command will prompt you to confirm the deletion. Type y to confirm.

Also, you can delete your cluster via the Google Cloud console

Just click the Delete popup menu item in the clusters list:

image

The cluster deletion may take time.

Warning

After deleting the cluster, all data stored in it will be lost!

Next Steps

Now that your Kubernetes cluster is running, you might want to deploy Percona Everest. Follow our installing Everest using the quick install script to get started quickly and easily.

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