Google Cloud GCloud Cheat Sheet

Google Cloud Config

PURPOSE	COMMAND
Initialize gcloud CLI	gcloud init
Display version and components	gcloud version
List config properties	gcloud config list
Show project info	gcloud compute project-info describe
Switch project	gcloud config set project <project-id>
Set the active account	gcloud config set account <ACCOUNT>
Set default region	gcloud config set compute/region us-west1
Set default zone	gcloud config set compute/zone us-west1-b
List configurations	gcloud config configurations list
Create configuration	gcloud config configurations create <config-name>
Activate configuration	gcloud config configurations activate <config-name>
Get property value	gcloud config get compute/region

Google Cloud IAM

PURPOSE	COMMAND
Get project IAM policy	gcloud projects get-iam-policy <project-id>
Add IAM policy binding	gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding <project-id> --member=<member> --role=<role>
Copy roles across org and projects	gcloud iam roles copy --source=<role> --destination=<role> --dest-project=<project-id>
List grantable roles	gcloud iam list-grantable-roles <resource>
Create custom role	gcloud iam roles create <role-id> --project=<project-id> --permissions=<permissions>
Create service account	gcloud iam service-accounts create <name> --display-name=<display-name>
List service accounts	gcloud iam service-accounts list
List service account keys	gcloud iam service-accounts keys list --iam-account=<sa-email>

Google Cloud Auth

PURPOSE	COMMAND
Authorize with user credentials	gcloud auth login
Display a list of credentialed accounts	gcloud auth list
Authenticate with service account	gcloud auth activate-service-account --key-file=<key-file>
Auth to Container/Artifact Registry	gcloud auth configure-docker <region>-docker.pkg.dev
Print access token for active account	gcloud auth print-access-token
Set up Application Default Credentials	gcloud auth application-default login
Revoke credentials	gcloud auth revoke <account>

Google Cloud Storage

PURPOSE	COMMAND (gcloud storage – Recommended)	LEGACY COMMAND (gsutil)
List all buckets	gcloud storage ls	gsutil ls
List bucket contents	gcloud storage ls gs://<bucket-name>	gsutil ls -lh gs://<bucket-name>
Create bucket	gcloud storage buckets create gs://<bucket-name>	gsutil mb gs://<bucket-name>
Download file	gcloud storage cp gs://<bucket>/<path>/file.txt .	gsutil cp gs://<bucket>/<path>/file.txt .
Upload file	gcloud storage cp <file> gs://<bucket>/<dir>/	gsutil cp <file> gs://<bucket>/<dir>/
Delete file	gcloud storage rm gs://<bucket>/<filepath>	gsutil rm gs://<bucket>/<filepath>
Move/rename file	gcloud storage mv <src> gs://<bucket>/<dest>	gsutil mv <src> gs://<bucket>/<dest>
Copy folder recursively	gcloud storage cp -r ./conf gs://<bucket>/	gsutil cp -r ./conf gs://<bucket>/
Show disk usage	gcloud storage du gs://<bucket>/<dir>	gsutil du -h gs://<bucket>/<dir>
Sync directories	gcloud storage rsync ./local gs://<bucket>/<dir>	gsutil rsync ./local gs://<bucket>/<dir>
Generate signed URL	gcloud storage sign-url gs://<bucket>/<object> --duration=20m	gsutil signurl -d 20m <key-file> gs://<bucket>/<object>
Describe bucket	gcloud storage buckets describe gs://<bucket-name>	gsutil ls -L -b gs://<bucket-name>

Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)

PURPOSE	COMMAND
Create Standard cluster	gcloud container clusters create <cluster-name> --num-nodes=3 --zone=<zone>
Create Autopilot cluster	gcloud container clusters create-auto <cluster-name> --region=<region>
List all container clusters	gcloud container clusters list
Get cluster credentials (set kubectl context)	gcloud container clusters get-credentials <cluster-name> --zone=<zone>
Set default cluster	gcloud config set container/cluster <cluster-name>
Resize cluster node pool	gcloud container clusters resize <cluster-name> --num-nodes=<count> --node-pool=<pool>
Update cluster (enable autoscaling)	gcloud container clusters update <cluster-name> --enable-autoscaling --min-nodes=1 --max-nodes=5
Delete cluster	gcloud container clusters delete <cluster-name>
List node pools	gcloud container node-pools list --cluster=<cluster-name>
Create node pool with Spot VMs	gcloud container node-pools create <pool-name> --cluster=<cluster> --spot

Google Cloud Compute Engine

PURPOSE	COMMAND
List all instances	gcloud compute instances list
List instance templates	gcloud compute instance-templates list
Show instance info	gcloud compute instances describe <instance-name> --zone=<zone>
Stop an instance	gcloud compute instances stop <instance-name> --zone=<zone>
Start an instance	gcloud compute instances start <instance-name> --zone=<zone>
Create an instance	gcloud compute instances create <vm-name> --image-family=<family> --image-project=<project> --zone=<zone> --machine-type=e2-micro
Create a Spot VM	gcloud compute instances create <vm-name> --provisioning-model=SPOT --instance-termination-action=STOP
Create preemptible instance (legacy)	gcloud compute instances create <vm-name> --preemptible
SSH to instance	gcloud compute ssh <instance-name> --zone=<zone>
List available images	gcloud compute images list
List available zones	gcloud compute zones list
List machine types	gcloud compute machine-types list --filter="zone:<zone>"
Create snapshot	gcloud compute disks snapshot <disk-name> --zone=<zone>
List snapshots	gcloud compute snapshots list

Cloud Run & Cloud Functions

PURPOSE	COMMAND
Deploy a Cloud Run service	gcloud run deploy <service-name> --image=<image> --region=<region>
List Cloud Run services	gcloud run services list
Describe Cloud Run service	gcloud run services describe <service-name> --region=<region>
Delete Cloud Run service	gcloud run services delete <service-name> --region=<region>
Update traffic splitting	gcloud run services update-traffic <service> --to-revisions=<rev>=100
Deploy Cloud Run function	gcloud functions deploy <function-name> --runtime=<runtime> --trigger-http --region=<region>
List Cloud Functions	gcloud functions list
View function logs	gcloud functions logs read <function-name>
Delete Cloud Function	gcloud functions delete <function-name> --region=<region>

Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) Network

PURPOSE	COMMAND
List all networks	gcloud compute networks list
Detail of one network	gcloud compute networks describe <network-name> --format=json
Create network	gcloud compute networks create <network-name> --subnet-mode=custom
Create subnet	gcloud compute networks subnets create <subnet-name> --network=<network> --range=10.0.0.0/24 --region=<region>
List all firewall rules	gcloud compute firewall-rules list
List all forwarding rules	gcloud compute forwarding-rules list
Describe one firewall rule	gcloud compute firewall-rules describe <rule-name>
Create firewall rule	gcloud compute firewall-rules create <rule-name> --network=default --allow=tcp:22 --source-ranges=0.0.0.0/0
Update firewall rule	gcloud compute firewall-rules update <rule-name> --allow=tcp:80,tcp:443
Delete firewall rule	gcloud compute firewall-rules delete <rule-name>

Artifact Registry

PURPOSE	COMMAND
List repositories	gcloud artifacts repositories list
Create Docker repository	gcloud artifacts repositories create <repo> --repository-format=docker --location=<region>
List images in repository	gcloud artifacts docker images list <region>-docker.pkg.dev/<project>/<repo>
Configure Docker authentication	gcloud auth configure-docker <region>-docker.pkg.dev
Delete repository	gcloud artifacts repositories delete <repo> --location=<region>

App Engine

PURPOSE	COMMAND
Create App Engine app	gcloud app create --region=<region>
Deploy application	gcloud app deploy
List versions	gcloud app versions list
Open app in browser	gcloud app browse
View application logs	gcloud app logs read

Components

PURPOSE	COMMAND
List installed components	gcloud components list
Update all components	gcloud components update
Install a component	gcloud components install <component-name>
Remove a component	gcloud components remove <component-name>

Deployment Manager

PURPOSE	COMMAND
Create deployment	gcloud deployment-manager deployments create <name> --config=<config.yaml>
Update deployment	gcloud deployment-manager deployments update <name> --config=<config.yaml>
Delete deployment	gcloud deployment-manager deployments delete <name>
List deployments	gcloud deployment-manager deployments list

Miscellaneous

PURPOSE	COMMAND
Display environment details	gcloud info
List project logs	gcloud logging logs list
Read log entries	gcloud logging read "resource.type=gce_instance" --limit=10
Decrypt with KMS	gcloud kms decrypt --key=<key> --keyring=<ring> --location=<loc> --ciphertext-file=<in> --plaintext-file=<out>
List Cloud SQL instances	gcloud sql instances list
Export Cloud SQL to SQL file	gcloud sql export sql <instance> gs://<bucket>/<file>.sql --database=<db>
List Pub/Sub topics	gcloud pubsub topics list
Publish message to topic	gcloud pubsub topics publish <topic> --message="Hello"

GCP Certification Exam Practice Questions

• Questions are collected from Internet and the answers are marked as per my knowledge and understanding (which might differ with yours).
• GCP services are updated everyday and both the answers and questions might be outdated soon, so research accordingly.
• GCP exam questions are not updated to keep up the pace with GCP updates, so even if the underlying feature has changed the question might not be updated
• Open to further feedback, discussion and correction.

1. You have a development project with appropriate IAM roles defined. You are creating a production project and want to have the same IAM roles on the new project, using the fewest possible steps. What should you do?
   1. Use gcloud iam roles copy and specify the production project as the destination project.
   2. Use gcloud iam roles copy and specify your organization as the destination organization.
   3. In the Google Cloud Platform Console, use the ‘create role from role’ functionality.
   4. In the Google Cloud Platform Console, use the ‘create role’ functionality and select all applicable permissions.
2. Your team is working on GKE cluster named dev. You have downloaded and installed the gcloud command line interface (CLI) and SDK. You want to avoid having to specify this GKE config with each CLI command when managing this cluster. What should you do?
   1. Set the dev cluster as the default cluster using the gcloud container update dev
   2. Set the dev cluster as the default cluster using the gcloud config set container/cluster dev
   3. Set the dev cluster as the default cluster by adding the config to gke.default in ~/gcloud folder
   4. Set the dev cluster as the default cluster by adding the config to defaults.json in ~/gcloud folder
3. You have a Kubernetes cluster with 1 node-pool. The cluster receives a lot of traffic and needs to grow. You decide to add a node. What should you do?
   1. Use “gcloud container clusters resize” with the desired number of nodes.
   2. Use “kubectl container clusters resize” with the desired number of nodes.
   3. Edit the managed instance group of the cluster and increase the number of VMs by 1.
   4. Edit the managed instance group of the cluster and enable autoscaling.
4. You’re trying to provide temporary access to some files in a Cloud Storage bucket with 20 minutes availability. What is the best way to generate a signed URL?
   1. Create a service account and JSON key. Use the gsutil signurl -t 20m command and pass in the JSON key and bucket.
   2. Create a service account and JSON key. Use the gsutil signurl -d 20m command and pass in the JSON key and bucket.
   3. Create a service account and JSON key. Use the gsutil signurl -p 20m command and pass in the JSON key and bucket.
   4. Create a service account and JSON key. Use the gsutil signurl -m 20m command and pass in the JSON key and bucket.

   Note: The modern equivalent command is gcloud storage sign-url gs://<bucket>/<object> --duration=20m --private-key-file=<key-file>
5. You need to deploy a containerized application to Google Cloud with minimal infrastructure management. The application handles variable traffic and you want it to scale to zero when not in use. Which service and command should you use?
   1. Deploy to GKE Autopilot using gcloud container clusters create-auto and kubectl apply.
   2. Deploy to Cloud Run using gcloud run deploy <service-name> –image=<image> –region=<region> –allow-unauthenticated.
   3. Deploy to Compute Engine using gcloud compute instances create-with-container.
   4. Deploy to App Engine using gcloud app deploy with a Dockerfile.
6. Your organization is migrating from gsutil to the new recommended CLI. Which command should you use to upload a local directory to Cloud Storage recursively?
   1. gsutil cp -r ./data gs://my-bucket/
   2. gcloud storage objects upload ./data gs://my-bucket/ –recursive
   3. gcloud storage cp -r ./data gs://my-bucket/
   4. gcloud storage buckets cp ./data gs://my-bucket/ –recursive
7. You need to create a cost-effective VM for a fault-tolerant batch processing workload. Google recommends using Spot VMs instead of preemptible VMs. Which command creates a Spot VM?
   1. gcloud compute instances create batch-vm –preemptible –max-run-duration=24h
   2. gcloud compute instances create batch-vm –spot
   3. gcloud compute instances create batch-vm –provisioning-model=SPOT –instance-termination-action=STOP
   4. gcloud compute instances create batch-vm –scheduling=spot –maintenance-policy=TERMINATE
8. You need to create a fully managed Kubernetes cluster where Google manages the nodes, scaling, and security. Which command should you use?
   1. gcloud container clusters create my-cluster –enable-autopilot
   2. gcloud container clusters create-auto my-cluster –region=us-central1
   3. gcloud container clusters create my-cluster –managed-mode=autopilot
   4. gcloud container clusters create my-cluster –num-nodes=0 –enable-autoscaling