Google Cloud Platform in Action with Kubernetes

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a powerful tool for businesses and developers. It provides a wide range of services to help you build, deploy, and manage applications.

One of the key features of GCP is its ability to integrate with Kubernetes, a container orchestration system. Kubernetes allows you to automate the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.

GCP's integration with Kubernetes makes it easy to deploy and manage containerized applications at scale. This is especially useful for companies with complex and large-scale applications.

Expand your knowledge: Google Cloud Platform for Business

Google Cloud Platform is a game-changer for developers. You can create and deploy your applications on the same infrastructure that powers Search, Maps, and other Google tools you use daily.

Thousands of developers worldwide trust Google Cloud Platform, and for good reason. It offers rock-solid reliability, an incredible array of prebuilt services, and a cost-effective, pay-only-for-what-you-use model.

Google Cloud Platform provides a wide range of services, including cloud storage and computing. You can choose the right services for your needs and budget.

Additional reading: Aws vs Google Cloud vs Azure

The book "Google Cloud Platform for Developers" is a great resource for getting started with Google Cloud. It provides hands-on code examples and explains how things work under the hood.

Here are some of the key features of Google Cloud Platform:

As an Azure user, I got great insights into Google Cloud and a comparison of both providers. This book is a must-read for anyone looking to migrate to Google Cloud.

App Engine and Kubernetes provide a scalable and managed platform for deploying and managing applications.

Google Cloud App Engine is a fully managed platform that allows developers to build scalable web applications without worrying about the underlying infrastructure.

With App Engine, you can deploy applications written in languages like Python, Java, and Go, and take advantage of automatic scaling, load balancing, and high availability.

App Engine integrates seamlessly with other Google Cloud services, such as Cloud Storage and Cloud SQL, making it easy to build and deploy scalable applications.

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App Engine offers a scalable solution for running GitHub Actions with its ephemeral and scalable nature. You can create on-demand, self-hosted GitHub Actions runners using App Engine.

To get started, you need to create a Dockerfile that installs the GitHub Actions runner into a Docker container. This leverages elastic auto-scaling based on CPU usage.

You can connect to other resources with serverless VPC access. However, App Engine has limitations, such as not being able to consume custom hardware like GPUs and TPUs, and it's not yet available on-premises.

App Engine already runs as a container, making it not possible to use Docker-based actions or actions that rely on the Docker daemon with this setup. Unfortunately, this means you have to explore other options for running these types of actions.

Intriguing read: Microsoft Azure from Zero to Hero - the Complete Guide

You can use community patterns to deploy custom GitHub Action runners on Kubernetes with Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE).

GKE is a true Kubernetes installation, making it possible to leverage existing community patterns.

Persistent runners on Kubernetes Engine can utilize GKE specific features like Workload Identity to authenticate with Google Cloud APIs.

This reduces the overhead of creating and managing service account keys.

Unlike traditional service account keys, Workload Identity credentials are only valid for a short time, reducing the operational burden of rotating these credentials.

You can find an example GKE runner with Workload Identity on GitHub.

This solution is great for those already using a Kubernetes cluster in the cloud, but what if you need to access on-premises resources?

Worth a look: Azure Service Operator

Anthos lets you build, deploy, and manage applications anywhere in a secure, consistent manner. This means you can run your applications on infrastructure you control, including on-premises.

You can use GitHub Actions and Anthos GKE to compose a containerized build pipeline that runs on your infrastructure. This is great for accessing on-premises resources, which is a challenge with traditional service account keys.

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The repository linked above includes the set of commands to run to provision an Anthos GKE cluster. It creates the Google Cloud project, enables all required services, and provisions a GKE cluster managed by Anthos.

To configure Kubernetes secrets for the runner pod, you'll need to provide a TOKEN to (de)register itself and a GITHUB_REPO variable for which the runner(s) will be made available. This is explained in the repository linked above.

The Dockerfile is based on a general-purpose Ubuntu image, and downloads and installs dependencies including the runner itself. This allows for a flexible build process.

You can even use these self-hosted runners to run container builds with a Docker-in-Docker sidecar pod. However, this requires a privileged security context, so be cautious with this approach or remove the sidecar if your application doesn’t require containers.

It's currently not advised to scale down replicas as builds are happening, since it’s not yet feasible to select only the idle runners. You might consider scaling down runners off peak schedule, say late at night, and scaling them back up in the morning before builds are needed.

Consider reading: Google Documents down

When linking GitHub as an identity provider in GCP, it's essential to configure provider attributes to define the information passed between GitHub and GCP during authentication. This allows you to choose which attributes from the GitHub token to retain and map to the GCP token.

You can configure the condition to assertion.repository_owner == 'AlexanderHose', which ensures that only tokens from specified repository owners or organizations are allowed. This condition is crucial for restricting access and enhancing security.

To set a robust authentication condition, it's recommended to define a condition that limits the scope of valid tokens. This approach helps in restricting access and enhancing security.

By retaining and mapping specific attributes from the GitHub token, you can ensure that only authorized users can access your GCP resources. This is a critical step in maintaining security and efficiency in your development workflow.

Intriguing read: How to Access Google Cloud Storage

The GitHub Actions workflow configuration is a crucial part of automating tasks in your development workflow. It integrates with GCP to ensure centralized and controlled access management, reducing the risks associated with manual operations.

The workflow is configured to run on several triggers, including push events to the main branch, pull request events targeting the main branch, and manual triggers from the Actions tab in GitHub.

Here's a breakdown of the workflow's job and steps:

The workflow contains several steps, including:

By understanding the workflow configuration and its steps, you can better manage your development workflow and ensure security and efficiency.

Workload Identity Federation is a game-changer for teams working with Google Cloud Platform (GCP). It eliminates the need for long-lived credentials, which can be a significant security risk if compromised.

Traditional methods of authentication often involve distributing and managing these credentials, which can become cumbersome as teams grow and projects scale. Workload Identity Federation simplifies this by centralizing authentication management.

This approach provides a robust framework for enforcing access policies and maintaining audit trails, helping organizations stay compliant with industry standards. Regulatory requirements often mandate stringent controls over access management.

For another approach, see: Windows Azure Management Api

To get started, you'll need to create a Workload Identity Pool and Provider in GCP, linking your identity provider, such as GitHub. This sets the stage for secure and scalable authentication.

You can choose which attributes from the GitHub token to retain and map to the GCP token, defining the information passed between providers during authentication. This is where you can configure a robust authentication condition to ensure security.

For instance, you can configure the condition to assert that only tokens from specified repository owners or organizations are allowed. This helps in restricting access and enhancing security by limiting the scope of valid tokens.

To allow access to GCP resources via the Workload Identity Pool, you need to grant the necessary roles to the principalSet. This can be done either through the GCP Console UI or using the gcloud command-line tool.

Service Availability: Not all GCP services support principalSet directly. For services that do not, you will need to use a service account in conjunction with Workload Identity Federation.

Here are the key benefits of Workload Identity Federation: