Using Google Cloud

1. Using Google Cloud

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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

2. Let's practice!

Create Your Free Account

By continuing, you accept our Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy and that your data is stored in the USA.