Overview

In this lab, you learn how to use Cloud Monitoring to gain insight into applications that run on Google Cloud.

Objectives

In this lab, you learn how to perform the following tasks:

• Explore Cloud Monitoring by creating a custom dashboard with charts
• Create alerts with multiple conditions
• Create resource groups
• Create uptime checks

Setup and Requirements

For each lab, you get a new Google Cloud project and set of resources for a fixed time at no cost.

1. Click the Start Lab button. If you need to pay for the lab, a pop-up opens for you to select your payment method. On the left is the Lab Details panel with the following:

   • The Open Google Cloud console button
   • Time remaining
   • The temporary credentials that you must use for this lab
   • Other information, if needed, to step through this lab

2. Click Open Google Cloud console (or right-click and select Open Link in Incognito Window if you are running the Chrome browser).

   The lab spins up resources, and then opens another tab that shows the Sign in page.

   Tip: Arrange the tabs in separate windows, side-by-side.

   Note: If you see the Choose an account dialog, click Use Another Account.

3. If necessary, copy the Username below and paste it into the Sign in dialog.

   {{{user_0.username | "Username"}}}

   You can also find the Username in the Lab Details panel.

4. Click Next.

5. Copy the Password below and paste it into the Welcome dialog.

   {{{user_0.password | "Password"}}}

   You can also find the Password in the Lab Details panel.

6. Click Next.

   Important: You must use the credentials the lab provides you. Do not use your Google Cloud account credentials. Note: Using your own Google Cloud account for this lab may incur extra charges.

7. Click through the subsequent pages:

   • Accept the terms and conditions.
   • Do not add recovery options or two-factor authentication (because this is a temporary account).
   • Do not sign up for free trials.

After a few moments, the Google Cloud console opens in this tab.

Note: To view a menu with a list of Google Cloud products and services, click the Navigation menu at the top-left, or type the service or product name in the Search field.

Task 1. Verify resources

In this task, you verify that three VM instances have been created. You monitor these in the tasks that follow.

1. In the Google Cloud console, in the Navigation menu (), click Compute Engine > VM instances.

2. Verify that the nginxstack-1, nginxstack-2 and nginxstack-3 instances are visible.

Task 2. Custom dashboards

In this task, you create a custom dashboard in Cloud Monitoring and examine resource usage data.

Create a dashboard

1. In the Google Cloud console, in the Navigation menu (), click View all products > Observability > Monitoring.

When the Monitoring dashboard opens, your workspace is ready.

2. In the left pane, click Dashboards.

3. Click Create Custom Dashboard.

4. In the top pane, click New Dashboard.

5. For Dashboard name, type My Dashboard. Click outside of the box to continue.

Add a chart

1. Click Add widget, and then select Line.

2. In Widget title, type My Chart.

3. In the Select a metric dropdown, type CPU utilization. Then, click VM Instance > Instance, select CPU utilization, and click Apply.

   Note: Uncheck Active if you are unable to find the CPU utilization

4. Click + Add Filter and explore the various options.

5. Click Apply to create the chart.

Metrics Explorer

The Metrics Explorer allows you to examine resources and metrics without having to create a chart on a dashboard. Try to recreate the chart you just created using the Metrics Explorer.

1. In the left pane, click Metrics explorer.
2. Click Select a metric.
3. Select a Metric from the dropdown, explore the various options, and then try to recreate the chart you created earlier.

Click Check my progress to verify the objective. Create custom dashboard

Task 3. Alerting policies

In this task, you create an alert policy in Cloud Monitoring to notify you when CPU usage exceeds a specified threshold.

Create an alert and add the first condition

1. In the left pane, select Alerting.
2. Click + Create policy.
3. Click on Select a metric dropdown. Uncheck the Active option.
4. Type VM Instance in filter by resource and metric name and click on VM Instance > Instance. Select CPU usage and click Apply.

5. Set Rolling windows to 1 min.
6. Click Next. Set Threshold position to Above Threshold and set 20 as your Threshold value.
7. Click Next.

Add a second condition

1. Click +Add alert condition.
2. Click on Select a metric dropdown. Uncheck the Active option.
3. Type VM Instance in filter by resource and metric name and click on VM Instance > Instance. Select CPU utilization and click Apply.
4. Set Rolling windows to 1 min.
5. Click Next.
6. Set Threshold position to Above Threshold and set 20 as your Threshold value and click Next.
7. In Multi-condition trigger, select All conditions are met.
8. Click Next.

Configure notifications and finish the alerting policy

1. Click on Notification Channels dropdown list, then click on Manage Notification Channels.

   The Notification channels page will open in a new tab.

2. Scroll down the page and click on Add New for Email.

3. Enter your personal email in the Email Address field and a Display name.

4. Click Save.

5. Go back to the previous Configure notifications and finalize alert tab.

6. Click on Notification Channels again, then click on the Refresh icon to get the display name you mentioned in the previous step. Click Notification Channels again if needed.

7. Now, select your Display name and click Ok.

8. In Alert policy name type My Alert Policy. You may need to scroll down to the bottom of the page to see this.

9. Click Next.

10. Review the alert and click Create Policy.

Click Check my progress to verify the objective. Create alerting policies

Task 4. Resource groups

In this task, you create a group in Cloud Monitoring to organize your resources.

1. In the left pane, click Groups.
2. Click + Create Group.
3. In the Name field, type VM instances.
4. In the Criteria section, type nginx in the Value field below Contains.
5. Click Done.
6. Click Create.
7. Review the dashboard Cloud Monitoring created for your group.

Click Check my progress to verify the objective. Create resource groups

Task 5. Uptime monitoring

In this task, you create an uptime check in Cloud Monitoring to monitor the availability of your resources.

1. In the Monitoring tab, click on Uptime checks.
2. Click + Create uptime check.
3. Specify the following, and leave the remaining settings as their defaults:

4. Click on Continue to leave the other details to default.

5. Click Alert & Notification , and then select your notification channel from the Notifications Channel dropdown.

6. Click Continue.

7. For Title, type My Uptime check.

8. Click Test to verify that your uptime check can connect to the resource.

9. When you see a green check mark everything can connect. Click Create.

The uptime check you configured takes a while for it to become active.

Click Check my progress to verify the objective. Create uptime check

Task 6. Disable the alert

In this task, you disable an existing alert policy in Cloud Monitoring.

Alerting policies stay active for a while after a project is deleted, just in case it needs to be reinstalled. Since this is a lab, and you will not have access to this project again, remove the alerting policy you created.

1. In the Monitoring tab, click on Alerting.

2. Click See all policies, on your Policies details page, and then click on the Enabled toggle beside your created alert.

3. You will be asked to confirm that you want to turn off the alerting policy - click Turn off.

Task 7. Review

In this lab, you learned how to:

• Explore Cloud Monitoring
• Create a custom dashboard with charts
• Create alerts with multiple conditions
• Add charts to dashboards
• Create resource groups
• Create uptime checks for your services

End your lab

When you have completed your lab, click End Lab. Google Skills removes the resources you’ve used and cleans the account for you.

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