GSP488

Overview

A GKE Pod is the smallest deployable unit in Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) and Kubernetes overall. It represents a single instance of a running process in a GKE cluster. Pods are designed to be temporary and disposable. If a Pod fails (due to a crash or Node failure), Kubernetes typically deletes it and creates a new Pod to replace it, rather than repairing the old one.

A Pod typically holds one primary application container (e.g., a web server, a database). It may also hold optional sidecar containers that perform auxiliary tasks like logging, monitoring, or acting as proxies for the main application container.

What you'll learn or Objectives

• Create the minimal GKE infrastructure.
• Deploy a simple, single-container Pod.
• Verify the deployment.
• Delete the cluster.

Setup and requirements

Before you click the Start Lab button

Read these instructions. Labs are timed and you cannot pause them. The timer, which starts when you click Start Lab, shows how long Google Cloud resources are made available to you.

This hands-on lab lets you do the lab activities in a real cloud environment, not in a simulation or demo environment. It does so by giving you new, temporary credentials you use to sign in and access Google Cloud for the duration of the lab.

To complete this lab, you need:

• Access to a standard internet browser (Chrome browser recommended).

Note: Use an Incognito (recommended) or private browser window to run this lab. This prevents conflicts between your personal account and the student account, which may cause extra charges incurred to your personal account.

• Time to complete the lab—remember, once you start, you cannot pause a lab.

Note: Use only the student account for this lab. If you use a different Google Cloud account, you may incur charges to that account.

How to start your lab and sign in to the Google Cloud console

1. Click the Start Lab button. If you need to pay for the lab, a dialog opens for you to select your payment method. On the left is the Lab Details pane 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 pane.

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 pane.

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 access Google Cloud products and services, click the Navigation menu or type the service or product name in the Search field.

Activate Cloud Shell

Cloud Shell is a virtual machine that is loaded with development tools. It offers a persistent 5GB home directory and runs on the Google Cloud. Cloud Shell provides command-line access to your Google Cloud resources.

1. Click Activate Cloud Shell at the top of the Google Cloud console.

2. Click through the following windows:

   • Continue through the Cloud Shell information window.
   • Authorize Cloud Shell to use your credentials to make Google Cloud API calls.

When you are connected, you are already authenticated, and the project is set to your Project_ID, . The output contains a line that declares the Project_ID for this session:

Your Cloud Platform project in this session is set to {{{project_0.project_id | "PROJECT_ID"}}}

gcloud is the command-line tool for Google Cloud. It comes pre-installed on Cloud Shell and supports tab-completion.

3. (Optional) You can list the active account name with this command:

gcloud auth list

4. Click Authorize.

Output:

ACTIVE: * ACCOUNT: {{{user_0.username | "ACCOUNT"}}} To set the active account, run: $ gcloud config set account `ACCOUNT`

5. (Optional) You can list the project ID with this command:

gcloud config list project

Output:

[core] project = {{{project_0.project_id | "PROJECT_ID"}}} Note: For full documentation of gcloud, in Google Cloud, refer to the gcloud CLI overview guide.

Set the Compute Zone

In Cloud Shell set the default compute zone for your cluster:

gcloud config set compute/zone {{{project_0.default_zone | ZONE}}}

Task 1. Create a GKE cluster

1. Create a small cluster named my-cluster:

gcloud container clusters create my-cluster

This command provisions the Control Plane and a default number of worker Nodes (VMs) in your specified zone. This can take several minutes to complete.

2. Once the cluster is ready, GKE automatically configures kubectl (the Kubernetes command-line tool) to point to your new cluster. You can verify the connection by running the following:

kubectl get nodes

You should see your Nodes listed with a Ready status.

Click Check my progress to verify your performed task. Create a GKE cluster

Task 2. Deploying and interacting with a Pod

Now that the infrastructure is ready, you will deploy a basic Pod running an Nginx web server.

Create the Pod configuration file

1. A Pod is defined using a YAML manifest file. Use the Cloud Shell editor or nano to create a file named nginx-pod.yaml:

nano nginx-pod.yaml

2. Paste the following YAML content into the file:

apiVersion: v1 kind: Pod metadata: name: nginx-test-pod labels: app: nginx spec: containers: - name: nginx-container image: nginx:latest ports: - containerPort: 80

This manifest declares a Pod with the name nginx-test-pod. It instructs Kubernetes to run one container based on the public nginx:latest image and expose port 80 internally within the Pod.

3. Save and exit the editor (CTRL+O, then ENTER, then CTRL+X if using nano).

4. To deploy your manifest, execute the following command:

kubectl apply -f ./nginx-pod.yaml Note: You may need to wait a few minutes for the pod deployment to complete and the status change to running.

Click Check my progress to verify your performed task. Create and deploy the Pod configuration file

Task 3. Interact with the Pod

1. First, check the status of the newly created Pod:

kubectl get pods

2. Since Pods are assigned private cluster IPs, you can use port-forwarding to temporarily access the Nginx web page from the Cloud Shell environment:

kubectl port-forward nginx-test-pod 8080:80

This command maps local Cloud Shell port 8080 to Pod port 80.

3. Leave this command running in the current terminal tab. You will open a second Cloud Shell tab in the next step.

Task 4. Test the application

1. Open a new Cloud Shell tab by clicking the + button next to the current tab. Use curl to access the Nginx server through the forwarded port:

curl http://localhost:8080

2. You should receive the default Nginx welcome HTML page, confirming the Pod is running and serving content.

Task 4. Cleanup

In a production environment, you should delete unused clusters to stop incurring charges. Practice doing that now.

1. In your primary Cloud Shell tab (where you ran the cluster creation command), stop the port-forwarding (if still running) with CTRL+C.

2. Then, delete the cluster by running the following:

gcloud container clusters delete my-cluster --zone {{{project_0.default_zone|ZONE}}}

3. Type Y to confirm. This will clean up all associated resources (Nodes, Pods, etc.).

Click Check my progress to verify your performed task. Delete the cluster

Congratulations!

You have learned how the GKE cluster provides the managed computing environment, while the Pod runs the actual application code within that environment. This foundational knowledge is crucial for moving on to more complex, production-ready deployments.

Next Steps / Learn more

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Manual Last Updated: September 29, 2025

Lab Last Tested: September 29, 2025

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