Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Cheatsheet

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Cluster Management

• Create a basic GKE cluster

gcloud container clusters create <cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --num-nodes=3

• Create GKE cluster with machine type

gcloud container clusters create <cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --machine-type=e2-standard-4 \
  --num-nodes=3 \
  --disk-size=100GB

• Create autopilot cluster (serverless)

gcloud container clusters create-auto <cluster-name> \
  --region=<region>

• Create private cluster

gcloud container clusters create <cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --enable-private-nodes \
  --master-ipv4-cidr-block=172.16.0.0/28 \
  --enable-ip-alias

• List all clusters

gcloud container clusters list

• Get cluster details

gcloud container clusters describe <cluster-name> --zone=<zone>

• Get cluster credentials

gcloud container clusters get-credentials <cluster-name> --zone=<zone>

• Delete cluster

gcloud container clusters delete <cluster-name> --zone=<zone>

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Node Pool Management

• List node pools

gcloud container node-pools list --cluster=<cluster-name> --zone=<zone>

• Create additional node pool

gcloud container node-pools create <pool-name> \
  --cluster=<cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --machine-type=e2-standard-2 \
  --num-nodes=2

• Create preemptible node pool

gcloud container node-pools create <pool-name> \
  --cluster=<cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --preemptible \
  --machine-type=e2-standard-2 \
  --num-nodes=3

• Create spot node pool

gcloud container node-pools create <pool-name> \
  --cluster=<cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --spot \
  --machine-type=e2-standard-2 \
  --num-nodes=3

• Enable autoscaling for node pool

gcloud container clusters update <cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --enable-autoscaling \
  --node-pool=<pool-name> \
  --min-nodes=1 \
  --max-nodes=10

• Resize node pool

gcloud container clusters resize <cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --node-pool=<pool-name> \
  --num-nodes=5

• Delete node pool

gcloud container node-pools delete <pool-name> \
  --cluster=<cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone>

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Cluster Operations

• Upgrade cluster master

gcloud container clusters upgrade <cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --master

• Upgrade cluster nodes

gcloud container clusters upgrade <cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --node-pool=<pool-name>

• Get available versions

gcloud container get-server-config --zone=<zone>

• Update cluster

gcloud container clusters update <cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --enable-autorepair \
  --enable-autoupgrade

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Google Container Registry (GCR) Integration

• Configure Docker for GCR

gcloud auth configure-docker

• Tag image for GCR

docker tag <image-name> gcr.io/<project-id>/<image-name>:<tag>

• Push image to GCR

docker push gcr.io/<project-id>/<image-name>:<tag>

• List images in GCR

gcloud container images list

• List tags for specific image

gcloud container images list-tags gcr.io/<project-id>/<image-name>

• Delete image from GCR

gcloud container images delete gcr.io/<project-id>/<image-name>:<tag>

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Networking

• Create cluster with custom network

gcloud container clusters create <cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --network=<vpc-name> \
  --subnetwork=<subnet-name> \
  --enable-ip-alias

• Enable HTTP load balancing

gcloud container clusters update <cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --enable-http-load-balancing

• Enable network policy

gcloud container clusters update <cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --enable-network-policy

• Create cluster with authorized networks

gcloud container clusters create <cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --enable-master-authorized-networks \
  --master-authorized-networks=<cidr-range>

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Security and Identity

• Enable Workload Identity

gcloud container clusters update <cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --workload-pool=<project-id>.svc.id.goog

• Create service account for Workload Identity

gcloud iam service-accounts create <ksa-name>

• Bind Kubernetes SA to Google SA

gcloud iam service-accounts add-iam-policy-binding \
  --role roles/iam.workloadIdentityUser \
  --member "serviceAccount:<project-id>.svc.id.goog[<namespace>/<ksa-name>]" \
  <gsa-name>@<project-id>.iam.gserviceaccount.com

• Enable Binary Authorization

gcloud container clusters update <cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --enable-binauthz

• Enable Pod Security Policy

gcloud container clusters update <cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --enable-pod-security-policy

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Storage

• Create persistent disk

gcloud compute disks create <disk-name> \
  --size=10GB \
  --zone=<zone>

• Example StorageClass for SSD persistent disks

apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: StorageClass
metadata:
  name: fast-ssd
provisioner: kubernetes.io/gce-pd
parameters:
  type: pd-ssd
  replication-type: none

• Example PVC using custom StorageClass

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: fast-storage
spec:
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
  storageClassName: fast-ssd
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 10Gi

---

Monitoring and Logging

• Enable Cloud Monitoring

gcloud container clusters update <cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --enable-cloud-monitoring

• Enable Cloud Logging

gcloud container clusters update <cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --enable-cloud-logging

• View cluster operations

gcloud container operations list

• Describe specific operation

gcloud container operations describe <operation-id> --zone=<zone>

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Autopilot Clusters

• Create Autopilot cluster

gcloud container clusters create-auto <cluster-name> \
  --region=<region>

• Update Autopilot cluster

gcloud container clusters update <cluster-name> \
  --region=<region> \
  --enable-autoscaling

• Get Autopilot cluster info

gcloud container clusters describe <cluster-name> \
  --region=<region> \
  --format="value(autopilot)"

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Troubleshooting

• Check cluster status

gcloud container clusters describe <cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --format="value(status)"

• View cluster events

kubectl get events --sort-by='.metadata.creationTimestamp'

• Check node status

kubectl get nodes -o wide
kubectl describe nodes

• Debug networking issues

kubectl run test-pod --image=busybox -it --rm -- nslookup kubernetes.default

• Check GKE add-ons status

gcloud container clusters describe <cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --format="value(addonsConfig)"

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Multi-Zone and Regional Clusters

• Create regional cluster

gcloud container clusters create <cluster-name> \
  --region=<region> \
  --num-nodes=1

• Create multi-zone cluster

gcloud container clusters create <cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --additional-zones=<zone1>,<zone2> \
  --num-nodes=1

• Add zones to existing cluster

gcloud container node-pools update <pool-name> \
  --cluster=<cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --additional-zones=<zone1>,<zone2>

---

Advanced Features

• Enable Istio service mesh

gcloud container clusters update <cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --enable-istio

• Enable cluster autoscaling

gcloud container clusters update <cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --enable-autoscaling \
  --min-nodes=1 \
  --max-nodes=10

• Enable vertical pod autoscaling

gcloud container clusters update <cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --enable-vertical-pod-autoscaling

• Enable shielded nodes

gcloud container clusters update <cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --enable-shielded-nodes

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Cost Optimization

• Create preemptible cluster

gcloud container clusters create <cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --preemptible \
  --num-nodes=3

• Enable cluster autoscaling

gcloud container clusters update <cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --enable-autoscaling \
  --min-nodes=0 \
  --max-nodes=5

• Use spot instances

gcloud container node-pools create <pool-name> \
  --cluster=<cluster-name> \
  --zone=<zone> \
  --spot \
  --num-nodes=3

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Useful kubectl Commands for GKE

• Check GKE cluster info

kubectl cluster-info
kubectl get nodes -o wide
kubectl get pods --all-namespaces

• Deploy from GCR

kubectl create deployment nginx --image=gcr.io/<project-id>/nginx:latest

• Create load balancer service

kubectl expose deployment nginx --port=80 --type=LoadBalancer

• Check GKE-specific annotations

kubectl get service nginx -o yaml | grep -A 5 -B 5 "cloud.google.com"

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Configuration Examples

• Example cluster with advanced features

gcloud container clusters create production-cluster \
  --zone=us-central1-a \
  --machine-type=e2-standard-4 \
  --num-nodes=3 \
  --enable-autoscaling \
  --min-nodes=1 \
  --max-nodes=10 \
  --enable-autorepair \
  --enable-autoupgrade \
  --enable-network-policy \
  --enable-ip-alias \
  --enable-cloud-logging \
  --enable-cloud-monitoring \
  --disk-size=100GB \
  --disk-type=pd-ssd

• Example Autopilot cluster

gcloud container clusters create-auto autopilot-cluster \
  --region=us-central1 \
  --enable-private-nodes \
  --enable-master-authorized-networks \
  --master-authorized-networks=10.0.0.0/8