GKE Cluster

Google Kubernetes Engine is GCP’s managed Kubernetes. ZopDay creates a Standard GKE cluster and adds it as a deployment target, so teams can deploy to it once the job completes.

What does a GKE cluster job create

The job creates the network, then the access settings, then the cluster, and waits for the cluster to run. It then creates DNS (only when you pick a domain), records the image registry location and adds the cluster as a deployment target. A step that installs components runs only when you pick them. The examples below use a cluster called shop in project my-project and region us-central1.

• Network. With Create new VPC, ZopDay creates shop-network with a private subnet. The subnet carries two extra ranges for GKE: gke-pods (10.4.0.0/14) and gke-services (10.8.0.0/20). ZopDay also creates a firewall rule for internal traffic, a Cloud Router and Cloud NAT. With an existing VPC, the cluster uses the first two secondary ranges on its subnet. If the subnet has fewer than two, GKE assigns a /14 for pods and a /20 for services.
• Access (IAM). Nothing is created. Nodes run as the project’s default Compute Engine service account with the cloud-platform scope.
• Cluster. A regional cluster, or a single-zone cluster in zone b of the region (such as us-central1-b) when you pick Zonal. The Kubernetes version comes from the REGULAR release channel. HTTP load balancing and horizontal pod autoscaling are on. Workload Identity is on, with the project’s pool (such as my-project.svc.id.goog). The API endpoint is public. ZopDay sets up no private cluster and no authorised networks.
• Node pool. One pool, named after the cluster: a cluster called shop gets shop-pool. Nodes use the GKE metadata server that Workload Identity needs, auto-upgrade and auto-repair are on, and every node carries the network tag shop-node.
• DNS. With a domain, ZopDay creates a Cloud DNS zone for the cluster under that domain, such as shop.example.com. When the ingress load balancer already has an IP, it also adds a wildcard A record. If DNS setup fails, ZopDay skips the step instead of failing the job.
• Registry. ZopDay creates no Artifact Registry repository. If you want images under a path such as us-central1-docker.pkg.dev/my-project/shop, create that repository yourself.

Which GKE node counts, machine types and availability can you set

Node count            2 by default (1 to 100); autoscaling minimum = node count, maximum = 2 x node count
Machine type          required; E2, N2, C3, M3 and Tau T2A types
Cluster Availability  Zonal (default) or Regional (HA)
K8s Version           shown, but GKE takes the version from the REGULAR channel
Domain                optional
Components            optional Helm components from the catalogue
Scaling               Standard HPA (default) or KEDA, which adds the KEDA component
Network               Create new VPC (default) or Use existing VPC

The Provision screen requires a machine type. If you create the cluster through the ZopDay API and leave the machine type out, ZopDay uses e2-standard-4. If you leave the node count out, ZopDay uses 2 nodes.

The screen also shows an address-range field under Advanced settings. The screen does not pass that value on today, so new networks use 10.0.0.0/16.

What happens after the GKE cluster is running

ZopDay adds the cluster as a deployment target. It connects with short-lived access tokens issued for the connected cloud account’s service account. ZopDay stores no static kubeconfig.

Each component you picked installs as its own logged action. If you picked none, nothing installs when the cluster is created. Before the first service deploys, ZopDay installs whichever of ingress-nginx, cert-manager and the Prometheus stack are missing.

What does deleting a GKE cluster job remove

Deletion removes the cluster and the DNS zone, if one was created. If ZopDay created the network, it then removes, in order:

• the private services access peering and range;
• the router and NAT;
• every firewall rule ZopDay created on the network;
• the subnet and the network.

An existing VPC is left alone.

Which GKE cluster options ZopDay does not offer

No Autopilot clusters, extra or Spot node pools, private control plane, authorised networks, Karpenter or service account keys. On cost, the GKE control plane fee comes on top of node cost. See Provisioning clusters for current list prices.