10 GCP gcloud Commands I Use Every Day

Here are 10 useful gcloud commands that you might use daily when working with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to manage resources, monitor operations, and configure your environment efficiently.

1. Set the Default Project

Set the default project to avoid specifying it in every command.

gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID        

2. List Active Projects

Quickly view all available projects and their statuses.

gcloud projects list        

3. Authenticate and Login

Authenticate your Google Cloud account to access resources.

gcloud auth login        

4. Start and Stop a Compute Engine VM

Start or stop a Compute Engine virtual machine by its instance name.

# Start a VM instance
gcloud compute instances start INSTANCE_NAME --zone ZONE_NAME

# Stop a VM instance
gcloud compute instances stop INSTANCE_NAME --zone ZONE_NAME        

5. SSH Into a Compute Engine VM

Easily SSH into a Compute Engine instance.

gcloud compute ssh INSTANCE_NAME --zone ZONE_NAME        

6. Create a New Storage Bucket

Create a new Google Cloud Storage bucket in a specified region.

gcloud storage buckets create gs://BUCKET_NAME --location=REGION_NAME        

7. List Compute Engine Instances

List all Compute Engine instances in a specific project and region.

gcloud compute instances list --filter="zone:(ZONE_NAME)"        

8. Deploy an App Using App Engine

Deploy an application to Google App Engine.

gcloud app deploy        

9. View Logs Using GCP Logging

Access the logs from a specific project, filtering by a specific resource (e.g., Cloud Functions).

gcloud logging read "resource.type=cloud_function" --limit 50        

10. Check Billing Info for the Current Project

View detailed billing information and costs associated with a project.

gcloud alpha billing projects describe PROJECT_ID        

These gcloud commands cover typical daily tasks such as managing VMs, interacting with storage, handling authentication, and monitoring services. They are designed to help streamline your workflow and efficiently manage GCP resources.