Getting Started with Google Cloud Platform (GCP)- A Beginner's Guide

In this article, we will learn how to

1. Create a GCP account
2. Create a Project
3. Create a Virtual Machine (VM)
4. Install NGINX

Create a Google Cloud Account

To access Google Cloud Platform, you have to have a Google account. We can use either of the following email accounts:

●?????Google Workspace and Cloud Identity Accounts (If you have one)

●?????Corporate email account

●?????Gmail account

Follow these steps to sign up using an existing Gmail account or register your corporate email address as a Google account.

1. Click on the link https://console.cloud.google.com/ to launch Google Cloud Console in a browser
2. When prompted to sign into the Cloud Console, use an existing Gmail account to sign in or create a new account by clicking Create Account and follow the steps to register a corporate email account or a new Gmail account.

In this article, we will use an existing Gmail account to sign in.

3. Agree to GCP terms of Service and continue

4. Upon successful sign-up, you will be directed to the Google Cloud console

5. You can get started with GCP by clicking on Try for free button. Here you will be requested to enter your credit card information.

Create a Google Cloud Project

It is important to note that to use Google Cloud, you have to create a Google Cloud Project.

Google Cloud projects form the basis for creating, enabling and using all Google Cloud services. It brings together related resources and tools. Think of the Google Cloud Project as a playground, where you chose what goes into the playground.

You can have multiple projects, each with its own services and resources. This enables you to work on several projects at the same time while ensuring that the resources are in separate control domains.

To create a project, follow the following steps

1. Once in Google Cloud Console: console.cloud.google.com, click on Select a project and create a new project.

2.???You will get a window like this. Enter the Project name and click on the create button

3. Once the project is created, select the project.

Using the Navigation menu, select the Cloud Overview, to view your dashboard

This is the Google Cloud console, which lets you view and add services in your Google Cloud project, as well as read logs and change settings.

You can explore the Google Cloud products from the Navigation menu.

Hands-on Demo

Courtesy of Google Cloud Skill boost Qwiklabs: https://go.qwiklabs.com/

In this section, we will

●?????create a Google Compute Engine virtual machine instance using the Google Cloud Console

●??????learn how to connect an NGINX web server to the virtual machine.

Task 1: Create a new instance from the Cloud Console

1. In the Cloud Console, on the Navigation menu, click Compute Engine > VM Instances.

Note: Make sure you have enabled billing to access the Compute Engine services

2. To create a new instance, click CREATE INSTANCE.

3. There are many parameters you can configure when creating a new instance. Fill in the specifications as follows:

4. Click on the create button. It should take about a minute for the machine to be created. After that, the new virtual machine is listed on the VM Instances page.

To connect to the virtual machine using SSH, in the row for your machine, click SSH. This launches an SSH client directly from your browser.

Task 2. Install an NGINX web server

We will now install an NGINX web server, one of the most popular web servers in the world, to our Virtual Machine.

In the SSH client, type the following commands to install NGINX

1. Update the OS

sudo apt-get update        

Expected output

2. Install NGINX

sudo apt-get install -y nginx        

Expected output

3. Confirm that it is installed

ps auwx | grep nginx        

Expected output

4. To see the web page, return to the Cloud Console and click the External IP link in the row for your machine, or add the External IP value to https://EXTERNAL_IP/ in a new browser window or tab.

This default web page should open:

In summary

We have covered how to create a GCP account and sign in. We then created a project and added a Virtual Machine to the project.?We finally connected to the VM using SSH and installed NGINX web server on the VM.

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