GCP Zero to Hero

Day-1: Introduction to Cloud and GCP

• What is Cloud Computing? Cloud vs Traditional IT
• Why GCP? GCP vs AWS vs Azure (with honest comparison)
• Setup GCP free account
• Understanding GCP Console and Cloud Shell

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Day-2: GCP Project Setup and Billing

• Projects, billing accounts, and quotas
• Creating and linking projects to billing
• Budget alerts and cost visibility
• Enabling essential APIs (Compute, Storage, etc.)

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Day-3: IAM – Roles, Permissions, and Best Practices

• GCP IAM basics – who can access what?
• Roles: Basic, Predefined, Custom
• Use-case: Give limited access to a junior teammate
• Principle of least privilege and real-world security tips

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Day-4: Compute Engine – VMs, SSH, Types of Compute, Region, Zone and much more

• Launch VMs, connect via SSH
• Install packages via startup scripts
• Create and use custom images
• Enable firewall rules for external access

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Day-5: Cloud Storage – Buckets, Files, Datastore, Pub/Sub.

• Google Cloud Storage services
• Comaparison and difference between the services
• Focus on GCS: Create buckets, upload/download files
• Object versioning, lifecycle policies (coldline, nearline)
• Static website hosting with GCS
• Bucket permissions (fine-grained vs uniform)

Demo: GCS with Compute Engine VM

• Create a GCS Bucket and upload/download files.
• Use a Service Account to give secure, keyless access.
• Launch a Compute Engine VM with attached IAM role.
• Access GCS from inside the VM (read/write files).
• Learn project cleanup and what happens when a project is deleted.

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Day-6: VPC Networking – Subnets and Firewalls

• Default vs Custom VPC
• IP ranges, subnet planning (CIDRs)
• Configure firewall rules (SSH, HTTP)
• Network tags and internal communication

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Day-7: Load Balancing + Managed Instance Groups

• Create MIGs for autoscaling web servers
• Setup HTTP(S) Load Balancer with health checks
• Real-world HA example: App with 3 zones
• Add logging to monitor backend status

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Day-8: Private App on Custom VPC + Regional External HTTP(S) LB + Custom Domain (GoDaddy + Cloud DNS)

• What you’ll build (end-to-end)
  • A custom VPC with public and private subnets, plus a proxy-only subnet
  • A simple Python Flask app running on private VMs (no external IPs), managed by a Managed Instance Group
  • A Regional External HTTP(S) Load Balancer in the public tier
  • A public Cloud DNS zone mapped to a GoDaddy domain so the app is reachable via a friendly name
  • Outbound internet for private VMs via Cloud NAT

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Day-9: Google Cloud CLI Deep Dive

• Introduction to gcloud CLI and why DevOps engineers use it
• Configure projects, regions, zones, and authentication
• Create and manage resources (VMs, Buckets, Firewall rules) via CLI
• Compare UI vs CLI for the same tasks
• Real-world DevOps use case: automation with gcloud scripts

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Day-10: Cloud SQL (PostgreSQL) – Setup and Access

• Create a managed PostgreSQL DB
• Secure access from VM using private IP
• Manage DB users and backups
• Import/export database dumps

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Day-11: Secrets Manager – Storing API Keys Safely

• Why not to hardcode passwords or tokens
• Store and access secrets securely
• IAM-based access control for secrets
• Rotate and audit access logs

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Day-12: Pub/Sub – Messaging Basics

• Use-case: Async processing in e-commerce
• Create topic and publish messages
• Push vs Pull subscriptions
• Connect Pub/Sub with Cloud Functions (preview)

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Day-13: Docker on GCP – Containerizing Apps

• Install Docker on Compute Engine
• Write a simple Node.js/Python app and dockerize it
• Push image to DockerHub or Artifact Registry
• Run container in background with exposed port

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Day-14: Artifact Registry – Secure Image Storage

• Setup private Docker repository
• Push/pull from GCE and GKE
• Image tagging and versioning strategy (dev, staging, prod)
• Clean-up policies and access control

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Day-15: Intro to Kubernetes + GKE Cluster Setup

• Kubernetes basics (pods, deployments, services)
• Create a GKE cluster with 2 nodes
• Access via kubectl and explore dashboard
• Deploy basic NGINX or app container

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Day-16: Deploy a Real App on GKE

• Push your custom Docker app to Artifact Registry
• Deploy app using Deployment.yaml and Service.yaml
• Expose using LoadBalancer service
• Rolling update and rollback demo

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Day-17: Cloud Build – CI/CD

• Setup Cloud Build with GitHub trigger
• Create cloudbuild.yaml file
• Auto-build Docker image and push to registry
• Bonus: Deploy to GKE as part of pipeline

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Day-18: Terraform – Infrastructure as Code

• Install Terraform and configure for GCP
• Write .tf to create VM, bucket, and firewall
• Store state file in GCS
• Destroy infra using single command (clean-up demo)

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Day-19: Real-Time DevOps Project

• Use Terraform to provision infra
• Use Docker + Cloud Build for app containerization
• Store secrets securely
• Use GKE for deployment and Pub/Sub for async task
• Enable monitoring and alerts

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Day-20: Serverless with Cloud Run and Functions

• Intro to serverless architecture – when to use
• Deploy container to Cloud Run with autoscaling
• Create a small API using Cloud Functions
• Compare cost and simplicity vs GKE
• Real-life use-case: background jobs, webhooks

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Day-21: GCP Cost Optimization for DevOps

• Understand billing breakdown: Compute, Network, Storage
• Tips to reduce cost:
  • Use preemptible VMs
  • Use autoscaling for GKE and Cloud Run
  • Delete unused disks, snapshots, IPs
• Setup budget alerts and detailed reporting
• Use Recommender and Policy Analyzer

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