Using PowerShell to manage GCP resources

How to configure PowerShell for managing GCP resources (Windows platform)

• Login to the machine using privileged account.
• Follow the instructions below to install the latest build of PowerShell:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/install/installing-powershell?view=powershell-7

• From command prompt, run the command below to invoke PowerShell:

pwsh

Note: You need to run cmd.exe or pwsh.exe as administrator.

• Run the command below to find out the current PowerShell version:

$PSVersionTable.PSVersion

• In-case you currently have version older than 5.1, follow the article below to locate the download URL for upgrading to the latest version of PowerShell:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/install/migrating-from-windows-powershell-51-to-powershell-7?view=powershell-7

• Run the command below to install Cloud SDK tools for PowerShell:

Install-Module -Name GoogleCloud -Force

• List all available cmdlets of Google Cloud PowerShell SDK:

Get-Command -CommandType Cmdlet -Module GoogleCloud*

• Install Google Cloud SDK, as instructed below:

https://cloud.google.com/sdk/docs/quickstart-windows

• Run the following from command prompt to initialize the Cloud SDK:

gcloud init --console-only

• Select a GCP project from the list
• Select a default Compute region and zone

How to configure PowerShell for managing GCP resources (RHEL/CentOS platform)

• Login to the machine using privileged account.
• Run the command below to register the RedHat 7 or CentOS 7 repository:

curl https://packages.microsoft.com/config/rhel/7/prod.repo | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/microsoft.repo

• Run the command below to install PowerShell:

sudo yum install -y powershell

• From command prompt, run the command below to invoke PowerShell:

sudo pwsh

• Run the command below to find out the current PowerShell version:

$PSVersionTable.PSVersion

• Run the command below to install Cloud SDK tools for PowerShell:

Install-Module -Name GoogleCloud -Force

• List all available cmdlets of Google Cloud PowerShell SDK:

Get-Command -CommandType Cmdlet -Module GoogleCloud*

• Install Google Cloud SDK, as instructed below:

https://cloud.google.com/sdk/docs/quickstart-redhat-centos

• Run the following from command prompt to initialize the Cloud SDK:

gcloud init --console-only

• Select a GCP project from the list
• Select a default Compute region and zone

How to configure PowerShell for managing GCP resources (Ubuntu 18.04 platform)

• Login to the machine using privileged account.
• Run the command below to register the Ubuntu 18.04 repository:

wget -q https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/18.04/packages-microsoft-prod.deb

sudo dpkg -i packages-microsoft-prod.deb

sudo apt-get update

sudo add-apt-repository universe

• Run the command below to install PowerShell:

sudo apt-get install -y powershell

• From command prompt, run the command below to invoke PowerShell:

pwsh

• Run the command below to find out the current PowerShell version:

$PSVersionTable.PSVersion

• Run the command below to install Cloud SDK tools for PowerShell:

Install-Module -Name GoogleCloud -Force

• List all available cmdlets of Google Cloud PowerShell SDK:

Get-Command -CommandType Cmdlet -Module GoogleCloud*

• Install Google Cloud SDK, as instructed below:

https://cloud.google.com/sdk/docs/quickstart-debian-ubuntu

• Run the following from command prompt to initialize the Cloud SDK:

gcloud init --console-only

• Select a GCP project from the list
• Select a default Compute region and zone

Common PowerShell commands for GCP

• Login to Google Cloud Platform:

gcloud auth login --no-launch-browser

• List all active GCP accounts:

gcloud auth list

• Change the active account:

gcloud config set account <Account_Name>

Note: Replace <Account_Name> with the target GCP account

• Lists all available GCP projects:

Get-GcpProject | select Name,ProjectId

• Change the GCP project:

gcloud config set project “<Project_ID>”

Note: Replace <Project_ID> with the target GCP project ID

Network related commands

• List available networks:

Get-GceNetwork | select Name,AutoCreateSubnetworks,IPv4Range,GatewayIPv4

• Create a new network inside a specific GCP project:

New-GceNetwork -Name "my-network" -IPv4Range <CIDR_Block> -Project "my-project"

Note 1: The above commands should be written as a single line

Note 2: Replace my-network with the relevant network name

Note 3: Replace <CIDR_Block> with the relevant value (such as 10.240.0.0/16)

Note 4: Replace my-project with the target GCP project ID

• Delete a network inside a specific GCP project:

Remove-GceNetwork -Network "my-network" -Project "my-project"

Note 1: Replace my-network with the relevant network name

Note 2: Replace my-project with the target GCP project ID

Firewall rules related commands

• List all available Firewall rules inside a GCP project:

Get-GceFirewall -Project "my-project" | select Name,Direction,Priority,Allowed,Denied

Note: Replace my-project with the target GCP project ID

• List settings of a specific Firewall rule inside a GCP project:

Get-GceFirewall "my-firewall" -Project "my-project"

Note 1: Replace my-firewall with the specific firewall rule name

Note 2: Replace my-project with the target GCP project ID

• Create a new Web allow firewall rule:

New-GceFirewallProtocol tcp -Port 80 | Add-GceFirewall -Project "my-project" -Name "rule-name" -Network "my-network" -Description "Allow Web Traffic"

Note 1: The above commands should be written as a single line

Note 2: Replace 80 with the target port number

Note 3: Replace my-project with the target GCP project ID

Note 4: Replace rule-name with the target rule name

Note 5: Replace my-network with the relevant network name

Note 6: Replace "Allow Web Traffic" with a relevant rule description

VM Instance related commands

• List all available VM instances in the current GCP project:

Get-GceInstance

• List available VM instance image types, sorted by Name and Family:

Get-GceImage | Format-Table Name,Family

• List all machine types:

Get-GceMachineType | Format-Table Name,Zone,GuestCpus,MemoryMb,Deprecated

• Create a new CentOS 7 VM instance:

$disk = Get-GceImage "centos-cloud" -Family "centos-7"

$config = New-GceInstanceConfig "my-sample-vm" -MachineType "n1-standard-1" -Region europe-west2 -DiskImage $disk

$config | Add-GceInstance -Project "my-project" -Zone "europe-west2-a"

Note 1: The second command should be written as a single line

Note 2: Replace centos-cloud with the relevant Image-project

Note 3: Replace centos-7 with the relevant Image-family

Note 4: Replace my-sample-vm with the target VM instance hostname

Note 5: Replace n1-standard-1 with the relevant VM instance type, from the list:

https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/machine-types

Note 6: Replace europe-west2 with the target region

Note 7: Replace my-project with the target GCP project ID

Note 7: Replace europe-west2-a with the target zone

• Get information about specific VM instance in a specific zone:

Get-GceInstance "my-instance" -Project "my-project" -Zone "europe-west2-a"

Note 1: Replace my-instance with the target VM instance hostname

Note 2: Replace my-project with the target GCP project ID

Note 3: Replace europe-west2-a with the target zone

• Start VM instance in a specific zone:

Start-GceInstance -Name "my-instance" -Project "my-project" -Zone "europe-west2-a"

Note 1: Replace my-instance with the target VM instance hostname

Note 2: Replace my-project with the target GCP project ID

Note 3: Replace europe-west2-a with the target zone

• Restart VM instance in a specific zone:

Restart-GceInstance -Name "my-instance" -Project "my-project" -Zone "europe-west2-a"

Note 1: The second command should be written as a single line

Note 2: Replace my-instance with the target VM instance hostname

Note 3: Replace my-project with the target GCP project ID

Note 4: Replace europe-west2-a with the target zone

• Stop VM instance in a specific zone:

Stop-GceInstance -Name "my-instance" -Project "my-project" -Zone "europe-west2-a"

Note 1: Replace my-instance with the target VM instance hostname

Note 2: Replace my-project with the target GCP project ID

Note 3: Replace europe-west2-a with the target zone

Storage related commands

• List all Google Cloud Storage buckets inside the current GCP project:

Get-GcsBucket -Project "<Project_ID>" | select Name

Note: Replace <Project_ID> with the target GCP project ID

• Create a new Google Cloud Storage bucket:

New-GcsBucket -Name "my-bucket" -Project "<Project_ID>"

Note 1: Replace my-bucket with the target bucket name

Note 2: Replace <Project_ID> with the target GCP project ID

• Remove Google Cloud Storage bucket:

Remove-GcsBucket "my-bucket" -Force

Note: Replace my-bucket with the target bucket name