How To Create GKE Cluster

To create a Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) cluster, follow these steps:

1. Enable the Kubernetes Engine API:

• Go to the Google Cloud Console: https://console.cloud.google.com/
• Select your project from the project dropdown.
• Click on the navigation menu (three horizontal lines) in the top left corner.
• Go to “APIs & Services” > “Dashboard.”
• Click on “+ ENABLE APIS AND SERVICES” at the top of the page.
• Search for “Kubernetes Engine API” and click on it.
• Click “Enable” to enable the API for your project.

1. Install the Google Cloud SDK:

• Follow the instructions for your operating system here: https://cloud.google.com/sdk/docs/install

1. Authenticate with your Google Cloud account:

• Open a terminal or command prompt.
• Run the following command: gcloud auth login
• Follow the prompts to authenticate with your Google Cloud account.

1. Set your project and compute zone:

• Run the following command to set your project: gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID (replace PROJECT_ID with your project’s ID)
• Run the following command to set your compute zone: gcloud config set compute/zone COMPUTE_ZONE (replace COMPUTE_ZONE with your desired compute zone, e.g., us-central1-a)

1. Create the GKE cluster:

• Run the following command to create a GKE cluster: gcloud container clusters create CLUSTER_NAME (replace CLUSTER_NAME with your desired cluster name)
• This command will create a GKE cluster with the default settings (3 nodes, n1-standard-1 machine type, etc.). You can customize the cluster settings by adding flags to the command. For example, to create a cluster with 5 nodes and n1-standard-2 machine type, run: gcloud container clusters create CLUSTER_NAME --num-nodes=5 --machine-type=n1-standard-2

1. Configure kubectl to use the new cluster:

• Run the following command to get the cluster credentials: gcloud container clusters get-credentials CLUSTER_NAME (replace CLUSTER_NAME with your cluster name)
• This command will configure kubectl to use the new GKE cluster.

1. Verify that the cluster is running:

• Run the following command to list your clusters: gcloud container clusters list
• You should see your new cluster in the list with the status “RUNNING.”

Now you have successfully created a GKE cluster. You can start deploying applications to the cluster using kubectl.