Cloud Shell

Question 1

What is Cloud Shell and what are its 5 main features?

Answer 1

Cloud Shell is a free VM used to develop applications and manage GCP services.

1. 5GB of free storage mounted to the $HOME directory
2. gcloud CLI
3. Code Editor with Cloud Code support
4. Pre-installed packages (relevant):
   
   2. Text editors: Emacs, Vim, Nano
   3. Build tools: Gradle, Maven
   4. Git
   5. Docker
   6. Terraform
   7. Java
5. Web preview

You can install additional software that will persist if you use the $HOME directory.

To see the full list of pre-installed software, visit: https://cloud.google.com/shell/docs/how-cloud-shell-works#tools

Question 2

What are the 3 different ways to configure Cloud Shell?

Answer 2

1. Configure $HOME/.bashrc script
2. Configure the $Home/.customize_environment script
3. Use a container image

Question 3

What is gcloud CLI?

Answer 3

gcloud CLI is the CLI used to manage GCP services

Question 4

What is Cloud Code?

Answer 4

Cloud Code is an IDE plugin that makes it easier to create, deploy, and integrate applications with GCP.Cloud Code allows you to enable GCP APIs and download client libraries without leaving your IDE.

Question 5

Is it possible to connect to Cloud Shell using a local CLI?

Answer 5

Yes. You will need to install gcloud CLI locally and use the gcloud cloud-shellcommand.

Question 6

Cloud Shell is not directly associated with or managed by any specific project. In fact, Cloud Shell has the ability to point to any project.

Question 7

What is the preferred command line tool to interact with Cloud Storage?

Answer 7

Google recommends using gcloud storage instead of gsutil which is now considered legacy.

Question 8

Which gcloud command allows you to install a specific component?

Answer 8

gcloud components install <component-name>

Question 9

Does Cloud Code integrate with Secret Manager?

Answer 9

Yes. This lets you manage your sensitive data within your IDE.

Question 10

Which gcloud command does Google recommand using for emulators?

Answer 10

gcloud beta emulators <emulator-name>

There are 4 available emulators:
1. Spanner
2. Firestore
3. Bigtable
4. Pub/Sub