Google Cloud Cheat Sheet

This content was generated with the assistance of AI and should be verified against the official documentation before being relied on in production.

See the section bibliography for the reference material consulted while preparing these pages.

A single-page index of quick back-links to every page in this section, grouped the same way as the section itself — handy for jumping straight to the topic you need instead of paging through the full navigation. The section overview is Google Cloud.

The downloadable PDF is a separate, single A4 page meant for printing. It states the version baseline this section targets (gcloud CLI 586, GKE 1.35 on the Regular channel and Terraform hashicorp/google v8) and covers:

  • the resource hierarchy (organization, folders, projects, resources), zones, regions and multi-regions, plus the gcloud essentials (init, auth login versus auth application-default login, config set project, named configurations, services enable, --format / --filter, --impersonate-service-account);

  • the compute decision table across Cloud Run, Cloud Run functions, GKE Autopilot and Standard, Compute Engine and App Engine, with the matching Cloud Run commands (source and image deploys, environment variables, secrets, scaling, billing modes, tagged revisions and traffic splits, jobs, invoker IAM), Cloud Run functions and Eventarc triggers, Artifact Registry and Cloud Build, and GKE commands (Autopilot, credentials, release channels, Workload Identity Federation principals, GatewayClasses, upgrades);

  • Cloud Storage (create, copy, sync, storage classes and minimum durations, Autoclass, soft delete, lifecycle rules, uniform bucket-level access, public access prevention, signed URLs, static sites) and Cloud CDN (cache modes, invalidation);

  • database create commands for Cloud SQL, AlloyDB, Spanner, Firestore (including MongoDB compatibility) and Memorystore, IAM authentication, the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy, and an engine-to-Google-Cloud-option map;

  • Secret Manager and Cloud KMS (create, versions, accessor role, consumption syntax) and Parameter Manager with Kubernetes ConfigMaps;

  • networking essentials (custom-mode VPC, Cloud NAT, Private Google Access), the load balancer decision tree, Cloud Armor, API Gateway versus Apigee versus Cloud Endpoints, and HA VPN with Cloud Router plus IAP TCP forwarding for user access;

  • email from Google Cloud (outbound port 25 blocked, provider SMTP settings on port 587, SPF, DKIM and DMARC), monitoring (Logs Explorer queries, alerting policies, Ops Agent) and cost management (budgets, free tier, committed-use and sustained-use discounts, hidden cost drivers); and

  • a retirements-and-renames strip with dates for services and versions being phased out.

Foundations — Google Cloud, Cloud Concepts, Getting Started with Google Cloud, Google Cloud Global Infrastructure, Resource Hierarchy and Projects, Identity and Access, and Infrastructure as Code.

Compute — Choosing a Compute Service, Compute Engine, Container Registry and Builds, Cloud Run, Cloud Run Scaling, Traffic and Jobs, Cloud Run Functions and Events, GKE Clusters, and Deploying Microservices on GKE.

Storage and CDN — Block and File Storage on Google Cloud, Cloud Storage, Cloud Storage Security and Static Sites, and Cloud CDN and Media CDN.

Managed databases — Managed Databases on Google Cloud, Cloud SQL, AlloyDB for PostgreSQL, Spanner, Firestore and Bigtable, MongoDB on Google Cloud, and Memorystore and Partner Databases.

Security and runtime configuration — Secret Manager and Cloud KMS and Runtime Configuration.

Networking, gateways and VPN — VPC Networking on Google Cloud, Cloud DNS and Certificate Manager, Load Balancing and Cloud Armor, API Gateway, Apigee and Cloud Endpoints, and VPN and Hybrid Connectivity.

Email and integration — Sending Email from Google Cloud and Messaging and Integration.

Operations, governance and beyond — Monitoring and Observability, Governance, Security and Compliance, Cost Management and Billing, Architecture, Migration and Multicloud, AI, Data and Analytics Overview, and Developer Tools and DevOps.

Download the Google Cloud Cheat Sheet (PDF)