Networking in GCP - Hands-On Lab

 Networking in GCP - Hands-On Lab

Case Study: Designing a simple web service with regional subnets and load balancing.

Hands-on Lab: Create a VPC, configure subnets, and deploy a load balancer.

Lab Objective:

Students will create a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), set up subnets, deploy virtual machines (VMs), configure firewall rules, and set up a load balancer for distributing traffic to backend VMs.

Step-by-Step Lab:

1. Create a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

Step 1.1: Log into the Google Cloud Console.

Step 1.2: Navigate to the VPC network section by searching for “VPC 

network” in the search bar.

Step 1.3: Click on Create VPC network.

Step 1.4: Name the VPC (e.g., my-first-vpc), choose Custom mode, and proceed to configure subnets.

2. Configure Subnets

Step 2.1: Add the first subnet in the US region (e.g., us-central1).

Subnet name: us-central-subnet

Region: us-central1

IP range: 10.0.0.0/24

Step 2.2: Add a second subnet in another region (e.g., europe-west1).

Subnet name: europe-west-subnet

Region: europe-west1

IP range: 10.1.0.0/24

Step 2.3: Click Create to finalize the VPC and subnets.

3. Create Virtual Machines (VMs)

Step 3.1: Go to the Compute Engine section and click Create VM instance.

Step 3.2: Name the instance us-vm.

 Region: us-central1

 Subnet: us-central-subnet

 Machine type: e2-medium

 Boot disk: Ubuntu or Debian

 Network tags: frontend

Step 3.3: Create another VM in the europe-west1 region:

 Name: europe-vm

 Subnet: europe-west-subnet

 Follow the same settings as the US instance.

4. Configure Firewall Rules

Step 4.1: Navigate to VPC network > Firewall and click Create firewall rule.

Step 4.2: Set the following parameters:

• Name: allow-ssh

• Targets: All instances in the network

• Source IP ranges: 0.0.0.0/0

• Protocols and ports: Check TCP and specify port 22 for SSH.

• Tags: Apply this rule to VMs with the frontend tag.

Step 4.3: Create another rule to allow HTTP traffic:

• Name: allow-http

• Source IP: 0.0.0.0/0

• Protocols: TCP 80

• Apply the rule to VMs tagged with frontend.

5. Set Up a Load Balancer

Step 5.1: Go to Network Services > Load balancing and click Create load

Balancer.

Step 5.2: Choose HTTP(S) Load Balancer and select Global.

Step 5.3: Name the load balancer (e.g., my-lb).

Step 5.4: Configure the backend service:

 Add the two VM instances (us-vm and europe-vm) as backend instances.

 Configure the health check (default TCP on port 80).

Step 5.5: Set up the frontend:

 Choose a public IP.

 Protocol: HTTP

 Port: 80

 Step 5.6: Click Create and verify the load balancer works by accessing the public IP in your browser.

Lab Wrap-Up

• Goal: Students should have deployed a globally distributed VPC with subnets in different regions, created firewall rules, and deployed a load balancer to serve traffic across multiple regions.

• Deliverables: Students should capture screenshots of the running VMs, the load balancer’s configuration, and the website running on the public IP.