In this blog, we are going to cover a brief overview of Google Cloud Build: which includes, What cloud build is, its features and benefits, pricing, and working.
Cloud Build Overview
Containerization has become the focal point in the evolution of deploying and managing code. Implementing containerization has inspired organizations to maximize managed cloud infrastructures like Cloud Build to speedily build, test and deploy container images.
Cloud Build is a service provided by Google Cloud Platform (GCP) that allows you to automate the building, testing, and deployment of your software applications. Cloud Build can help you improve the speed and reliability of your software delivery process, as well as simplify the management of your infrastructure. Cloud Build can import source code from Cloud Storage, Cloud Source Repositories, GitHub, or Bitbucket, execute a build to your specifications, and produce artifacts such as Docker containers or Java archives.
Overall, Cloud Build provides a scalable and flexible solution for building and deploying your applications on GCP, allowing you to focus on your code rather than managing infrastructure.
Features & Benefits
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- Cloud Build is a fully serverless platform that helps you build custom development workflows for building, testing, and deploying.
- Continuous Integration and Delivery (CI/CD): Cloud Build provides an automated CI/CD pipeline that allows you to build, test, and deploy your code to GCP services like Container Registry, App Engine, or Kubernetes Engine.
- Source Code Management: Cloud Build integrates with popular source code management tools like GitHub, Bitbucket, and Cloud Source Repositories, allowing you to build and deploy your code from your preferred repository.
- Supports Native Docker: Cloud Build allows you to import your existing Docker file and Push images directly to Docker image storage repositories such as Docker Hub and Container Registry.
- Integration with GCP services: Cloud Build integrates with other GCP services like Stackdriver Logging and Cloud Storage, allowing you to easily manage your logs and artifacts and Automate deployments to Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) or Cloud Run for continuous delivery.
- Automatically performs package vulnerability scanning for vulnerable images based on policies set by DevSecOps.
- Multi-Language Support: Cloud Build supports a wide range of programming languages, including Java, Python, Go, Node.js, Ruby, and more. You can build and deploy applications written in these languages using Cloud Build. Also, you can package sources into containers or non-container artifacts like Maven, Gradle, Go, or Bazel.
- Deploy across multiple environments such as VMs, serverless, Kubernetes, or Firebase
Check Out: Our blog post on Google Compute Engine.
Cloud Build Supported Interfaces
Cloud Build in GCP supports several interfaces that allow you to interact with the service and manage your builds: You can use Cloud Build with the Google Cloud Console, gcloud command-line tool, or Cloud Build’s REST API.
- Google Cloud Console: You may manage your GCP resources, including Cloud Build, using the Cloud Console, a web-based interface. The console lets you manage build logs, check build history, and define build triggers. In the Cloud Console, you can view the Cloud Build build results in the Build History page, and automate builds in Build Triggers.
- Cloud SDK: You can communicate with GCP services, such as Cloud Build, via the Cloud SDK’s command-line interface (CLI). The SDK can be used to start and manage builds, set up build triggers, and see build logs.
- REST API: The Cloud Build REST API allows you to programmatically manage your builds using HTTP requests. You can use the API to create build triggers, start builds, and retrieve build results.
- Cloud Build GitHub App: GitHub integration called the Cloud Create GitHub App enables you to use Cloud Build to automatically create and test your GitHub repository. When you push changes to your repository, Cloud Build can automatically build your code once the app is installed.
- Cloud Build Bitbucket App: You can automatically build and test your Bitbucket repository using Cloud Build due to the Cloud Build Bitbucket App, a Bitbucket connection. When you push changes to your repository, Cloud Build can automatically build your code once the app is installed.
- Cloud Build Trigger API: The Cloud Build Trigger API enables programmable development and management of build triggers. You may automate the production of build triggers and include them as part of your development cycle using this API.
How Does Google Cloud Build Work?
Now that we have covered the basics of cloud build, let’s see how it works!
Google Cloud Build is a fully-managed, serverless CI/CD platform that automates the build, test, and deployment process of your software projects.
The following steps describe, in general, the lifecycle of a Cloud Build builds:
- Configuration: To build and test your software product, you write a build configuration file. The location of the source code, the build procedures, and any dependencies are all specified in this file, which can be written in either YAML or JSON format.
- Trigger: Create a build trigger to specify the circumstances under which a build should be triggered. A timer-based schedule, a code update, or a push to a Git repository can all start the trigger.
- Build: When the trigger fires, Cloud Build copies the source code, installs any necessary dependencies and carries out the build operations listed in the build configuration file.
- Test: To ensure the code’s quality when the build is finished, Cloud Build can run tests automatically. For well-known testing frameworks like JUnit or Pytest, you can create your own tests or use integrations that have already been created.
- Deploy: Following the conclusion of the build and tests, Cloud Build can automatically deploy the code to a target environment, such as Google App Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine, or Google Cloud Functions. Additionally, this procedure can be altered to support various deployment workflows.
- Monitoring and logging: As part of the build and deployment process, Cloud Build provides metrics and logs that give insight into the build’s status. To examine these logs and metrics and resolve any problems, use Stackdriver Logging and Monitoring.
Important Pointers:
A build config file contains instructions for Cloud Build to perform tasks based on specifications given by the user, for example, your build config file can contain instructions to build, package, and push Docker images.
Cloud Build executes your build as a series of build steps, where each build step is run in a Docker container. Executing build steps is analogous to executing commands in a script.
You can either use the build steps provided by Cloud Build and the Cloud Build community or write your own custom build steps:
- Build steps provided by Cloud Build: Cloud Build has published a set of supported open-source build steps for common languages and tasks.
- Community-contributed build steps: The Cloud Build user community has provided open-source build steps.
- Custom build steps: You can create your own build steps for use in your builds.
Each build step is run with its container attached to a local Docker network named cloud build. This allows build steps to communicate with each other and share data. You can use standard Docker Hub images in Cloud Build, such as Ubuntu and Gradle.
IAM Roles & Permissions
IAM enables you to create and manage permissions for Google Cloud resources.
Cloud Build provides a specific set of predefined IAM roles where each role contains a set of permissions. You can use these roles to give more granular access to specific Google Cloud resources and prevent unwanted access to other resources. IAM lets you adopt the security principle of least privilege, so you grant only the necessary access to your resources.
Cloud Build Pricing
Cloud Build charges for build minutes consumed above a certain threshold.
A build-minute is incurred for every minute that a build initiated by Cloud Build is in process. Partial minutes are billed at the actual number of seconds consumed. Ingress and egress networking charges are captured in build-minute charges.
Build minutes are not incurred for the time that a build is queued. Charges are accrued to the billing account associated with the Google Cloud Console project that initiated the build.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How do I get started with Google Cloud Build?
To get started with Google Cloud Build, follow these steps: 1.Create a GCP project or select an existing one. 2.Enable the Cloud Build API in the GCP Console. 3.Write a build configuration file in YAML or JSON format. 4.Create a build trigger to specify when a build should be triggered. 5.Push your source code to a supported repository such as Google Cloud Source Repositories, GitHub, or Bitbucket. 6.Watch your builds execute and deploy automatically.
2. What are the pricing options for Google Cloud Build?
Google Cloud Build pricing is based on build minutes, storage, network egress, and private build pools. You are charged based on the region and amount of usage for each of these components. Cloud Build also offers a free tier for small projects and pricing discounts for sustained and committed usage.
3. How can I monitor and analyze the performance of my build pipelines in Google Cloud Build?
You can monitor and analyze the performance of your build pipelines in Google Cloud Build by using the Stackdriver Logging and Monitoring services. Cloud Build automatically generates logs and metrics during the build and deployment process, which can be analyzed using Stackdriver. You can set up alerts based on specific logs and metrics to notify you of any issues or failures in your build pipelines.
4. Can I integrate Google Cloud Build with third-party tools and services?
Yes, Google Cloud Build can be integrated with a wide range of third-party tools and services. Cloud Build supports integration with popular source code repositories like GitHub and Bitbucket, as well as container registries like Docker Hub and Google Container Registry. Additionally, Cloud Build can be integrated with popular DevOps tools and services like Jenkins, Spinnaker, and Terraform.
5. Where can I find additional resources and support for Google Cloud Build?
You can find additional resources and support for Google Cloud Build in the following ways like Google documentation, Google cloud build community, and Google support.
6.Where does Cloud build run?
Cloud Build executes your build as a series of build steps, where each build step is run in a Docker container. A build step can do anything that can be done from a container irrespective of the environment.
7.What is CI/CD pipeline in Google Cloud?
Continuous Integration and Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines help ensure that your functions work locally and in a test environment on Google Cloud.
Related/References
- GCP Professional Cloud Architect: Everything You Need To Know
- Google Cloud Services & Tools
- Google Cloud Platform Console Walkthrough
- Google Cloud Functions
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