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Google Cloud

Google Cloud is the canonical managed-cloud path when you want to run Supernode on GKE.

Prerequisites

  • a Google Cloud project with billing enabled
  • GKE APIs available in the target project
  • permissions to create clusters and related network resources
  • permission to install CLIs locally

Authenticate and select the project before you start:

Terminal window
gcloud auth login
gcloud config set project <PROJECT_ID>
gcloud auth list --filter="status:ACTIVE"

The provider flow installs missing dependencies including gcloud, kubectl, helm, and gke-gcloud-auth-plugin.

Canonical flow

Terminal window
cd bootstrap
./bootstrap.sh \
  --provider gcloud \
  --version 0.2.1

The default GKE mode is Autopilot.

Standard mode

If you need direct control over node pools, switch the provider into Standard mode through the supported environment variables or provider-specific flags described in bootstrap/gcloud/README.md.

The intended Supernode guidance is:

  • use Autopilot by default
  • use Standard mode only when you have a concrete node-pool requirement

Canonical production pattern for Vault

On GKE, the preferred Supernode operating model is:

  • run the control-plane with the GCP values example
  • use gcpckms for Vault auto-unseal
  • use Workload Identity instead of static service-account keys

Bootstrap with the GCP example values:

Terminal window
cd bootstrap
./bootstrap.sh \
  --provider gcloud \
  --version 0.2.1 \
  --values ../extensions/control-plane/examples/gcp-values.yaml

Then run the helper that wires Cloud KMS access for Vault:

Terminal window
cd ../extensions/control-plane
PROJECT_ID=<project-id> \
CLUSTER_NAME=supernode \
LOCATION=<region> \
./scripts/setup-gke-autopilot-vault.sh

After that:

  1. wait for Vault to become ready
  2. initialize Vault once if you are not using dev mode
  3. run VAULT_TOKEN=<vault-admin-token> ./scripts/post_install.sh

Validate the environment

Terminal window
kubectl config current-context
kubectl -n control-plane get pods
kubectl get storageclass

When to use Google Cloud

Choose Google Cloud when you want:

  • a managed Kubernetes platform on GKE
  • Autopilot as a simplified cluster operating model
  • a strong Workload Identity and Cloud KMS path for Vault
  • a production target for Supernode workloads