Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Marketplace provides a way to launch common software packages and stacks on Google Compute Engine with just a few clicks. Many common web frameworks, databases, CMSs, and CRMs are supported. This is one of the fastest ways to get up and running on Google Cloud Platform.

Follow along this lab to learn how to launch one of the GCP Marketplace products on Google Cloud Platform.

What you'll learn

What you'll need

How will you use this tutorial?

Read it through only Read it and complete the exercises

How would rate your experience with Google Cloud Platform?

Novice Intermediate Proficient

Codelab-at-a-conference setup

If you see a "request account button" at the top of the main Codelabs window, click it to obtain a temporary account. Otherwise ask one of the staff for a coupon with username/password.

These temporary accounts have existing projects that are set up with billing so that there are no costs associated for you with running this codelab.

Note that all these accounts will be disabled soon after the codelab is over.

Use these credentials to log into the machine or to open a new Google Cloud Console window https://console.cloud.google.com/. Accept the new account Terms of Service and any updates to Terms of Service.

Here's what you should see once logged in:

When presented with this console landing page, please select the only project available. Alternatively, from the console home page, click on "Select a Project" :

In this section, you'll learn how to create an Nginx Stack on Google Compute Engine with GCP Marketplace.

Navigate to GCP Marketplace

From the Google Cloud Console, navigate to Marketplace:

You should see the Marketplace home page:

Choosing Nginx

In the box that says Search for solutions type "Nginx Google".

On the search results page, under Filter by, select Virtual machines.

Click Nginx. The Nginx details page opens.

Click Launch on Compute Engine.

Logging Into Google Cloud Console

Now you need to sign in using a Google Account, and select or create a new project. If you're following this codelab in a live session, use the login credential given to you by the lab proctor.

Configure the VM instance

After you have created a project, you'll see the New Nginx deployment page in the Cloud Console to configure your Nginx instance. It should look something like this:

Choose a name for your instance and pick a zone that is close to you.

You can use the default machine type of f1-micro. The default 10 GB SSD is fine for the boot disk.

Ensure that both Allow HTTP Traffic and Allow HTTPS Traffic are checked.

Click Deploy.

Creating the VM instance and deploying the Nginx stack might take a few minutes. Cloud Deployment Manager will provide progress details.

When the Cloud Console says "<deployment name> has been deployed" (where <deployment name> is the name you chose for your deployment) you can verify that everything worked correctly. Your screen should look something like this.

Verifying via the Web

Click on the blue Visit the site button to access the deployed Nginx Stack in a new tab. If everything worked correctly you should see something that looks like this.

Verifying via ssh

You can also click SSH to open an ssh prompt in a new browser window. You can use standard unix commands like ps to see if ngnix is running on your instance.

$ ps aux | grep nginx
root      3877  0.0  0.2  52564  1608 ?        Ss   19:47   0:00 nginx: master process /opt/bitnami/nginx/sbin/.ngi
nx.bin -p /opt/bitnami/nginx/
daemon    3879  0.0  0.7  52564  4488 ?        S    19:47   0:00 nginx: worker process

GCP Marketplace provides an easy and fast way to get up and running on Google Cloud Platform with common databases, operating systems, and web frameworks.

What we've covered

Next steps