Deploy and update from an IDE

If you develop applications to run in Google Kubernetes Engine, you can use an IDE and the Cloud Code plugin to simplify key development tasks, such as testing and debugging locally and deploying to a test cluster.

Objectives

Learn how to do the following development tasks in Cloud Shell Editor, an online demonstration IDE:

  1. Create a sample Kubernetes app.

  2. Run, update, and view logs for the app in your development environment.

  3. Deploy the app to a GKE cluster.

You can follow a similar process in your own IDE if you install Cloud Code.

To follow step-by-step guidance for this task directly in the Google Cloud console, click Guide me:

Guide me

Costs

In this document, you use the following billable components of Google Cloud:

To generate a cost estimate based on your projected usage, use the pricing calculator.

New Google Cloud users might be eligible for a free trial.

When you finish the tasks that are described in this document, you can avoid continued billing by deleting the resources that you created. For more information, see Clean up.

Before you begin

Create a Kubernetes cluster. Create a cluster and deploy a workload shows you how.

Choose a Google Cloud project and cluster

When you deploy your app to GKE later on in this tutorial, you will need to specify a Google Cloud project and a GKE cluster.

  1. Go to the GKE Clusters page.

    Go to Clusters

  2. Choose a project that contains a GKE cluster.

  3. Note the name of the project and cluster.

    You'll need this information later.

Create an app in Cloud Shell Editor

  1. In the Google Cloud console, open Cloud Shell by clicking Cloud Shell in the task bar.

  2. Click Open Editor.

  3. Wait for Cloud Shell Editor to initialize.

  4. In Cloud Shell Editor, click View > Command Palette.

  5. Search for Cloud Code: New Application and click it.

  6. Select Kubernetes Application, then select Go: Hello World.

    Each language framework provides slightly different experiences, and this tutorial describes the features available for Go.

  7. In the Save dialog, click Create new application.

    Cloud Shell Editor reloads and shows your app source files in the Explorer view.

The app consists of:

  • A basic go-hello-world web app, main.go, that returns a templated "It's running!" response to all received requests.

  • A Kubernetes Deployment specification, hello.deployment.yaml.

  • A Kubernetes Service specification that defines a load balancer for the app, hello.service.yaml.

  • A Skaffold file that handles the workflow for building and deploying the app, skaffold.yaml.

Run the app in your development environment

When possible, run apps in your development environment before deploying to GKE. This can help you identify any potential issues without using Google Cloud quota.

To run the app in your Cloud Shell Editor environment:

  1. In Cloud Shell Editor, click Terminal > New Terminal.

  2. Start a cluster by running the following command:

    minikube start

    minikube is a lightweight Kubernetes implementation that creates a VM in your local environment and deploys a simple cluster containing only one node.

    It might take a minute to set up the minikube cluster.

  3. If prompted to authorize Cloud Shell to make Cloud API calls, click Authorize.

    After your minikube cluster is set up, a message similar to the following appears:

    Done! kubectl is now configured to
use "minikube" cluster...

After minikube is set up, build and run your app:

  1. In the Cloud Shell Editor status bar, click Cloud Code.

  2. Select Run on Kubernetes.

  3. If prompted, confirm that you want to use the current minikube context.

    Cloud Shell Editor builds your app and deploys it to the minikube cluster.

  4. Watch the deployment status in the Development sessions view.

    When the deployment is complete, a green check mark appears next to Portforward URLs. The spinning icon appears next to Stream Application Logs.

  5. To view your app, look further down the Development sessions pane and find Port Forward URLs > service.

  6. Hold the pointer over go-hello-world-external and click Open URL.

Edit your app

When you change a source file in your app, Cloud Shell Editor automatically builds and deploys your app to the cluster that you're currently connected to. In this case, you're connected to your minikube cluster.

To edit and redeploy the app to your local minikube cluster:

  1. Modify your main.go file to print "It's redeployed!". The file saves automatically.

  2. Watch the Development sessions view as your app is rebuilt and deployed.

  3. View your redeployed app as you did before:

    1. In the Development sessions pane, find Port Forward URLs > service.

    2. Hold the pointer over go-hello-world-external and click Open URL.

View app logs

  1. In the Cloud Shell Editor menu bar, select View > Command Palette.

  2. Search for Cloud Code: View Logs and click it.

    The Logs Viewer opens.

  3. In Deployment, select go-hello-world.

    This filters the Logs Viewer to only display logs for your go-hello-world app.

  4. Switch to the tab with your app that shows "It's redeployed!" Reload the page in the browser and then switch back to the Cloud Shell tab.

  5. To view the newly generated logs in the Logs Viewer, click Refresh.

Deploy your app to a GKE cluster

  1. Add your GKE cluster to the list of clusters you can deploy to:

    1. In the Kubernetes view, click Add a Cluster to the KubeConfig.

    2. In the Choose a platform dialog, click Google Kubernetes Engine.

    3. If prompted to enable the Google Cloud API, click Yes.

    4. Wait for Cloud Shell Editor to find the clusters in your Google Cloud project.

    5. In the Create or choose a GKE cluster dialog, select the name of the cluster you created, hello-world-cluster.

  2. In the Cloud Shell Editor status bar, click Cloud Code and select Run on Kubernetes.

  3. When prompted to select a context for your deployment request, choose Use current context, which is set to your GKE cluster.

  4. In the Choose image repository dialog, select gcr.io/PROJECT_NAME.

    Cloud Shell Editor builds your app into a container and stores the container in the repository you selected.

  5. Watch the Development sessions view as your app is rebuilt and deployed.

  6. To view detailed log messages as your app is being deployed to GKE, click the Deploy to Cluster node in the Development sessions view.

  7. To view your running app:

    1. Close the view by clicking the Development sessions heading.

    2. Open the Kubernetes view.

    3. Expand your GKE cluster.

    4. Go to Namespaces > default > Services > go-hello-world-external > External IPs.

    5. Hold the pointer over the IP address and click Open URL.

You have successfully created and deployed a GKE app from an IDE.

What's next