🔧 GCP Account Setup

Introduction

Google Cloud Platform requires proper account configuration before deploying applications. This lesson walks you through creating a GCP account, setting up billing, and configuring your development environment.

Key Learning Outcomes

By the end of this lesson, you'll understand:

• How to create and configure a GCP account

• Setting up billing and monitoring costs

• Creating and managing GCP projects

• Installing and configuring gcloud CLI

• Understanding IAM basics for access control

Creating Your GCP Account

Step 1: Sign Up for GCP

Visit console.cloud.google.com and click Try Free:

• **$300 credit** valid for 12 months

• No automatic charges after trial expires

• Must provide valid credit card for verification

• Free tier includes always-free resources

Step 2: Complete Setup

1. Sign in with Google account (or create one)

2. Verify your identity with credit card

3. Select your country

4. Accept terms of service

5. Your account is ready to use

Understanding GCP Projects

A project is the organizing unit for all GCP resources.

Key Concepts

• **Project ID**: Unique identifier (immutable, lowercase)

• **Project Name**: Display name (changeable)

• **Project Number**: GCP-assigned identifier

Create Your First Project

1. Open Google Cloud Console

2. Click project dropdown (top of page)

3. Click "NEW PROJECT"

4. Enter name: `my-learning-app`

5. Click "CREATE"

6. Wait 1-2 minutes for initialization

Installing gcloud CLI

The gcloud CLI is your command-line interface to GCP.

Installation Steps

1. Visit cloud.google.com/sdk/docs/install

2. Download installer for your OS

3. Run installer

4. Verify installation:

gcloud --version

Initialize gcloud

# Run initialization wizard
gcloud init

# Select your project when prompted
# Choose default region (us-central1 recommended)

Verify Configuration

# View current configuration
gcloud config list

# Set default project
gcloud config set project my-learning-app

Enabling APIs

APIs are services you must enable for each project.

Enable Cloud Run API

# Enable Cloud Run
gcloud services enable run.googleapis.com

# Enable Cloud Build
gcloud services enable cloudbuild.googleapis.com

# Enable Container Registry
gcloud services enable containerregistry.googleapis.com

Enable via Console

1. Go to "APIs & Services" > "Library"

2. Search for service name

3. Click result

4. Click "ENABLE"

Setting Up Billing

Create Billing Account

1. Go to "Billing" in Cloud Console

2. Click "CREATE BILLING ACCOUNT"

3. Fill in organization details

4. Enter payment method

5. Create account

Link Project to Billing

1. Go to "Billing" > "My Projects"

2. Select your project

3. Click "Link Billing Account"

4. Choose your billing account

5. Click "SET BILLING ACCOUNT"

Monitor Costs

# View billing accounts
gcloud billing accounts list

# Set billing for project
gcloud billing projects link my-learning-app \
    --billing-account=BILLING_ACCOUNT_ID

Understanding IAM

Identity and Access Management controls who can access resources.

Common Roles

• **Owner**: Full control

• **Editor**: Create and modify resources

• **Viewer**: Read-only access

• **Specific roles**: Cloud Run Admin, App Engine Deployer, etc.

Grant Permissions

# Grant user Cloud Run Admin role
gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding my-learning-app \
    --member=user:colleague@example.com \
    --role=roles/run.admin

Cost Management

Set Budget Alerts

1. Go to "Billing" > "Budgets and alerts"

2. Click "CREATE BUDGET"

3. Set monthly budget amount

4. Set alert at 50%, 90%, 100%

5. Add notification email

6. Create budget

Always-Free Resources

These don't count against your $300 credit:

Cloud Firestore: 1 GB/month
Cloud Storage: 5 GB/month
Cloud Pub/Sub: 10 GB/month
App Engine: Limited free tier

Key Takeaways

• **Account**: Create GCP account to access $300 trial credit

• **Projects**: Each project is independent with separate resources

• **gcloud CLI**: Install for command-line access to GCP

• **APIs**: Enable services before using them

• **Billing**: Link billing account to access full GCP functionality

• **IAM**: Grant minimum permissions needed (principle of least privilege)

• **Budgets**: Monitor spending with alerts to avoid surprises