Efficient Infrastructure Provisioning with Google Deployment Manager: Overview & Hands-on Guide

April 25, 2023

Youssef
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This article will shed light on the components of the Google deployment manager and how you can use it. The deployment manager has been used by many companies and software houses.

You will learn about its purpose, its key features, use cases, how you can use it with other Google Cloud services, and the advantages and limitations it may hold.

What Is Google Cloud Deployment Manager?

Google Cloud Deployment Manager is a deployment service that automates the creation and management of Google Cloud resources and an infrastructure provisioning tool.

This service helps automate resource creation, configuration, and management, making it more efficient and scalable. 

What is the purpose of Google Cloud Deployment Manager?

The primary purpose of this tool is to automate the process of deploying and managing cloud infrastructure resources using templates and configuration files.

Deployment Manager allows users to define infrastructure as code, allowing them to specify the desired state of their cloud resources in a declarative way rather than manually configuring them.

This makes it easier to manage cloud resources at scale, as users can define their infrastructure in a repeatable and automated manner.

What are the most common use cases for Deployment Manager?

  1. 1

    DevOps automation

    You can integrate the deployment manager with DevOps tools like Jenkins or GitLab, to automate the continuous deployment of your applications. 

  2. 2

    Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

    By automating and creating deployments, the experience will help you define the code, maintain consistency and repeatability in your deployments, and track changes over time.

  3. 3

    Application deployment

    You can define the resources required for your application, such as virtual machines, load balancers, and databases, and then deploy them all at once.

  4. 4

    Disaster recovery

    This tool ensures the safety of stored resources through its backup resource plan, which will allow you to quickly recover your data and applications in the event of a disaster.

  5. 5

    Testing and staging environments

    You can create a dummy environment, the same as your production environment, to test your applications and changes in a safe environment before you deploy them to production. 

Here are some practical use cases for your business in detail;

Deploying a Slurm cluster on Compute Engine

  • You can deploy a Slurm cluster on Compute Engine  as it will be a valuable tool for your business to manage and scale computing resources efficiently.

  • You can create a deployment configuration file that specifies the desired cluster configuration, such as the number and type of virtual machines and the network and firewall settings.

  • This deployment configuration file can be written in a variety of formats, such as YAML or JSON.

 Deploy an HPC cluster with Slurm | Cloud HPC Toolkit | Google Cloud

Migrating two-tier web applications to Google Cloud

  • A two-tier web application typically consists of a front-end web server and a back-end database server.

  • By using Google Deployment Manager to migrate a two-tier web application to Google Cloud, you can reduce infrastructure costs by taking advantage of cloud resources.

  • You can also improve the scalability and reliability of the application, optimize application performance and efficiency, and increase security.

 White paper: Lift and shift to Google Cloud Platform 

Migrating a MySQL Cluster to Compute Engine Using HAProxy

  • MySQL Cluster is a distributed database system that provides high availability and scalability. 

  • HAProxy is a free and open-source load balancer that can help businesses distribute incoming traffic across multiple MySQL nodes, and help your business to increase its availability. 

 Migrating a MySQL Cluster to Compute Engine Using HAProxy | Cloud Architecture Center 

What are the key features of Google Cloud Deployment Manager?

  • Template-driven deployment

    Deployment manager has different templates which you can use to deploy your resources, and those templates are reusable so you can use them across different environments.

  • Declarative configuration

    As the Google deployment manager uses a declarative configuration model, you can define your infrastructure as code in YAML or Python templates.

  • Flexible resource management

    Google deployment manager offers many tools for you to use such as different virtual machines, containers, and databases by which you can manage your resources in a flexible and scalable way.

  • Integration with other Google Cloud services

    Google deployment manager can be integrated with various Cloud services such as Cloud Storage, Cloud SQL, and Cloud Identity and Access Management. 

  • Automated rollout and rollback

    The Deployment Manager provides an automated rollback function, which allows you to easily roll back to a previous version of your deployment if there are any issues. 

What are the main components of Google Cloud Deployment Manager?

  1. 1

    Metadata;

    This includes labels, tags, names, and dependencies.

  2. 2

    Type;

    This identifies the type of resource which is listed in the Supported Resource Types documentation.

  3. 3

    Properties;

    This defines the virtual machine's size, network IP address range, or any other configuration for the resource.

How to use Deployment Manager with other Google Cloud services?

The Google deployment manager can be integrated with other Google Cloud services to help you create a complete solution. These are some examples of how you can use Deployment Manager with other Google Cloud services;

  1. 1

    Google compute engine 

    Deployment Manager can be used to create and manage virtual machine instances, disks, and other Compute Engine resources. 

  2. 2

    Google cloud storage

    Deployment Manager can create and manage Cloud Storage buckets and objects.

  3. 3

    Google Cloud SQL

    Cloud SQL instances and databases can be created through the deployment manager.

  4. 4

    Google BigQuery

    Creation and management of BigQuery datasets and tables can be handled.

  5. 5

    Google Cloud Pub/Sub

    Deployment Manager can create and manage Cloud Pub/Sub topics and subscriptions.

To use Deployment Manager with other Google Cloud services, you must write deployment templates in YAML or JSON format that define the resources you want to create and their configuration.

How to create and deploy a basic resource using Deployment Manager?

There are a few simple steps mentioned below that you will need to follow to create and deploy a basic resource.

  1. 1

    Define your resource

    Firstly, you will need to create a YAML or JSON file that describes the resource you are willing to create. 

  2. 2

    Create a deployment 

    Deployment of the resource definition can be done using the Deployment Manager command-line interface or the API.

  3. 3

    Preview and validate your deployment

    To prevent and detect any errors, you can preview the deployment in a dummy environment using the deployment manager UI, command line interface, or API.

  4. 4

    Deployment 

    After previewing and validating your deployment, you can deploy your resource using the Deployment Manager UI, command-line interface, or API.

What are the advantages of using Google Cloud Deployment Manager?

  • Cost savings

    To reduce cost savings over time, you can reduce the time and resources needed to manage your infrastructure by automating the provisioning process. 

  • Collaboration

    Multiple team members can work on the duplicate infrastructure configuration files and review changes before deploying them which makes it easy to collaborate with other developers and stakeholders on infrastructure deployments.

  • Resource consistency and repeatability

    You can make sure all of your infrastructures are standardized and secure by creating consistent and repeatable infrastructure deployments across multiple environments using Google deployment manager.

  • Integration with other Google Cloud services

    The google cloud deployment manager can be integrated easily with various google cloud services and tools, allowing seamless provisioning of complex infrastructure configurations.

Overall, the Google deployment manager has many benefits and can help in the automation of infrastructures and provide your business ease and other advantages.

Are there any limitations to Google Cloud Deployment Manager?

Along with the numerous benefits, the google cloud deployment manager does have some limitations as well related to the learning curve, resources, performance, and integration. Here is a closer insight into this topic;

  • Steep learning curve

    If your team is not familiar with the google cloud platform, it might be difficult and take time to configure and set up the deployment manager.

  • Limited documentation

    Some users have raised the issue regarding the documentation provided for this tool. They claim that it is very less and not so comprehensive for common users to understand and practice.

  • Resource Availability

    In some cases, the deployment manager may not be available in certain areas or countries, which would make it hard for multinational or overseas companies to handle.

  • Performance Overhead

    Many users have reported that the performance of the deployment manager is slower than tools from other platforms, mostly large-scale deployments face this issue.

  • Limited Third-Party Integration

    While google cloud deployment managers work well with other google cloud services, it doesn't integrate easily with many third-party services or tools. 

Tip for troubleshooting and debugging Deployment Manager deployments

The Google deployment manager is a very useful tool that can benefit your business in many ways; however, issues can still arise during the deployment process that requires troubleshooting and debugging.

Here are some tips for troubleshooting and debugging Deployment Manager deployments;

  • Check Logs

    To recognize the root cause of any issue, you may check the deployment logs for any error messages or warnings. The logs can provide you with the status of deployments and any problems that may have occurred.

  • Verify Permissions

    Before the deployment process, you must ensure that the necessary permissions have been granted to the user or service account that will be performing the deployment. 

  • Test Templates

    Using the gcloud command-line tool, you can test templates to help identify any issues with the template before the actual deployment process begins. 

  • Review Template Syntax

    In case of deployment failure, you may review the template syntax as errors usually occur in the template syntax which can lead to deployment failure.

  • Monitor Resource Usage

    Resource usage during the deployment process must be checked throughout to identify if any issues arise. If the deployment is causing high resource usage, you can consider scaling up the resources or modifying the template to optimize resource usage.

  • Check Resource Limits

    In many cases, there is a limit to the resources that can be used in a specific region. If the deployment fails due to resource limits, you can consider modifying the template to deploy fewer instances or request a limit increase.

  • Use Stackdriver

    Stackdriver provides real-time monitoring and logging capabilities for Google Cloud resources including Deployment Manager. This can be used by configuring the Stackdriver to monitor the deployment process and alert in case of issues.

Final thoughts

Conclusively, the Google deployment manager is a very practical and convenient tool for software businesses that regularly go through the deployment process.

Google deployment makes the overall experience more flawless and accessible. 

It does have limitations regarding its functionality, however, its ease of usage and integration with other Google Cloud services proves it to be a valuable tool for any business or cloud infrastructure stack.

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About the author

Youssef

Youssef is a Senior Cloud Consultant & Founder of ITCertificate.org

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