GCP Provider

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a primary provider offering enterprise-grade reliability, global infrastructure, and cost-effective networking options.

Basic Configuration

Configuration Reference

Status Field

Define GCP's priority in provider selection:

• prefer: Primary provider (use first)
• allow: Acceptable provider (use if preferred unavailable)
• fallback: Emergency provider (use only when others fail)

Network Tier

GCP offers two network tiers with significant cost differences:

| Tier | Egress Cost | IPv6 | Routing | Best For | |------|-------------|------|---------|----------| | Standard | $0.005/GB | ❌ No | Regional | Cost-optimized (default) | | Premium | $0.085/GB | ✅ Yes | Global | Low-latency worldwide |

Cost Impact: Standard tier is 17x cheaper for egress.

Example Calculation (1TB monthly egress):

• Standard: $5/month
• Premium: $85/month
• Savings: $80/month (1600% cost reduction)

When to use Premium:

• Global user base requiring low latency
• IPv6 requirement
• Real-time applications (gaming, video streaming)

When to use Standard (recommended):

• Regional deployments
• Cost-sensitive applications
• Most web/API services

IP Version

Important: Standard tier only supports IPv4.

| Combination | Valid | Notes | |-------------|-------|-------| | Standard + IPv4 | ✅ | Recommended default | | Standard + IPv6 | ❌ | Not supported | | Premium + IPv4 | ✅ | Works but expensive | | Premium + IPv6 | ✅ | Required for IPv6 |

Certificate Issuer

Specify the certificate issuer for TLS:

• letsencrypt-prod: Production Let's Encrypt (default)
• letsencrypt-staging: Testing (higher rate limits)
• custom: Your own certificate authority

Node Pool Configuration

GKE Standard mode with spot instance support for cost optimization.

Baseline vs Burst Replicas

Baseline replicas (min_replicas):

• Always run on standard (on-demand) nodes
• Guaranteed availability
• No interruption risk
• Higher cost but reliable

Burst replicas (above min_replicas):

• Can run on spot nodes (if configured)
• 60-90% cost savings
• May be preempted (24h max lifetime)
• Ideal for stateless workloads

Cost Example

Service with min_replicas: 3, max_replicas: 10:

With node_pools.burst: spot:

| Scenario | Standard Nodes | Spot Nodes | Cost | |----------|----------------|------------|------| | Baseline (3 replicas) | 3 | 0 | $0.10/hour | | Peak (10 replicas) | 3 | 7 | $0.17/hour | | All standard | 10 | 0 | $0.33/hour |

Monthly savings: ~$350/month (48% reduction)

Node Pool Configuration

Available burst options:

• spot: Use spot instances for burst (recommended)
• standard: Use on-demand for burst (higher cost, no preemption)

Public Gateway Configuration

The public gateway provides external connectivity to your services.

Gateway Fields

| Field | Type | Default | Description | |-------|------|---------|-------------| | enabled | boolean | false | Deploy public gateway | | static_ip | string | auto | IP allocation (auto or specific) | | sql.enabled | boolean | false | PostgreSQL wire protocol support | | sql.port | number | 5432 | SQL port (e.g., 26257 for CockroachDB) | | http.enabled | boolean | false | HTTP/HTTPS ingress | | http.port | number | 8080 | HTTP port | | http.path_prefix | string | / | Optional path prefix | | gateway.replicas | number | 1 | Gateway replica count | | gateway.resources.cpu | string | 500m | CPU allocation | | gateway.resources.memory | string | 1Gi | Memory allocation |

SQL Gateway Example

Expose CockroachDB with both SQL and HTTP admin:

Access:

• SQL: postgresql://gateway-ip:26257/db
• Admin UI: https://gateway-ip/admin

HTTP Only Example

Standard web application:

Pricing: $49/month (includes static IP, certificates, load balancing)

Complete Examples

Production Configuration

High reliability with cost optimization:

Cost-Optimized Configuration

Maximum cost savings:

High-Performance Configuration

Global low-latency:

Database Gateway Configuration

PostgreSQL-compatible database:

GCP-Specific Features

Regions Available

GCP has 35+ regions worldwide:

North America:

• us-central1 (Iowa)
• us-east1 (South Carolina)
• us-west1 (Oregon)
• us-west2 (Los Angeles)

Europe:

• europe-west1 (Belgium)
• europe-west2 (London)
• europe-north1 (Finland)
• europe-west4 (Netherlands)

Asia:

• asia-east1 (Taiwan)
• asia-southeast1 (Singapore)
• asia-northeast1 (Tokyo)

GKE Features

• Autopilot: Not used for org workloads (Standard mode only)
• Spot Instances: 60-90% savings for burst workloads
• Node Auto-repair: Automatic node health checks
• Workload Identity: Secure service account binding
• Binary Authorization: Image signing and verification

Integration with GCP Services

Core Compose integrates with:

• Cloud Monitoring: Metrics and alerting
• Cloud Logging: Centralized log aggregation
• Cloud Load Balancing: Global/regional load balancers
• Cloud Armor: WAF and DDoS protection
• Certificate Manager: Automated TLS certificates

Best Practices

1. Use Standard Tier by Default

Only upgrade to Premium if you need:

• IPv6 support
• Global routing with minimal latency
• Real-time gaming or video streaming

2. Enable Spot for Burst Workloads

This provides:

• Reliability for baseline traffic
• Cost savings for peak traffic
• Automatic fallback to on-demand if spot unavailable

3. Single Gateway per Deployment

Enable gateway on only one provider:

Avoid multiple gateways to minimize costs.

4. Right-Size Gateway Resources

For typical workloads:

Scale up for high-traffic scenarios:

Troubleshooting

"IPv6 not supported with Standard tier"

Error:

Solution:

"Node pool exhausted"

Error:

Solution: Increase cluster size or reduce replicas:

"Gateway timeout"

Error:

Solution: Increase gateway resources:

Next Steps

• DFC Provider Configuration
• Provider Configuration
• Service Autoscaling