Introduction to Using Google Cloud with PowerShell in a Windows Environment

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a powerful cloud computing platform that offers a wide range of services for building, deploying, and managing applications and infrastructure. While Google provides a comprehensive set of tools and APIs for interacting with GCP, it is often convenient to automate tasks using scripting languages like PowerShell in a Windows environment.

PowerShell is a task automation and configuration management framework from Microsoft, which is well-suited for managing and automating tasks in a Windows environment. By leveraging PowerShell, developers and system administrators can easily interact with GCP services, automate routine tasks, and integrate GCP with their existing Windows workflows.

In this article, we will explore some practical examples of using PowerShell scripts to interact with Google Cloud services in a Windows environment. These examples will demonstrate how to perform common tasks such as creating virtual machines, managing storage buckets, and deploying applications on GCP.

Examples:

1. Creating a Virtual Machine on GCP using PowerShell:

# Import the Google Cloud PowerShell module
Import-Module GoogleCloud

# Authenticate with GCP using a service account key
$cred = Get-GoogleCloudCredential -KeyFile "C:\path\to\service-account-key.json"
Set-GoogleCloudProject -ProjectId "my-project-id" -Credential $cred

# Create a new virtual machine instance
$vm = New-GoogleCloudVM -Name "my-vm" -MachineType "n1-standard-1" -Zone "us-central1-a" -Image "windows-server-2019-dc-core-v20220111" -Credential $cred

# Start the virtual machine
Start-GoogleCloudVM -VM $vm

2. Managing Storage Buckets on GCP using PowerShell:

# Import the Google Cloud PowerShell module
Import-Module GoogleCloud

# Authenticate with GCP using a service account key
$cred = Get-GoogleCloudCredential -KeyFile "C:\path\to\service-account-key.json"
Set-GoogleCloudProject -ProjectId "my-project-id" -Credential $cred

# Create a new storage bucket
$bucket = New-GoogleCloudStorageBucket -Name "my-bucket" -Location "us-central1" -Credential $cred

# Upload a file to the storage bucket
Set-GoogleCloudStorageObject -Bucket $bucket -Name "example.txt" -Source "C:\path\to\example.txt" -Credential $cred

# List objects in the storage bucket
Get-GoogleCloudStorageObject -Bucket $bucket -Credential $cred

3. Deploying an Application on GCP using PowerShell:

# Import the Google Cloud PowerShell module
Import-Module GoogleCloud

# Authenticate with GCP using a service account key
$cred = Get-GoogleCloudCredential -KeyFile "C:\path\to\service-account-key.json"
Set-GoogleCloudProject -ProjectId "my-project-id" -Credential $cred

# Build and deploy a containerized application on GCP
$containerImage = Build-GoogleCloudContainerImage -Context "C:\path\to\app" -ImageName "gcr.io/my-project/my-app" -Credential $cred
Deploy-GoogleCloudContainer -Image $containerImage -Cluster "my-cluster" -Credential $cred