GCP Networking

Design, implement, and secure network infrastructure on Google Cloud Platform.

When to Use

Building VPC networks for new GCP projects or multi-project architectures
Configuring firewall rules to control traffic between services
Setting up Cloud NAT for outbound internet access from private instances
Deploying load balancers for HTTP(S), TCP/UDP, or internal traffic
Implementing Private Service Connect or Shared VPC

Prerequisites

Google Cloud SDK (gcloud) installed and authenticated
Compute Engine API enabled
IAM role roles/compute.networkAdmin for network management

gcloud services enable compute.googleapis.com servicenetworking.googleapis.com

VPC Network Creation

gcloud compute networks create prod-vpc \
  --subnet-mode=custom --bgp-routing-mode=regional --mtu=1460

gcloud compute networks subnets create us-subnet \
  --network=prod-vpc --region=us-central1 --range=10.0.0.0/20 \
  --enable-private-ip-google-access --enable-flow-logs \
  --logging-flow-sampling=0.5

gcloud compute networks subnets create eu-subnet \
  --network=prod-vpc --region=europe-west1 --range=10.1.0.0/20 \
  --enable-private-ip-google-access --enable-flow-logs

# Subnet with secondary ranges for GKE
gcloud compute networks subnets create gke-subnet \
  --network=prod-vpc --region=us-central1 --range=10.2.0.0/20 \
  --secondary-range=pods=10.4.0.0/14,services=10.8.0.0/20 \
  --enable-private-ip-google-access

# Proxy-only subnet (required for regional L7 LBs)
gcloud compute networks subnets create proxy-only-subnet \
  --network=prod-vpc --region=us-central1 --range=10.129.0.0/23 \
  --purpose=REGIONAL_MANAGED_PROXY --role=ACTIVE

Firewall Rules

gcloud compute firewall-rules create allow-http-https \
  --network=prod-vpc --allow=tcp:80,tcp:443 \
  --source-ranges=0.0.0.0/0 --target-tags=http-server --priority=1000

gcloud compute firewall-rules create allow-internal \
  --network=prod-vpc --allow=tcp,udp,icmp \
  --source-ranges=10.0.0.0/8 --priority=1000

gcloud compute firewall-rules create allow-iap-ssh \
  --network=prod-vpc --allow=tcp:22 \
  --source-ranges=35.235.240.0/20 --priority=1000

gcloud compute firewall-rules create allow-health-checks \
  --network=prod-vpc --allow=tcp:80,tcp:443,tcp:8080 \
  --source-ranges=130.211.0.0/22,35.191.0.0/16 \
  --target-tags=http-server --priority=900

# List firewall rules
gcloud compute firewall-rules list --filter="network=prod-vpc" \
  --format="table(name,direction,priority,allowed[].map().firewall_rule().list():label=ALLOW)"

Cloud NAT

gcloud compute routers create prod-router \
  --network=prod-vpc --region=us-central1

gcloud compute routers nats create prod-nat \
  --router=prod-router --region=us-central1 \
  --nat-all-subnet-ip-ranges --auto-allocate-nat-external-ips \
  --min-ports-per-vm=256 --max-ports-per-vm=4096 \
  --enable-logging --log-filter=ERRORS_ONLY

# Static NAT IPs (stable egress)
gcloud compute addresses create nat-ip-1 nat-ip-2 --region=us-central1
gcloud compute routers nats create prod-nat-static \
  --router=prod-router --region=us-central1 \
  --nat-all-subnet-ip-ranges --nat-external-ip-pool=nat-ip-1,nat-ip-2

External HTTP(S) Load Balancer

gcloud compute addresses create web-lb-ip --global

gcloud compute health-checks create http web-hc \
  --port=80 --request-path=/healthz --check-interval=10s --timeout=5s

gcloud compute backend-services create web-backend \
  --protocol=HTTP --port-name=http --health-checks=web-hc \
  --global --enable-cdn --enable-logging

gcloud compute backend-services add-backend web-backend \
  --instance-group=web-mig --instance-group-region=us-central1 \
  --balancing-mode=UTILIZATION --max-utilization=0.8 --global

gcloud compute url-maps create web-url-map --default-service=web-backend

gcloud compute ssl-certificates create web-cert \
  --domains=app.example.com --global

gcloud compute target-https-proxies create web-proxy \
  --url-map=web-url-map --ssl-certificates=web-cert

gcloud compute forwarding-rules create web-https \
  --address=web-lb-ip --target-https-proxy=web-proxy --ports=443 --global

Internal Load Balancer

gcloud compute backend-services create internal-backend \
  --protocol=TCP --region=us-central1 \
  --health-checks=web-hc --health-checks-region=us-central1 \
  --load-balancing-scheme=INTERNAL

gcloud compute forwarding-rules create internal-lb \
  --region=us-central1 --load-balancing-scheme=INTERNAL \
  --network=prod-vpc --subnet=us-subnet \
  --backend-service=internal-backend --ports=8080

Cloud Armor (DDoS and WAF)

gcloud compute security-policies create web-armor

gcloud compute security-policies rules create 1000 \
  --security-policy=web-armor \
  --expression="origin.region_code == 'XX'" --action=deny-403

gcloud compute security-policies rules create 2000 \
  --security-policy=web-armor --expression="true" \
  --action=rate-based-ban \
  --rate-limit-threshold-count=100 \
  --rate-limit-threshold-interval-sec=60 --ban-duration-sec=600

gcloud compute backend-services update web-backend \
  --security-policy=web-armor --global

Private Service Connect

gcloud compute addresses create psc-google-apis \
  --global --purpose=PRIVATE_SERVICE_CONNECT \
  --addresses=10.255.255.254 --network=prod-vpc

gcloud compute forwarding-rules create psc-google-apis \
  --global --network=prod-vpc --address=psc-google-apis \
  --target-google-apis-bundle=all-apis

Shared VPC

gcloud compute shared-vpc enable $HOST_PROJECT_ID
gcloud compute shared-vpc associated-projects add $SERVICE_PROJECT_ID \
  --host-project=$HOST_PROJECT_ID

Terraform Configuration

resource "google_compute_network" "vpc" {
  name                    = "prod-vpc"
  auto_create_subnetworks = false
  routing_mode            = "REGIONAL"
}

resource "google_compute_subnetwork" "us" {
  name                     = "us-subnet"
  ip_cidr_range            = "10.0.0.0/20"
  region                   = "us-central1"
  network                  = google_compute_network.vpc.id
  private_ip_google_access = true
  log_config { aggregation_interval = "INTERVAL_5_SEC"; flow_sampling = 0.5 }
}

resource "google_compute_firewall" "allow_http" {
  name    = "allow-http-https"
  network = google_compute_network.vpc.name
  allow { protocol = "tcp"; ports = ["80", "443"] }
  source_ranges = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
  target_tags   = ["http-server"]
}

resource "google_compute_firewall" "allow_iap" {
  name    = "allow-iap-ssh"
  network = google_compute_network.vpc.name
  allow { protocol = "tcp"; ports = ["22"] }
  source_ranges = ["35.235.240.0/20"]
}

resource "google_compute_router" "router" {
  name    = "prod-router"
  region  = "us-central1"
  network = google_compute_network.vpc.id
}

resource "google_compute_router_nat" "nat" {
  name                               = "prod-nat"
  router                             = google_compute_router.router.name
  region                             = "us-central1"
  nat_ip_allocate_option             = "AUTO_ONLY"
  source_subnetwork_ip_ranges_to_nat = "ALL_SUBNETWORKS_ALL_IP_RANGES"
  min_ports_per_vm                   = 256
  log_config { enable = true; filter = "ERRORS_ONLY" }
}

resource "google_compute_security_policy" "waf" {
  name = "web-armor"
  rule {
    action   = "deny(403)"
    priority = 1000
    match { expr { expression = "evaluatePreconfiguredExpr('xss-v33-stable')" } }
  }
  rule {
    action   = "allow"
    priority = 2147483647
    match { versioned_expr = "SRC_IPS_V1"; config { src_ip_ranges = ["*"] } }
  }
}

Common Operations

gcloud compute networks list
gcloud compute networks subnets list --network=prod-vpc
gcloud compute networks subnets describe us-subnet --region=us-central1
gcloud network-management connectivity-tests create test-web-to-db \
  --source-instance=projects/${PROJECT_ID}/zones/us-central1-a/instances/web \
  --destination-instance=projects/${PROJECT_ID}/zones/us-central1-a/instances/db \
  --destination-port=5432 --protocol=TCP

Troubleshooting

| Symptom | Cause | Fix | |---------|-------|-----| | Instance cannot reach internet | No external IP and no Cloud NAT | Configure Cloud NAT on the subnet's router | | Firewall rule not taking effect | Wrong target tags or priority | Verify tags match instance; check priority ordering | | Load balancer returns 502 | Backend failing health checks | Check health check path/port; allow 130.211.0.0/22, 35.191.0.0/16 | | Cannot reach Google APIs from private VM | Private Google Access disabled | Enable --enable-private-ip-google-access on subnet | | Cloud NAT port exhaustion | Too many connections per VM | Increase --min-ports-per-vm; enable dynamic port allocation | | Shared VPC project cannot create VMs | Missing compute.networkUser role | Grant roles/compute.networkUser on host project | | SSL cert stuck PROVISIONING | DNS not pointing to LB IP | Update A record to reserved static IP; wait up to 60 min |

Related Skills

gcp-compute - Compute Engine instances that use VPC networks and firewall rules
gcp-gke - GKE clusters deployed in VPC subnets with secondary ranges
gcp-cloud-sql - Private IP database connectivity through VPC peering
terraform-gcp - Provision networking resources with Infrastructure as Code