GCP PlayCloud Labs Guided Lab: Managing Cloud Storage Buckets via SSH Commands

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Lesson 26 of 41

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Guided Lab: Managing Cloud Storage Buckets via SSH Commands

Jon-Bonso

Description

Google Cloud Storage provides scalable and secure object storage for your data, such as documents, images, logs, and other application assets. While the Google Cloud Console offers a graphical interface to manage buckets and objects, using SSH (Cloud Shell) commands allows you to automate tasks, perform batch operations, and work efficiently without relying on the web interface.

In this guided lab, you will practice managing Cloud Storage entirely from the command line. You will create a private bucket, upload a .txt file, read and process its contents directly from the bucket, copy it to your Cloud Shell environment, and perform basic text operations. By the end of this lab, you will understand how to manage Cloud Storage objects using gsutil commands and apply these skills to scripting, automation, and real-world workflows.

Prerequisites

This lab assumes you are familiar with basic Cloud Storage concepts, navigating the Google Cloud Console, and using Cloud Shell.

If you find any gaps in your knowledge, consider taking the following labs:

Creating a Cloud Storage Bucket

Objectives

In this lab, you will:

Create a Cloud Storage bucket using Cloud Shell
Upload a file to the bucket using SSH commands
Read the file directly from the bucket
Copy the file to your Cloud Shell environment

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Lab Steps

Creating a Cloud Storage Bucket via SSH

1. Click Activate Cloud Shell in the top-right corner of the console.

2. Authorize Cloud Shell using your account’s credentials.

3. Run the following command to create a bucket (replace <your-unique-bucket-name> with a unique name):

gsutil mb -l us-central1 gs://<your-unique-bucket-name>/

4. Verify that the bucket was created

gsutil ls

Uploading a File to the Bucket

1. If you don’t have a file locally, create a sample .txt file:

echo "Hello TDojo, this is a test file." > demo.txt

2. Upload the file to your bucket:

gsutil cp demo.txt gs://<your-unique-bucket-name>/

3. Verify the upload:

gsutil ls gs://<your-unique-bucket-name>/

Accessing and Managing the File using SSH Commands

Let’s now test viewing your file directly from the bucket, copying it to your Cloud Shell environment, and updating it if needed:

1. Display the contents of the file directly from the bucket:

gsutil cat gs://<your-unique-bucket-name>/demo.txt

2. Copy the file to your Cloud Shell home directory:

gsutil cp gs://<your-unique-bucket-name>/demo.txt ~/

3. Open the file in a text editor, then make changes if you like, then save and exit:

nano ~/demo.txt

To save the file, press Ctrl + O, then the Enter key to save the changes. Then, to exit, just press Ctrl + X.

4. Copy the updated file back to the bucket:

gsutil cp ~/demo.txt gs://<your-unique-bucket-name>/

5. To verify if the file was copied back to the bucket, navigate to Cloud Storage in the Google Cloud Console, then check if the created bucket and file exist.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully created and managed a Cloud Storage bucket, uploaded a file, read it directly from the bucket, and copied it to your Cloud Shell environment. This guided lab helps you understand how to interact with Cloud Storage using SSH commands, manage objects, and perform basic file operations without relying on the web console. You can use these same concepts to automate storage workflows, integrate Cloud Storage with scripts or applications, and in future guided labs, you’ll explore more advanced object management and data processing techniques.