Guided Lab: Using Cloud Storage Lifecycle Rules to Automate Object Management

1. In the Google Cloud Console, use the search bar to navigate to Cloud Storage

2. Go to the Buckets tab, then click Create or Create bucket.

3. Configure the bucket with your own unique bucket name, leave the other settings at their default values, then click Create

4. Tick “Enforce public access prevention on this bucket”.

5. Confirm that the bucket was created and appears in your list of buckets.

1. Create the following sample files on your local machine:

• demo1.txt contains “Temporary file 1”
• demo2.txt contains “Temporary file 2”

2. Open your newly created bucket in the console. Click Upload files, then select the files you created in the previous step.

3. Verify that the files now appear in your bucket.

1. While inside the bucket, go to the Lifecycle tab, then click Add a rule.

2. Configure the following in the object lifecycle rule:

• Select an action: Delete object
• Select object conditions
  • Select Rule Scopes: None (this will make it automatically apply to all objects in the bucket)
  • Select Conditions:
    • Age: 1 day
• Once done, click Create

3. Verify that the rule appears in the Lifecycle rules list.

To verify if the created lifecycle rule works, refresh your bucket after 1 day (or once the objects meet the condition you’ve set) and confirm that the appropriate files have been deleted.

You’ve successfully created a Cloud Storage bucket, uploaded objects, and configured lifecycle rules using the Google Cloud Console. This guided lab helps you understand how to automate data retention and deletion, reduce storage costs, and manage objects efficiently. You can apply these same concepts to logs, backups, or temporary files in real-world projects, and in future labs, you’ll explore more advanced lifecycle actions, such as changing storage classes or archiving objects.