Automate infrastructure with Cloud Networking Config Solutions

Powerful servers process data, but without a high-speed network (like a multi-lane highway), they’re isolated islands with limited use.
Google Cloud Networking is that essential component that bring all such isolated cloud services together, enabling seamless communication and resource access across your cloud environment, whether in Google Cloud, on-premise, or even other cloud providers. It unlocks the full potential of your infrastructure by ensuring scalability, reliability and security.

Problem Statement

The growing adoption of cloud services with diverse needs solving complex problems creates a challenge to bring an optimal design incorporating the best practices for such a solution: Cloud networking solutions must be flexible enough to accommodate various use cases while seamlessly integrating with different services (e.g. AlloyDB, Cloud SQL, Memory Redis Cluster).
Manually configuring these networks is one such way to address this growing need but for each scenario it can be time-consuming and error-prone.

This lack of a generic and automated cloud networking configurations approach hinders efficient infrastructure management and service delivery.
By automating configurations with Terraform, Cloudnetworking-config-solutions saves time and effort in managing cloud networks for diverse needs.

Introduction

The Cloud Networking Config Solutions leverages terraform modules & resources to automate the creation and management of essential Google Cloud Networking components. This simplifies configuration management and reduces the risk of errors compared to manual configuration.

Core Networking Components
The deployment process starts with establishing the foundation of your cloud network. This stage focuses on setting up essential components like:

• Google Cloud Network
• VPCs (Virtual Private Clouds)
• Subnets
• Cloud NAT

Enhancing Security with Private Connectivity

Security is paramount! The deployment process prioritizes minimizing public exposure of your cloud services. We achieve this by establishing private connectivity through various mechanisms:

• Private Service Access (PSA)
• Private Service Connect (PSC)
• Service Connection Automation Policies(SCP)

Addressing Complex Network Connectivity Needs

The deployment process extends beyond basic cloud networking and can be adapted to address more complex connectivity scenarios. Our solution can facilitate secure communication between your on-premise network and resources within your Google Cloud VPC leveraging Google Cloud HA VPN. This includes setting up secure connections between:

• On-premise Network and Google Cloud VPC
• Across different Google Cloud VPCs
• Other Cloud Providers

Why this works ?

This solution breaks away from the traditional one-to-one producer-consumer service model. Instead, it empowers you with a highly scalable MxN mapping capability. This means you can configure multiple producer services (like Cloud SQL, Alloy DB or Memory Redis Cluster) to connect with multiple consumer services (like GCE instances and others) simultaneously. All these services leverage a single, secure network configured across the source and destination, ensuring data integrity and protection.

Different Producer services establishinh connection with Consumer services using supported Private connectivity option from Google Cloud Networking

Explanation

Cloud Networking Config Solutions terraform templates has been designed to simplify the onboarding for new customers while ensuring that the existing customers can continue to consumer new services by minimizing the changes required to be performed in the terraform modules for networking.

Cloud Networking Config Solutions repository provides logically isolated structure ensuring that only certain set of groups, administrators owning them will have the permissions required to manage the resources for that specific can actually create, modify or delete the resources.

  cloudnetworking-config-solutions
    ├──configuration
        ├── bootstrap.tfvars
        ├── organization.tfvars
        ├── networking.tfvars
        ├── networking-manual.tfvars
        └── security
            ├── alloydb.tfvars
            ├── cloudsql.tfvars
            ├── gce.tfvars
            └── mrc.tfvars
    ├──execution
        ├── 00-bootstrap
        ├── 01-organization
        ├── 02-networking
        ├── 03-security
        ├── 04-producer
        ├── 05-networking-manual
        ├── 06-consumer
        └── run.sh
    └──modules
        ├── net-vpc
        └── psc_forwarding_rule

Implementation

The essence of the implemenetation of these modules lies with the stagewise isolation where each stage is dedicated to perform operations specific to that repository.

Now, let’s dive into the implementation details of each stage !

We’ve designed a multi-stage approach, with each stage dedicated to specific tasks and owned by administrators with the appropriate IAM permissions. This ensures granular control and minimizes security risks. For each stage, a dedicated README file details the specific IAM permissions required by the assigned administrators.

Here’s a breakdown of the stages and the resources managed within each:

• 00-bootstrap: This stage lays the groundwork by setting up essential resources like service accounts and terraform state storage. Resource created in this stage is used in the remaining stages for impersonating service account and storing the terraform state files in the GCS buckets.
• 01-organization: Here, we’ll manage organization-wide policies for network resources. This stage also includes selective enabling or disabling of Google Cloud Project API’s and services within your Google Cloud projects.
• 02-networking: Get ready to dive into the core of your network ! This stage focuses on managing VPCs, subnets, Cloud HA VPN, and other crucial components like PSA , PSC, SCP and Cloud NAT. Administrators will handle network administration tasks and configure network connectivity options like Shared VPC, PSA, PSC and Service Connectivity Automation Policies.
• 03-security: Security is paramount! This stage is dedicated to configuring firewalls and other vital security measures. Administrators will define and manage firewall rules, ensuring secure communication between your services.
• 04-producer: Time to implement your producer services! This stage focuses on deploying Google Cloud managed producer services like AlloyDB, Memorystore for Redis clusters and Cloud SQL.
• 05-networking-manual: This stage establishes secure, private communication between your consumer project and the producer services you created in stage 04. We achieve this through Private Service Connect (PSC).
• 06-consumer: Finally, we’ll deploy your consumer services! This stage focuses on implementing Google Cloud managed consumer services, which can include Google Compute Engine instances.

By following this secure, multi-stage implementation process, you can ensure a well-organized, permission-controlled deployment of your Google Cloud resources!

Executing Individual Stages Manually

This section details the step-by-step process for manually executing each stage within the multi-stage deployment workflow.

Preparation:

1. Code Location: Ensure you have access to the Cloud Networking Config Solutions repository containing the stage folders.
2. Permissions: Verify you possess the necessary IAM permissions to execute the desired stage(s). Refer to the corresponding stage’s README file for specific permission requirements.

Stage Execution Steps:

1. Navigate to Stage Folder: Use your terminal or command prompt to navigate to the subfolder within the repository representing the specific stage you want to execute. For example:

cd cloudnetworking-config-solutions/execution/01-organization

• Initialize Environment (terraform init): Run the following command to initialize the Terraform environment for the current stage. This downloads and installs any required plugins or modules:

terraform init

• Preview Changes (terraform plan): Before applying any modifications, it’s crucial to preview the planned actions. Run this command to generate a detailed plan outlining the changes Terraform will make to your Google Cloud resources:

terraform plan -var-file="../../configuration/<stagename>.tfvars"

• Apply Changes (terraform apply): If the plan looks satisfactory and you’re ready to proceed, execute the following command to apply the Terraform configuration and provision the resources in your Google Cloud project:

terraform apply -var-file="../../configuration/<stagename>.tfvars"

Important Note: Applying changes can have significant consequences on your Google Cloud resources. Double-check the plan and proceed with caution.

Conclusion

Cloud Networking Config Solutions offers a unique solution that breaks free from the limitations of traditional single-producer, single-consumer deployments. It empowers you to leverage a robust MxN mapping, where multiple producer services seamlessly connect with multiple consumer services.

In essence, while cloud services provide the processing power, cloud networking ensures the smooth flow of information and resources, enabling your cloud solution to function efficiently, securely and at scale. With a strong network in place, you can unlock the full potential of Google Cloud services and confidently scale your cloud infrastructure to meet your evolving business needs.

Explore the Cloud Networking Config Solutions repository which simplifies the cloud networking configuration required for solving diverse usecases & complex problems.

If you have any specific suggestions, scenarios or ideas that you would like to cover then feel free to reach out to us .