Google Cloud Resource Hierarchy

GCP Cloud Resource Hierarchy Explanation

Google Cloud Resource Hierarchy is a structure that organizes resources within Google Cloud Platform (GCP) for effective management, access control, and resource organization. It follows a tree-like structure where resources are arranged in a hierarchical order.

How it Works:

1. Root Node: At the top of the hierarchy is the organization node. Under this, you have folders.
2. Folders: These can contain other folders or projects. They help to group resources within an organization.
3. Projects: Projects contain GCP resources like virtual machines, storage buckets, databases, etc.

Simple Understanding:

Imagine a family tree:

• Grandparent (Organization): Represents the whole family.
• Parent (Folder): Different branches of the family.
• Children (Projects): Individuals within those branches.

Each level can contain the level below it, and settings applied at a higher level can affect the lower levels.

Best Practices:

1. Logical Structure: Organize based on functional teams, departments, or projects to ensure clear and logical resource management.
2. Access Control: Assign roles and permissions at the appropriate level in the hierarchy to maintain security and restrict access where needed.
3. Resource Placement: Consider placement of resources to apply policies effectively. For instance, applying a policy at the folder level will affect everything within that folder.

Examples:

• Company Departments: Organize resources based on departments (e.g., HR, Marketing, Engineering).
• Development Stages: Group resources by development stages (e.g., development, testing, production).
• Geographical Regions: Arrange resources based on geographical locations for regulatory or performance reasons.

For example, you might have a folder for “Marketing” containing projects for “Campaign A” and “Campaign B,” each project hosting its related resources. This way, permissions, billing, and policies can be managed at the folder level for all marketing resources.

Understanding and utilizing the hierarchy efficiently ensures streamlined management, security, and resource organization within Google Cloud Platform.

In Google Cloud Platform, you can use the gcloud command-line tool within Cloud Shell to check organizations, projects, folders, and resources.

Checking Organization:

To check the organization associated with your GCP account, use the following command:

gcloud organizations list

This command will display the details of the organization to which your account is linked.

Checking Projects:

To list the projects within your GCP account, you can use:

gcloud projects list

This command will provide a list of projects associated with your account, along with project IDs, names, and other details.

Checking Folders:

To view the folder hierarchy within your GCP account, you can use:

gcloud resource-manager folders list

This command will display the folders along with their IDs and other relevant information.

Checking Resources:

To check specific resources within a project or across your GCP environment, various commands can be used depending on the resource you want to examine. For instance:

To list Compute Engine instances:

gcloud compute instances list

To list Cloud Storage buckets:

gsutil ls

To list Cloud SQL instances:

gcloud sql instances list

You can replace these examples with other GCP resource types you want to list.

Ensure you have the necessary permissions to view these resources. Some commands may require additional flags or options based on the specific resource you’re querying.

Running these commands within the Cloud Shell will give you the information about the organizations, projects, folders, and resources within your Google Cloud Platform environment.

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