This project deploys a scalable web application using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) on Google Cloud Platform using Terraform. It creates a VPC network, Managed Instance Group (MIG) running a lightwieght Mario game web app, and a global HTTP load balancer. This project is designed to run from the Google Cloud Shell using a user-friendly startup script. Simply clone this repository, run the script (following the prompts), and let Terraform do the rest!
- VPC Network with custom subnet and firewall rules
- VPC Flow Logging enabled with 5-second intervals
- Full metadata collection for network analysis
- Managed Instance Group with autoscaling (1-5 instances)
- Global HTTP Load Balancer for traffic distribution
- Cloud NAT for internet egress from private instances
- IAP-protected SSH access to instances
- Service Account with minimal required permissions
- Shielded VMs with secure boot and integrity monitoring
This project uses the Mario Game repository created by anndcodes. The game is deployed on each instance as a demo web application.
- Google Cloud Platform account
- Google Cloud SDK installed - Preinstalled in Google Cloud Shell
- Terraform ~> 1.11 installed - Terraform is preinstalled in Google Cloud Shell.
- Active GCP project with billing enabled
- It is recommended to run this project from the Google Cloud Shell
The tilde (~>) operator allows only the rightmost version component to increment. For example, ~> 1.11 allows installing versions 1.11.0 up to but not including 1.12.0.
This project requires the following Google Cloud APIs to be enabled:
- Compute Engine API (
compute.googleapis.com) - Identity and Access Management (IAM) API (
iam.googleapis.com) - Cloud Resource Manager API (
cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com) - Service Usage API (
serviceusage.googleapis.com)
These APIs will be automatically enabled when you run the setup.sh script.
-
Open Google Cloud Shell or your local terminal
-
Clone this repository:
git clone https://github.com/gmccormick8/simple-gcp-mario.git && cd simple-gcp-mario
-
Run setup script to initialize the project (enter "y" when prompted):
bash setup.sh
The setup script will:
- Verify and update Terraform if needed
- Enable required Google Cloud APIs
- Initialize Terraform
- Create and apply the Terraform configuration
- Display a link to the newly created website at the end of the output. Please note that it may take several minutes for the website to go live.
If you prefer to deploy manually:
- Set your Google Cloud project ID:
echo 'project_id = "YOUR_PROJECT_ID"' > terraform.tfvars- Initialize Terraform:
terraform init- Review the deployment plan:
terraform plan- Apply the configuration (enter "yes" when prompted):
terraform applyTo destroy all resources (enter "yes" when prompted):
terraform destroy- The machine type, min/max replicas can be modified in
main.tf
- Creates VPC network and subnets
- Configures firewall rules
- Sets up Cloud NAT and Cloud Router
- Enables VPC Flow Logging with:
- 5-second aggregation intervals
- 50% sampling rate
- Full metadata collection
- Deploys managed instance group
- Configures instance template with Mario game
- Implements autoscaling
- Enables OS Login
- Creates global HTTP load balancer
- Sets up health checks
- Configures backend services
- Private instances with no public IPs
- IAP-protected SSH access
- Minimal service account permissions
- OS Login enabled by default
- Shielded VM features:
- Secure Boot enabled
- vTPM enabled
- Integrity monitoring enabled
- VPC Flow Logging for network security monitoring
This implementation:
- Uses HTTP (not HTTPS)
- Is intended for development/testing purposes
- Is not suitable for production use
This setup uses:
- e2-micro instances (1-5 instances)
- ~$6.11/month per instance
- Standard persistent disks
- ~$0.04/GB/month
- Global load balancer
- ~$18/month for the forwarding rule
- ~$0.008/GB processed
- Cloud NAT
- ~$0.045/hour when in use
- Network egress
- $0.085/GB to $0.23/GB depending on region
Total estimated monthly cost: $30-100 USD depending on:
- Number of active instances
- Amount of traffic processed
- Data transfer volumes
- Region selection
- Fork the repository
- Create a feature branch
- Commit your changes
- Push to the branch
- Create a Pull Request
This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.