How to create and configure a Google Cloud project?

Overview

To create a Google Cloud Project, we must have a Google Account. If we don’t own a Google account, we can create one using this link. Once done, log in to the account and go to the project selector page. Below is a screenshot of the project selector page:

Google project selector

Click on the “CREATE PROJECT” button on the top right corner to create a Google Cloud project as demonstrated in the above illustration. This opens the project creation wizard like the one below:

Create project wizard

Fill out the required fields and click the “CREATE” button.

The main page of the project appears after the project creation as illustrated below:

Dashboard of the `test-project` Google Cloud project

Configure a Google Cloud project

We need to enable billing for a project to be able to spin up a GKE cluster. But don’t worry, we won’t be charged anything if we just install a little program and don’t leave it running for a longer duration. This step is only to confirm that we are human.

To set up billing, click the menu icon located at the top left corner and click “Billing” in the list.

Menu from the main page of the project

This leads to the billing information page where the linked billing accounts are listed. If there is any credit card connected to Google Cloud, the page view could be different.

Click the “MANAGE BILLING ACCOUNTS” option if you haven’t already.

Billing page

This opens a page with a list of all recent payment accounts. The page looks like the below screenshot if there is no payment account.

Billing account list page

Click “ADD BILLING ACCOUNT” and fill in the required credit card information for billing. Once the payment information is added, you can see the account listed on the Billing Accounts page.

The final step before starting to build a cluster is to enable GKE API for a project. Visit this link and follow the instructions.

Project confirmation page

Confirm the project and click “NEXT” and enable the APIs by clicking the “ENABLE” button.

Enabling APIs page

Once the APIs are enabled, we have successfully configured the Google Cloud project.

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