This set of tutorials is for IT administrators and Operators who wantto learn how to deploy, run, and manage modern application environments that runon Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE).

In this set of tutorials, you learn by doing. You start by deploying a samplemicroservices-based application named Cymbal Bank to a GKEcluster. Cymbal Bank uses Python and Java to run the various services, andincludes a PostgreSQL backend. You don't need experience with these languages ordatabase platform to complete the series of tutorials, as Cymbal Bank is just anexample application to show how GKE can support the needs of yourbusiness. Each tutorial then builds on this sample application to show how areal production environment might look as you use differentGoogle Cloud products and services to fit your business needs andgoals.

As you progress through this set of tutorials, you explore the following keylearning areas:

• Modern application foundations: Deploy a single Google Kubernetes Engine cluster thatruns a microservices-based application.
• Monitoring: Use Prometheus to monitor the performance and health of yourapplications.
• Autoscale and load balance: Scale your cluster to meet application demandwith GKE Autopilot, and use horizontal Podautoscaling.
• Simulate and test failovers: Verify that your highly available andgeographically distributed deployment can failover to maintain access forcustomers.
• Centralize change management: Minimize configuration drift and applyconsistent changes with Config Sync.

The tutorials are designed for you to complete in order. Each tutorial builds onthe previous tutorial as you create a sample application infrastructure that youcan monitor and autoscale. As you progress through the set of tutorials, youlearn new skills and use additional Google Cloud products and services.The goal is that you learn all of the core components that are needed to feelmore comfortable running scalable applications in your own environment.

Your journey

For this set of tutorials, you play the role of the platform lead at CymbalBank. Cymbal Bank started as a small business for payment processing on twoservers almost ten years ago. Since then, it has grown into a successfulcommercial bank with thousands of employees and a growing engineeringorganization. Cymbal Bank now wants to expand its business further.

Throughout this period, you and your team have found yourself spending more timeand money on maintaining infrastructure than on creating new business value. Youhave decades of cumulative experience invested in your existing stack; however,you know it's not the right technology to meet the scale of global deploymentthat the bank needs as it expands.

You've adopted GKE to modernize your application andmigrate successfully to Google Cloud to achieve your expansion goals.

Costs

Enabling GKE and deploying the Cymbal Bank sample application forthis series of tutorials means that you incur per-cluster charges forGKE on Google Cloud as listed on ourPricing page until you disable GKE or delete the project.

You are also responsible for other Google Cloud costs incurred while running theCymbal Bank sample application, such as charges for Compute Engine VMs andload balancers.

Before you begin

You don't need to be familiar with Google Kubernetes Engine or Terraform to follow thesetutorials, but ensure that you're familiar withbasic Kubernetes concepts,such as clusters.

Each tutorial outlines specific prerequisites, such as needing aGoogle Cloud billing account and project or IAM roles.

Planning considerations

When you plan a production GKE environment, there are a number ofplanning considerations to keep in mind. These considerations include availablenetworking options, your cluster management mode, and cluster availability.

In this set of tutorials, some of these considerations are simplified so thatyou can focus on learning about key GKE features and services.Because of this, these tutorials don't provide a complete production-readyenvironment, but rather give you the building blocks you need to learn how todeploy and run your own workloads. After you complete this set of tutorials, werecommend you reviewScalable apps - Production considerations.

What's next

Get started by completing thefirst tutorial to a deploy a single GKE clusterthat runs a microservices-based application.