GKE has a rich ecosystem of features and products that help youdeploy, run, and manage your containerized applications at scale. However, thisalso means there's a lot of documentation. Each documentation set in theGKE family contains guides, tutorials, reference material,release notes, examples, and more. This quick guide will help you find your wayaround.

If you're brand new to GKE, we recommend that you start yourexploration withStart learning aboutGKE.

The big picture

The GKE documentation is organized into several documentationsets, reflecting the structure of the wider GKE ecosystem andfamilies of features. Most users won't need to read beyond the coreGKE documentation. Platform admins and operators might need toexplore the documentation more broadly.

• Core GKE documentation, which introduces GKE andcovers core features that are available to all GKE users.
• GKE networking documentation (this documentation set), for network administrators or anyoneelse who needs to dive deeper into GKE and Kubernetesnetworking.
• GKE security documentation,for security practitioners who want to configure security features andmaintain your platform security.
• AI/ML workloads on GKE documentation,for data scientists, ML engineers, and application developers who want totrain, serve, and manage AI/ML models.
• Fleet management documentation, for when you want to manage groups ofGKE clusters together as afleet.
• Config Sync documentation, for when you want to centralize yourconfiguration files ina single source of truth, such as a Git repository.
• Policy Controller documentation, for when you want to enablethe application andenforcement of programmable policies for your Kubernetes clusters.
• Config Controller documentation, for when you want to createand manage Google Cloud resources with a declarative, Kubernetes model.
• GKE outside Google Cloud documentation sets, for userswho want to use GKE on-premises or on other public clouds.

You can read more about these documentation sets in the following sections.

Core GKE documentation

Start here. This documentation set covers core concepts and features that are availableto all GKE users, with material for both IT administrators andDevelopers. It includes the following topics:

• Learn fundamentals: Kubernetes andGKE basics for new users. If you're new to Kubernetes,Google Cloud, or GKE, this section will help you learn theessentials.
• Get started: Readyto create your first cluster? Here's what you need to know about.
• Set up GKE clusters: Detailed instructions for creating andconfiguringAutopilotandStandardclusters.
• Reduce and optimizecosts: Learn howand why to use cost optimization features in GKE.
• Provision storage:Learn about the supported storage options for GKE and how touse them.
• Configure clustersecurity:GKE provides many ways to secure your workloads. This sectionintroduces you to GKE security features and how to use them.
• Deploy workloads: Learn how to deploy different types of workloads onGKE, from simplestatelessapps todatabases, caches,and data streamingworkloads.
• Manage and optimizeclusters: Learn aboutadministering clusters, including upgrades, notifications, andrecommendations, plus node pool management for Standard clusters.
• Observability forGKE: Usemanaged Prometheus, Cloud Monitoring, and Cloud Logging to observeyour clusters and workloads.
• Troubleshoot: Findtroubleshooting guidance and known issues for all core features.

This documentation set also includes reference material for theKubernetesEngine (GKE) AP.

GKE networking

For network administrators (or anyone else who needs to dive deeper intoGKE and Kubernetes networking),GKE networkingdocumentation shows you how to configureand work with networking and traffic management features for your clusters. Topics range fromplanning your networking infrastructure on Google Cloud to setting up loadbalancers, exposing workloads as Services, and configuring cluster isolation.This documentation set includes the following GKE topics (andmore), as well as links to useful sections in the Google CloudVirtual Private Cloud and Compute Engine networking documentation.

• Networking overview: Get ahigh level view of networking features, including how GKEmanages networking both inside and outside your clusters.
• Best practices for GKEnetworking: Follow best practices and opinionated guidancefor planning and designing your network.
• Network isolation:Learn how to control network access to your clusters' control plane andnodes.
• Services in GKE:Expose applications running on your clusters as Services, including settingup load balancers and usingmulti-clusterServices.
• Enhance network security withnetwork policies.
• Observability:Get metrics and insights about your network traffic.

GKE security

The security documentation has information about the various security controlsin GKE clusters and Kubernetes workloads. The securitydocumentation shows you how to perform tasks like authenticating from workloadsto Google Cloud APIs, controlling access to your clusters and Kubernetesresources, and monitoring your security posture over time.

To explore the GKE security documentation, see theGKE security overview.

AI/ML workloads on GKE

The AI/ML workloads documentation has information about training, serving, and managing AI/ML models on GKE. Topics include serving models for inference, training models at scale, deploying AI agents, using Ray for distributed AI/ML applications, managing AI infrastructure and acceleratorslike GPUs and TPUs, managing data and storage for AI/ML workloads, andmonitoring your workloads.

To explore the AI/ML workloads on GKE documentation, seeIntroduction to AI/ML workloads on GKE.

GKE fleet management

If you're a platform or cluster administrator who needs to work with multipleGKE clusters, possibly across multiple Google Cloudprojects, GKE uses the concept of afleet to simplify managingmultiple clusters, regardless of which project they exist in and what workloadsrun on them. Thefleet managementdocumentation includes informationabout:

• Planningfleets:Learn how fleets work, with practical guidance for grouping yourorganization's clusters into fleets and enabling fleet features.
• Create yourfleet: How to addclusters to fleets.
• Work with fleetfeatures:Learn how to adopt, configure, and manage fleet-enabled features foryour clusters and workloads.
• Fleet teammanagement:Simplify provisioning and managing GKE resources for multipleteams across multiple clusters.
• Observe yourfleet:Get an at-a-glance view of your entire fleet and view fleet-scoped logs andmetrics.

This documentation set also includes reference material for theGKE Hub (Fleet) API.

Config Sync

Config Syncprovides a consistent way to manage GKE cluster configuration,with configuration applied automatically from a single source of truth. This documentation set includes the following topics:

• Get started with Config Sync.
• Learn aboutGitOps best practices.
• Install Config Sync with default settings.
• Troubleshoot common issues.

Policy Controller

Policy Controllerlets you apply and enforce consistent policies on your GKEclusters. This documentation set includes the following topics:

• Install Policy Controller.
• Apply best practices with policy bundles.
• Monitor compliance with dashboards.

Config Controller

Config Controllercreates and manages Google Cloud resources with a declarative, Kubernetes model.Config Controller is a hosted version of Config Connector that simplifiesinstallation and maintenance. This documentation set includes the following topics:

• Set up Config Controller.
• Manage resources with Config Controller.
• Troubleshoot common issues.

GKE outside Google Cloud

Many organizations using Google Cloud also want or need to run workloads intheir own data centers, factory floors, retail stores, and even in other publicclouds – but they don't want to build new container platforms themselves in allthese locations, or rethink how they configure, secure, monitor, and optimizecontainer workloads depending on where they're running. GKE Multi-Cloudand Google Distributed Cloud both extend GKE for use outsideGoogle Cloud, letting you create and manage hybrid or entirelyon-premises deployments.

GKE Multi-Cloud

• GKE on AWS: Work withGKE clusters running on AWS infrastructure.
• GKE on Azure: Workwith GKE clusters running on Azure infrastructure.
• GKE attached clusters:Add CNCF-conformant Kubernetes clusters to your fleet to view and managealong with your GKE clusters, with instructions for EKS, AKS,and other conformant cluster types.

Google Distributed Cloud (on-premises)

• Google Distributed Cloud (software only) forVMware: RunGKE clusters in a VMware VSphere environment.
• Google Distributed Cloud (software only) for baremetal: RunGKE clusters directly on your own hardware.
• Google Distributed Cloud connecteddeployments: RunGKE clusters on-premises on dedicated hardware provided andmaintained by Google.