Firewall rule components (target, source, protocol) in GCP - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Firewall rule components (target, source, protocol)

📖 Scenario: You are setting up a simple firewall rule in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to control network traffic for your virtual machines.This project will guide you to create a firewall rule with specific targets, sources, and protocols.

🎯 Goal: Create a GCP firewall rule configuration that specifies the target instances, source IP ranges, and allowed protocols.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a dictionary named firewall_rule with keys for target tags, source ranges, and allowed protocols.

Add a configuration variable named allowed_protocol to specify the protocol to allow.

Use the allowed_protocol variable inside the firewall rule's allowed protocols list.

Complete the firewall rule dictionary with all required fields for a valid GCP firewall rule.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Firewall rules control network traffic to and from virtual machines in cloud environments, protecting resources from unwanted access.

💼 Career

Understanding firewall rule components is essential for cloud engineers and security specialists managing cloud infrastructure.

1

Create the initial firewall rule dictionary

Create a dictionary called firewall_rule with these exact keys and values: 'name' set to 'allow-ssh', 'targetTags' set to a list containing 'ssh-server', and 'sourceRanges' set to a list containing '0.0.0.0/0'.

GCP

# Create the firewall_rule dictionary with name, targetTags, and sourceRanges
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use a dictionary with keys 'name', 'targetTags', and 'sourceRanges'. Each value should be exactly as specified.

2

Add the allowed_protocol variable

Create a variable called allowed_protocol and set it to the string 'tcp'.

GCP

firewall_rule = {
    'name': 'allow-ssh',
    'targetTags': ['ssh-server'],
    'sourceRanges': ['0.0.0.0/0']
}
# Create allowed_protocol variable
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Just assign the string 'tcp' to the variable allowed_protocol.

3

Add the allowed protocols list using allowed_protocol

Add a key 'allowed' to the firewall_rule dictionary. Its value should be a list containing a dictionary with the key 'IPProtocol' set to the variable allowed_protocol.

GCP

firewall_rule = {
    'name': 'allow-ssh',
    'targetTags': ['ssh-server'],
    'sourceRanges': ['0.0.0.0/0']
}
allowed_protocol = 'tcp'
# Add 'allowed' key to firewall_rule using allowed_protocol
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use the allowed_protocol variable inside the list for the 'allowed' key.

4

Complete the firewall rule with description

Add a key 'description' to the firewall_rule dictionary with the value 'Allow SSH traffic' to complete the firewall rule configuration.

GCP

allowed_protocol = 'tcp'
firewall_rule = {
    'name': 'allow-ssh',
    'targetTags': ['ssh-server'],
    'sourceRanges': ['0.0.0.0/0'],
    'allowed': [{'IPProtocol': allowed_protocol}]
}
# Add 'description' key to firewall_rule
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Add a description to explain the purpose of the firewall rule.