Operational excellence in GCP - Interactive Code Practice

Practice - 5 Tasks

1fill in blank

easy

Complete the code to create a Cloud Storage bucket with versioning enabled.

GCP

resource "google_storage_bucket" "my_bucket" {
  name     = "my-versioned-bucket"
  location = "US"
  versioning {
    enabled = [1]
  }
}

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

Aenabled

Bfalse

Con

Dtrue

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using strings like 'enabled' or 'on' instead of boolean true/false

Setting versioning to false disables version control

Setting enabled = true turns on versioning for the bucket, which helps with operational excellence by preserving object versions.

2fill in blank

medium

Complete the code to define an alert policy that triggers when CPU usage exceeds 80%.

GCP

resource "google_monitoring_alert_policy" "high_cpu" {
  display_name = "High CPU Usage"
  combiner    = "OR"
  conditions {
    display_name = "CPU Usage Condition"
    condition_threshold {
      filter     = "metric.type=\"compute.googleapis.com/instance/cpu/utilization\""
      comparison = [1]
      threshold_value = 0.8
      duration   = "60s"
    }
  }
}

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

ACOMPARISON_GREATER_THAN

BCOMPARISON_LESS_THAN

CCOMPARISON_EQUAL

DCOMPARISON_NOT_EQUAL

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using 'COMPARISON_LESS_THAN' which triggers on low CPU usage

Using 'COMPARISON_EQUAL' which rarely matches exactly

The alert should trigger when CPU usage is greater than 80%, so the comparison must be COMPARISON_GREATER_THAN.

3fill in blank

hard

Fix the error in the Terraform code to enable Stackdriver logging for a Google Cloud Function.

GCP

resource "google_cloudfunctions_function" "func" {
  name        = "my-function"
  runtime     = "python39"
  entry_point = "main"
  source_archive_bucket = "my-source-bucket"
  source_archive_object = "function-source.zip"
  trigger_http = true
  [1] = true
}

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

Aenable_logging

Blogging_enabled

Clabels

Dlog_enabled

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Trying to set a non-existent boolean attribute to enable logging

Using incorrect attribute names that cause errors

Google Cloud Functions enable logging by default; to add labels or metadata, use the labels block. There is no direct enable_logging attribute.

4fill in blank

hard

Fill both blanks to create a Cloud Logging sink that exports logs to a Pub/Sub topic.

GCP

resource "google_logging_project_sink" "pubsub_sink" {
  name        = "pubsub-sink"
  destination = "pubsub.googleapis.com/projects/my-project/topics/[1]"
  filter      = "severity >= [2]"
}

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

Amy-topic

BERROR

CWARNING

Dlogs-topic

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using the wrong topic name or format in destination

Using a severity level that is too low or invalid

The destination must be the Pub/Sub topic name, here my-topic. The filter uses severity levels like ERROR to capture important logs.

5fill in blank

hard

Fill all three blanks to define a Cloud Build trigger that starts on a push to the main branch.

GCP

resource "google_cloudbuild_trigger" "trigger" {
  name = "main-branch-trigger"
  github {
    owner = "my-org"
    name  = "my-repo"
    push {
      branch = "[1]"
    }
  }
  build {
    steps = [{
      name = "gcr.io/cloud-builders/gcloud"
      args = ["[2]", "[3]"]
    }]
  }
}

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

Amain

Bapp.yaml

Cdeploy

Dmaster

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using 'master' instead of 'main' for the branch name

Swapping the order of 'deploy' and 'app.yaml' in args

The trigger listens to pushes on the main branch. The build step runs gcloud deploy app.yaml to deploy the app.

Practice

1. What is the main goal of operational excellence in cloud systems?

easy

A. Keep systems healthy and reliable

B. Write complex code

C. Reduce cloud costs only

D. Avoid using monitoring tools

Solution

1. Step 1: Understand operational excellence purpose

   Operational excellence focuses on keeping cloud systems running well and reliable.

2. Step 2: Compare options with this goal

   Only Keep systems healthy and reliable matches this goal; others focus on unrelated tasks.

3. Final Answer:

   Keep systems healthy and reliable -> Option A

4. Quick Check:

   Operational excellence = system health and reliability [OK]

Hint: Operational excellence means system health and reliability [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Confusing cost reduction with operational excellence
• Thinking it means writing complex code
• Ignoring monitoring and alerts

2. Which GCP service is used to monitor cloud resources and send alerts?

easy

A. Cloud Monitoring

B. Cloud Storage

C. Cloud Functions

D. Cloud SQL

Solution

1. Step 1: Identify monitoring service in GCP

   Cloud Monitoring is designed to track resource health and send alerts.

2. Step 2: Eliminate unrelated services

   Cloud Storage stores data, Cloud Functions run code, Cloud SQL manages databases.

3. Final Answer:

   Cloud Monitoring -> Option A

4. Quick Check:

   Monitoring and alerts = Cloud Monitoring [OK]

Hint: Monitoring and alerts in GCP use Cloud Monitoring [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Choosing Cloud Storage for monitoring
• Confusing Cloud Functions with monitoring
• Selecting Cloud SQL instead of monitoring

3. Given this snippet of a GCP alert policy configuration:

{
  "conditions": [{
    "displayName": "High CPU Usage",
    "conditionThreshold": {
      "filter": "metric.type=\"compute.googleapis.com/instance/cpu/utilization\"",
      "comparison": "COMPARISON_GT",
      "thresholdValue": 0.8,
      "duration": "300s"
    }
  }]
}

What does this alert do?

medium

A. Triggers if CPU usage is above 80% for 30 seconds

B. Triggers if CPU usage is below 80% for 5 minutes

C. Triggers if CPU usage is below 80% for 30 seconds

D. Triggers if CPU usage is above 80% for 5 minutes

Solution

1. Step 1: Analyze threshold and duration

   ThresholdValue 0.8 means 80%, duration 300s means 5 minutes.

2. Step 2: Understand comparison operator

   COMPARISON_GT means greater than, so alert triggers if CPU > 80% for 5 minutes.

3. Final Answer:

   Triggers if CPU usage is above 80% for 5 minutes -> Option D

4. Quick Check:

   CPU > 80% for 300s = alert triggers [OK]

Hint: COMPARISON_GT with 0.8 threshold means CPU > 80% [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Misreading COMPARISON_GT as less than
• Confusing duration seconds with minutes
• Ignoring threshold value meaning

4. You wrote this alert policy JSON but it never triggers:

{
  "conditions": [{
    "displayName": "Low Disk Space",
    "conditionThreshold": {
      "filter": "metric.type=\"compute.googleapis.com/instance/disk/bytes_used\"",
      "comparison": "COMPARISON_LT",
      "thresholdValue": 1000000000,
      "duration": "600s"
    }
  }]
}

What is the likely problem?

medium

A. Threshold value is too high

B. Using COMPARISON_LT instead of COMPARISON_GT

C. Filter metric type is incorrect

D. Duration is too short

Solution

1. Step 1: Understand alert intent

   Low disk space alert should trigger when disk usage is high, so comparison should be greater than.

2. Step 2: Check comparison operator

   COMPARISON_LT triggers when usage is less than threshold, opposite of intent.

3. Final Answer:

   Using COMPARISON_LT instead of COMPARISON_GT -> Option B

4. Quick Check:

   Low disk space needs COMPARISON_GT [OK]

Hint: Low disk space alert needs COMPARISON_GT, not LT [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Using less than instead of greater than
• Misunderstanding metric meaning
• Ignoring alert duration importance

5. Your team wants to improve operational excellence by automating recovery when a VM instance becomes unresponsive. Which GCP service combination best supports this goal?

hard

A. Cloud Storage + Cloud SQL for backups

B. Cloud Pub/Sub + BigQuery for data analysis

C. Cloud Monitoring + Cloud Functions to restart VM automatically

D. Cloud Run + App Engine for hosting apps

Solution

1. Step 1: Identify automation for recovery

   Cloud Monitoring detects issues; Cloud Functions can run code to fix problems automatically.

2. Step 2: Evaluate other options

   Cloud Storage and SQL are for data, Pub/Sub and BigQuery for messaging and analysis, Cloud Run and App Engine for app hosting, not recovery automation.

3. Final Answer:

   Cloud Monitoring + Cloud Functions to restart VM automatically -> Option C

4. Quick Check:

   Monitoring + automation = Cloud Monitoring + Cloud Functions [OK]

Hint: Use Monitoring to detect and Functions to automate fixes [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Choosing storage or database services for automation
• Confusing data analysis tools with recovery tools
• Ignoring automation in operational excellence