KodeKloud Notes

Welcome to an in-depth look at Google Cloud Build, GCP’s fully managed, serverless CI/CD platform. In this guide, we’ll cover:

What Cloud Build is and why teams adopt it
Core features and artifact support
How it scales and integrates with deployments
Security, compliance, pricing, and configuration

What Is Google Cloud Build?

Google Cloud Build is a serverless CI/CD service that compiles, tests, and packages your code without the overhead of provisioning or maintaining build servers. It supports multiple languages and frameworks out of the box, producing artifacts such as JARs, Docker images, Python wheels, and more.

Key benefits include:

Rapid builds across languages like Go, Node.js, Java, Python, Ruby, and .NET
Integration with Artifact Registry, Container Registry, and Cloud Storage
Fine-grained IAM controls and VPC Service Controls

Core Features and Artifact Management

Cloud Build lets you:

Build in multiple languages: Go, Node.js, Java, Python, Ruby, C#, and more
Generate and store artifacts such as:
Artifact Type Format Destination
Container Image Docker image Artifact Registry, GCR
Java Package JAR Cloud Storage, Artifact Reg
Python Wheel .whl Cloud Storage
Generic .zip, .tar.gz Cloud Storage

Artifact Type	Format	Destination
Container Image	Docker image	Artifact Registry, GCR
Java Package	JAR	Cloud Storage, Artifact Reg
Python Wheel	.whl	Cloud Storage
Generic	.zip, .tar.gz	Cloud Storage

Note

Cloud Build automatically detects Dockerfiles, Maven, and Gradle builds. You can extend support by defining custom build steps.

Scalable Build Infrastructure

Choose from 15 virtual machine types—ranging from 1 vCPU/2 GB to 32 vCPU/128 GB—and run hundreds of parallel builds. Pay only for the build minutes you consume.

Seamless Deployment Integrations

Once your build completes, deploy to any environment:

Environment	GCP Service	Example Command
VMs	Compute Engine	`gcloud compute ssh INSTANCE -- …`
Serverless	Cloud Run, App Engine	`gcloud run deploy SERVICE`
Kubernetes	GKE	`kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml`
Web & Mobile	Firebase Hosting	`firebase deploy --only hosting`

The image features the number "3" and an illustration of three rockets, accompanied by text about deploying across multiple environments like VMs, serverless, Kubernetes, or Firebase.

Private CI/CD in Your VPC

All build steps execute inside your private cloud network—no public internet exposure is required.

Compliance & Data Residency

Store build logs, metadata, and artifacts in specific regions to meet data-residency and GDPR requirements. Integrate with Audit Logging for complete traceability.

Pricing & Simple Configuration

Cloud Build uses a pay-as-you-go model. For example, a medium machine (~4 vCPU/16 GB) costs roughly $0.003 per build minute—often much cheaper than managing your own CI/CD servers.

Define build steps in a cloudbuild.yaml file using straightforward YAML syntax:

steps:
  - name: 'gcr.io/cloud-builders/git'
    args: ['clone', 'https://github.com/your/repo.git']
  - name: 'gcr.io/cloud-builders/mvn'
    args: ['package']
  - name: 'gcr.io/cloud-builders/docker'
    args: ['build', '-t', 'gcr.io/$PROJECT_ID/app:$COMMIT_SHA', '.']
images:
  - 'gcr.io/$PROJECT_ID/app:$COMMIT_SHA'

Note

Place your cloudbuild.yaml in the repository root. Cloud Build auto-detects triggers once you connect a source repository.

The image is a slide titled "Takeaways" summarizing features of a serverless CI/CD platform, highlighting no infrastructure maintenance, pricing details, and code written in YAML.

Up Next: Repository Integration & Build Triggers

Curious about connecting GitHub to Cloud Build or configuring triggers on push, pull request, or tag events? Stay tuned for the next lesson on Cloud Build Triggers.

Links and References

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