# Launching an GKE cluster

Below we describe how we can launch and use Kontain in a Google GKE (Kubernetes) cluster.

# Starting up an GKE cluster

# Pre-requisites

Take the following steps to enable the Kubernetes Engine API:

Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios.
In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a new project instead of selecting an existing one. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with it.

Go to project selector
Make sure that billing is enabled for your Cloud project. Learn how to check if billing is enabled on a project.
Enable the Artifact Registry and Google Kubernetes Engine APIs.
Install Kubectl auth plugin
Installing and Initializing gcloud CLI

# Create cluster using Kontain helper script

Download helper script and make sure it is executable

curl -o gce-cluster.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kontainapp/k8s-deploy/master/helpers/gce-cluster.sh
chmod +x gce-cluster.sh

Run script using your credentials. Make sure to set region and prefix to your desired values. The script will create AKS cluster with the name <prefix>-gce-cluster. All other associated recource names are prefixed with <prefix>.

gce-cluster.sh  --project=<you rproject id> <prefix>

# Verify your cluster was created

gcloud container clusters list

# Enable and Test Kontain Runtime

Please refer to: Install Kontain in Kubernetes

# Clean up

To delete cluster and all associated resources use the following

gce-cluster.sh  <prefix> --cleanup