GCP and Azure Quick Reference for Cloud Practitioners

# List all VM instances across all zones
gcloud compute instances list

# Create a VM
gcloud compute instances create web-server-01 \
  --machine-type=e2-medium \
  --image-family=debian-12 \
  --image-project=debian-cloud \
  --zone=us-central1-a \
  --tags=http-server,https-server

# SSH into a VM (uses OS Login or project metadata SSH keys)
gcloud compute ssh web-server-01 --zone=us-central1-a

# Stop / start / delete
gcloud compute instances stop web-server-01 --zone=us-central1-a
gcloud compute instances start web-server-01 --zone=us-central1-a
gcloud compute instances delete web-server-01 --zone=us-central1-a

# Create a snapshot of a disk
gcloud compute disks snapshot web-server-01 \
  --snapshot-names=web-server-snap-$(date +%Y%m%d) \
  --zone=us-central1-a

# List buckets
gsutil ls
# or
gcloud storage buckets list

# Create a bucket
gsutil mb -p my-project-id -l us-central1 gs://my-bucket-name

# Copy files
gsutil cp ./file.txt gs://my-bucket-name/
gsutil cp gs://my-bucket-name/file.txt .

# Sync directory
gsutil -m rsync -r ./dist gs://my-static-site

# Make a single object public
gsutil acl ch -u AllUsers:R gs://my-bucket-name/public-file.html

# List objects with sizes
gsutil ls -lh gs://my-bucket-name/

# Set lifecycle policy (JSON file)
gsutil lifecycle set lifecycle.json gs://my-bucket-name

# List clusters
gcloud container clusters list

# Create a cluster (Autopilot — recommended for most use cases)
gcloud container clusters create-auto my-cluster \
  --region=us-central1

# Create a Standard cluster
gcloud container clusters create my-cluster \
  --num-nodes=3 \
  --machine-type=e2-standard-2 \
  --region=us-central1

# Get credentials (populates ~/.kube/config)
gcloud container clusters get-credentials my-cluster \
  --region=us-central1

# Upgrade the control plane
gcloud container clusters upgrade my-cluster \
  --master --cluster-version=1.29 \
  --region=us-central1

# Resize a node pool
gcloud container clusters resize my-cluster \
  --node-pool=default-pool \
  --num-nodes=5 \
  --region=us-central1

# Deploy a Cloud Function (Gen 2, HTTP trigger)
gcloud functions deploy my-function \
  --gen2 \
  --runtime=python311 \
  --region=us-central1 \
  --source=. \
  --entry-point=handle_request \
  --trigger-http \
  --allow-unauthenticated

# Deploy with a Pub/Sub trigger
gcloud functions deploy process-message \
  --gen2 \
  --runtime=nodejs20 \
  --region=us-central1 \
  --source=. \
  --entry-point=processMessage \
  --trigger-topic=my-topic

# List functions
gcloud functions list --region=us-central1

# View logs
gcloud functions logs read my-function \
  --region=us-central1 --limit=50

# Delete a function
gcloud functions delete my-function --region=us-central1

# List all VMs
az vm list --output table

# Create a VM
az vm create \
  --resource-group my-rg \
  --name web-server-01 \
  --image Ubuntu2204 \
  --size Standard_B2s \
  --admin-username azureuser \
  --generate-ssh-keys \
  --tags Env=prod Owner=platform-team

# Open port 80
az vm open-port --port 80 \
  --resource-group my-rg --name web-server-01

# Start / stop / deallocate (stop billing for compute)
az vm start  --resource-group my-rg --name web-server-01
az vm stop   --resource-group my-rg --name web-server-01
az vm deallocate --resource-group my-rg --name web-server-01

# SSH using native SSH (az CLI ≥ 2.47)
az ssh vm --resource-group my-rg --name web-server-01

# Create a storage account
az storage account create \
  --name mystorageaccount \
  --resource-group my-rg \
  --location eastus \
  --sku Standard_LRS

# Get connection string
az storage account show-connection-string \
  --name mystorageaccount \
  --resource-group my-rg \
  --output tsv

# Create a container (like an S3 bucket "folder")
az storage container create \
  --name my-container \
  --account-name mystorageaccount

# Upload a file
az storage blob upload \
  --account-name mystorageaccount \
  --container-name my-container \
  --name report.pdf \
  --file ./report.pdf

# List blobs
az storage blob list \
  --account-name mystorageaccount \
  --container-name my-container \
  --output table

# Generate a SAS token (1-hour expiry)
az storage blob generate-sas \
  --account-name mystorageaccount \
  --container-name my-container \
  --name report.pdf \
  --permissions r \
  --expiry $(date -u -d '1 hour' +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%MZ)

# List clusters
az aks list --output table

# Create a cluster
az aks create \
  --resource-group my-rg \
  --name my-aks-cluster \
  --node-count 3 \
  --node-vm-size Standard_D2s_v3 \
  --enable-managed-identity \
  --generate-ssh-keys

# Get credentials (merges into ~/.kube/config)
az aks get-credentials \
  --resource-group my-rg \
  --name my-aks-cluster

# Scale a node pool
az aks scale \
  --resource-group my-rg \
  --name my-aks-cluster \
  --node-count 5 \
  --nodepool-name nodepool1

# Upgrade cluster version
az aks upgrade \
  --resource-group my-rg \
  --name my-aks-cluster \
  --kubernetes-version 1.29.0

# Enable the cluster autoscaler
az aks update \
  --resource-group my-rg \
  --name my-aks-cluster \
  --enable-cluster-autoscaler \
  --min-count 2 --max-count 10

# Create a Function App (consumption plan)
az functionapp create \
  --resource-group my-rg \
  --consumption-plan-location eastus \
  --runtime python \
  --runtime-version 3.11 \
  --functions-version 4 \
  --name my-function-app \
  --storage-account mystorageaccount

# Deploy using the Azure Functions Core Tools
func azure functionapp publish my-function-app

# List function apps
az functionapp list --output table

# Stream live logs
az webapp log tail \
  --resource-group my-rg \
  --name my-function-app