Google Cloud Platform (GCP) plugin
For more information about what this plugin does and the data streams it retrieves, see:
Monitor your GCP environment, including GKE, Hosts and more.
To add a data source click on the + next to Data Sources on the left-hand menu in SquaredUp. Search for the data source and click on it to open the Configure data source page.
Before you start
In the GCP console select your project and check that the following are enabled:
- VMware Engine API, see GCP - Enabling the VMware Engine
- Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), see GCP - Enabling the Artifact Registry and Google Kubernetes Engine APIs
- Cloud Monitoring API, see GCP - Enabling the Monitoring API
To view cost information in SquaredUp using the Cost data stream check the following:
- Export your billing data to Google BigQuery: GCP - Export Cloud Billing data to BigQuery
- Enable BigQuery API, see GCP - Enable the BigQuery API
GCP Service Account Configuration
- Create a new Service Account, or edit an existing account.
See GCP - Creating and managing service accounts - Ensure the account has the role Viewer by adding the role Basic > Viewer.
To view cost information, the account also needs to have BigQuery Data Viewer role.
See GCP - Grant a single role - Create a new key for the Service Account using the key type JSON. Download the JSON file as you will need to copy information from this JSON file when adding the data source next.
See GCP - Creating service account keysMake sure to store the key file securely, because it can be used to authenticate as your service account.
Configuring the data source
- Open the JSON file that you downloaded when creating the key.
- Copy and paste the clientEmail from the JSON file into the data source form.
- Copy and paste the private_key from the JSON file into the data source form (everything between the quotes).
- Copy and paste the project_ids from the JSON file into the data source form.
- Optionally, to use the Cost data stream, copy and paste in the billingProjectId, billingDataSetName and billingTableName.
Restrict access to this data source:
You can enable this option if you only want certain users or groups to have access to the data source, or the permission to link it to new workspaces. See Access control for more information.The term data source here really means data source instance. For example, a user may configure two instances of the AWS data source, one for their development environment and one for production. In that case, each data source instance has its own access control settings.
By default, Restrict access to this data source is set to off. The data source can be viewed, edited and administered by anyone. If you would like to control who has access to this data source, switch Restrict access to this data source to on.
Use the Restrict access to this data source dropdown to control who has access to the workspace:
- By default, the user setting the permissions for the data source will be given Full Control and the Everyone group will be given Link to workspace permissions.
- Tailor access to the data source, as required, by selecting individual users or user groups from the dropdown and giving them Link to workspace or Full Control permissions.
- If the user is not available from the dropdown, you are able to invite them to the data source by typing in their email address and then clicking Add. The new user will then receive an email inviting them to create an account on SquaredUp. Once the account has been created, they will gain access to the organization.
- At least one user or group must be given Full Control.
- Admin users can edit the configuration, modify the Access Control List (ACL) and delete the data source, regardless of the ACL chosen.
Access Level:
See Access control for more information.
Click Test and add to validate the data source configuration. SquaredUp will now attempt to connect to SquaredUp using the provided authentication method. If this process fails, see Testing and troubleshooting for assistance with the corresponding errors.
Next steps
Data streams
The following data streams are installed with this plugin.
Data streams standardize data from all the different shapes and formats your tools use into a straightforward tabular format.
While creating a tile you can tweak data streams by grouping or aggregating specific columns.
Depending on the kind of data, SquaredUp will automatically suggest how to visualize the result, for example as a table or line graph.
Data streams can be either global or scoped:
- Global data streams are unscoped and return information of a general nature (e.g. "Get the current number of unused hosts").
- A scoped data stream gets information relevant to the specific set objects supplied in the tile scope (e.g. "Get the current session count for these hosts").
See Data Streams for more information.
See also Tips for using the GCP Cost data stream.
The GCP data source allows you to set up data streams for any kind of query for Google BigQuery.
- In the tile editor, filter by the GCP data source, select BigQuery from the data stream list and then click Next.
- Query:
Enter a BigQuery query. - Project ID:
Specify the project that you would like to run the BigQuery against.
The GCP data source allows you to set up configurable data streams for any kind of query for Monitoring Query Language (MQL). Use the + MQL Query data stream to enter your own MQL queries into SquaredUp.
You are able to query any object from your Google Cloud, even if they are not indexed in the SquaredUp graph. See Google Cloud: Using Monitoring Query Language for more information about MQL.
- In the tile editor, filter by the GCP data source, select MQL Query from the data stream list and then click Next.
You can either select the scoped MQL Query data stream or the global MQL Query data stream.
- If you selected the scoped MQL Query data stream, select the objects you want to use and then click Next.
You do not need to do this if you have selected the global MQL Query data stream.
- Project:
Select the project that you would like to run the MQL against from the dropdown.You will not need to select a project if you have already selected one in the scope.
- MQL Query:
Enter a MQL query.Mustache parameters are only supported if you have scoped to a GCP object and selected the + MQL Query. Mustache parameters are not supported if you have scoped to a project or the data source instance itself.
See MQL query examples below for more information about queries. Supports mustache parameters supplied in an arrayA mustache parameter is a dynamic value, the actual value will be inserted to replace the field in curly braces. For example,
{{timeframe.start}}
will insert the start time based on the timeframe configured within the tile, or{{name}}
will insert the name of the object(s) in scope.This data stream supplies scoped objects in an array for mustache parameters. When there are multiple objects in scope this data source will send the query once with all the objects in an array.
When the scoped objects are supplied in an array the normal mustache syntax, for example
{{name}}
, must be contained between{{#.}}
and{{/.}}
(the full-stop indicates that the whole object should be used, in this case the array of objects in scope).For example, a query where clause might look like:
| where ComputerName in ( {{#.}} '{{name}}', {{/.}} '' )
- The
{{#.}}
and{{/.}}
indicate that what is contained within is expanded for each element in the array of objects. - You can use properties of objects and write them in between curly braces e.g
{{name}}
to use them as mustache parameters. For example, if objects of type "host" have a property calledname
, you can use{{name}}
. This will resolve{{name}}
to the value of the name property of the different "host" objects used in the scope. '{{name}}',
means that the name property is expanded inside single-quotes with a trailing comma.- The trailing single quotes
''
are necessary to stop the query being rejected because a trailing comma is disallowed. - Whenever you use mustache parameters, you need to use a scope of objects that contain the property you're referencing.
- The
- Automatically apply dashboard timeframe:
By default, Automatically apply dashboard timeframe will be selected.The dashboard timeframe is the current timeframe setting for a dashboard. Users can change the dashboard timeframe to see data for a different time span, for example, instead of showing data from "the last 12 hours" it can be changed to show data from "the last 7 days".
Tiles can be configured to:
- Use dashboard timeframe (default). For these tiles the data shown will change when the user changes the dashboard timeframe.
- Use a fixed timeframe from the options available. These tiles show a clock icon and hovering shows the fixed timeframe configured. The data will not change when the dashboard timeframe is changed.
If the dashboard timeframe is unavailable, such as when all the tiles on that dashboard are using a fixed timeframe, then the button is disabled. Likewise, if a specific timeframe is unsupported then it is disabled in the timeframe picker.
Set a default dashboard timeframe
To set the default dashboard timeframe, click the pin icon
when using the dashboard timeframe picker. This sets the initial timeframe for all viewers of the dashboard, including shared dashboards.If you do not wish to use a dashboard timeframe, you can set the timeframe in the MQL query by addingTip: Indicate with the name of a tile if the tile's timeframe can be changed. For example, naming a tile "Performance during the last week" tells users that this tile always shows data for the last week. Naming a tile just "Performance" indicates to users that changing the dashboard timeframe will change the data.
within
to the query. If you deselect Automatically apply dashboard timeframe and do not specify a timeframe in the MQL query, the query will fail. To add a timeframe to a query, simply type| within (timeframe)
at the end of your query. For example, to add a timeframe of 24 hours you enter:| within (24h)
MQL query not using dashboard timeframe - CPU usage time in the last 20 minutes in the selected project:
fetch gce_instance | metric 'compute.googleapis.com/instance/cpu/usage_time' | within (20m)
MQL query not using dashboard timeframe - authentication events count in the last 24 hours:
fetch iam_service_account
| metric 'iam.googleapis.com/service_account/authn_events_count'
| align rate(1m)
| every 1m | within (24h)
MQL query using dashboard timeframe - uploaded bytes in BigQuery data set:
fetch bigquery_dataset
| metric 'bigquery.googleapis.com/storage/uploaded_bytes'
| align rate(1m)
| every 1m
MQL query scoped to Hosts and using mustache syntax - CPU usage time using dashboard timeframe:
fetch gce_instance
| metric 'compute.googleapis.com/instance/cpu/usage_time'
| filter (metadata.system_labels.name == '{{#.}}{{name}}{{/.}}')
| align rate(1m)
| every 1m
- In the tile editor, filter by the GCP data source, select Monitor Metric from the data stream list and then click Next.
- Select the objects that you want to use and then click Next.
If you are selecting multiple objects, we suggest you only scope to objects of the same type. For example, the data will probably not be displayed in a helpful way if you were to select both Host objects and SQL objects in the same scope.
- Metric Name:
Select the desired metric from the dropdown. The dropdown options will automatically update depending on the object that you have scoped to. For example, scope to a Host and selectCPU usage
from the Metric Name dropdown.
Just like other services, Workflow is also supported by the GCP data source. You can monitor Workflow executions, execution times, and finished execution counts.
To set up a data stream for Workflow:
- In the tile editor, filter by the GCP data source or select Workflow from the scope, then select your desired metrics (Workflow executions, Execution times, Finished execution count) from the list of data streams, and then click Next.
- Select the Workflow you wish to scope to, then click Next.
The GCP data source also supports monitoring Builds from the Build Trigger service.
To set up a data stream for Build:
- In the tile editor, filter by the GCP data source or select Build Trigger from the scope, then select Builds from the list of data streams, and then click Next.
- Select the Build Trigger you wish to scope to, then click Next.
For PubSub service, you can monitor Publish requests, Publish message size, Oldest unacked message age, and Unacked messages.
To set up a data stream for PubSub:
- In the tile editor, filter by the GCP data source or select Topic or Subscription from the scope (depending on what you want to monitor), then select your desired metrics from the list of data streams, and then click Next.
- Select the Topic or Subscription you wish to scope to, then click Next.
Firestore databases can be queried for document data by specifying a Document Path to your.
- In the tile editor, filter by the Google Cloud Platform data source or select Database from the scope.
- Select Firestore Documents from the list of data streams, and then click Next.
- Select the database you wish to scope to, then click Next.
- Specify the Document Path to a document or a collection. The path should be relative to the database (i.e. not include the project or database name). For example
mycollection
ormycollection/mydoc
.
Firestore databases can be queried for document data by specifying a Firestore query.
- In the tile editor, filter by the Google Cloud Platform data source or select Database from the scope.
- Select Firestore Structured Query from the list of data streams, and then click Next.
- Select the database you wish to scope to, then click Next.
- Enter the structured query JSON. For example:
See the Firestore StructuredQuery schema documentation for detailed information on writing queries.
{ "from": { "collectionId": "users" }, "where": { "fieldFilter": { "field": { "fieldPath": "firstName" }, "op": "EQUAL", "value": { "stringValue": "Jo" } } } }
Writing a custom data stream (advanced users)
Add one or more custom data streams in SquaredUp.
- In SquaredUp, browse to Settings > Advanced > Data Streams.
- Click Add custom data stream.
- Add your custom data stream by entering the following settings:
- Name:
Enter a display name for your data stream.The display name is the name that you use to identify your data stream in SquaredUp. It has no technical impact and doesn't need to be referenced in the data stream's code.
- Data source:
Choose the data source this data stream is for.
After you've chosen the data source the Entry Point field displays. - Entry Point:
Specify the data stream entry point and enter the Code below.To find out which entry point to select and get code examples for the Code field, see the help below.Each data stream uses an entry point, which can either be global (unscoped) or scoped, and this determines whether the data stream uses the tile scope.
Data streams can be either global or scoped:
- Global data streams are unscoped and return information of a general nature (e.g. "Get the current number of unused hosts").
- A scoped data stream gets information relevant to the specific set objects supplied in the tile scope (e.g. "Get the current session count for these hosts").
- Name:
- Click Save to save your data stream.
Create BigQuery (Scoped) data stream
Code example:
{
"name": "exampleScopedBigQuery",
"dataSourceConfig": {
"query": "SELECT project.name, service.description FROM `<project_id>.<data_set_name>.<table_name>` WHERE project.id in ('{{sourceId}}') GROUP BY 1,2 ORDER BY 1,2;"
},
"rowPath": [],
"matches": {
"sourceType.0": {
"type": "oneOf",
"values": [
"GCP Project"
]
}
},
"metadata": [
{ "name": "name", "displayName": "Project","shape": "string", "role": "label" },
{ "name": "description", "displayName": "Service", "shape": "string" },
]
}
Tips for using the GCP Cost data stream
The Cost data stream is part of the GCP data source and uses the GCP BigQuery API. The GCP data source needs some additional configuration to enable the Cost data stream see How to add a Google Cloud Platform data source
- The GCP Cost data stream shows daily data.
- By default the Cost data stream splits costs by service.
- We recommend scopes used with the GCP Cost data stream contain only one type of object, for example, only accounts, projects or hosts. Mixed scopes may include duplicated data in the results, because a query is sent for each type of object in the scope, and the results are combined. For example, resulting data would show the cost of a host, as well as the cost of a project, even if the host is part of that project. It is useful to create a scope for your account(s), a scope of project(s) and a scope for hosts.
Use Cases for the GCP Cost data stream
Create a new tile on a dashboard with the following settings:
Data stream:
Cost
Objects:
Account(s) or Project(s)
Visualization:
Line Graph is good for showing data for dashboard timeframes of 7 or 30 days. A line will be shown for each service.
As the GCP Cost data stream shows daily data, so dashboard timeframes of less than 7 days won't show a line.
The dashboard timeframe is the current timeframe setting for a dashboard. Users can change the dashboard timeframe to see data for a different time span, for example, instead of showing data from "the last 12 hours" it can be changed to show data from "the last 7 days".
Tiles can be configured to:
- Use dashboard timeframe (default). For these tiles the data shown will change when the user changes the dashboard timeframe.
- Use a fixed timeframe from the options available. These tiles show a clock icon and hovering shows the fixed timeframe configured. The data will not change when the dashboard timeframe is changed.
If the dashboard timeframe is unavailable, such as when all the tiles on that dashboard are using a fixed timeframe, then the button is disabled. Likewise, if a specific timeframe is unsupported then it is disabled in the timeframe picker.
Set a default dashboard timeframe
To set the default dashboard timeframe, click the pin icon
when using the dashboard timeframe picker. This sets the initial timeframe for all viewers of the dashboard, including shared dashboards.Tip: Indicate with the name of a tile if the tile's timeframe can be changed. For example, naming a tile "Performance during the last week" tells users that this tile always shows data for the last week. Naming a tile just "Performance" indicates to users that changing the dashboard timeframe will change the data.
When the dashboard timeframe covers more than one day the first column of a table shows the date. To only show each service once for the selected dashboard timeframe see Use Case: How much does each GCP service cost for a specific timeframe?.
Create a new tile on a dashboard with the following settings:
Data stream:
Cost
Objects:
Account(s) or Project(s) or Hosts
Shaping:
The following settings will show how much each service costs you in total for the account(s) or project(s) in scope for the whole timeframe selected:
Visualization:
Table, Donut or Bar Chart. Each bar or segment will show a service.
After you're done creating the tile, you can specify the timeframe by changing the dashboard timeframe to 7 or 30 days.
The dashboard timeframe is the current timeframe setting for a dashboard. Users can change the dashboard timeframe to see data for a different time span, for example, instead of showing data from "the last 12 hours" it can be changed to show data from "the last 7 days".
Tiles can be configured to:
- Use dashboard timeframe (default). For these tiles the data shown will change when the user changes the dashboard timeframe.
- Use a fixed timeframe from the options available. These tiles show a clock icon and hovering shows the fixed timeframe configured. The data will not change when the dashboard timeframe is changed.
If the dashboard timeframe is unavailable, such as when all the tiles on that dashboard are using a fixed timeframe, then the button is disabled. Likewise, if a specific timeframe is unsupported then it is disabled in the timeframe picker.
Set a default dashboard timeframe
To set the default dashboard timeframe, click the pin icon
when using the dashboard timeframe picker. This sets the initial timeframe for all viewers of the dashboard, including shared dashboards.Tip: Indicate with the name of a tile if the tile's timeframe can be changed. For example, naming a tile "Performance during the last week" tells users that this tile always shows data for the last week. Naming a tile just "Performance" indicates to users that changing the dashboard timeframe will change the data.
Create a new tile on a dashboard with the following settings:
Data stream:
Cost
Objects:
Hosts
Shaping:
The following settings will show how much each service costs you in total for the account(s) or project(s) in scope for the whole timeframe selected:
Visualization:
Table, Donut or Bar Chart. If, for example, you've scoped to Hosts, then each bar will be the cost for one host.
When you choose to 'Group by' Object this means it will group by whatever you have scoped to. In this case it will group by Host, but if you've scoped to Project(s) it will group by projects and each segment or bar would show a project.
After you're done creating the tile, you can specify the timeframe by changing the dashboard timeframe to 7 or 30 days.
The dashboard timeframe is the current timeframe setting for a dashboard. Users can change the dashboard timeframe to see data for a different time span, for example, instead of showing data from "the last 12 hours" it can be changed to show data from "the last 7 days".
Tiles can be configured to:
- Use dashboard timeframe (default). For these tiles the data shown will change when the user changes the dashboard timeframe.
- Use a fixed timeframe from the options available. These tiles show a clock icon and hovering shows the fixed timeframe configured. The data will not change when the dashboard timeframe is changed.
If the dashboard timeframe is unavailable, such as when all the tiles on that dashboard are using a fixed timeframe, then the button is disabled. Likewise, if a specific timeframe is unsupported then it is disabled in the timeframe picker.
Set a default dashboard timeframe
To set the default dashboard timeframe, click the pin icon
when using the dashboard timeframe picker. This sets the initial timeframe for all viewers of the dashboard, including shared dashboards.Tip: Indicate with the name of a tile if the tile's timeframe can be changed. For example, naming a tile "Performance during the last week" tells users that this tile always shows data for the last week. Naming a tile just "Performance" indicates to users that changing the dashboard timeframe will change the data.
Create a new tile on a dashboard with the following settings:
Data stream:
Cost
Objects:
Account(s)
Shaping:
The following settings will show how much all the service cost you in total for the accounts in scope for the whole timeframe selected:
When you choose to 'Group by' Object this means it will group by whatever you have scoped to. In this case it will group by Account, but if you've scoped to Project(s) it will group by projects.
Visualization:
If you only have one account in the scope you can choose Scalar, as you only want to see one number (total cost for all services).
If you have several accounts in the scope you can choose Table, to see the cost per account.
After you're done creating the tile, you can specify the timeframe by changing the dashboard timeframe to 7 or 30 days.
The dashboard timeframe is the current timeframe setting for a dashboard. Users can change the dashboard timeframe to see data for a different time span, for example, instead of showing data from "the last 12 hours" it can be changed to show data from "the last 7 days".
Tiles can be configured to:
- Use dashboard timeframe (default). For these tiles the data shown will change when the user changes the dashboard timeframe.
- Use a fixed timeframe from the options available. These tiles show a clock icon and hovering shows the fixed timeframe configured. The data will not change when the dashboard timeframe is changed.
If the dashboard timeframe is unavailable, such as when all the tiles on that dashboard are using a fixed timeframe, then the button is disabled. Likewise, if a specific timeframe is unsupported then it is disabled in the timeframe picker.
Set a default dashboard timeframe
To set the default dashboard timeframe, click the pin icon
when using the dashboard timeframe picker. This sets the initial timeframe for all viewers of the dashboard, including shared dashboards.Tip: Indicate with the name of a tile if the tile's timeframe can be changed. For example, naming a tile "Performance during the last week" tells users that this tile always shows data for the last week. Naming a tile just "Performance" indicates to users that changing the dashboard timeframe will change the data.