GCP cloud sandbox

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  • The GCP cloud sandbox provides a real Google Cloud Platform environment where you can learn through hands-on practice. This article details levels of support, limits, and restrictions to GCP services in the sandbox. See Cloud sandboxes: getting started for instructions on using the sandbox.

    Tip: See our AI sandboxes article for a list of supported services in the GCP AI cloud sandbox.


    Global restrictions

    The GCP cloud sandbox is compatible with a variety of tools and services within GCP. While we strive to offer you the most comprehensive training opportunity possible, there are some limits to what we can provide in a sandbox environment.

    We enforce the following restrictions on our GCP sandbox. If you don’t have access to perform an action in the sandbox, you’ll be notified according to our Hands-on playground and labs abuse protocol.

    GCP cloud sandboxes are restricted to these regions:

    • US-East-1
    • US-West-1
    • US-Central-1
    • Europe-West-1
    • Australia-Southeast-1

    Additional restrictions include:

    • Cannot set/change quotas
    • Cannot assign permissions to roles or users

    Supported GCP services

    Reference the table below to determine whether a GCP service is supported in the sandbox and to see additional limits and restrictions.

    Note: This list is subject to change. We reserve the right to add, remove, or modify support for cloud services at any time.

    Service name Level of support
    AI and Machine Learning
    Vertex AI Not supported

    Vertex AI Workbench

    Conditionally supported in GCP AI cloud sandbox
    Vertex Explainable API Not supported
    AutoML Supported
    Dialogflow Supported
    Media Translation Supported
    Natural Language AI Supported
    Recommendations AI Supported
    Speech-to-Text Supported
    Text-to-Speech Supported
    Translation AI Supported
    Video AI Supported
    Vision AI Supported
    AI Infrastructure Supported
    Cloud GPUs Supported
    Cloud TPUs Supported
    Deep Learning VM Image Supported
    Deep Learning Containers Supported
    TensorFlow Enterprise Supported
    Contact Center AI Supported
    Document AI Supported
    Intelligent products (preview) Supported
    Product Discovery Supported
    Notebook LM Not supported
    API Management

    Apigee API Management

    Not supported
    Apigee Integration Not supported
    Apigee Hybrid Not supported
    AppSheet Automation Supported
    AppSheet Supported
    Apigee Open Banking APIx Not supported
    Apigee Sense Not supported
    HealthAPIx Supported
    Cloud Healthcare API Supported
    API Gateway Supported
    Compute

    App Engine

    Conditionally supported:

    Limits

    • Max ten instances total across all regions
    • Max 12 CPUs across all instances and regions
    • Max 8 GB memory per instance
    • Allowed instance types: E2, N1, N2, C2, and N2D

    Note: This limit applies to creating Compute instances outside of the normal Compute service, as well as with Vertex Workbenches in the GCP AI sandbox.

    Restrictions

    • No GPUs
    Bare Metal Solution
    Batch
    Compute Engine

    Migrate to Virtual Machines

    Spot VMs
    Recommender
    Shielded VMs
    Sole-tenant Nodes
    SQL Server on Google Cloud
    VMware Engine
    Cloud Run

    Conditionally supported (in addition to the above):

    • Max one service
    • Max two CPUs per instance
    • Max 4 GB memory per instance
    Containers

    Artifact Registry

    Supported
    Cloud Build

    Conditionally supported:

    • Max two project builds
    • Max one worker pool
    • Max disk space of 100 GB
    Container Registry Supported
    Container Security Supported
    Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)

    Conditionally supported:

    • Excludes support for GKE Autopilot
    Knative Supported
    Kubernetes applications on Google Cloud Marketplace Supported
    Data Analytics

    BigQuery

    Supported

    Looker

    Dataproc

    Dataflow

    Pub/Sub

    Cloud Data Fusion

    Data Catalog

    Cloud Composer

    Dataprep

    Dataplex

    Analytics Hub

    Looker Studio

    Google Marketing Platform

    Cloud Life Sciences (beta)

    Earth Engine

    BigLake

    Databases

    AlloyDB for PostgreSQL

    Supported

    Cloud Bigtable

    Supported

    Cloud Spanner

    Conditionally supported:

    • Max two instances
    • Max two nodes per instance

    Cloud SQL

    Conditionally supported:

    • Max four SQL instances
    • Max eight CPUs across all SQL instances
    • Max 8 GB memory per SQL instance
    • Max 100 GB disk size per SQL instance

    See instructions to create compliant SQL instances.

    Database Migration Service

    Supported

    Firestore

    Supported

    Firebase Realtime Database

    Supported

    Memorystore

    Supported

    Datastream

    Supported
    Developer Tools

    Assured Open Source Software

    Supported

    Cloud Code

    Cloud Scheduler

    Cloud SDK

    Cloud Source Repositories

    Cloud Tasks

    Cloud Workstations

    Firebase Crashlytics

    Firebase Test Lab

    Google Cloud Deploy

    Gradle App Engine Plugin

    Maven App Engine Plugin

    Tekton

    Tools for Eclipse

    Tools for PowerShell

    Financial Services
    Payment Gateway Supported
    Healthcare and Life Sciences

    Apigee healthcare APIx

    Not supported

    Device Connect for FitBit

    Supported

    Healthcare Natural Language AI

    Supported

    Medical Image Suite

    Supported
    Hybrid and Multicloud

    Anthos

    Conditionally supported:

    • Max two clusters
    • Max two node pools
    • Max six nodes
    Cloud Run for Anthos Not supported
    Migrate to Containers Supported
    Google Distributed Cloud Supported
    Internet of Things (IoT)

    Edge TPU

    Supported

    IoT Core

    Management Tools

    Anthos Config

    Not supported

    Anthos Service Mesh

    Not supported

    Carbon Footprint

    Supported

    Cloud APIs

    Conditionally supported:

    Restricted APIs

    • places-backend.googleapis.com
    • tpu.googleapis.com
    • domains.googleapis.com
    • directions-backend.googleapis.com
    • distance-matrix-backend.googleapis.com
    • geocoding-backend.googleapis.com
    • geolocation.googleapis.com
    • maps-backend.googleapis.com
    • roads.googleapis.com
    • aiplatform.googleapis.com
    • notebooks.googleapis.com

    Cloud Console

    Supported

    Cloud Mobile App

    Supported

    Cloud Shell

    Supported

    Config Connector

    Supported

    Cost Management

    Supported

    Deployment Manager

    Deprecated

    Service Catalog

    Supported

    Terraform on Google Cloud

    Supported
    Media and Gaming

    Live Stream API

    Supported

    OpenCue

    Transcoder API

    Video Stitcher API

    Migration

    Application migration

    Supported

    BigQuery Data Transfer Service

    Cloud Foundation Toolkit

    Migration Center

    Transfer Appliance

    Networking

    Cloud Armor

    Supported

    Cloud CDN

    Cloud Domains

    Cloud DNS

    Cloud IDS

    Cloud Load Balancing

    Cloud NAT

    Hybrid Connectivity

    Media CDN

    Network Connectivity Center

    Network Intelligence Center

    Network Service Tiers

    Private Service Connect

    Service Directory

    Spectrum Access Systems (SAS)

    Traffic Director

    Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

    Operations

    Cloud Logging

    Supported

    Cloud Monitoring

    Cloud Profiler

    Cloud Trace

    Cloud Error Reporting

    Security and Identity

    Access Transparency

    Supported

    Assured Workloads

    Supported

    Cloud Asset Inventory

    Supported

    Cloud Data Loss

    Supported

    Cloud Key Management

    Supported

    Confidential Computing

    Supported

    Cloud Firewall

    Supported

    Secret Manager

    Supported

    VPC Service Controls

    Supported

    Security Command Center

    Supported

    Cloud Identity

    Supported

    Identity-Aware Proxy

    Not supported

    Identity and Access Management

    Not supported

    Managed Service for Microsoft Active Directory

    Supported

    Policy Intelligence

    Supported

    Software Delivery Shield

    Supported

    BeyondCorp Enterprise

    Supported

    Certificate Authority Service

    Supported

    Titan Security Key

    Supported

    reCAPTCHA Enterprise

    Supported

    Identity Platform

    Supported

    Web Risk

    Supported

    Mandiant Threat Intelligence

    Supported

    Mandiant Attack Surface Management

    Supported

    Mandiant Digital Threat Monitoring

    Supported

    Mandiant Security Validation

    Supported

    Mandiant Ransomware Defense Validation

    Supported

    Virus Total

    Supported

    Chronicle SIEM

    Supported

    Chronicle SOAR

    Supported

    Mandiant Automated Defense

    Supported

    Mandiant Managed Detection and Response

    Supported

    Mandiant Breach Analytics for Chronicle

    Supported

    Mandiant Incident Response Services

    Supported

    Mandiant Consulting Services

    Supported

    Mandiant Expertise on Demand

    Supported

    Mandiant Academy

    Supported
    Serverless Computing

    Cloud Functions

    Conditionally supported:

    • Max three functions

    Workflows

    Supported
    Storage

    Storage Transfer Service

    Supported

    Cloud Storage

    Cloud Storage for Firebase

    Filestore

    Google Workspace Essentials Local SSD

    Persistent Disk

    Google Cloud Backup and DR

    Additional Google products

    Google Workspace

    Supported
    Google Maps Platform Supported
    Chrome Enterprise Supported
    Other

    Google Cloud Support

    Not supported

    Billing

    Not supported

    Google SQL instances

    The Google default machine type does not comply with our Terms of Use (opens in new tab). You are permitted to run a maximum of four Google SQL instances. When creating a SQL instance, follow these steps to ensure your instance complies with our terms:

    1. On the Google Cloud dashboard, click Cloud SQL in the navigation menu.
    2. Click Create instance and choose your database engine.
    3. For MySQL or PostgreSQL, under Choose a Cloud SQL edition, select Enterprise.
    4. Scroll down to Customize your instance and click Show configuration options.
    5. Expand Machine configuration. Under Machine shapes, choose 2vCPU, 8 GB or smaller.
    6. Expand Storage. Under Storage capacity, you may choose up to 100 GB of storage.
    7. Click Create instance.

    Hands-on playground abuse

    We actively monitor the Hands-on playground for abusive, prohibited, or otherwise unacceptable behavior that goes against the educational purpose of these tools. Abuse of the Hands-on playground is enforced by our Hands-on playground and labs abuse protocol to ensure compliance with the Terms of Use (opens in new tab) you agreed to at sign-up.

    To avoid workarounds, we don’t provide specifics of what we look for to identify abuse or how we identify it, but a few general examples of misuse and abuse are listed below:

    • Incorrect instance type
    • Ten or more instances created at a time
    • Ten or more vCPU across all instances
    • Any individual instance with memory exceeding 8 GB
    • More than four SQL instances
    • Attempting to use resources for crypto mining
    • Excessive network traffic
    • DDoS or port scanning external hosts
    • Using an Accelerator

    This list is not comprehensive, so if you have questions, requests, or want to check whether an activity is allowed in the sandbox, contact Support prior to starting the activity. 

    Learn, have fun, and please respect the playground.

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