GCP cloud sandbox

Tags: ACG

The GCP Cloud Sandbox is designed to provide a real, no-risk GCP environment for you to learn by doing on cloud. We are compatible with a variety of tools and services, so you have as many choices as possible when working through your training. Follow along with labs, brush up on skills, or just explore.

Global restrictions

GCP Cloud Sandboxes are restricted to these locations:

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

Additional restrictions include:

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

Unavailable services

  • Billing
  • Identity and Access Management (IAM)
  • Google Cloud Support
  • Identity Aware Proxy (IAP)
  • Resource Manager
  • Service Account Management
  • Service Management
  • Organizations
  • Apigee
  • Vertex AI

Note: Most unlisted services are available in the GCP Cloud Playground.

Google SQL instances

The new Google default machine type does not comply with our Terms of Use (opens in new tab). You are permitted to run a maximum of 4 Google SQL instances. If using a Google SQL instance, follow the steps below to ensure your instance complies with our terms.

  1. Click Databases - SQL - Create Instance.
  2. Click Show Configuration Options.
  3. Under Machine Type, select Custom. Then key in 2 for vCPUs and 8 for memory.
  4. Select your storage capacity – you may choose up to 100 GB of storage.

Important: Though there are higher options listed, the maximum capacity per SQL instance is 2 CPUs, 8 GB of memory and 100 GB of storage. If you exceed these limitations, your lab or playground will be shut down.

Cloud Playground abuse

Cloud Playground is for educational purposes. We actively monitor Cloud Playground for abusive, or prohibited behavior. To avoid workarounds, we don't provide specifics of how or what we look for. The purpose of this abuse detection is to ensure compliance with the Terms of Use (opens in new tab) agreed upon at sign up.

A few general examples of abuse are listed below. This list is not comprehensive.

  • Incorrect instance type
  • Ten or more instances created at a time
  • Ten or more vCPU across all instances
  • Any individual instance with memory exceeding 8GB
  • SQL instance counts exceeding 4
  • Attempting to use resources for Bitcoin mining
  • Excessive network traffic
  • DDoS or port scanning external hosts
  • Google Cloud: using an Accelerator

Have fun and learn, but also be respectful, please.

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