Enable GKE Enterprise

This page shows you how to enable Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Enterprise edition. GKE Enterprise is an enterprise tier for GKE that brings all the capabilities of Anthos to GKE as part of a unified platform. To learn more about GKE Enterprise, see Anthos and GKE Enterprise.

When you enable GKE Enterprise, the Anthos API is enabled in your project. To understand the charges that will apply, see GKE pricing.

Note: If your project already has the GKE and Anthos APIs enabled, you don't need to do anything else to use GKE Enterprise. The GKE Enterprise console pages and features are all automatically available in your project.

Before you begin

The instructions in this page assume that you already have GKE enabled in your chosen Google Cloud project. If not, do the following:

1. 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. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

2. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Go to project selector

3. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

4. Enable the Google Kubernetes Engine API.

   Enable the API

5. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Go to project selector

6. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

7. Enable the Google Kubernetes Engine API.

   Enable the API

Enable GKE Enterprise from the Google Cloud console

This is our recommended approach for enabling GKE Enterprise in a project. It both enables GKE Enterprise and gets you started with a new fleet, with the option to enable additional enterprise features.

To enable GKE Enterprise from the Google Cloud console:

1. In the Google Kubernetes Engine page in the Google Cloud console, go to Overview.

   Go to Overview

2. Click Learn and Enable.

3. On the Learn about GKE Enterprise page, you can learn more about the platform before enabling GKE Enterprise.

   • To learn more about the features included with GKE Enterprise, view the details under the Features and Benefits tab.
   • For a side-by-side comparison of Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Standard edition and GKE Enterprise features, click the Compare Plans tab. You can also view a hypothetical monthly cost scenario for when you enable GKE Enterprise.

4. (Optional) To explore GKE Enterprise using a 90-day free trial period, select the Start your 90-day free trial checkbox. Note that you will still be charged Compute Engine fees during the free trial period.

5. Click Enable GKE Enterprise.

6. On the next page, you can optionally configure fleet settings for GKE Enterprise. The following settings are applied by default:

   • A new fleet is created for your project when you enable GKE Enterprise, and all clusters in your project are registered to the newly-created fleet.
   • GKE names the new fleet based on the project name.

   To change these settings, click Edit Fleet Name or Cluster List.

   • On the Fleet registration page, to edit the name, enter the new name under Fleet name.
   • To edit the cluster list, manually select the clusters to include in the fleet.
   • Click Save.

7. To finalize the upgrade, click Confirm. This final step:

   • Enables all required APIs and dependencies.
   • Creates your fleet, registers your selected clusters to the fleet.

8. The Overview page is now refreshed, and gives you a "big picture" overview of your entire fleet. For more information on how to use this page, see Use the fleet overview.

Enable GKE Enterprise from the command line

To enable GKE Enterprise from the command line, enable the Anthos API in your project as follows, specifying your project ID if you haven't set a default project for the Google Cloud CLI.

We also recommend that you enable the Fleet (GKE Hub) API, as this is required to work with fleets (enabling GKE Enterprise from the console also enables this API by default).

gcloud services enable --project=PROJECT_ID \
   anthos.googleapis.com \
   gkehub.googleapis.com

You can also enable these APIs declaratively for your projects by using Terraform.

You may need to enable additional APIs for your project to use enterprise features. For details, see the relevant feature guides.

Disable GKE Enterprise

To disable GKE Enterprise, disable the Anthos API for your project, following the instructions in Disable GKE Enterprise.