Invalidate cached content

This page describes how to invalidate your Cloud CDN cached content.

For example, if a file located at /images/file.jpg has been cached and needs to be invalidated, you can use several methods to invalidate it, depending on whether you want to affect only that file or a wider scope. In each case, you can invalidate for all hostnames or for only one hostname.

To learn more about cache invalidation, see Cache invalidation overview.

Before you begin

You can use the Google Cloud CLI or the Google Cloud console to perform invalidations.

You can access the Google Cloud CLI in two ways:

• Install the Google Cloud CLI by following the instructions at Installing with apt-get. If you haven't used the Google Cloud CLI previously, first run gcloud init to authenticate.

• Use Cloud Shell, which comes with gcloud already installed.

Permissions required for this task

To perform this task, you must have been granted the following permissions or the following IAM roles.

Permissions

• compute.urlMaps.get
• compute.urlMaps.invalidateCache

Roles

• roles/compute.networkAdmin
• roles/compute.loadBalancerAdmin

To create a custom role with the required permissions, see Creating and managing custom roles.

To add a predefined role, use the IAM quickstart.

Note: If you're using a global external Application Load Balancer with Shared VPC cross-project service referencing, by default, service project administrators won't have the required permissions to request cache invalidations. This is because cache invalidation is configured in the frontend project (that is, the project that has the forwarding rule, target proxy, and URL map of the load balancer). Service administrators who control the provisioning of the backend services in a separate project can work with the load balancer administrator of the frontend project to issue cache invalidation for their cross-project services. For URL rewrites, ensure that the invalidation matches the pre-rewrite host and path that the client sends.

Invalidate only one file

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud CDN page.

   Go to the Cloud CDN page

2. Under Associated load balancers, click the load balancer name.
3. Click the Cache invalidation tab.
4. Enter the path to the file.
   • If you want to invalidate a path for all hostnames, enter only the path (for example: /images/file.jpg).
   • If you want to invalidate a path for only one hostname, specify the hostname as part of the path (for example: example.com/images/file.jpg).
5. Click Invalidate.

gcloud

gcloud compute url-maps invalidate-cdn-cache LOAD_BALANCER_NAME \
    --path "/images/file.jpg"

The external Application Load Balancer's name and the URL map's name are the same.

Replace LOAD_BALANCER_NAME with the name of your load balancer. To list your load balancers, use the gcloud compute url-maps list command.

Optional: To invalidate for only one host, add the --host flag (--host example.com).

gcloud compute url-maps invalidate-cdn-cache LOAD_BALANCER_NAME \
    --host HOSTNAME \
    --path "/images/file.jpg"

By default, the Google Cloud CLI waits until the invalidation has completed. To perform the invalidation in the background, append --async to the command line.

Invalidate the whole directory

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud CDN page.

   Go to the Cloud CDN page

2. Under Associated load balancers, click the load balancer name.
3. Click the Cache invalidation tab.
4. Enter the directory path and wildcard (/path/to/file/*).
   • If you want to invalidate the whole directory for all hostnames, enter only the path and wildcard (for example: /images/*).
   • If you want to invalidate the whole directory for only one hostname, specify the hostname as part of the path (for example: example.com/images/*).
5. Click Invalidate.

gcloud

gcloud compute url-maps invalidate-cdn-cache LOAD_BALANCER_NAME \
    --path "/images/*"

Replace LOAD_BALANCER_NAME with the name of your load balancer. To list your load balancers, use the gcloud compute url-maps list command.

Optional: To invalidate for only one host, add the --host flag (--host example.com).

gcloud compute url-maps invalidate-cdn-cache LOAD_BALANCER_NAME \
    --host HOSTNAME \
    --path "/images/*"

By default, the Google Cloud CLI waits until the invalidation has completed. To perform the invalidation in the background, append --async to the command line.

Invalidate everything

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud CDN page.

   Go to the Cloud CDN page

2. Under Associated load balancers, click the load balancer name.
3. Click the Cache invalidation tab.
4. Enter only the root and the wildcard (/*).
   • If you want to invalidate everything for all hostnames, enter only /* into the field.
   • If you want to invalidate everything for only one hostname, specify the hostname as part of the path (for example: example.com/*).
5. Click Invalidate.

gcloud

gcloud compute url-maps invalidate-cdn-cache LOAD_BALANCER_NAME \
    --path "/*"

Replace the following:

• LOAD_BALANCER_NAME: the name of your load balancer
• /*: the URL path that you want to invalidate; does not include the hostname; the path can use an explicit filename or a wildcard

Optional: To invalidate for only one host, add the --host flag (--host example.com).

gcloud compute url-maps invalidate-cdn-cache LOAD_BALANCER_NAME \
    --host HOSTNAME \
    --path "/*"

By default, the Google Cloud CLI waits until the invalidation has completed. To perform the invalidation in the background, append --async to the command line.

What's next

• To check whether Cloud CDN is serving responses from cache, see Viewing logs.
• To learn about which content is cacheable or non-cacheable, see Caching overview.