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Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) Sandbox (GDC Sandbox) is a managed environment that lets you
build and test services designed for Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) air-gapped in a
Google Cloud environment, without navigating the air gap and physical hardware.
With GDC Sandbox, you can train, perform, and test familiar
Distributed Cloud operations using the GDC console user
interface (UI), gdcloud CLI, and API services before investments in
hardware and deployments. You can develop for the Google Distributed Cloud
environment without the cost and logistics of working on air-gapped hardware,
and without waiting for a data center installation.
With GDC Sandbox, you can:
Develop applications: Build and test apps without infrastructure
overhead, from writing scripts to managing large-scale systems.
Build methodologies: Experiment with technologies or solutions
in an isolated environment.
Demonstrate capabilities: Show your solution's capabilities by
testing and training on familiar GDC Sandbox services.
Train developers: Provide self-paced or guided learning in a
simulated GDC Sandbox environment.
Manage development: Create virtual environments automatically and
avoid hardware purchases and maintenance.
What is a Sandbox?
A GDC Sandbox instance is a non-persistent simulation of a
Google Distributed Cloud environment. Instances are subject to being refreshed
on a monthly basis. These refreshes give you access to the latest features
of the GDC Sandbox and the underlying Google Distributed Cloud
environment itself.
When instances are refreshed, they're returned to a default state, meaning
all data is removed and you'll need to redeploy your configurations. It's
recommended to save your configurations, code, and containers in a code
repository. This practice is also a good fit for a low-high development model
where you develop and test in GDC Sandbox and deploy to a secure
environment. Configuration tasks such as project creation and user management
can be scripted for repeatability.
Technical features
The current release of GDC Sandbox includes the following features:
Managed developer experience emulating the Google Distributed Cloud air-gapped
environment, supporting a web-based console UI and the gdcloud CLI
Remote access to a private instance from Linux, macOS, and Windows
Flexible workload options including virtual machines (VM) and containers
Storage including block storage, PostgreSQL, and AlloyDB
Included resources
GDC Sandbox includes the following pre-configured resources:
An organization called org-1. An organization is the top-level resource
in the Google Distributed Cloud air-gapped resource hierarchy.
An org infrastructure cluster called org-1-admin. For details on clusters,
see
Cluster architecture.
Two Kubernetes clusters called user-vm-1 and user-vm-2 for running
container workloads.
A fake OIDC identity provider. This identity provider contains a default
user account you adopt for operations such as assigning yourself required
roles and permissions.
Four available personas. For your testing purposes, we recommend you
follow the Platform Admin user.
The following default projects in the org-1 organization:
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-09-04 UTC."],[],[],null,["# About GDC Sandbox\n\nGoogle Distributed Cloud (GDC) Sandbox (GDC Sandbox) is a managed environment that lets you\nbuild and test services designed for Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) air-gapped in a\nGoogle Cloud environment, without navigating the air gap and physical hardware.\nWith GDC Sandbox, you can train, perform, and test familiar\nDistributed Cloud operations using the GDC console user\ninterface (UI), gdcloud CLI, and API services before investments in\nhardware and deployments. You can develop for the Google Distributed Cloud\nenvironment without the cost and logistics of working on air-gapped hardware,\nand without waiting for a data center installation.\n\nWith GDC Sandbox, you can:\n\n- **Develop applications**: Build and test apps without infrastructure overhead, from writing scripts to managing large-scale systems.\n- **Build methodologies**: Experiment with technologies or solutions in an isolated environment.\n- **Demonstrate capabilities**: Show your solution's capabilities by testing and training on familiar GDC Sandbox services.\n- **Train developers**: Provide self-paced or guided learning in a simulated GDC Sandbox environment.\n- **Manage development**: Create virtual environments automatically and avoid hardware purchases and maintenance.\n\nWhat is a Sandbox?\n------------------\n\nA GDC Sandbox instance is a non-persistent simulation of a\nGoogle Distributed Cloud environment. Instances are subject to being refreshed\non a monthly basis. These refreshes give you access to the latest features\nof the GDC Sandbox and the underlying Google Distributed Cloud\nenvironment itself.\n\nWhen instances are refreshed, they're returned to a default state, meaning\nall data is removed and you'll need to redeploy your configurations. It's\nrecommended to save your configurations, code, and containers in a code\nrepository. This practice is also a good fit for a low-high development model\nwhere you develop and test in GDC Sandbox and deploy to a secure\nenvironment. Configuration tasks such as project creation and user management\ncan be scripted for repeatability.\n\nTechnical features\n------------------\n\nThe current release of GDC Sandbox includes the following features:\n\n- **Managed developer experience** emulating the Google Distributed Cloud air-gapped environment, supporting a web-based console UI and the `gdcloud` CLI\n- **Remote access** to a private instance from Linux, macOS, and Windows\n- **Flexible workload options** including virtual machines (VM) and containers\n- **Storage** including block storage, PostgreSQL, and AlloyDB\n\nIncluded resources\n------------------\n\nGDC Sandbox includes the following pre-configured resources:\n\n- An organization called **org-1**. An organization is the top-level resource in the Google Distributed Cloud air-gapped resource hierarchy.\n- An org infrastructure cluster called **org-1-admin** . For details on clusters, see [Cluster architecture](/distributed-cloud/hosted/docs/latest/gdch/platform/pa-user/clusters#cluster-architecture).\n- Two Kubernetes clusters called **user-vm-1** and **user-vm-2** for running container workloads.\n- A fake OIDC identity provider. This identity provider contains a default user account you adopt for operations such as assigning yourself required roles and permissions.\n- Four available personas. For your testing purposes, we recommend you follow the **Platform Admin** user.\n- The following default projects in the org-1 organization:\n - e2e-test-user\n - user-project"]]
