Creating a private cluster

Autopilot Standard

---

Version 1.28 and earlier (unsupported)

• Latest
• Version 1.28 and earlier

This page explains how to create a private Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) cluster, which is a type of VPC-native cluster. In a private cluster, nodes only have internal IP addresses, which means that nodes and Pods are isolated from the internet by default. You may choose to have no client access, limited access, or unrestricted access to the control plane.

Note: We recommend that you create your cluster in version 1.29 and later for customizable and simplified access to the control plane and cluster network. To learn more see, Customize your network isolation in GKE.

Restrictions and limitations

Private clusters must be VPC-native clusters. VPC-native clusters don't support legacy networks.

Expand the following sections to view the rules around IP address ranges and traffic when creating a cluster.

Control plane

• When you use 172.17.0.0/16 for your control plane IP range, you cannot use this range for nodes, Pods, or Services IP addresses.
• The size of the RFC 1918 block for the cluster control plane must be /28.
• You can add up to 50 authorized networks (allowed CIDR blocks) in a project with the master-authorized-networks explained in this page.
• While GKE can detect overlap with the control plane address block, it cannot detect overlap within a Shared VPC network.

Cluster networking

• Internal IP addresses for nodes come from the primary IP address range of the subnet you choose for the cluster. Pod IP addresses and Service IP addresses come from two subnet secondary IP address ranges of that same subnet. For more information, see IP ranges for VPC-native clusters.
• GKE supports any internal IP address ranges, including private ranges (RFC 1918 and other private ranges) and privately used external IP address ranges. See the VPC documentation for a list of valid internal IP address ranges.
• If you expand the primary IP range of a subnet to accommodate additional nodes, then you must add the expanded subnet's primary IP address range to the list of authorized networks for your cluster. If you don't, ingress-allow firewall rules relevant to the control plane aren't updated, and new nodes created in the expanded IP address space won't be able to register with the control plane. This can lead to an outage where new nodes are continuously deleted and replaced. Such an outage can happen when performing node pool upgrades or when nodes are automatically replaced due to liveness probe failures.
• All nodes in a private cluster are created without an external IP; they have limited access to Google Cloud APIs and services. To provide outbound internet access for your private nodes, you can use Cloud NAT.
• Private Google Access is enabled automatically when you create a cluster unless you are using Shared VPC. You must not disable Private Google Access unless you are using NAT to access the internet.

Before you begin

Before you start, make sure you have performed the following tasks:

• Enable the Google Kubernetes Engine API.
Enable Google Kubernetes Engine API
• If you want to use the Google Cloud CLI for this task, install and then initialize the gcloud CLI. If you previously installed the gcloud CLI, get the latest version by running gcloud components update.
  Note: For existing gcloud CLI installations, make sure to set the compute/region and compute/zone properties. By setting default locations, you can avoid errors in gcloud CLI like the following: One of [--zone, --region] must be supplied: Please specify location.

• Ensure you have the correct permission to create clusters. At minimum, you should be a Kubernetes Engine Cluster Admin.

• Ensure you have a route to the Default Internet Gateway.

Creating a private cluster with no client access to the public endpoint

In this section, you create the following resources:

• A private cluster named private-cluster-0 that has private nodes, and that has no client access to the public endpoint.
• A network named my-net-0.
• A subnet named my-subnet-0.

Important: Even if you disable access to the public endpoint, GKE can use the control plane's public endpoint for cluster management purposes, such as scheduled maintenance and automatic upgrades.

Console

Create a network and subnet

1. Go to the VPC networks page in the Google Cloud console.
   

   Go to VPC networks

2. Click Create VPC network.

3. For Name, enter my-net-0.

4. For Subnet creation mode, select Custom.

5. In the New subnet section, for Name, enter my-subnet-0.

6. In the Region list, select the region that you want.

7. For IP address range, enter 10.2.204.0/22.

8. Set Private Google Access to On.

9. Click Done.

10. Click Create.

Create a private cluster

1. Go to the Google Kubernetes Engine page in the Google Cloud console.

   Go to Google Kubernetes Engine

2. Click Create then in the Standard or Autopilot section, click Configure.

3. For the Name, specify private-cluster-0.

4. In the navigation pane, click Networking.

5. In the Network list, select my-net-0.

6. In the Node subnet list, select my-subnet-0.

7. Select the Private cluster radio button.

8. Clear the Access control plane using its external IP address checkbox.

9. (Optional for Autopilot): Set Control plane IP range to 172.16.0.32/28.

10. Click Create.

gcloud

• For Autopilot clusters, run the following command:

  gcloud container clusters create-auto private-cluster-0 \
      --create-subnetwork name=my-subnet-0 \
      --enable-master-authorized-networks \
      --enable-private-nodes \
      --enable-private-endpoint
  

• For Standard clusters, run the following command:

  gcloud container clusters create private-cluster-0 \
      --create-subnetwork name=my-subnet-0 \
      --enable-master-authorized-networks \
      --enable-ip-alias \
      --enable-private-nodes \
      --enable-private-endpoint \
      --master-ipv4-cidr 172.16.0.32/28
  

where:

• --create-subnetwork name=my-subnet-0 causes GKE to automatically create a subnet named my-subnet-0.
• --enable-master-authorized-networks specifies that access to the public endpoint is restricted to IP address ranges that you authorize.

• --enable-ip-alias makes the cluster VPC-native (not required for Autopilot).

• --enable-private-nodes indicates that the cluster's nodes don't have external IP addresses.
• --enable-private-endpoint indicates that the cluster is managed using the internal IP address of the control plane API endpoint.

• --master-ipv4-cidr 172.16.0.32/28 specifies an internal IP address range for the control plane (optional for Autopilot). This setting is permanent for this cluster and must be unique within the VPC. The use of non RFC 1918 internal IP addresses is supported.

API

To create a cluster without a publicly-reachable control plane, specify the enablePrivateEndpoint: true field in the privateClusterConfig resource.

Note: In an Autopilot cluster, the --master-ipv4-cidr parameter is assigned a subnet within the 172.16.0.0/16 range by default. This range allows for various subnet sizes.

At this point, these are the only IP addresses that have access to the control plane:

• The primary range of my-subnet-0.
• The secondary range used for Pods.

For example, suppose you created a VM in the primary range of my-subnet-0. Then on that VM, you could configure kubectl to use the internal IP address of the control plane.

If you want to access the control plane from outside my-subnet-0, you must authorize at least one address range to have access to the private endpoint.

Suppose you have a VM that is in the default network, in the same region as your cluster, but not in my-subnet-0.

For example:

• my-subnet-0: 10.0.0.0/22
• Pod secondary range: 10.52.0.0/14
• VM address: 10.128.0.3

You could authorize the VM to access the control plane by using this command:

gcloud container clusters update private-cluster-0 \
    --enable-master-authorized-networks \
    --master-authorized-networks 10.128.0.3/32

Creating a private cluster with limited access to the public endpoint

When creating a private cluster using this configuration, you can choose to use an automatically generated subnet, or a custom subnet.

Using an automatically generated subnet

In this section, you create a private cluster named private-cluster-1 where GKE automatically generates a subnet for your cluster nodes. The subnet has Private Google Access enabled. In the subnet, GKE automatically creates two secondary ranges: one for Pods and one for Services.

You can use the Google Cloud CLI or the GKE API.

gcloud

• For Autopilot clusters, run the following command:

  gcloud container clusters create-auto private-cluster-1 \
      --create-subnetwork name=my-subnet-1 \
      --enable-master-authorized-networks \
      --enable-private-nodes
  

• For Standard clusters, run the following command:

  gcloud container clusters create private-cluster-1 \
      --create-subnetwork name=my-subnet-1 \
      --enable-master-authorized-networks \
      --enable-ip-alias \
      --enable-private-nodes \
      --master-ipv4-cidr 172.16.0.0/28
  

where:

• --create-subnetwork name=my-subnet-1 causes GKE to automatically create a subnet named my-subnet-1.
• --enable-master-authorized-networks specifies that access to the public endpoint is restricted to IP address ranges that you authorize.

• --enable-ip-alias makes the cluster VPC-native (not required for Autopilot).

• --enable-private-nodes indicates that the cluster's nodes don't have external IP addresses.

• --master-ipv4-cidr 172.16.0.0/28 specifies an internal IP address range for the control plane (optional for Autopilot). This setting is permanent for this cluster and must be unique within the VPC. The use of non RFC 1918 internal IP addresses is supported.

API

Specify the privateClusterConfig field in the Cluster API resource:

{
  "name": "private-cluster-1",
  ...
  "ipAllocationPolicy": {
    "createSubnetwork": true,
  },
  ...
    "privateClusterConfig" {
      "enablePrivateNodes": boolean # Creates nodes with internal IP addresses only
      "enablePrivateEndpoint": boolean # false creates a cluster control plane with a publicly-reachable endpoint
      "masterIpv4CidrBlock": string # CIDR block for the cluster control plane
      "privateEndpoint": string # Output only
      "publicEndpoint": string # Output only
  }
}

At this point, these are the only IP addresses that have access to the cluster control plane:

• The primary range of my-subnet-1.
• The secondary range used for Pods.

Suppose you have a group of machines, outside of your VPC network, that have addresses in the range 203.0.113.0/29. You could authorize those machines to access the public endpoint by entering this command:

gcloud container clusters update private-cluster-1 \
    --enable-master-authorized-networks \
    --master-authorized-networks 203.0.113.0/29

Now these are the only IP addresses that have access to the control plane:

• The primary range of my-subnet-1.
• The secondary range used for Pods.
• Address ranges that you have authorized, for example, 203.0.113.0/29.

Using a custom subnet

In this section, you create the following resources:

• A private cluster named private-cluster-2.
• A network named my-net-2.
• A subnet named my-subnet-2, with primary range 192.168.0.0/20, for your cluster nodes. Your subnet has the following secondary address ranges:
  • my-pods for the Pod IP addresses.
  • my-services for the Service IP addresses.

Console

Create a network, subnet, and secondary ranges

1. Go to the VPC networks page in the Google Cloud console.
   

   Go to VPC networks

2. Click Create VPC network.

3. For Name, enter my-net-2.

4. For Subnet creation mode , select Custom.

5. In the New subnet section, for Name, enter my-subnet-2.

6. In the Region list, select the region that you want.

7. For IP address range, enter 192.168.0.0/20.

8. Click Create secondary IP range. For Subnet range name, enter my-services, and for Secondary IP range, enter 10.0.32.0/20.

9. Click Add IP range. For Subnet range name, enter my-pods, and for Secondary IP range, enter 10.4.0.0/14.

10. Set Private Google Access to On.

11. Click Done.

12. Click Create.

Create a private cluster

Create a private cluster that uses your subnet:

1. Go to the Google Kubernetes Engine page in the Google Cloud console.

   Go to Google Kubernetes Engine

2. Click Create then in the Standard or Autopilot section, click Configure.

3. For the Name, enter private-cluster-2.

4. From the navigation pane, click Networking.

5. Select the Private cluster radio button.

6. To create a control plane that is accessible from authorized external IP ranges, keep the Access control plane using its external IP address checkbox selected.

7. (Optional for Autopilot) Set Control plane IP range to 172.16.0.16/28.

8. In the Network list, select my-net-2.

9. In the Node subnet list, select my-subnet-2.

10. Clear the Automatically create secondary ranges checkbox.

11. In the Pod secondary CIDR range list, select my-pods.

12. In the Services secondary CIDR range list, select my-services.

13. Select the Enable control plane authorized networks checkbox.

14. Click Create.

gcloud

Create a network

First, create a network for your cluster. The following command creates a network, my-net-2:

gcloud compute networks create my-net-2 \
    --subnet-mode custom

Create a subnet and secondary ranges

Next, create a subnet, my-subnet-2, in the my-net-2 network, with secondary ranges my-pods for Pods and my-services for Services:

gcloud compute networks subnets create my-subnet-2 \
    --network my-net-2 \
    --range 192.168.0.0/20 \
    --secondary-range my-pods=10.4.0.0/14,my-services=10.0.32.0/20 \
    --enable-private-ip-google-access

Create a private cluster

Now, create a private cluster, private-cluster-2, using the network, subnet, and secondary ranges you created.

• For Autopilot clusters, run the following command:

  gcloud container clusters create-auto private-cluster-2 \
      --enable-master-authorized-networks \
      --network my-net-2 \
      --subnetwork my-subnet-2 \
      --cluster-secondary-range-name my-pods \
      --services-secondary-range-name my-services \
      --enable-private-nodes
  

• For Standard clusters, run the following command:

  gcloud container clusters create private-cluster-2 \
      --enable-master-authorized-networks \
      --network my-net-2 \
      --subnetwork my-subnet-2 \
      --cluster-secondary-range-name my-pods \
      --services-secondary-range-name my-services \
      --enable-private-nodes \
      --enable-ip-alias \
      --master-ipv4-cidr 172.16.0.16/28 \
      --no-enable-basic-auth \
      --no-issue-client-certificate
  

At this point, these are the only IP addresses that have access to the control plane:

• The primary range of my-subnet-2.
• The secondary range my-pods.

Suppose you have a group of machines, outside of my-net-2, that have addresses in the range 203.0.113.0/29. You could authorize those machines to access the public endpoint by entering this command:

gcloud container clusters update private-cluster-2 \
    --enable-master-authorized-networks \
    --master-authorized-networks 203.0.113.0/29

At this point, these are the only IP addresses that have access to the control plane:

• The primary range of my-subnet-2.
• The secondary range my-pods.
• Address ranges that you have authorized, for example, 203.0.113.0/29.

Using Cloud Shell to access a private cluster

If you have enabled a private endpoint, you can't access your GKE control plane with Cloud Shell.

If you want to use Cloud Shell to access your cluster, you must add the external IP address of your Cloud Shell to the cluster's list of authorized networks.

To do this:

1. In your Cloud Shell command-line window, use dig to find the external IP address of your Cloud Shell:

   dig +short myip.opendns.com @resolver1.opendns.com
   

2. Add the external address of your Cloud Shell to your cluster's list of authorized networks:

   gcloud container clusters update CLUSTER_NAME \
       --enable-master-authorized-networks \
       --master-authorized-networks EXISTING_AUTH_NETS,SHELL_IP/32
   

   Replace the following:

   • CLUSTER_NAME: the name of your cluster.

   • EXISTING_AUTH_NETS: the IP addresses of your existing list of authorized networks. You can find your authorized networks in the console or by running the following command:

     gcloud container clusters describe CLUSTER_NAME --format "flattened(masterAuthorizedNetworksConfig.cidrBlocks[])"
     

   • SHELL_IP: the external IP address of your Cloud Shell.

3. Get credentials, so that you can use kubectl to access the cluster:

   gcloud container clusters get-credentials CLUSTER_NAME \
       --project=PROJECT_ID \
       --internal-ip
   

   Replace PROJECT_ID with your project ID.

4. Use kubectl in Cloud Shell to access your cluster:

   kubectl get nodes
   

   The output is similar to the following:

   NAME                                               STATUS   ROLES    AGE    VERSION
   gke-cluster-1-default-pool-7d914212-18jv   Ready    <none>   104m   v1.21.5-gke.1302
   gke-cluster-1-default-pool-7d914212-3d9p   Ready    <none>   104m   v1.21.5-gke.1302
   gke-cluster-1-default-pool-7d914212-wgqf   Ready    <none>   104m   v1.21.5-gke.1302
   

Creating a private cluster with unrestricted access to the public endpoint

In this section, you create a private cluster where any IP address can access the control plane.

Console

1. Go to the Google Kubernetes Engine page in the Google Cloud console.

   Go to Google Kubernetes Engine

2. Click Create then in the Standard or Autopilot section, click Configure.

3. For the Name, enter private-cluster-3.

4. In the navigation pane, click Networking.

5. Select the Private cluster option.

6. Keep the Access control plane using its external IP address checkbox selected.

7. (Optional for Autopilot) Set Control plane IP range to 172.16.0.32/28.

8. Leave Network and Node subnet set to default. This causes GKE to generate a subnet for your cluster.

9. Clear the Enable control plane authorized networks checkbox.

10. Click Create.

gcloud

• For Autopilot clusters, run the following command:

  gcloud container clusters create-auto private-cluster-3 \
      --create-subnetwork name=my-subnet-3 \
      --no-enable-master-authorized-networks \
      --enable-private-nodes
  

• For Standard clusters, run the following command:

  gcloud container clusters create private-cluster-3 \
      --create-subnetwork name=my-subnet-3 \
      --no-enable-master-authorized-networks \
      --enable-ip-alias \
      --enable-private-nodes \
      --master-ipv4-cidr 172.16.0.32/28
  

where:

• --create-subnetwork name=my-subnet-3 causes GKE to automatically create a subnet named my-subnet-3.
• --no-enable-master-authorized-networks disables authorized networks for the cluster.

• --enable-ip-alias makes the cluster VPC-native (not required for Autopilot).

• --enable-private-nodes indicates that the cluster's nodes don't have external IP addresses.

• --master-ipv4-cidr 172.16.0.32/28 specifies an internal IP address range for the control plane (optional for Autopilot). This setting is permanent for this cluster and must be unique within the VPC. The use of non RFC 1918 internal IP addresses is supported.

Add firewall rules for specific use cases

This section explains how to add a firewall rule to a cluster. By default, firewall rules restrict your cluster control plane to only initiate TCP connections to your nodes and Pods on ports 443 (HTTPS) and 10250 (kubelet). For some Kubernetes features, you might need to add firewall rules to allow access on additional ports. Don't create firewall rules or hierarchical firewall policy rules that have a higher priority than the automatically created firewall rules.

Note: The allowed ports (443 and 10250) refer to the ports exposed by your nodes and Pods, not the ports exposed by any Kubernetes services. For example, if the cluster control plane attempts to access a service on port 443, but the service is implemented by a pod using port 9443, this will be blocked by the firewall unless you add a firewall rule to explicitly allow ingress to port 9443.

Kubernetes features that require additional firewall rules include:

• Admission webhooks
• Aggregated API servers
• Webhook conversion
• Dynamic audit configuration
• Generally, any API that has a ServiceReference field requires additional firewall rules.

Adding a firewall rule allows traffic from the cluster control plane to all of the following:

• The specified port of each node (hostPort).
• The specified port of each Pod running on these nodes.
• The specified port of each Service running on these nodes.

To learn about firewall rules, refer to Firewall rules in the Cloud Load Balancing documentation.

To add a firewall rule in a cluster, you need to record the cluster control plane's CIDR block and the target used. After you have recorded this you can create the rule.

View control plane's CIDR block

You need the cluster control plane's CIDR block to add a firewall rule.

Console

1. Go to the Google Kubernetes Engine page in the Google Cloud console.

   Go to Google Kubernetes Engine

2. In the cluster list, click the cluster name.

In the Details tab, under Networking, take note of the value in the Control plane address range field.

gcloud

Run the following command:

gcloud container clusters describe CLUSTER_NAME

Replace CLUSTER_NAME with the name of your cluster.

In the command output, take note of the value in the masterIpv4CidrBlock field.

View existing firewall rules

You need to specify the target (in this case, the destination nodes) that the cluster's existing firewall rules use.

Console

1. Go to the Firewall policies page in the Google Cloud console.

   Go to Firewall policies

2. For Filter table for VPC firewall rules, enter gke-CLUSTER_NAME.

In the results, take note of the value in the Targets field.

gcloud

Run the following command:

gcloud compute firewall-rules list \
    --filter 'name~^gke-CLUSTER_NAME' \
    --format 'table(
        name,
        network,
        direction,
        sourceRanges.list():label=SRC_RANGES,
        allowed[].map().firewall_rule().list():label=ALLOW,
        targetTags.list():label=TARGET_TAGS
    )'

In the command output, take note of the value in the Targets field.

To view firewall rules for a Shared VPC, add the --project HOST_PROJECT_ID flag to the command.

Add a firewall rule

Console

1. Go to the Firewall policies page in the Google Cloud console.

   Go to Firewall policies

2. Click Create Firewall Rule.

3. For Name, enter the name for the firewall rule.

4. In the Network list, select the relevant network.

5. In Direction of traffic, click Ingress.

6. In Action on match, click Allow.

7. In the Targets list, select Specified target tags.

8. For Target tags, enter the target value that you noted previously.

9. In the Source filter list, select IPv4 ranges.

10. For Source IPv4 ranges, enter the cluster control plane's CIDR block.

11. In Protocols and ports, click Specified protocols and ports, select the checkbox for the relevant protocol (tcp or udp), and enter the port number in the protocol field.

12. Click Create.

gcloud

Run the following command:

gcloud compute firewall-rules create FIREWALL_RULE_NAME \
    --action ALLOW \
    --direction INGRESS \
    --source-ranges CONTROL_PLANE_RANGE \
    --rules PROTOCOL:PORT \
    --target-tags TARGET

Replace the following:

• FIREWALL_RULE_NAME: the name you choose for the firewall rule.
• CONTROL_PLANE_RANGE: the cluster control plane's IP address range (masterIpv4CidrBlock) that you collected previously.
• PROTOCOL:PORT: the port and its protocol, tcp or udp.
• TARGET: the target (Targets) value that you collected previously.

To add a firewall rule for a Shared VPC, add the following flags to the command:

--project HOST_PROJECT_ID
--network NETWORK_ID

Verify that nodes don't have external IP addresses

After you create a private cluster, verify that the cluster's nodes don't have external IP addresses.

Console

1. Go to the Google Kubernetes Engine page in the Google Cloud console.

   Go to Google Kubernetes Engine

2. In the list of clusters, click the cluster name.

3. For Autopilot clusters, in the Cluster basics section, check the External endpoint field. The value is Disabled.

For Standard clusters, do the following:

1. On the Clusters page, click the Nodes tab.
2. Under Node Pools, click the node pool name.
3. On the Node pool details page, under Instance groups, click the name of your instance group. For example, gke-private-cluster-0-default-pool-5c5add1f-grp`.
4. In the list of instances, verify that your instances do not have external IP addresses.

gcloud

Run the following command:

kubectl get nodes --output wide

The output's EXTERNAL-IP column is empty:

STATUS ... VERSION        EXTERNAL-IP  OS-IMAGE ...
Ready      v.8.7-gke.1                 Container-Optimized OS
Ready      v1.8.7-gke.1                Container-Optimized OS
Ready      v1.8.7-gke.1                Container-Optimized OS

Verify VPC peering reuse in cluster

Any private clusters you create after January 15, 2020 reuse VPC Network Peering connections.

You can check if your private cluster reuses VPC Network Peering connections using the gcloud CLI or the Google Cloud console.

Console

Check the VPC peering row on the Cluster details page. If your cluster is reusing VPC peering connections, the output begins with gke-n. For example, gke-n34a117b968dee3b2221-93c6-40af-peer.

gcloud

gcloud container clusters describe CLUSTER_NAME \
    --format="value(privateClusterConfig.peeringName)"

If your cluster is reusing VPC peering connections, the output begins with gke-n. For example, gke-n34a117b968dee3b2221-93c6-40af-peer.

Advanced cluster configurations

This section describes some advanced configurations that you might want when creating a private cluster.

Granting private nodes outbound internet access

To provide outbound internet access for your private nodes, such as to pull images from an external registry, use Cloud NAT to create and configure a Cloud Router. Cloud NAT lets private nodes establish outbound connections over the internet to send and receive packets.

The Cloud Router allows all your nodes in the region to use Cloud NAT for all primary and alias IP ranges. It also automatically allocates the external IP addresses for the NAT gateway.

For instructions to create and configure a Cloud Router, refer to Create a Cloud NAT configuration using Cloud Router in the Cloud NAT documentation.

Note: To provide outbound internet access for your Pods and Services, configure Cloud NAT to Specify subnet ranges for NAT

Creating a private cluster in a Shared VPC network

To learn how to create a private cluster in a Shared VPC network, see Creating a private cluster in a Shared VPC.

Deploying a Windows Server container application

To learn how to deploy a Windows Server container application to a cluster with private nodes, refer to the Windows node pool documentation.

Accessing the control plane's private endpoint globally

The control plane's private endpoint is implemented by an internal passthrough Network Load Balancer in the control plane's VPC network. Clients that are internal or are connected through Cloud VPN tunnels and Cloud Interconnect VLAN attachments can access internal passthrough Network Load Balancers.

By default, these clients must be located in the same region as the load balancer.

When you enable control plane global access, the internal passthrough Network Load Balancer is globally accessible: Client VMs and on-premises systems can connect to the control plane's private endpoint, subject to the authorized networks configuration, from any region.

For more information about the internal passthrough Network Load Balancers and global access, see Internal load balancers and connected networks.

Note: Egress charges apply for traffic between regions in the Google Cloud network, so accessing the control plane's private endpoint from another region incurs standard cross-regional egress charges.

Enabling control plane private endpoint global access

By default, global access is not enabled for the control plane's private endpoint when you create a private cluster. To enable control plane global access, use the following tools based on your cluster mode:

• For Standard clusters, you can use Google Cloud CLI or the Google Cloud console.

• For Autopilot clusters, you can use the google_container_cluster Terraform resource.

Console

To create a new private cluster with control plane global access enabled, perform the following steps:

1. Go to the Google Kubernetes Engine page in the Google Cloud console.

   Go to Google Kubernetes Engine

2. Click Create then in the Standard or Autopilot section, click Configure.

3. Enter a Name.

4. In the navigation pane, click Networking.

5. Select Private cluster.

6. Select the Enable Control plane global access checkbox.

7. Configure other fields as you want.

8. Click Create.

To enable control plane global access for an existing private cluster, perform the following steps:

1. Go to the Google Kubernetes Engine page in the Google Cloud console.

   Go to Google Kubernetes Engine

2. Next to the cluster you want to edit, click Actions, then click Edit.

3. In the Networking section, next to Control plane global access, click Edit.

4. In the Edit control plane global access dialog, select the Enable Control plane global access checkbox.

5. Click Save Changes.

gcloud

Add the --enable-master-global-access flag to create a private cluster with global access to the control plane's private endpoint enabled:

gcloud container clusters create CLUSTER_NAME \
    --enable-private-nodes \
    --enable-master-global-access

You can also enable global access to the control plane's private endpoint for an existing private cluster:

gcloud container clusters update CLUSTER_NAME \
    --enable-master-global-access

Note: To disable control plane private endpoint global access, use the --no-enable-master-global-access flag.

Verifying control plane private endpoint global access

You can verify that global access to the control plane's private endpoint is enabled by running the following command and looking at its output.

gcloud container clusters describe CLUSTER_NAME

The output includes a privateClusterConfig section where you can see the status of masterGlobalAccessConfig.

privateClusterConfig:
  enablePrivateNodes: true
  masterIpv4CidrBlock: 172.16.1.0/28
  peeringName: gke-1921aee31283146cdde5-9bae-9cf1-peer
  privateEndpoint: 172.16.1.2
  publicEndpoint: 34.68.128.12
  masterGlobalAccessConfig:
    enabled: true

Accessing the control plane's private endpoint from other networks

When you create a GKE private cluster and disable the control plane's public endpoint, you must administer the cluster with tools like kubectl using its control plane's private endpoint. You can access the cluster's control plane's private endpoint from another network, including the following:

• An on-premises network that's connected to the cluster's VPC network using Cloud VPN tunnels or Cloud Interconnect VLAN attachments
• Another VPC network that's connected to the cluster's VPC network using Cloud VPN tunnels

The following diagram shows a routing path between an on-premises network and GKE control plane nodes:

To allow systems in another network to connect to a cluster's control plane private endpoint, complete the following requirements:

1. Identify and record relevant network information for the cluster and its control plane's private endpoint.

   gcloud container clusters describe CLUSTER_NAME \
      --location=COMPUTE_LOCATION \
      --format="yaml(network, privateClusterConfig)"
   

   Replace the following:

   • CLUSTER_NAME: the name for the cluster.
   • COMPUTE_LOCATION: the Compute Engine location of the cluster

   From the output of the command, identify and record the following information to use in the next steps:

   • network: The name or URI for the cluster's VPC network.
   • privateEndpoint: The IPv4 address of the control plane's private endpoint or the enclosing IPv4 CIDR range (masterIpv4CidrBlock).
   • peeringName: The name of the VPC Network Peering connection used to connect the cluster's VPC network to the control plane's VPC network.

   The output is similar to the following:

   network: cluster-network
   privateClusterConfig:
     enablePrivateNodes: true
     masterGlobalAccessConfig:
       enabled: true
     masterIpv4CidrBlock: 172.16.1.0/28
     peeringName: gke-1921aee31283146cdde5-9bae-9cf1-peer
     privateEndpoint: 172.16.1.2
     publicEndpoint: 34.68.128.12
   

2. Consider enabling control plane private endpoint global access to allow packets to enter from any region in the cluster's VPC network. Enabling control plane private endpoint global access lets you connect to the private endpoint using Cloud VPN tunnels or Cloud Interconnect VLAN attachments located in any region, not just the cluster's region.

3. Create a route for the privateEndpoint IP address or the masterIpv4CidrBlock IP address range in the other network. Because the control plane's private endpoint IP address always fits within the masterIpv4CidrBlock IPv4 address range, creating a route for either the privateEndpoint IP address or its enclosing range provides a path for packets from the other network to the control plane's private endpoint if:

   • The other network connects to the cluster's VPC network using Cloud Interconnect VLAN attachments or Cloud VPN tunnels that use dynamic (BGP) routes: Use a Cloud Router custom advertised route. For more information, see Advertise custom address ranges in the Cloud Router documentation.

   • The other network connects to the cluster's VPC network using Classic VPN tunnels that do not use dynamic routes: You must configure a static route in the other network.

   Important: If control plane global access is disabled, the Cloud VPN tunnels or Cloud Interconnect VLAN attachments that connect the cluster's VPC network to the other network must be located in the same region as the cluster.

4. Configure the cluster's VPC network to export its custom routes in the peering relationship to the control plane's VPC network. Google Cloud always configures the control plane's VPC network to import custom routes from the cluster's VPC network. This step provides a path for packets from the control plane's private endpoint back to the other network.

   To enable custom route export from your cluster's VPC network, use the following command:

   gcloud compute networks peerings update PEERING_NAME \
       --network=CLUSTER_VPC_NETWORK \
       --export-custom-routes
   

   Replace the following:

   • PEERING_NAME: the name for the peering that connects the cluster's VPC network to the control plane VPC network
   • CLUSTER_VPC_NETWORK: the name or URI of the cluster's VPC network

   When custom route export is enabled for the VPC, creating routes that overlap with Google Cloud IP ranges might break your cluster.

   For more details about how to update route exchange for existing VPC Network Peering connections, see Update the peering connection.

   Custom routes in the cluster's VPC network include routes whose destinations are IP address ranges in other networks, for example, an on-premises network. To ensure that these routes become effective as peering custom routes in the control plane's VPC network, see Supported destinations from the other network.

Supported destinations from the other network

The address ranges that the other network sends to Cloud Routers in the cluster's VPC network must adhere to the following conditions:

• While your cluster's VPC might accept a default route (0.0.0.0/0), the control plane's VPC network always rejects default routes because it already has a local default route. If the other network sends a default route to your VPC network, the other network must also send the specific destinations of systems that need to connect to the control plane's private endpoint. For more details, see Routing order.

• If the control plane's VPC network accepts routes that effectively replace a default route, those routes break connectivity to Google Cloud APIs and services, interrupting the cluster control plane. As a representative example, the other network must not advertise routes with destinations 0.0.0.0/1 and 128.0.0.0/1. Refer to the previous point for an alternative.

Monitor the Cloud Router limits, especially the maximum number of unique destinations for learned routes.

Protecting a private cluster with VPC Service Controls

To further secure your GKE private clusters, you can protect them using VPC Service Controls.

VPC Service Controls provides additional security for your GKE private clusters to help mitigate the risk of data exfiltration. Using VPC Service Controls, you can add projects to service perimeters that protect resources and services from requests that originate outside the perimeter.

To learn more about service perimeters, see Service perimeter details and configuration.

If you use Artifact Registry with your GKE private cluster in a VPC Service Controls service perimeter, you must configure routing to the restricted virtual IP to prevent exfiltration of data.

Cleaning up

Note: If you delete a VPC Network Peering connection while there are resources attached on the GKE cluster, the cluster goes in a repair state resulting in permanent loss of the attached resources. You can't recover the deleted resources. For information on workaround, see Troubleshooting: VPC Network Peering connection on private cluster is accidentally deleted.

After completing the tasks on this page, follow these steps to remove the resources to prevent unwanted charges incurring on your account:

Delete the clusters

Console

1. Go to the Google Kubernetes Engine page in the Google Cloud console.

   Go to Google Kubernetes Engine

2. Select each cluster.

3. Click Delete.

gcloud

gcloud container clusters delete -q private-cluster-0 private-cluster-1 private-cluster-2 private-cluster-3

Delete the network

Console

1. Go to the VPC networks page in the Google Cloud console.

   Go to VPC networks

2. In the list of networks, click my-net-0.

3. On the VPC network details page, click Delete VPC Network.

4. In the Delete a network dialog, click Delete.

gcloud

gcloud compute networks delete my-net-0

What's next

• Learn advanced configurations with private clusters.
• Learn how to create VPC-native clusters.
• Learn more about VPC Network Peering.

• Follow the tutorial about accessing private GKE clusters with Cloud Build private pools.