Set up a Media CDN service

This quickstart shows you how to set up a Media CDN service in front of a Cloud Storage bucket. You can use this configuration for testing or as the basis for a production environment.


To follow step-by-step guidance for this task directly in the Google Cloud console, click Guide me:

Guide me


This page walks you through the following procedures:

  1. Create a Cloud Storage bucket to store your content.
  2. Enable the required services.
  3. Create an EdgeCacheOrigin resource to connect Media CDN to your bucket.
  4. Create an EdgeCacheService resource to configure request routing and caching for content in the origin.
  5. Test whether a response is being cached.

Before you begin

Make sure that you have the following:

  • Access to Media CDN for your current project.

  • The Google Cloud CLI installed. Use version 345.0.0 or later.

    If required, use gcloud version to check the version and gcloud components update to update your installed gcloud CLI.

    The gcloud CLI provides the gcloud edge-cache sub-command group for managing both new and existing Media CDN configurations.

  • The Identity and Access Management (IAM) permissions required to create Media CDN resources. Media CDN has the following predefined IAM roles:

    • roles/networkservices.edgeCacheAdmin
    • roles/networkservices.edgeCacheUser
    • roles/networkservices.edgeCacheViewer

Create a Cloud Storage bucket

Media CDN content can originate from locations such as a Cloud Storage bucket, a third-party storage location, or a load balancer.

In this quickstart, we'll store content in a Cloud Storage bucket.

  1. Create a publicly accessible Cloud Storage bucket and name it my-bucket.

    If you prefer not to make your Cloud Storage bucket publicly accessible, you must give Media CDN permissions to access the bucket. For more information, see Using private Cloud Storage buckets.

  2. Upload a file into the bucket.

Enable the required services

To configure and deploy Media CDN services, you need to enable both the Network Services API and the Certificate Manager API for your project.

Console

  1. Enable the Network Services API.

    Enable the API

  2. Enable the Certificate Manager API.

    Enable the API

gcloud

  1. Enable the Network Services API:

    gcloud services enable networkservices.googleapis.com
    
  2. Enable the Certificate Manager API:

    gcloud services enable certificatemanager.googleapis.com
    

For more information about enabling and disabling services, see the Service Usage documentation.

Create an EdgeCacheOrigin resource

Create an origin that points to your Cloud Storage bucket.

Console

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

    Go to Media CDN

  2. Click the Origins tab.

  3. Click Create origin.

  4. Enter the name for the origin as cloud-storage-origin.

  5. Optional: Enter a description for the origin.

  6. For Origin address, choose Select a Google Cloud Storage bucket, browse to the Cloud Storage bucket named my-bucket, and then click Select.

    If you have an external origin instead, choose Specify an FQDN or IP address, and then enter the FQDN or IP address.

  7. Click Create origin.

After approximately 10 minutes, the newly created EdgeCacheOrigin resource appears in the list of origins in your project on the Origins page.

To update an origin address, click the origin, and then click Edit.

gcloud

Use the gcloud edge-cache origins create command:

gcloud edge-cache origins create ORIGIN \
    --origin-address="ADDRESS"

Replace the following:

  • ORIGIN: the name of the new origin
  • ADDRESS: the bucket name, gs://my-bucket

    If you have an external origin instead, replace ADDRESS with the FQDN or IP address.

To view the newly created origin, use the gcloud edge-cache origins list command.

To update the origin address, use the gcloud edge-cache origins update command.

API

Use the edgeCacheOrigins.create method:

POST https://networkservices.googleapis.com/v1/PARENT/edgeCacheOrigins?edgeCacheOriginId=ORIGIN_ID
{
  "name": "ORIGIN_ID",
  "originAddress: "ADDRESS"
}

Replace the following:

  • PARENT: the parent resource in the format projects/PROJECT/locations/global
  • ORIGIN_ID: the short name of the new origin
  • ADDRESS: the bucket name, gs://my-bucket

    If you have an external origin instead, replace ADDRESS with the FQDN or IP address.

To view the newly created origin, use the edgeCacheOrigins.list method.

To update the origin address, use the edgeCacheOrigins.patch method.

Terraform

resource "google_network_services_edge_cache_origin" "default" {
  name           = "cloud-storage-origin"
  origin_address = "gs://my-bucket-${random_id.unique_suffix.hex}"
}

Create an EdgeCacheService resource

Your EdgeCacheService resource configures routing, certificate, and caching settings, and can point to EdgeCacheOrigin resources.

Create a basic EdgeCacheService resource that does the following:

  • Caches all responses from our configured origin for one hour
  • Sets an x-cache-status response header that returns the cache status (such as HIT or MISS)

Optionally, register a domain name for this service.

Console

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

    Go to Media CDN

  2. Click the Services tab.

  3. Click Create service.

  4. Enter a unique name for your service—for example, my-service—and then click Next.

  5. In the Routing section, click Add host rule, and then enter one or more host domain names.

  6. For Hosts, enter a host domain name—for example, web.example.com.

  7. Click Add route rule.

    1. For Priority, specify 1.
    2. Click Add match condition, for Path match, specify /, and then click Done.
    3. Select Fetch from an Origin, and then select the origin that you configured.
    4. Click Add-on actions.
    5. For Header action, click Add an item. Then, do the following:
      1. For Type, select Response headers to add.
      2. Click Add header.
      3. For Name, specify x-cache-status, and for Value, specify {cdn_cache_status}.
      4. Click Done.
    6. For Route action, click Add an item. Then, do the following:
      1. For Type, select CDN policy.
      2. For Cache mode, select FORCE_CACHE_ALL.
      3. Click Done.
    7. Click Save.
  8. Click Create service.

The newly created EdgeCacheService resource appears on the Services page in the list of services in your project.

gcloud

  1. In Cloud Shell, use a text editor to create a local file called my-service.yaml.

    Such a file indicates the following:

    • How routing works—by first matching the host and then the path
    • How caching works—based on the cache mode and TTL
    • How requests and responses are modified—for example, by inserting the cdn_cache_status variable into a response header
  2. Paste the following sample content into the file, and then save it:

    name: SERVICE
    routing:
      hostRules:
      - hosts:
        - DOMAIN 
        pathMatcher: routes
      pathMatchers:
      - name: routes
        routeRules:
        - priority: 1
          matchRules:
          - prefixMatch: /
          origin: ORIGIN
          routeAction:
            cdnPolicy:
              cacheMode: CACHE_ALL_STATIC
              defaultTtl: 3600s
          headerAction:
            responseHeadersToAdd:
            - headerName: "x-cache-status"
              headerValue: "{cdn_cache_status}"
    

    Replace the following:

    • SERVICE: name of the service
    • DOMAIN: the domain for the new service

    If you specify the domain name, Media CDN responds with a 404 error for other hosts. * ORIGIN: the name of the related origin

  3. Use the gcloud edge-cache services import command with the .yaml file:

    gcloud edge-cache services import SERVICE \
        --source=my-service.yaml
    

    To view the newly created service in the list of EdgeCacheService resources in your project, use the gcloud edge-cache services list command.

API

Use the edgeCacheServices.create method:

POST https://networkservices.googleapis.com/v1/PARENT/edgeCacheServices?edgeCacheServiceId=SERVICE_ID
{
  "name": "SERVICE_ID",
  "routing": {
    "hostRules": [
      {
        "hosts": ["DOMAIN"],
        "pathMatcher": "routes"
      }
    ],
    "pathMatchers": [
      {
        "name": "routes",
        "routeRules": [
          {
            "priority": "1",
            "matchRules": [
              {
                "prefixMatch": "/"
              }
            ],
            "origin": "ORIGIN",
            "routeAction": {
               "cdnPolicy": {
                 "cacheMode": "CACHE_ALL_STATIC",
                 "defaultTtl": "3600s"
               }
            }
            "headerAction": {
              "responseHeadersToAdd": [
                {
                  "headerName": "x-cache-status",
                  "headerValue": "{cdn_cache_status}"
                }
              ]
            },
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Replace the following:

  • PARENT: the parent resource in the format projects/PROJECT/locations/global
  • SERVICE_ID: the name of the service
  • DOMAIN: the domain for the new service

    If you specify the domain name, Media CDN responds with a 404 error for other hosts.

  • ORIGIN_NAME: the name of the related origin

To view the newly created service in the list of EdgeCacheService resources in your project, use the edgeCacheServices.list method.

Terraform

resource "google_network_services_edge_cache_service" "default" {
  name = "cloud-media-service"
  routing {
    host_rule {
      hosts        = ["googlecloudexample.com"]
      path_matcher = "routes"
    }
    path_matcher {
      name = "routes"
      route_rule {
        description = "a route rule to match against"
        priority    = 1
        match_rule {
          prefix_match = "/"
        }
        origin = google_network_services_edge_cache_origin.default.name
        route_action {
          cdn_policy {
            cache_mode  = "CACHE_ALL_STATIC"
            default_ttl = "3600s"
          }
        }
        header_action {
          response_header_to_add {
            header_name  = "x-cache-status"
            header_value = "{cdn_cache_status}"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

It might take several minutes for your first service to be created. Media CDN provisions dedicated IP addresses and pushes your configuration to thousands of edge locations. Subsequent updates to a service, such as changing a route configuration or matching parameters, are faster.

Retrieve the IP addresses

To view the IP addresses for your newly created service, follow these steps:

Console

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

    Go to Media CDN

  2. Click the Services tab.

  3. For the IP addresses of your service, see the Addresses cell.

    If the cell is empty, refresh the browser.

gcloud

Use the gcloud edge-cache services describe command:

gcloud edge-cache services describe SERVICE

Replace SERVICE with the name of the service.

The output shows the IP addresses assigned to your service:

ipv4Addresses:
    IPV4_ADDRESS
ipv6Addresses:
    IPV6_ADDRESS
name: projects/my-project/locations/global/edgeCacheServices/SERVICE
...

API

Use the edgeCacheServices.get method:

GET https://networkservices.googleapis.com/v1/SERVICE_NAME

Replace SERVICE_NAME with the full name of the service. Use the following format:

projects/PROJECT/locations/global/edgeCacheServices/SERVICE_ID

Replace SERVICE_ID with the short name of the service.

The retrieved details include the IP addresses assigned to the service:

ipv4Addresses:
    IPV4_ADDRESS
ipv6Addresses:
    IPV6_ADDRESS

Test whether a response is being cached

Before testing the service, make sure that you have cacheable content stored at your origin so that Media CDN can retrieve it.

To test that your service is correctly configured to cache content, use the curl command-line tool to issue requests and check the responses. curl is also available in Cloud Shell in the Google Cloud console.

If you'd like to use your EdgeCacheService with your domain, you can assign the IP address of the EdgeCacheService to a domain record. For instructions, see Set up your domain using Cloud DNS. After you've set up your domain, access your content with the following curl command:

curl -svo /dev/null "http://DOMAIN_NAME/FILE_NAME"

If you did not configure DNS to point to your provisioned IP addresses, use the resolve option to override the address that curl uses.

curl -svo /dev/null --resolve DOMAIN_NAME:80:IP_ADDRESS "http://DOMAIN_NAME/FILE_NAME"

Replace the following:

  • DOMAIN_NAME : the host domain you specified while creating the service
  • IP_ADDRESS: the IP address of the service as visible in the Addresses column in the list of services
  • FILE_NAME: the name of the file you uploaded to the bucket

Example:

curl -svo /dev/null --resolve web.example.com:80:34.104.37.129 "http://web.example.com/file.mp4"

The command initially produces output similar to the following, with the status miss, because Media CDN doesn't have the requested data already retrieved from the origin:

< HTTP/2 200 OK
...
< x-cache-status: den;miss
...

When you submit the same request again any number of times, it produces an output similar to the following, with the status hit:

< HTTP/2 200 OK
...
< x-cache-status: den;hit
...

If it doesn't show the status hit, check the following:

  • The response is cacheable.
  • The configured cache mode allows caching of the content.
  • The origin isn't setting cache directives that prevent caching. For more information, see Cache configuration.

You've now tested a basic EdgeCacheService resource that can serve content globally. A production-grade service might need SSL (TLS) certificates, multiple origins, and a Google Cloud Armor security policy.

Optional: Clean up

Delete any resources that you do not intend to use again.

Console

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

    Go to Media CDN

  2. Click the Services tab.

  3. Select your service, and then click Delete.

  4. Click the Origins tab.

  5. Select your origin, and then click Delete.

gcloud

  1. To list the resources that you created, use the gcloud edge-cache origins list command and the gcloud edge-cache services list command.

  2. To delete the service, use the gcloud edge-cache services delete command:

    gcloud edge-cache services delete SERVICE
    

    Replace SERVICE with the name of the service.

  3. To delete the origin, use the gcloud edge-cache origins delete command:

    gcloud edge-cache origins delete ORIGIN
    

    Replace ORIGIN with the name of the origin.

API

  1. To list the resources that you created, use the edgeCacheServices.list method and the edgeCacheOrigins.list method.

  2. To delete the service, use the edgeCacheServices.delete method:

    DELETE https://networkservices.googleapis.com/v1/SERVICE_NAME
    

    Replace SERVICE_NAME with the full name of the service. Use the following format:

    projects/PROJECT/locations/global/edgeCacheServices/SERVICE_ID
    

    Replace SERVICE_ID with the short name of the service.

  3. To delete the origin, use the edgeCacheOrigins.delete method:

    DELETE https://networkservices.googleapis.com/v1/ORIGIN
    

    Replace ORIGIN with the full name of the origin. Use the following format:

    projects/PROJECT/locations/global/edgeCacheOrigins/ORIGIN_ID
    

    Replace ORIGIN_ID with the short name of the origin.

Repeat this process for any other resources that you created and do not intend to use again, such as the Cloud Storage bucket.

What's next