Cloud CDN leverages Google Cloud global external Application Load Balancers to provide routing, health checking, and Anycast IP support. Global external Application Load Balancers can have multiple backend instance types , and you can choose which backends (or origins ) to enable Cloud CDN for.
This setup guide shows you how to create a global external Application Load Balancer with a Compute Engine managed instance group backend with Cloud CDN enabled.For general concepts, see the External Application Load Balancer overview .
If you are an existing user of the classic Application Load Balancer, make sure that you review Migration overview when you plan a new deployment with the global external Application Load Balancer.
Load balancer topologies
For an HTTPS load balancer, you create the configuration shown in the following diagram.
For an HTTP load balancer, you create the configuration shown in the following diagram.
The sequence of events in the diagrams are as follows:
- A client sends a content request to the external IPv4 address defined in the forwarding rule .
-  The load balancer checks whether the request can be served from cache. If so, the load balancer serves the requested content out of cache. If not, processing continues. 
-  For an HTTPS load balancer, the forwarding rule directs the request to the target HTTPS proxy . For an HTTP load balancer, the forwarding rule directs the request to the target HTTP proxy . 
-  The target proxy uses the rule in the URL map to determine that the single backend service receives all requests. 
-  The load balancer determines that the backend service has only one instance group and directs the request to a virtual machine (VM) instance in that group. 
-  The VM serves the content requested by the user. 
Before you begin
Complete the following steps before you create the load balancer.
Set up an SSL certificate resource
For an HTTPS load balancer, create an SSL certificate resource as described in the following:
We recommend using a Google-managed certificate.
This example assumes that you already have an SSL certificate resource named www-ssl-cert 
.
Set up permissions
To complete the steps in this guide, you must have permission to create Compute Engine instances, firewall rules, and reserved IP addresses in a project. You must have either a project owner or editor role , or you must have the following Compute Engine IAM roles .
| Task | Required role | 
|---|---|
| Create instances | Instance Admin | 
| Add and remove firewall rules | Security Admin | 
| Create load balancer components | Network Admin | 
| Create a project (optional) | Project Creator | 
For more information, see the following guides:
Configure the network and subnets
To create the example network and subnet, follow these steps.
Console
-  In the Google Cloud console, go to the VPC networkspage. 
-  Click Create VPC network. 
-  Enter a Namefor the network. 
-  For the Subnet creation mode, choose Custom. 
-  In the New subnetsection, configure the following fields: - Provide a Namefor the subnet.
- Select a Region.
- For IP stack type, select IPv4 (single-stack).
- Enter an IP address range. This is the primary IPv4 range for the subnet.
 
-  Click Done. 
-  To add a subnet in a different region, click Add subnetand repeat the previous steps. 
-  Click Create. 
gcloud
-  Create the custom mode VPC network: gcloud compute networks create NETWORK \ --subnet-mode=custom 
-  Within the network, create a subnet for backends: gcloud compute networks subnets create SUBNET \ --network= NETWORK \ --stack-type=IPV4_ONLY \ --range=10.1.2.0/24 \ --region= REGION Replace the following: -  NETWORK: a name for the VPC network.
-  SUBNET: a name for the subnet.
-  REGION: the name of the region.
 
-  
Create a managed instance group
To set up a load balancer with a Compute Engine backend, your VMs need to be in an instance group. This guide describes how to create a managed instance group with Linux VMs that have Apache running, and then set up load balancing. A managed instance group creates each of its managed instances based on the instance templates that you specify.
The managed instance group provides VMs running the backend servers of an external HTTP(S) load balancer. For demonstration purposes, backends serve their own hostnames.
Before you create a managed instance group, create an instance template.
Console
To support IPv4 traffic, use the following steps:
-  In the Google Cloud console, go to the Instance templatespage. 
-  Click Create instance template. 
-  For Name, enter lb-backend-template.
-  Ensure that the Boot disk is set to a Debian image, such as Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster). These instructions use commands that are only available on Debian, such as apt-get.
-  Expand Advanced options. 
-  Expand Networkingand configure the following fields: - For Network tags, enter allow-health-check.
- In the Network interfacessection, click  
 Editand make the
following changes: -  Network: NETWORK
-  Subnet: SUBNET
- IPv4 traffic: IPv4 (single-stack)
 
-  Network: 
- Click Done.
 
- For Network tags, enter 
-  Expand Management. In the Startup scriptfield, enter the following script: #! /bin/bash apt-get update apt-get install apache2 -y a2ensite default-ssl a2enmod ssl vm_hostname="$(curl -H "Metadata-Flavor:Google" \ http://metadata.google.internal/computeMetadata/v1/instance/name)" echo "Page served from: $vm_hostname" | \ tee /var/www/html/index.html systemctl restart apache2 
-  Click Create. 
gcloud
To support IPv4 traffic , run the following command:
gcloud compute instance-templates create TEMPLATE_NAME \ --region= REGION \ --network= NETWORK \ --subnet= SUBNET \ --stack-type=IPV4_ONLY \ --tags=allow-health-check \ --image-family=debian-10 \ --image-project=debian-cloud \ --metadata=startup-script='#! /bin/bash apt-get update apt-get install apache2 -y a2ensite default-ssl a2enmod ssl vm_hostname="$(curl -H "Metadata-Flavor:Google" \ http://metadata.google.internal/computeMetadata/v1/instance/name)" echo "Page served from: $vm_hostname" | \ tee /var/www/html/index.html systemctl restart apache2'
Terraform
To create the instance template, use the  google_compute_instance_template 
resource 
.
Create the managed instance group and select the instance template.
Console
-  In the Google Cloud console, go to the Instance groupspage. 
-  Click Create instance group. 
-  On the left, choose New managed instance group (stateless). 
-  For Name, enter lb-backend-example.
-  Under Location, select Single zone. 
-  For Region, select your preferred region. 
-  For Zone, select a zone. 
-  Under Instance template, select the instance template lb-backend-template.
-  For Autoscaling mode, select On: add and remove instances to the group. Set Minimum number of instancesto 2, and set Maximum number of instancesto2or more.
-  To create the new instance group, click Create. 
gcloud
-  Create the managed instance group based on the template. gcloud compute instance-groups managed create lb-backend-example \ --template= TEMPLATE_NAME --size=2 --zone= ZONE_A 
Terraform
To create the managed instance group, use the  google_compute_instance_group_manager 
resource 
.
To learn how to apply or remove a Terraform configuration, see Basic Terraform commands .
Add a named port to the instance group
For your instance group, define an HTTP service and map a port name to the relevant port. The load balancing service forwards traffic to the named port. For more information, see Named ports .
Console
-  In the Google Cloud console, go to the Instance groupspage. 
-  Click lb-backend-example. 
-  On the instance group's Overviewpage, click Edit. 
-  In the Port mappingsection, click Add port. - For the port name, enter http. For the port number, enter80.
 
- For the port name, enter 
-  Click Save. 
gcloud
Use the  gcloud compute instance-groups
set-named-ports 
 
command.
gcloud compute instance-groups set-named-ports lb-backend-example \
    --named-ports http:80 \
    --zone ZONE_A 
 
Terraform
The named_port 
attribute is included in the managed instance group sample 
.
Configure a firewall rule
In this example, you create the fw-allow-health-check 
firewall rule.
This is an ingress rule that allows traffic from the Google Cloud health
checking systems ( 130.211.0.0/22 
and 35.191.0.0/16 
). This example uses the
target tag allow-health-check 
to identify the VMs.
Console
-  In the Google Cloud console, go to the Firewall policiespage. 
-  Click Create firewall ruleto create the firewall rule. 
-  For Name, enter fw-allow-health-check.
-  Select a Network. 
-  Under Targets, select Specified target tags. 
-  Populate the Target tagsfield with allow-health-check.
-  Set Source filterto IPv4 ranges. 
-  Set Source IPv4 rangesto 130.211.0.0/22and35.191.0.0/16.
-  Under Protocols and ports, select Specified protocols and ports. 
-  Select the TCPcheckbox, and then type 80for the port numbers.
-  Click Create. 
gcloud
gcloud compute firewall-rules create fw-allow-health-check \ --network= NETWORK \ --action=allow \ --direction=ingress \ --source-ranges=130.211.0.0/22,35.191.0.0/16 \ --target-tags=allow-health-check \ --rules=tcp:80
Terraform
To create the firewall rule, use the  google_compute_firewall 
resource 
.
To learn how to apply or remove a Terraform configuration, see Basic Terraform commands .
Reserve an external IP address
Now that your instances are up and running, set up a global static external IP address that your customers use to reach your load balancer.
Console
-  In the Google Cloud console, go to the External IP addressespage. 
-  To reserve an IPv4 address, click Reserve external static IP address. 
-  For Name, enter lb-ipv4-1.
-  Set Network Service Tierto Premium. 
-  Set IP versionto IPv4. 
-  Set Typeto Global. 
-  Click Reserve. 
gcloud
gcloud compute addresses create lb-ipv4-1 \
    --ip-version=IPV4 \
    --network-tier=PREMIUM \
    --global 
Note the IPv4 address that was reserved:
gcloud compute addresses describe lb-ipv4-1 \
    --format="get(address)" \
    --global 
Terraform
To reserve the IP address, use the  google_compute_global_address 
resource 
.
To learn how to apply or remove a Terraform configuration, see Basic Terraform commands .
Set up the load balancer
In this example, you are using HTTPS (frontend) between the client and the load balancer. For HTTPS, you need one or more SSL certificate resources to configure the proxy. We recommend using a Google-managed certificate.
Even if you're using HTTPS on the frontend, you can use HTTP on the backend. Google automatically encrypts traffic between Google Front Ends (GFEs) and your backends that reside within Google Cloud VPC networks.
Console
Select the load balancer type
-  In the Google Cloud console, go to the Load balancing page. 
- Click Create load balancer .
- For Type of load balancer , select Application Load Balancer (HTTP/HTTPS) and click Next .
- For Public facing or internal , select Public facing (external) and click Next .
- For Global or single region deployment , select Best for global workloads and click Next .
- For Load balancer generation , select Classic Application Load Balancer and click Next .
- Click Configure .
Basic configuration
For the load balancer Name 
, enter something like web-map-https 
or web-map-http 
.
Frontend configuration
- Click Frontend configuration .
- Set Protocol to HTTPS .
- Select IPv4for IPv4 traffic. Set IP address tolb-ipv4-1, which you created earlier.
- Set Port to 443 .
- Click Certificate , and select your primary SSL certificate.
- Optional: Create an SSL policy: - In the SSL policy list, select Create a policy .
- Set the name of the SSL policy to my-ssl-policy.
- For Minimum TLS Version , select TLS 1.0 .
- For Profile , select Modern . The Enabled features and Disabled features are displayed.
- Click Save .
 
- Optional: Select the Enable HTTP to HTTPS Redirect 
checkbox to enable redirects. Enabling this checkbox creates an additional partial HTTP load balancer that uses the same IP address as your HTTPS load balancer and redirects incoming HTTP requests to your load balancer's HTTPS frontend. This checkbox can only be selected when the HTTPS protocol is selected and a reserved IP address is used. 
- Click Done .
Backend configuration
- Click Backend configuration .
- Under Backend services & backend buckets , select Create a backend service .
- Add a name for your backend service, such as web-backend-service.
- Go to the Security 
section, and then select Enable
  IAP to secure access to your applications 
. Cloud CDN and IAP are not compatible. If you have Cloud CDN enabled, and you select to enable IAP, Cloud CDN is automatically disabled. 
-  Optional: Configure a default backend security policy. The default security policy throttles traffic over a user-configured threshold. For more information about default security policies, see the Rate limiting overview . - To opt out of the Cloud Armor default security policy, select Nonein the Cloud Armor backend security policy list.
- To configure the Cloud Armor default security policy, select Default security policy in the Cloud Armor backend security policy list.
- In the Policy name field, accept the automatically generated name or enter a name for your security policy.
- In the Request count 
field, accept the default request
    count or enter an integer between 1and10,000.
- In the Interval field, select an interval.
- In the Enforce on key field, choose one of the following values: All , IP address , or X-Forwarded-For IP address . For more information about these options, see Identifying clients for rate limiting .
 
- To opt out of the Cloud Armor default security policy, select 
- Select Enable Cloud CDN .
- Optional: Modify the cache mode and TTL settings.
- Retain the other default settings.
- Click Create .
Host and path rules
For Host and path rules , retain the default settings.
Review and finalize
- Click Review and finalize .
- Review your load balancer configuration settings.
- Optional: Click Equivalent code to view the REST API request that will be used to create the load balancer.
- Click Create .
Wait for the load balancer to be created.
If you created an HTTPS load balancer and selected the Enable HTTP to HTTPS Redirect checkbox, you will also see an HTTP load balancer created with a -redirect suffix.
- Click the name of the load balancer.
- On the Load balancer details screen, note the IP:Port for your load balancer.
gcloud
- Create a health check. gcloud compute health-checks create http http-basic-check \ --port 80
- Create a backend service. gcloud compute backend-services create web-backend-service \ --load-balancing-scheme=EXTERNAL \ --protocol=HTTP \ --port-name=http \ --health-checks=http-basic-check \ --global
- Add your instance group as the backend to the backend service. gcloud beta compute backend-services add-backend web-backend-service \ --instance-group=lb-backend-example \ --instance-group-zone= ZONE_A \ --global 
- For HTTP, create a URL map to route the incoming requests to the default backend
service. gcloud beta compute url-maps create web-map-http \ --default-service web-backend-service 
- For HTTPS, create a URL map to route the incoming requests to the
default backend service. gcloud beta compute url-maps create web-map-https \ --default-service web-backend-service 
Set up an HTTPS frontend
Skip this section for HTTP load balancers.
- For HTTPS, if you haven't already done so, create the global SSL certificate resource, as shown in the following sections:
-  For HTTPS, create a target HTTPS proxy to route requests to your URL map. The proxy is the portion of the load balancer that holds the SSL certificate for an HTTPS load balancer, so you also load your certificate in this step. gcloud compute target-https-proxies create https-lb-proxy \ --url-map=web-map-https \ --ssl-certificates=www-ssl-cert 
- For HTTPS, create a global forwarding rule to route incoming requests to
the proxy. gcloud compute forwarding-rules create https-content-rule \ --load-balancing-scheme=EXTERNAL \ --network-tier=PREMIUM \ --address=lb-ipv4-1 \ --global \ --target-https-proxy=https-lb-proxy \ --ports=443 
- Optional: For HTTPS, create a global SSL policy and attach it to the HTTPS proxy.
 To create a global SSL policy:gcloud compute ssl-policies create my-ssl-policy \ --profile MODERN \ --min-tls-version 1.0 gcloud compute target-https-proxies update https-lb-proxy \ --ssl-policy my-ssl-policy 
Set up an HTTP frontend
Skip this section for HTTPS load balancers.
- For HTTP, create a target HTTP proxy to route requests to your URL map. gcloud compute target-http-proxies create http-lb-proxy \ --url-map=web-map-http 
- For HTTP, create a global forwarding rule to route incoming requests to
  the proxy. gcloud compute forwarding-rules create http-content-rule \ --load-balancing-scheme=EXTERNAL \ --address=lb-ipv4-1 \ --global \ --target-http-proxy=http-lb-proxy \ --ports=80 
Terraform
-  To create the health check, use the google_compute_health_checkresource.
-  To create the backend service, use the google_compute_backend_serviceresource.This example uses load_balancing_scheme="EXTERNAL_MANAGED", which sets up a global external Application Load Balancer with advanced traffic management capability . To create a classic Application Load Balancer, make sure you change theload_balancing_schemetoEXTERNALbefore running the script.
-  To create the URL map, use the google_compute_url_mapresource.
-  To create the target HTTP proxy, use the google_compute_target_http_proxyresource.
-  To create the forwarding rule, use the google_compute_global_forwarding_ruleresource.This example uses load_balancing_scheme="EXTERNAL_MANAGED", which sets up a global external Application Load Balancer with advanced traffic management capability . To create a classic Application Load Balancer, make sure you change theload_balancing_schemetoEXTERNALbefore running the script.
To learn how to apply or remove a Terraform configuration, see Basic Terraform commands .
Enable Cloud CDN
If you didn't already enable Cloud CDN when you created your backend service, you can do this now by updating the backend service.
gcloud compute backend-services update web-backend-service \
    --enable-cdn \
    --cache-mode= CACHE_MODE 
 
Set the cache mode by replacing CACHE_MODE with one of the following:
-  CACHE_All_STATIC: Automatically caches static content .
-  USE_ORIGIN_HEADERS(default): Requires the origin to set valid caching headers to cache content.
-  FORCE_CACHE_ALL: Caches all content, ignoring anyprivate,no-store, orno-cachedirectives inCache-Controlresponse headers.
Connect your domain to your load balancer
After the load balancer is created, note the IP address that is associated with
the load balancer—for example, 30.90.80.100 
. To point your domain to your
load balancer, create an A 
record by using your domain registration service. If
you added multiple domains to your SSL certificate, you must add an A 
record
for each one, all pointing to the load balancer's IP address. For example, to
create A 
records for www.example.com 
and example.com 
, use the following:
NAME TYPE DATA www A 30.90.80.100 @ A 30.90.80.100
If you use Cloud DNS as your DNS provider, see Add, modify, and delete records .
Test traffic sent to your instances
Now that the load balancing service is running, you can send traffic to the forwarding rule and watch the traffic be dispersed to different instances.
Console
-  In the Google Cloud console, go to the Load balancing page. 
- Click the load balancer that you just created.
-  In the Backend section, confirm that the VMs are healthy. The Healthy column should be populated, indicating that both VMs are healthy ( 2/2). If you see otherwise, first try reloading the page. It can take a few moments for the Google Cloud console to indicate that the VMs are healthy. If the backends do not appear healthy after a few minutes, review the firewall configuration and the network tag assigned to your backend VMs.
- For HTTPS, if you are using a Google-managed certificate, confirm that your certificate resource's status is ACTIVE. For more information, see Google-managed SSL certificate resource status .
- After the Google Cloud console shows that the backend instances are
healthy, you can test your load balancer using a web browser by going to https:// IP_ADDRESS(orhttp:// IP_ADDRESS). ReplaceIP_ADDRESSwith the load balancer's IP address .
- If you used a self-signed certificate for testing HTTPS, your browser displays a warning. You must explicitly instruct your browser to accept a self-signed certificate.
- Your browser should render a page with content showing the name of the
 instance that served the page, along with its zone (for example, Page served from: lb-backend-example-xxxx). If your browser doesn't render this page, review the configuration settings in this guide.
gcloud
gcloud compute addresses describe lb-ipv4-1 \ --format="get(address)" \ --global
After a few minutes have passed, you can test the setup by running the following curl 
command.
curl http:// IP_ADDRESS 
 
-OR-
curl https:// HOSTNAME 
 
Disable Cloud CDN
Console
Disable Cloud CDN for a single backend service
-  In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud CDNpage. 
-  On the right side of the origin row, click Menu and then select Edit. 
-  Clear the checkboxes of any backend services that you want to stop from using Cloud CDN. 
-  Click Update. 
Remove Cloud CDN for all backend services for an origin
-  In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud CDNpage. 
-  On the right side of the origin row, click Menu and then select Remove. 
-  To confirm, click Remove. 
gcloud
gcloud compute backend-services update BACKEND_SERVICE_NAME \ --no-enable-cdn
Disabling Cloud CDN does not invalidate or purge caches. If you disable and then re-enable Cloud CDN, most or all of your cached content might still be cached. To prevent content from being served from cache, you must invalidate that content .
What's next
- To learn about what content is cached, see the Caching overview .
- To use Cloud CDN in GKE, see Ingress features .
- To check whether Cloud CDN is serving responses from cache, see Viewing logs .
- To find information about common problems and solutions, see Troubleshooting .
- To learn how Cloud CDN works, see the Cloud CDN overview .

