GCP locations installation

    Run a Control Plane on GCP using Compute Engine, to set up your Private Locations and run load generators in your own GCP network.

    GCP Compute Engine is a computing and hosting service that lets you create and run virtual machines on Google infrastructure.

    In this example:

    • we use Compute Engine to configure a service to run the Gatling Control Plane
    • Compute Engine runs our Docker containers on a VM on the GCP infrastructure
    • the Control Plane configuration file is loaded from a Secret Manager

    This is only an example.

    Secret Manager

    In the GCP management console, open the Secret Manager (or search for “Secret Manager” in the search bar). Set the right project and click CREATE SECRET.

    Choose a name for the secret, and upload the Control Plane configuration

    Configure other options as preferred.

    Click CREATE SECRET.

    Configuring the secret

    Service account

    We need a service account which will allow a VM to:

    • download the Control Plane’s configuration file, stored in a secret
    • spawn new load generators on GCP when running a simulation

    Role creation

    In the GCP management console, open Roles (or search for “Roles” in the search bar).

    Enable the following required permissions:

    compute.disks.create
compute.instances.create
compute.instances.delete
compute.instances.list
compute.instances.setLabels
compute.instances.setMetadata
compute.subnetworks.use
compute.subnetworks.useExternalIp
secretmanager.versions.access
    Role creation

    Some permissions may be required based on configuration:

    • compute.images.useReadOnly when using custom image
    • compute.instanceTemplates.useReadOnly for instance templates

    Service account creation

    In the GCP management console, open Service accounts (or search for “Service Accounts” in the search bar). Click CREATE SERVICE ACCOUNT.

    Fill details with:

    • a name
    • an ID
    • a description of the control plane service account
    Service account details

    Then, choose the previously created role.

    Service account role

    Click Done.

    VM instance creation

    In the GCP management console, open VM Instances (or search for “VM instances” in the search bar). Click CREATE INSTANCE.

    Set the VM instance:

    • name
    • region
    • zone

    Choose a machine type.

    Click DEPLOY CONTAINER.

    Set the image to gatlingcorp/control-plane, and then click ADD A VOLUME MOUNT.

    Volume type is Directory, mount path is set to /app/conf/control-plane.conf and host path to /etc/control-plane/control-plane.conf.

    The control plane configuration from the secret manager will be downloaded to the host path later.

    Container configuration

    Configure the Identity and API access for the previously created service account.

    Identity API Access

    The last step is configuring an automation that downloads the control plane configuration on start.

    To do so, go to advanced options in the Management section and set the Automation startup script to:

    #! /bin/bash

sudo mkdir /etc/control-plane
sudo touch /etc/control-plane/control-plane.conf

toolbox gcloud version
toolbox gcloud secrets versions access latest --secret=<secret-name> | sudo tee /etc/control-plane/control-plane.conf
    Identity API Access

    This script downloads the control plane configuration secret from the secret manager on the disk to a path mounted on the control plane container.

    Click *Create

    Your Control Plane is up and running!

    After a short time, you should see your Control Plane get the “up” status in Gatling Enterprise Cloud.

    Checking out the Control Plane's status in Gatling Enterprise Cloud

    You can now configure a simulation to run on one or more of this Control Plane’s locations!

    Update your control plane

    To update your control plane, reset your GCP VM Instance.

    Being configured with the image gatlingcorp/control-plane:latest, it automatically pulls the latest published version:

    1. Go to the Compute Engine VM Instances page.
    2. Click on the control plane instance.
    3. Click the Reset button.

    Your control plane resets and restarts using the latest image published on Docker Hub.

    Update control plane instance installed on GCP VM Instance

    If you did not use the latest tag, you can create a new instance and specify the control plane image you want to deploy. To create a new instance, follow the create a similar VM instructions and only replace the image configuration.

    Directly updating the control plane image is possible but not recommended since you have to start it manually instead of letting GCP manage it.

    Troubleshooting

    Deployment failed

    It’s important to note that, based on your configuration, certain permissions may be missing, leading to deployment failures.

    If you encounter the following error within Gatling Enterprise Cloud:

    Control plane 'cp_example' failed to deploy private location 'prl_example' failed to deploy: com.google.api.gax.rpc.PermissionDeniedException: Forbidden

    In this scenario, you should establish a connection to the instance where the control plane container is active. Subsequently, you can inspect the container’s log by using the command: docker logs <container-id>.

    Then search for missing permissions exception for the Google Cloud SDK, such as:

    "errors": [
  {
    "message": "Required 'compute.instanceTemplates.useReadOnly' permission for 'projects/example/global/instanceTemplates/gatling-template'",
    "domain": "global",
    "reason": "forbidden"
  },
  {
    "message": "Required 'compute.images.useReadOnly' permission for 'projects/example/global/images/classic-openjdk-17'",
    "domain": "global",
    "reason": "forbidden"
  },
  {
    "message": "Required 'compute.instances.setServiceAccount' permission for 'projects/example/zones/europe-west3-a/instances/unusedName'",
    "domain": "global",
    "reason": "forbidden"
  }
]

    Control plane is down

    Containers take some time to become operational on the VM when deploying containers with konlet. To verify the status of the control plane, you can inspect the instance by running the command: docker ps -a.

    If docker ps displays the konlet container as running, it indicates that the control-plane container has not yet been deployed.

    If you do not see any output for an extended period, it’s advisable to review the konlet logs using the command: sudo journalctl -u konlet-startup.

    Timeout

    Control plane deployed the instances successfully; however, a timeout occurred during the deployment process. This is likely due to issues with the load generator initialization script, such as missing requirements on a custom image or lack of internet access.

    You can examine these logs directly within containers by executing the command: sudo journalctl -u google-startup-scripts.service.

    If the instance is stopped, it can be maintained in an operational state by setting debug.keep-load-generator-alive to true in the location configuration. However, remember to delete it manually when no longer needed.

    Deploy infrastructure using Terraform

    Gatling provides Terraform modules to set up GCP infrastructure for Private Locations. One module specifies the load generator location(s), and the second module deploys the control plane. To use the Terraform module, visit our dedicated GitHub repository

    Edit this page on GitHub

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