Create a Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) cluster

This guide walks you through creating a Kubernetes cluster on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). The document assumes some experience with the platform. For more information on the GKE, see the Kubernetes Engine Quickstart .

Prerequisites

You can use either Google Cloud Shell (in the browser) or your local shell.

For the local shell, install:

1. gcloud — Google Cloud SDK. Select your OS on the Google Cloud SDK page and follow the instructions.

2. kubectl — Kubernetes command-line tool. After installing gcloud, run:

   gcloud auth login
   gcloud components install kubectl
   

Create the GKE cluster

1. Create the cluster with gcloud. Replace <project ID> with your Google Cloud project ID (use gcloud projects list to see projects). You can change the zone (for example us-central1-a) and other parameters as needed:

   gcloud container clusters create my-cluster-name \
     --project <project ID> \
     --zone us-central1-a \
     --cluster-version 1.33 \
     --machine-type n1-standard-4 \
     --num-nodes=3
   

   For ARM64 nodes, use a different --machine-type, for example t2a-standard-4. Wait a few minutes for the cluster to be created.

2. Configure kubectl to use the new cluster:

   gcloud container clusters get-credentials my-cluster-name \
     --zone us-central1-a \
     --project <project ID>
   

3. Grant your user permission to create RBAC resources (required for installing the Operator). Use Cloud IAM as needed; the following creates a cluster-admin binding for the current user:

   kubectl create clusterrolebinding cluster-admin-binding \
     --clusterrole cluster-admin \
     --user $(gcloud config get-value core/account)
   

   ??? example “Expected output”

    ``` {.text .no-copy}
    clusterrolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/cluster-admin-binding created
    ```
   

Delete the GKE cluster

To remove the Kubernetes cluster and all resources, see Delete the Operator and database.

Next steps

Deploy the Operator and Percona Server for MongoDB.

Single-namespace deployment Multi-namespace deployment

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Last update: March 23, 2026
Created: March 23, 2026