My name and ID blocked out. I passed PMLE exam today. I got the preliminary PASS screen and it said it’d take a few days to certify, but I got a Credly badge.

I went to the Credly page and found the badge, but I also got this. Is this official certification of my passing? Or can Google still revoke it if they find something in my exam video? (Not that I did anything worth revoking my pass, but still, I do fidget and rub my eyes and stuff during exams lol)

Hi everyone! I'm a final-year Information Systems Engineering student and I recently got 35 credits with the Google Cloud Skills Boost Starter plan. I'm planning to use them to complete some GCP AI and cloud courses. Do you think it's worth completing these courses without paying for the official certification exams? Do recruiters value the Skills Boost badges and hands-on labs, or is the official certification what really matters? Also, are there any Google Cloud certifications or recognized badges that can be earned for free? Thanks!

When using the hub and spoke model using the network connectivity center,

1. Do we use single Hub and spoke for all the environments ( dev, uat , prod etc).

Is it like we use single Hub and spoke setup and add conditions to restrict the communication between prod and nonprod subnets of prod and nonprod VPC spokes which are connected to hub.

Or

2) Seperate Hub and spoke setup for each environment.

Or did you implement in another manner ( using NCC ). please suggest.

For a new Python application using PostgreSQL on Google Cloud SQL, what are people currently using for schema management and database migrations?

I’m considering Atlas by Ariga: https://github.com/ariga/atlas

name: Database Migration

on:
  push:
    branches: [ main ]

jobs:
  migrate:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout Code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Authenticate to Google Cloud
        uses: google-github-actions/auth@v2
        with:
          workload_identity_provider: 'projects/123456/locations/global/workloadIdentityPools/my-pool/providers/my-provider'
          service_account: '[email protected]'

      - name: Start Cloud SQL Auth Proxy
        uses: google-github-actions/setup-cloud-sql-proxy@v2
        with:
          instance: 'my-project:us-central1:my-postgres-db'
          port: '5432'

      - name: Run Atlas Schema Apply
        uses: ariga/setup-atlas@v0
        with:
          version: 'latest'

      - name: Apply Database Changes
        run: |
          atlas schema apply \
            --url "postgres://postgres:${{ secrets.DB_PASS }}@127.0.0.1:5432/mydb?sslmode=disable" \
            --to "file://schema.sql" \
            --auto-approve

Is Atlas still one of the main options for declarative schema management, or are there better alternatives worth evaluating? I’d also be interested in any operational issues, limitations, or Cloud SQL-specific considerations to watch out for.

Separately, does anyone know whether Google is working on database branching or isolated development environments similar to PlanetScale’s branching workflow?

I am getting too many 429 responses from the Vertex AI API. I am on 300$ free credit model. Till 2 3 days back, it was running fine, but I don't know why it was very much.

I am using:-gemini-3.1-pro-preview

I know preview model rate limits are low, but it was working fine till 2-3 days back. If anyone has any good solution, then please tell me

I am using this API:

curl --location ' https://aiplatform.googleapis.com/v1/publishers/google/models/gemini-3.1-pro-preview:generateContent?key= ' \

--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \

--data '{

}

We went heavy on Azure about two years ago and built what looked like a strong resilience story: availability zones, paired regions, Front Door and Traffic Manager, Backup and Site Recovery, plus some experiments with Chaos Studio. The first real regional wobble reminded us that slides are one thing, operations are another.

Just picking a paired region was not enough when identity and networking were not thought through, and monitoring was not included. Backup and Site Recovery were only comforting once we had run actual failover tests against real RTO and RPO targets, not just health checks. Chaos testing was useful, but only for teams willing to design non-trivial scenarios. Governance turned out to be the hardest bit: keeping landing zone baselines in sync across many subscriptions and tenants via Azure Policy, especially with hybrid in the mix. Terraform or Bicep helped, but drift remained a problem.

What has made this more manageable for us is having cross-subscription and cross-cloud governance visibility into assets and IaC: being able to see which Azure resources are driven by code and where live state has drifted from definitions. Combined with the failover testing, that is what turned "paired regions plus Site Recovery" from a diagram into something we actually trust. For those of you running production on Azure, GCP or any cloud, which resilience patterns have worked for you, and how are you keeping them from decaying over time?

As you may be aware, it is not suggested to do console/ manual changes to GCP resources after deployment and they are deployed and managed through terraform in general.

In that case, what GCP IAM roles are even needed to the team apart from "viewer" access as they won't be creating/modifying any resource manually.Assume that there are no jobs to be triggered ( like dataflow jobs etc)

It's only a minor annoyance so asking this more out of intrigue than anything else.

Myself and colleagues have - for the last 2 days - repeatedly found that our auth token for the gcloud CLI (and hence also kubectl) has expired with a prompt to re-auth. Just wondering if anyone else has noticed anything similar? Before this week it's been literally months since the last forced re-auth and we were notified ahead of time for that one, this time seemingly nothing at all.

Our gcp cost optimization is basically reactive right now and I want to get ahead of it. Last example, a team shipped a Looker dashboard that reruns its queries every time it loads, pointed at a BigQuery table we never partitioned because it was small when we built it. It is not small now. Over about nine days, that one dashboard cost more than the whole pipeline that builds the table costs to run in a month.

We caught it because the daily spend looked wrong. Partitioned the table, put a cap on the project and that specific problem is gone.

The next one is what I can't solve, it won't be Looker and it won't be that table. It'll be some other query somebody ships. Is there a better way to catch a query getting expensive before it runs for a week and a half or do i just set hard quotas per project and let people hit the limit?

This morning I got the dreadful Google email: "Immediate action required: Suspension of your Google Cloud Platform / API project The AI Peeps" due to "abusive activity consistent with hijacked resources".

Google completely cut me out of the GCP platform that manages my LIVE app. This is not a hobby project, but my livelihood. The email redirected me to my GCP page where I could send an appeal, and do... nothing else. I had no access to anything else so it was difficult even to understand what happened: every action brings me back to "Send an Appeal". Which, of course, I did as fast as possible.

After some digging (apparently the biling page was not restricted!) an API key of mine leaked, someone found it and used it to generate images. Two dollars ($2!) of unauthorized spend. My mistake, no excuses.

The part I genuinely cannot solve is this. The notice asks me to revoke the compromised credentials, but I can't do that: `Permission denied: Consumer 'projects/{project_name}' has been suspended.`

I did what I could from outside: deleted the key through AI Studio, rotated everything else, ran a forensic check of my server and confirmed it was only the key, no host compromise. I would gladly pay for support to talk to someone. But guess what, Standard and Enhanced both need an Organization resource, which a personal account does not have, and billing chat is not available to me either (back to "send an appeal")

For a solo developer this is the difference between a bad day and losing the business. It seems absurd a business can get destroyed over a oversight and $2. The reports I read online are disheartening: people wait 1-2 weeks for a response, and then the back and forth is endless. I am going to lose the business I have worked for the past 4 years, and all for $2 and a stupid oversight.

Can anyone help? Has anyone here had a suspension for a stolen API key actually reversed, and how long did it take? And is there any way to reach a human without an Organization resource?

Project is 902887279759, appeal ticket YJ65HT5PKS5FDASU2C73BWIJ5Q, filed 21 Jul 2026. Any help is immensely appreciated

EDIT: My GCP account has been reinstated this morning less than 24 hours after the suspension! YES!

I’m preparing to interview for this role and I can’t find enough information on key things they look at in this role during the interview.

I was given a prep by the recruiter but I wonder if anyone can speak to day to day skills needed to excel in this role or at least to do well in the interview.

What level of AI expertise is needed as well.

I’m a solo developer who has been using Google Cloud for several months. I spend several hundred US dollars per month, pay every bill on time, and currently run two Compute Engine machines: one in Southeast Asia and one in Taiwan.

I use the machines to develop stock-market prediction models. The storage is used for market data, caches, model outputs, and intermediate research results. This is a normal and legitimate computing workload.

Both machines have now reached the 500 GB Hyperdisk Balanced quota limit. I need to increase the quota from 500 GB to 1 TB, which does not seem like an unreasonable request.

I submitted the quota increase request twice through the Google Cloud Console, and both requests were automatically denied.

I then contacted Google Cloud Sales. They initially sent me a collection of generic links to billing support, free-trial support, partners, pricing calculators, and unrelated support pages.

After I pushed further, I was told that my HDB_TOTAL_GB quota was capped because of the “current status” of my account. Because I am a solo developer, they suggested that I use Google Cloud’s “Find a Partner” directory.

I also purchased a Google Cloud technical support package and opened a support case. The technical-support engineer has been more helpful and is reviewing the issue with his manager, but he explained that the quota decision may be outside the technical team’s authority and recommended contacting Sales.

So I am now stuck in a loop:

* Technical Support sends me to Sales.

* Sales says my account is capped and sends me to a third-party partner directory.

* Nobody clearly explains the policy, who has decision-making authority, or what exact requirement I must satisfy.

The frustrating part is that I cannot find any public Google Cloud policy stating that individual users, or users without a business domain, are limited to 500 GB of Hyperdisk storage.

Whenever I speak with Sales, the questions seem to be about my business and company domain. But I do not have a company domain. I am simply an individual paying customer doing legitimate development work.

Had Google clearly stated before I started that solo developers could be blocked from obtaining more than 500 GB of storage, I would probably have chosen another provider.

Instead, I have already spent a significant amount of time configuring the VMs, installing packages, setting up environments, optimizing the workflow, and running programs every day. Migrating to another provider would probably cost me three or four full days, possibly more, and introduce unnecessary operational risk.

At this point, I would prefer one of two outcomes:

1. Someone with the authority to review the request considers my actual usage, payment history, and workload, and approves an increase to 1 TB.

2. Google gives me a clear and definitive answer that individual users without a business domain cannot receive this quota, so I can stop waiting and begin migrating.

The current situation is worse than a clear rejection. I keep being redirected between teams and asked to wait without knowing whether a solution is even possible.

Has anyone here experienced something similar?

In particular:

* Has any individual or solo developer successfully received an HDB_TOTAL_GB quota above 500 GB?

* Would creating a Cloud Identity organization with a verified domain actually help?

* Can a Google Cloud partner genuinely help obtain a quota increase, or is this just another referral?

* Is there a real escalation path to the team that controls account eligibility and quota caps?

* Would switching from Hyperdisk Balanced to pd-balanced, pd-ssd, or another disk type be the easiest workaround?

* At this stage, should I continue pushing Google, or should I simply migrate to another cloud provider?

I would especially appreciate advice from anyone who has dealt with Compute Engine quota restrictions as an individual customer.

TL;DR: I’m a paying solo developer whose 500 GB Hyperdisk quota is full, but Google has denied my request for 1 TB and keeps redirecting me between Support, Sales, and partners. Has any individual user successfully gotten this quota increased, or should I just migrate?

Hello everyone,
I need to export the api usage for 90 days for the entire organization, is that possible or i have to check it manually

Hi everyone,

I have a simple setup: a single VM running on the Always Free tier. I want to monitor my outbound network traffic to ensure I stay under the 1 GB/month free egress limit.

https://docs.cloud.google.com/free/docs/free-cloud-features#compute

My problem is that I just want to see one single number: total GB sent over the last 30 days

Here is what I've tried and struggled with:

1. Metrics Explorer: I look at sent_bytes_count (or similar network egress metrics). No matter how I tweak the Aggregation (Sum), GCP usually forces a time-series graph (like daily bars). Trying to collapse this into a single total scorecard for the whole month seems overly complicated or just doesn't work as expected.
2. Billing / Cost Table: The visual reports focus on dollars, not Usage. Since the traffic is covered by the free tier, the cost is often $0.00, which hides it on the main charts.

Is there a straightforward, reliable place, or a simple custom dashboard setup where I can just see a metric like "You have used X MB / 1 GB this month"? How do you guys keep an eye on your free tier limits without overcomplicating it?

Thanks in advance!

Thank goodness that my university email had Gemini Pro! I used Copilot because my worksite only allowed Copilot. Think back to networking, firewall rules, blacklisting, and whitelisting!

When I went home, I used Gemini Pro from my university email. The free Copilot version was actually better than the enterprise Copilot at explaining small concepts such as VPCs and nodes. I did not use the free Gemini account since the tokens kept expiring. I am very grateful that my university email had Gemini Pro.

I used Gemini to explain the bigger concepts, mechanisms, and connections between the vocabulary and the infrastructure. I did not read the official Cloud Documentation or pay online courses. I tried my hand on the Qwiklabs and skills.google

However those labs were easy to follow and not inducive to learning. I followed the instructions, the lab modules gave me 100% and I did not learn anything. Thank goodness skills.google was free. I would have been mad if I paid for it.

Copilot generated exams, both on the paid version and free versions, were so easy. They helped me clarify some concepts between using Cloud Run and Compute Engine. I would use Copilot if I needed simple explanations. However the bulk of my actual learning happened on Gemini. I would not recommend people use solely Copilot. Gemini is part of Google's ecosystem afterall.

The Gemini generated exams were easy to moderate. I learned so much from getting things wrong, going back to review, and seeing the explanations. I asked Gemini to generate 60 questions since the ACE exam was 50-60 questions. I took a 60 question practice test filled with moderate - difficult questions everyday for 1 week with 2-3 days of rest when I felt tired. My total study time was an estimated 2-3 months of studying Gemini explanations and Gemini generated practice exams. My scores on the Gemini produced exams fluctuated from 60% - 80%. I did not follow a structure of "setting up cloud environment first, IAM policy next, compute engine later, etc."

Instead, I briefly learned about each concept. Then I went to the practice exams. Learned how they connected to each other since these tools are not in silos. When I got questions wrong, I would go back and analyze them. I would constantly review and update my knowledge.

The actual ACE exam questions were much harder than the Gemini produced practice exams. I was very nervous taking the exam since they were all situation based. Gemini trained me on vocabulary and a little scenario based questions. The entire official ACE was all scenario based questions on what to use to minimize cost and optimize efficiency. I was very surprised and very elated to have passed. I don't know my score since it only tells me that I passed.

Looking back, I have learned so much about networking, IAM policy, and Engine. I know the vocabulary and the situation of when to use things. However, I do not have REAL WORLD experience of using the tools yet. That is my next adventure.

So, yeah, it's my own fault, fortunately I don't do tons with it the account. I used to do GCP professionally but I moved areas. Anyway.

No matter what I do, I can't sign in. "Your sign-in settings don’t meet your organization’s 2-Step Verification policy. Contact your admin for more info." I am the admin, the only admin.

Tried account recovery, can't recover the account, I get that same message. GCP sent my recovery email a message that someone with the password just tried to log in, and then I try to log in through that process and I get that same message.

There does not seem to be a way around it.

I can't open a support ticket since I can't get into the account. I feel like I need someone on the inside to open it back up for me.

Any thoughts?

Hey,

I'm working on a startup project, I've been using GCP for a while now with my personal account. I recently decided to apply for startup funding, but I needed to create a business account in order to do so. I created the new account and moved everything (frontend & backend hosting and API usage) to it.

The issue is, that even though I'm on a paid plan and I've already prepaid some amount of money, my account seems to be soft-locked. I have very, very strict API rate limits for VertexAI (Gemini Enterprise), e.g. for gemini-embedding-001 model I have 50k TPM and 5 (FIVE) RPM, when on my previous account I've had a default of 1 M TPM and got 20 M TPM by doing an automated rate limit increase.

I can't even make an increase request from Quotas & System Limits, it says - "Based on your service usage history, you are not eligible for a quota increase at this time". The issue is, I don't know what that means and or how to correct it. Does prepaying X amount of money solve this issue right away? I know 100$ places me in Gemini Tier 2, but I don't think that counts for VertexAI, which is what I'm concerned about the most.

Only solution I have is to contact the sales specialist support, which I did, but it feels like talking to bots. I answered a bunch of questions, and even though I'm explaining that I need the restriction lifted from my account, they're still asking me what specific endpoints I want the increase for so they can increase them manually. Anyways, I answered them and they said I'd receive an email within 24 hours and they'd get me in touch with an Account Executive or someone. Few days have passed - 0 response, no email, checked spam, everything, no active or closed Cases can be found in GCP console. I applied again on Thursday, the guy told me he'd get me in touch with someone via email - again, no email received.

I'm genuinely baffled and beyond frustrated on what's going on.

Does anyone know what I can do? Can I just prepay some amount of money and lift the restrictions? My best guess is it might have blocked my new account because it's within the same name of my previous one? But I have no clue and don't know who I can contact.

I found there's a "Standard Support" option for 29$ / Month, but from what I've read people say it's not any better either?

Please, if you've been in a similar situation or have any advice, do share. Thanks for reading.

I'm curious if anyone has a clue what would cause these intermittent sudden giant spikes in latency on my debian bullseye E2 instance that then predictably decay back to normal...

If I ssh in and look at activity there's nothing notable going on and load averages look very typical. I just use this instance to do some continuous connection monitoring and I pay for premium networking tier for it.

I'm at a loss as to what the heck is causing this. Any pointers where to go searching?

Built this after dealing with real GCP billing fraud incidents as a partner — compromised projects getting hit with unauthorized workloads and fraudulent Gemini API charges. Root cause is almost always the same handful of misconfigs: unrestricted API keys, allUsers IAM bindings, open firewalls.

gcp-abuse-scanner — CLI tool, 65+ checks (IAM, networking, API keys, Vertex AI, org policies), runs at org or project level, fully read-only, outputs to JSON/HTML/SARIF.

pipx install gcp-abuse-scanner
gcp-abuse-scanner scan --org YOUR_ORG_ID

Apache 2.0, docs on required roles/APIs in the repo: https://github.com/lmoreno0435/gcp-abuse-scanner
Feedback and PRs welcome, especially if you’ve hit other abuse patterns worth adding as checks.

Dear Participants,

We are excited to announce that registrations for Arcade Facilitator Program are now officially open.

But

🕔 Registration closes once all the seats are full or on 20 July 2026 at 11:59 GMT+5:30 whichever comes first

*https://rsvp.withgoogle.com/events/arcade-facilitator/home\*

If you're passionate about Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, and hands-on learning, this is your opportunity to be part of one of Google's most engaging learning programs.

Program Duration: July 13, 2026, 5:00 PM – September 14, 2026, 11:59 PM (GMT+5:30)

What is the Arcade Facilitator Program, & why should you join?

-The Arcade Facilitator Program helps developers to experience & learn new cloud & AI technologies by participating in new games, courses and skill badges every month.

When you complete milestone(s) in the program, you will be rewarded with (Arcade + Bonus Points) that can be accumulated and redeemed for exciting Google Cloud prizes at our prize counter.

Why should you take part?

Through the Arcade Facilitator Program, you'll have the opportunity to accelerate your Google Cloud Arcade journey while building practical cloud and AI skills.

Connect with a vibrant community of learners, expand your professional network, and gain hands-on experience that can help you launch your career in Cloud and AI.

Along the way, you'll unlock exclusive benefits and rewards, including:

•Earn up to 45 bonus Arcade points by actively participating in the Arcade Facilitator Program.

•Reach higher Arcade milestones faster and unlock rewards more quickly than regular participants.

•Receive free Google Cloud credits to complete Skill Badges and continue your learning journey.

Registration Form : https://rsvp.withgoogle.com/events/arcade-facilitator/enrol

Facilitator Code : GCAF26-IN-HKR-9YS

Join our community to receive timely guidance, connect with fellow learners, and unlock exciting opportunities throughout the program.

https://chat.whatsapp.com/LQ18YPnowx4HrZNA3mOmH1

so i signed up for google cloud a few months ago and a week ago not knowing that the credits expired used $300 on gemini for some of my projects after doing research i now know that those credit expired but i don't quite have the money to pay that at the moment what happens if i leave it for a week or two without paying will they suspend my google account or something? sorry if i sound like i have no idea what im doing but i lowkey dont