Explore the fundamentals of Google Cloud Storage, including how buckets store objects and the different storage classes suited for various access patterns.

Storage

Cloud storage is non-structured data storage. If your data is structured then you should look for other storage options. Cloud storage is object-based or blob-based storage.

Available storage classes are:

1. Multi-regional - Part of Standard now
2. Regional - Part of Standard now
3. Nearline
4. Coldline
5. Archive

Command

create

1. list bucket

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# using gsutil
gsutil ls 
# using gcloud
gcloud storage ls

2. detail bucket

you can check the detail - like storage class or location - of the bucket using the following commands

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# show list with detail
gsutil ls -L 
gcloud storage buckets list
#  show single bucket with detail
gsutil ls -L -b gs://[BUCKET_NAME] 
gcloud storage buckets list gs://[BUCKET_NAME]

3. create bucket

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# gsutil
gsutil mb -l [LOCATION] -c [STORAGE_CLASS] gs://[BUCKET_NAME]
# gcloud
gcloud storage buckets create gs://[BUCKET_NAME] -l [LOCATION] -s [STORAGE_CLASS]

the -l flag is for location. In gcloud command the flag can be replaced with --location. the flag -s or -c is for storage class e.g. standard, nearline, coldline or archive.

4. remove bucket

5. copy/move bucket