This guide describes how to run QuestDB on a Compute Engine instance on Google Cloud platform with details on how to enable networking on various interfaces by means of firewall rules.

This guide uses the official QuestDB Docker image during VM instance creation to simplify setup steps for a quick, robust deployment. The networking rules below show how to make ports for PostgreSQL wire protocol and REST API publicly accessible or by whitelisted IP.

Prerequisites

• A Google Cloud Platform (GCP) account and a GCP Project
• The Compute Engine API must be enabled for the corresponding Google Cloud Platform project

Create a Compute Engine VM

1. In the Google Cloud Console, navigate to Compute Engine and click Create Instance

import Screenshot from “@theme/Screenshot”

1. Give the instance a name, this example uses questdb-europe-west3

2. Choose a Region and Zone, this example uses europe-west3 (Frankfurt) and the default zone

3. Choose a machine configuration, a general-purpose instance is e2-medium with 4GB memory

4. Enable the checkbox under Container and provide the latest QuestDB Docker image:

   questdb/questdb:latest

Given the steps so far, the VM Instance configuration page should look like the following:

Before creating the instance, assign a Network tag so that a firewall rule for networking can be easily applied to instances of the same type.

1. Expand the menu item Management, security, disks, networking, sole tenancy towards the bottom of the page
2. In the Networking panel add a Network tag to identify the instance, this example uses questdb
3. Launch the instance by clicking Create

Create a firewall rule

1. Navigate to the Firewalls configuration page under VPC network -> Firewalls
2. Add the target tag questdb
3. Choose an IP range that this rule applies to, this example uses 0.0.0.0/0 (i.e. any IP)
4. In the Protocols and ports section, enable 8812 and 9000 for TCP.
5. Click create

All VM instances on Compute Engine within this account which have the Network tag questdb will have this firewall rule applied.

:::info

The configuration above allows networking from any IP address for the selected ports. A more secure approach would be to only allow incoming connections from whitelisted IPs.

The ports we have opened are

• 9000 for the REST API and Web Console
• 8812 for PostgreSQL wire protocol

:::

Verify the deployment

To verify the instance state, navigate to Compute Engine -> VM Instances. A status indicator should show the instance as running:

To verify that the QuestDB deployment is operating as expected:

1. Copy the External IP of the instance
2. Navigate to <external_ip>:9000 in a browser

The Web Console should be visible:

Alternatively, a request may be sent against the REST API exposed on port 9000:

curl -G \
  --data-urlencode "query=select * from telemetry_config" \
  <external_ip>:9000/exec