{"id":17939,"date":"2026-08-06T04:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T10:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/?p=17939"},"modified":"2026-08-06T04:13:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T10:13:55","slug":"common-causes-of-unexpected-gcp-downtime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supportpro.com\/blog\/common-causes-of-unexpected-gcp-downtime\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a0Common Causes of Unexpected GCP Downtime"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Common Reason,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Resource exhaustion (disk usage, memory, and CPU usage)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Firewall misconfiguration <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. IAM permission issue<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. VPC network and routing issues <\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. DNS configuration issue<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Load Balancer issue<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A. Resource exhaustion:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don’t have any live project created yet to give you, but I will provide some steps on how to check the issue.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to replicate the issue <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Log in to the Google Cloud console link\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Click on Kubernetes Engine >> Workloads
    3. Select the affected workload.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n


    Please check:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    1. CPU utilization<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. Events and logs
      You can also go to <\/strong>Monitoring >> Metrics Explorer to view resource usage over time.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      A. CPU utilization:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      If CPU consumption is more than 100%, we need to do the steps below.

      1. Kindly increase the CPU allocation.

        Kindly search Kubernetes Engine >> Workloads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

         Select the deployment.

          Please log in to the Action >> Edit YAML.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


      In the code, we need to increase the CPU value as needed and save the changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
      \"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      Check Kubernetes Node Disk Usage in Google Cloud Console<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
        \n
      1. Kindly open Google Cloud Console\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      2. Kindly search Kubernetes Engine >> Workload<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      3. Select your Kubernetes cluster.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      4. Go to Observability >> Metrics.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      5. Check the metrics as below<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

        Node filesystem usage
        Node filesystem capacity
        Disk pressure<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        What needs to be checked,<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

        Kindly check the disk usage (80-90%).
        Also check if disk usage is close to 100%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        2. Misconfigured firewall rules:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        If the firewall configuration is not configured correctly. It allows unwanted traffic, and it may cause the issue to increase resources and bandwidth.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        To check the firewall rules, kindly refer to the steps below.

        Open Google Cloud Console.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Go to VPC Network >> Firewall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Check all existing firewall rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
        \"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

        If the firewall rules are not configured correctly and unwanted traffic is allowed, it\u2019s important to tell the customer about the importance of a secure firewall setup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Recommend changing the firewall settings or URL configurations to block unwanted traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        3. IAM permission issues<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        If the wrong people have access, the client may face service outages or run out of resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        So users need to check who can access the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        If you notice resources disappearing because of IAM issues, adjust the permissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Simply don’t provide access to everyone. Only permit Storage Viewer or Storage Admin. Don\u2019t permit it to all; it may cause an issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Where to Check IAM Permissions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n



        Open the Google Cloud Console.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Select your project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Go to IAM & Admin >> Check IAM permissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Here you can see:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Users and service accounts<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Assigned roles<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Permissions they have<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

        4. VPC networking and routing problems<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        The main issue with the VPC network is because of the incorrectly configured network IP configuration and firewall rules<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        How to Check:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Check firewall rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Go to VPC Network >> Firewall settings and confirm that all required ports and IPs are enabled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Check Routes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Verify that the correct routes are set up for internal or internet communication by going to VPC Network >> Routes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Check IP and Subnet Configurations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Make sure the virtual machine is connected to the right VPC and subnet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

        5. DNS configuration failures<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


        <\/strong>
        <\/strong>If the application can\u2019t find the correct DNS setting, it may still search the connection, which causes more usage of resources. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        When DNS resolution fails, the application keeps trying to find the service, resulting in many DNS queries. This uses up CPU and network bandwidth and can slow performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


        <\/strong>Below are the causes.
        1. Incorrect DNS record
        2. Missing DNS entry
        3. Incorrect Hostname<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        How can we resolve it by referring to the steps below?
        <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Verify Cloud DNS records and correct wrong entries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Please check if the private DNS is correctly connected to the correct VPC <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Check DNS forwarding configuration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Monitor DNS query volume and error rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Configure applications with proper retry limits and DNS caching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        6. Database Availability Issues: –<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


        <\/strong>The connection limit is the highest number of users or apps that can connect to a Cloud SQL database at the same time. If too many people try to connect, it can hit the limit, which might cause errors or make the apps stop working. A Cloud SQL instance reaches a storage full event when there is no more space left for data, logs, and temporary files.
        <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        How to Fix:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Check the database connection monitoring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        If the application is using too many connections, kindly restart it after closing any unwanted connections. Set up a connection in the application. Also increase the connection limit if needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        To fix the connection problem:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Go to Cloud SQL >> Select your database instance in the GCP Console.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Cloud SQL Instance >> Monitoring<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Follow the steps to check database connectivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Look for and close any long-running or excessive connections to reduce the load and improve performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        To fix the storage full issue:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Follow the steps below. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

        To resolve it, kindly refer to the steps below.<\/strong>
        <\/strong>
        Kindly check the monitoring tool        .<\/a> If the application is creating too many connections, the client needs to restart it after closing any unwanted database connections. Also, kindly increase the database connection pool if needed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        To fix the issue, refer to the steps below <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Go to Cloud SQL >> Select Database Instance after logging into the GCP Console.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Go to Cloud SQL Instance >> Monitoring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Please find the connection of who are running many times and taking more time to run; it may cause resource utilization issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        7. Load Balancer issue:<\/strong>
        <\/strong>
        <\/strong>The main use of the load balancer is to provide incoming traffic to all backend servers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        If the load balancer is not configured correctly at the user’s end, it may cause a slowness issue and service outage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        To fix this issue, refer to the steps below.

        1. Log in to the Google Cloud Console.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        2. Then next, go to Network Services>> Load Balancing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        3. Choose the load balancer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        4. Kindly check whether all forwarding rules for the front-end and backup-end service are configured correctly or not.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Check backend and firewall rules using the steps below. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

          \n
        1. Open the load balancer\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        2. Then select the Backend tab<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        3. After that, check all backend instance statuses (healthy and unhealthy)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        4. Also check the firewall rules\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

          Go to VPC network >> Firewall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

          Kindly check both HTTP and HTTPS rules to see if they are configured correctly or not<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          \"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
          \"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
          \n

          Facing issues? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

          Our technical support
          engineers can solve it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n          \"Contact<\/a><\/span>