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How to Create a Google Cloud Storage Bucket

Creating a Google Cloud Storage (GCS) bucket is the first step in setting up a space for data storage and exchange. This guide will walk you through the process of creating a GCS bucket. You'll need access to your organization's Google Cloud console with privileges to create and manage storage buckets. The process is straightforward and should take just a few minutes.

  1. Sign in to the Google Cloud Console.
  2. Navigate to the Storage section in the Google Cloud Console.
  3. Click on Create bucket. This will open a new page to configure your bucket.
  4. Choose a unique name for your bucket (e.g., gcs-my-company-uc-data). The name must be globally unique across all GCS buckets.
  5. Select the appropriate region for your bucket. This should be chosen based on where your users are located to reduce latency and cost.
  6. Choose the default storage class for your bucket. Options include Standard, Nearline, Coldline, and Archive, depending on how frequently you'll access the data stored.
  7. Set the access control model. Google Cloud Storage offers two models: Uniform and Fine-grained. Uniform is recommended for simpler permission management.
  8. Configure any additional settings like Object Versioning or Access logs as per your requirement.
  9. Click Create button. Now the Bucket is created.

Setting Permissions for Data Access​

It's important to set the correct permissions to ensure secure access to your bucket.

  1. In the bucket details page, go to the Permissions tab.
  2. Click on GRANT ACCESS to add entities (like users or service accounts) and assign roles to them.
  3. For example, to allow a Unacast service to deliver data to your bucket, you might add unacast-delivery@uc-data-lift.iam.gserviceaccount.com as a member with the role of Storage Object Admin.

Include Your Bucket Name in the Policy​

When setting permissions, ensure that you correctly identify your bucket and any necessary prefixes.

  1. When adding members and roles, use the exact name of your bucket.
  2. Specify any prefixes if you want to restrict access to specific parts of the bucket.

Note:

  • Avoid using sensitive data in bucket names since they are globally visible.
  • Do not enable encryption services that are not compatible with your data exchange requirements.