Contents
Summary
In many cases you want to start or stop a VM instance in GCP very quickly. You can do this by using Cloud Functions and a few lines of Python.
In this article I’ll be showing you how you can do that with a very easy and simple to follow instructions.
The idea behind this was that I wanted to easily let my family start and stop the small Minecraft server that I have built for us, so that any time the kids want to play, the server can be started easily without anyone logging into the Cloud Console.
So I thought of finding a way to let them just hit a simple URL which in turn will do the job. That’s where Cloud Functions on GCP come in.
So in this article, I’ll be showing you the following:
- The prerequisites prior to setting up your Cloud Function.
Google has mad it easier for everyone who uses G Suite reports. Now you can get to filter the reports by groups and OUs!
If you are an old G Suite Admin, then you will know how awesome this update is! Before we used to download all the report, and then, in a Google Sheet or Excel, we filter it to our scope.
Now in the reports page you will see a place where you can choose and set your filter.
To make sure everything goes well for you, you can refer to this article from Google about how to ensure the groups filter will appear in your G Suite reports page.
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Contents
Introduction and Important Notes
Before I go into the details on this, I just want to provide some context and back story into this.
I will also list the references that I used at the end of this article to make sure you get to the source of this if you want to do that.
Also there are few important notes I think they worth to be mentioned so I’ll list them in this section as well.
My Use Case and Environment
So the reason I was forced to do that was the result of a mess up that happened between our team and the sales who was handling a customer requirement.
The customer wanted to have a 1 year commitment with #Google on an E2 instance with a certain amount of CPU and memory. In addition to that they wanted to reduce the size of the PD that … Read the rest “How to reduce the size of a Windows persistent disk in GCP”
Google has recently announced that they will be rolling out the new integrated Gmail. This is an update to #Gmail that is going to allow you to work on multiple products from the same location.
If you are familiar with Microsoft Teams, then there is a high chance you used something similar to what’s coming. This is however a much more integrated experience that what it is on Microsoft Teams.
Based on the announcement, the release schedule is as follows:
- If you are on the rapid release schedule, then you will see the change any time within 15 days starting from 12th of August.
- If you are on the scheduled release, then you will have to wait until 1st September 🙁
So while you wait (or explore if you already got it enabled for you), I have collected a few resources that will help you get around this new thing:… Read the rest “Integrated Gmail is coming”
Intro
Google Calendar has a lot of features and ways to help you automate your work! One of the great features that you can find and use easily is the ability to create appointment slots. These slots will help you easily manage your time and it will also make it easy for your colleagues to schedule meetings and appointments with you.
This feature is available in G Suite only, so you will need to have a G Suite account before you can use this feature.
Once you complete the steps below, you will be having an appointment slot – or more if you want! – that you can share it with colleagues, customers, or the public! They can then easily book your calendar without calling you or getting back to you every time!
How to do this?
In order to do this, you will just need to follow a very … Read the rest “Google Calendar Appointment Slots”
The notes and considerations about Gmail and Google Vault are a lot! And I have done my best to make sure I cover the important notes and considerations.
You will see the links and resources from where I have got the notes, so you can also get more insights and expand more into the other points that I haven’t mentioned here…
https://support.google.com/vault/answer/2462480?hl=en
Types of attachments that are indexed
Compatible text-based attachment file types (for example, files with .pdf, .xslx, and .docx extensions) are indexed for search. However, Vault doesn’t index video, audio, image, and binary content.
Large messages and attachments
Vault indexes and searches approximately the first megabyte of a message and any attachments. If Vault finds a match, it searches the rest of the data and makes it available for preview and export.
System-generated Gmail labels may affect search results:
Gmail uses labels to organize messages in user inboxes. … Read the rest “Gmail and Google Vault – Important Notes”
Intro
G Suite is now able to manage your Windows 10 devices. This is a great feature that became GA in May/2020.
I believe this is one of many features they will announce in the near future to allow admins to easily manage devices connected to their network. For now the new features are not too much, however they are a good start for anyone who is looking to have some control over devices from the G Suite admin console.
So to start with, I will briefly list the features below:
- Apply Windows settings
- Remove corporate data from a device
- Unenroll a device from Windows device management
- Sign users out of their Google Account on Windows 10 devices
For more details on these please refer to these articles here and here.
Also please note that this feature is only available for G Suite Enterprise, G Suite Enterprise for Education, … Read the rest “Enable and Manage Windows 10 Devices in G Suite”
Security Center access in G Suite
G Suite updates blog had a post recently about a new change to the admin roles. In a nutshell, when you want to grant a user the role “Service settings” then he/she will not get access to the Security Center by default. The old behavior before was that when you give the “Service settings” role, then the delegated user will get access to Security Center.
Effects of the new changes
Now you will have to manually give the “Security Center” role manually for any admin who was or want to access the security center in the G Suite admin console.
Side effects and check points
Because the setting will affect the current permissions, you will have to manually review and check the current delegations for your users. If you want to keep allowing all or some of the delegated admins, then you will have … Read the rest “G Suite Security Center page is now having its own security role”
So they did it again!
I just thought I share the news with you in case not all of you got the latest announcement or knew about it yet! Google’s update about shutting down App Maker by Jan-19-2021.
First of all if you would like to see the announcement, you can check it out here: https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2020/01/app-maker-update.html
To my opinion, this is a bit strange and a shocking surprise as well – to me at least. They stated in their reasoning in this that due to low usage… Which is really strange.
Nonsense!
According to the announcement, the service will be shutdown by Jan-19-2021, but new application creation will be disabled by April-15-2020… One of the strange things about this is how fast they are going with this. If you look at the transition of the old Hangouts, they are taking very long time with this, and they are giving us … Read the rest “App Maker will shutdown on Jan-2021”
How to enroll in Google Advanced Protection Program to enhance the #Security of your Google account whether that was a consumer account or a #GSuite enabled account?
I list here the requirements for that, and the consequences of enabling Advanced Protection Program on your account and what are the actual steps that you need to do in order to do that.
You will need two security keys. I use and like Google Titan Security Keys. You can get them from the Google Store or ebay or anywhere else.
There is a bundle for $50 that contains 2 keys (1 USB, and one Bluetooth/NFC key). The reason why you need 2 keys is you will use one as a main key, while you will keep the other as a backup in case you lose your main one.
If you lose access to your account and you lose the keys as well, … Read the rest “Advanced Protection Program – How to enroll”