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DevOps & Cloud

How to Deploy Applications on Cloud Run in 2026

18 minEXPERT
ServerlessGoogle CloudCloud Run
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Introduction

Cloud Run lets you run serverless containers on Google infrastructure. This expert tutorial covers deploying a Node.js API with automatic scaling, fine-grained IAM authentication, and CI/CD integration. You will learn to optimize costs and latency in production.

Prerequisites

  • Google Cloud account with billing enabled
  • gcloud SDK installed (version 450+)
  • Docker and Node.js 20+
  • Advanced knowledge of containers and IAM

Project Initialization

terminal
gcloud config set project mon-projet-12345
gcloud services enable run.googleapis.com cloudbuild.googleapis.com artifactregistry.googleapis.com

Enable the required APIs and set the target project. Avoid permission errors by enabling these services before any deployment.

Creating the Dockerfile

Dockerfile
FROM node:20-alpine
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci --only=production
COPY . .
EXPOSE 8080
CMD ["node", "server.js"]

Minimal Alpine image to reduce size. Port 8080 is mandatory for Cloud Run. Use npm ci for reproducible builds.

Minimal Node.js Application

server.js
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
app.get('/', (req, res) => res.send('Cloud Run 2026'));
const port = process.env.PORT || 8080;
app.listen(port, () => console.log(`Running on ${port}`));

Basic Express application that listens on the PORT provided by Cloud Run. Always use process.env.PORT.

Initial Deployment

terminal
gcloud run deploy mon-api \
  --source . \
  --region europe-west1 \
  --allow-unauthenticated \
  --memory 512Mi \
  --cpu 1

Direct deployment from source code using integrated Cloud Build. Specify region, memory, and CPU to control costs and performance.

Advanced service.yaml Configuration

service.yaml
apiVersion: serving.knative.dev/v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: mon-api
spec:
  template:
    metadata:
      annotations:
        autoscaling.knative.dev/maxScale: "100"
        run.googleapis.com/cpu-throttling: "false"
    spec:
      containerConcurrency: 80
      containers:
      - image: europe-west1-docker.pkg.dev/mon-projet-12345/cloud-run/mon-api
        resources:
          limits:
            memory: 1Gi
            cpu: 2

Configuration file for precise scaling, disabling CPU throttling, and resource limits. Use with gcloud run services replace.

CI/CD Pipeline with Cloud Build

cloudbuild.yaml
steps:
- name: 'gcr.io/cloud-builders/docker'
  args: ['build', '-t', 'europe-west1-docker.pkg.dev/$PROJECT_ID/cloud-run/mon-api:$SHORT_SHA', '.']
- name: 'gcr.io/cloud-builders/docker'
  args: ['push', 'europe-west1-docker.pkg.dev/$PROJECT_ID/cloud-run/mon-api:$SHORT_SHA']
- name: 'gcr.io/google.com/cloudsdktool/cloud-sdk'
  entrypoint: gcloud
  args: ['run', 'deploy', 'mon-api', '--image', 'europe-west1-docker.pkg.dev/$PROJECT_ID/cloud-run/mon-api:$SHORT_SHA', '--region', 'europe-west1']

Complete pipeline that builds, pushes, and deploys automatically. Trigger it via a Git push trigger.

Best Practices

  • Always use immutable images with SHA digest
  • Configure IAM with dedicated service accounts
  • Enable scale-to-zero to minimize costs
  • Monitor with Cloud Monitoring and alerts
  • Test cold starts with synthetic requests

Common Errors

  • Forgetting to expose port 8080 in the container
  • Insufficient IAM permissions on the service account
  • Memory limits too low causing OOM errors
  • Not configuring request timeouts for long-running tasks

Going Further

Deepen your knowledge with our advanced Cloud Run courses.