Google Cloud Platform Autodiscovery :

Last updated: 2026-03-31

Source: https://support.freshservice.com/support/solutions/articles/50000011918-google-cloud-platform-autodiscovery

Note: Available only for new signups after the 31 March, 2026 release. If you signed up earlier, refer to the existing ITAM documentation.

Applicable plan: Growth, Pro, Enterprise

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) discovery provides an automated inventory of your cloud infrastructure and identifies virtual machines, Kubernetes clusters, databases, networks, and load balancers, and importing them as manageable assets.

Prerequisites

You need the following before the installation:

A user account with the built-in GCP View role before you can begin a GCP discovery job.

A Google Cloud Engine JSON key saved to your local machine.

A custom IAM role or service account with permissions for Compute, Container, and SQL Admin APIs.You can create a custom IAM role with these permissions or ensure they are included in existing roles granted to your account or service account.

bigquery.datasets.get

bigquery.models.getMetadata

bigquery.models.list

bigquery.tables.get

bigquery.tables.list

cloudsql.instances.list

compute.addresses.list

compute.backendServices.get

compute.disks.get

compute.disks.list

compute.firewalls.list

compute.globalForwardingRules.list

compute.images.get

compute.images.list

compute.instances.list

compute.machineTypes.get

compute.networks.list

compute.regions.list

compute.subnetworks.get

compute.targetSslProxies.get

container.clusters.list

container.configMaps.list

container.cronJobs.list

container.daemonSets.list

container.deployments.list

container.endpoints.list

container.ingresses.list

container.namespaces.get

container.namespaces.list

container.nodes.list

container.persistentVolumes.list

container.pods.list

container.replicaSets.list

container.replicationControllers.list

container.resourceQuotas.list

container.services.list

container.statefulSets.list

resourcemanager.projects.get

Google Cloud Platform Discovery Items

The following table outlines the objects the system discovers and their resulting location.


Cloud Service/Object Name	Location	Accessed API	Information Generated
K8s (GKE) Discovery	Devices > Unknown	Compute API, Container API	Containers, pods, clusters
Networks (as VRF Groups)	Network > VRF Groups	Compute API	Name
Subnets	Networks > Subnets	Compute API	Mask, name, VRF Group
SQL DB		SQL Admin API	Tables, instances, and so on.
VMs	Devices > All Devices	Compute API	Type, Name, RAM, OS, CPU, cores, etc.

Additional discovered items include Storage, Networking, and comprehensive Kubernetes mentioned below:

Storage:

Cloud Device

Cloud Disk

Networking:

VPCs (VRF Groups)

VPC Firewall Rules

GCP Load Balancer

Databases:

Cloud SQL

GCP BigQuery Table

Kubernetes:

Kubernetes Cluster

Kubernetes Config Map

Kubernetes Container

Kubernetes Daemon Set

Kubernetes Deployment

Kubernetes Ingress

Kubernetes Ingress Rule

Kubernetes Namespace

Kubernetes Node

Kubernetes Persistent Volume

Kubernetes Pod

Kubernetes Quota

Kubernetes Replica Set

Kubernetes Replication Controller

Kubernetes Service

Kubernetes Service Port

Kubernetes Stateful Set

Kubernetes Volume

Create a new GCP Discovery job

To set up a new discovery job for your Google Cloud environment, follow these steps:

1. Go to Admin > Asset Management > Scan and discover and click the Discovery Jobs tab.

2. Select Cloud from the list of discovery jobs and click Add new.

3. Select Google Cloud as the discovery from the Type drop-down.

4. Leave the Project ID field blank to discover all accessible projects, or enter a specific ID to limit the scope.

5. Do these steps to add your Google Cloud Engine JSON credentials:

1. Locate and save your Google Cloud Engine JSON key to your local machine.

2. Open the key in a text editor and copy its contents.

3. Paste the copied JSON text into the Credentials JSON field.

6. Configure the following options as required:

Kubernetes Discovery: Enable this to discover GKE clusters.

Strip Domain Name: Select this to remove the domain suffix (everything after the first period) from device names.

7. Select an option from the Service Level drop-down, or add a new Service level category. For example, you can set it so that the Development, Deployment, or Production service level is applied to discovered items.

8. Select a customer for discovered devices to add another specialized classification or create a new by using the Add new Cost Center option.

9. In the Discovery Schedule section, click Add new to create an autodiscovery for the job. You can create multiple schedules.

10. Click Save.

Locate GCP Account Tags

Go to Admin > Asset Management > Discover Hub > Cloud Accounts and select your GCP account. The available discovered account-level tags will be listed under the Custom Fields section.