Author: Daoud Hussain

🧠 CambioML Cloud Infra Challenge – Micro VM with VNC on GKE

This project demonstrates a lightweight Linux desktop running in a container, exposed via VNC in a web browser, and orchestrated with Kubernetes on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) using Terraform for infrastructure provisioning.

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📁 Project Structure

k8s-task/
├── terraform/ 
│ ├── main.tf
│ ├── variables.tf
│ └── provider.tf
├── k8s-manifests/
│ ├── deployment.yml
│ └── service.yml
├── Dockerfile 
└── README.md 

✅ Prerequisites

Install the following tools:

sudo apt update
sudo snap install docker
sudo snap install kubectl --classic
sudo snap install google-cloud-cli --classic
Authenticate Google Cloud:


gcloud auth login
gcloud auth application-default login
gcloud config set project <your-gcp-project-id>
Enable required APIs:


gcloud services enable container.googleapis.com
gcloud services enable compute.googleapis.com

⚙️ Step-by-Step Setup

1️⃣ Provision Infrastructure with Terraform

Navigate to the Terraform directory:

cd terraform/
terraform init
terraform apply

This will:

• Create a GKE cluster
• Configure networking

2️⃣ Connect kubectl to GKE

After successful apply, run:

gcloud container clusters get-credentials cambioml-cluster --region=us-central1

3️⃣ Build and Push Docker Image

1. Authenticate Docker to GCR:

gcloud auth configure-docker

2. Build and push your container:

docker build -t gcr.io/cambioml-vnc-microvm/vnc-microvm:latest .
docker push gcr.io/cambioml-vnc-microvm/vnc-microvm:latest

3. Update your image in deployment.yml accordingly.

4️⃣ Deploy to Kubernetes

Apply your deployment and service:

kubectl apply -f ../k8s-manifests/deployment.yml
kubectl apply -f ../k8s-manifests/service.yml

5️⃣ Access the VNC Desktop

Fetch the external IP:

kubectl get svc

Open in your browser:

http://34.61.66.163

This will load a Linux desktop environment via noVNC in your browser.

🛠️ Components Overview

Dockerfile:

Based on dorowu/ubuntu-desktop-lxde-vnc, with LXDE and VNC access on port 6080.

Terraform:

Sets up the GKE cluster and networking.

Kubernetes:

• deployment.yml: Deploys the containerized desktop.

• service.yml: Exposes the pod using a LoadBalancer.

• noVNC: Web-based VNC client for browser access.

🚀 Performance

• Boot time: < 15 seconds (cold start)

• Lightweight LXDE ensures minimal image size

• Stateless setup; easy to scale horizontally

💡 Future Improvements

• Enable autoscaling based on usage

• Integrate ephemeral storage per pod

• Secure VNC with authentication

• Add metrics collection with Prometheus/Grafana

🙌 Thanks!

This was built for the CambioML Founding Cloud Infra Engineer Challenge. Let me know if you'd like to collaborate further or want to improve this system with GPU-enabled desktops or ephemeral runners.