Northbound access to a Looker (Google Cloud core) instance using Private Service Connect

This documentation page explains how to use Private Service Connect to configure routing from clients to Looker (Google Cloud core), also called northbound traffic.

This documentation describes setting up and configuring a custom domain, and provides the following two options for making a northbound connection:

You can use either option, depending on your networking needs.

Create a custom domain

The first step after the Looker (Google Cloud core) instance is created is to set up a custom domain and update the OAuth credentials for the instance. The next sections walk you through the process.

When you create a custom domain for private IP (Private Service Connect) instances, the custom domain must meet the following requirements:

  • The custom domain must consist of at least three parts, including at least one subdomain. For example, subdomain.domain.com.
  • The custom domain must not contain any of the following:
    • looker.com
    • google.com
    • googleapis.com
    • gcr.io
    • pkg.dev

Set up a custom domain

After your Looker (Google Cloud core) instance has been created, you can set up a custom domain.

Before you begin

Before you can customize the domain of your Looker (Google Cloud core) instance, identify where your domain's DNS records are stored, so that you can update them.

Required roles

To get the permissions that you need to create a custom domain for a Looker (Google Cloud core) instance, ask your administrator to grant you the Looker Admin (roles/looker.admin) IAM role on the project the instance resides in. For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

You might also be able to get the required permissions through custom roles or other predefined roles.

Create a custom domain

In the Google Cloud console, follow these steps to customize the domain of your Looker (Google Cloud core) instance:

  1. On the Instances page, click the name of the instance for which you would like to set up a custom domain.
  2. Click the CUSTOM DOMAIN tab.

  3. Click ADD A CUSTOM DOMAIN.

    This opens the Add a new custom domain panel.

  4. Using only letters, numbers, and dashes, enter the hostname of up to 64 characters for the web domain that you would like to use — for example: looker.examplepetstore.com.

  5. Click DONE on the Add a new custom domain panel to return to the CUSTOM DOMAIN tab.

Once your custom domain is set up, it is displayed in the Domain column on the CUSTOM DOMAIN tab of the Looker (Google Cloud core) instance details page in the Google Cloud console.

After your custom domain has been created, you can view information about it, or delete it.

Update the OAuth credentials

  1. Access your OAuth client by navigating in the Google Cloud console to APIs & Services > Credentials and selecting the OAuth client ID for the OAuth client that is used by your Looker (Google Cloud core) instance.

  2. Click the Add URI button to update the Authorized JavaScript origins field in your OAuth client to include the same DNS name that your organization will use to access Looker (Google Cloud core). For example, if your custom domain is looker.examplepetstore.com, you enter looker.examplepetstore.com as the URI.

  3. Update or add the custom domain to the list of Authorized redirect URIs for the OAuth credentials that you used when you created the Looker (Google Cloud core) instance. Add /oauth2callback to the end of the URI. For example, if your custom domain is looker.examplepetstore.com, you enter looker.examplepetstore.com/oauth2callback.

Access the instance over hybrid networking using an endpoint

After you have set up the custom domain, to access the instance from on-premises or from another cloud provider environment (in other words, through hybrid networking), perform the following steps:

  1. Expose Looker (Google Cloud core) through a Private Service Connect endpoint.
  2. Advertise the endpoint to multi-cloud and on-premises environments.
  3. Set up DNS.

Networking overview

In a hybrid networking environment, the following network components are required:

In addition, you will need to set up DNS for access.

Private Service Connect allows consumers to access managed services privately from inside their VPC network or over hybrid networking. It allows managed service producers to host these services in their own separate VPC networks and offer a private connection to their consumers. For example, when you use Private Service Connect to access Looker (Google Cloud core), you are the service consumer, and Looker (Google Cloud core) is the service producer.

Looker (Google Cloud core) deployed with Private Service Connect supports endpoints.

An example of a Private Service Connect endpoint network setup is displayed in the following diagram:

The network architecture for accessing a Looker (Google Cloud core) instance from on-premises.

In the example, the on-premises environment is connected to a Google Cloud host project through Cloud Interconnect, routing through a Cloud Router to a Private Service Connect endpoint, which connects to a service attachment in a Google-managed producer VPC. A Shared VPC hosts Cloud DNS, for API resolution.

Required roles

Role

Description

Compute Network Admin (roles/compute.networkAdmin)

Grants full control over the VPC network that initiates a connection to a Looker (Google Cloud core) instance.

Service Directory Editor (roles/servicedirectory.editor)

Create Private Service Connect endpoints.

Looker Admin (roles/looker.admin)

Grants full control over Looker (Google Cloud core) resources, including creating an instance that is enabled for Private Service Connect and creating a custom domain.

DNS Admin (roles/dns.admin) (optional)

Grants full control over Cloud DNS resources, including DNS zones and records.

Create a Private Service Connect endpoint for Looker (Google Cloud core)

Follow the instructions for creating a Private Service Connect endpoint within a VPC network. Make sure the network is allowed ingress to your Looker (Google Cloud core) instance, and follow these guidelines:

  • Set the Target service field (for the Google Cloud console) or the SERVICE_ATTACHMENT variable (if following Google Cloud CLI or API instructions) to the Looker service attachment URI, which you can find by running the following command:

    gcloud looker instances describe INSTANCE_NAME --region=REGION--format=json

    Replace the following:

    • INSTANCE_NAME: the name of your Looker (Google Cloud core) instance.
    • REGION: the region in which your Looker (Google Cloud core) instance is hosted.

  • You can use any subnet that is hosted in the same region as the Looker (Google Cloud core) instance.

  • Don't enable global access.

To view the endpoint details after creation, follow the instructions for viewing endpoint details.

Advertise the endpoint to multi-cloud and on-premises environments

Use Cloud Router to advertise the Private Service Connect endpoint's IP address to your on-premises network or other environment.

When you're deploying Private Service Connect endpoints, a regular subnet within the consumer Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) is used. This subnet is automatically advertised by the Cloud Router. However, if you are selectively advertising custom subnets through the Cloud Router, make sure to modify the Cloud Router configuration to include the IP address or subnet of the Private Service Connect endpoint.

Make sure that your on-premises (or other environment's) firewall allows outbound traffic to the Private Service Connect endpoint's IP address or subnet while taking into account hybrid networking considerations.

Set up DNS

When setting up DNS, you can use one of the following two options:

  • Update the on-premises DNS to be authoritative for the Looker (Google Cloud core) custom domain that is mapped to the Private Service Connect endpoint IP address.
  • Create a Cloud DNS private zone, create a record set using the IP address allocated for the Private Service Connect endpoint, and enable inbound DNS forwarding to allow your VPC to be authoritative for the Looker (Google Cloud core) custom domain that is mapped to the Private Service Connect endpoint IP address.

Access the instance through a regional application load balancer and a Private Service Connect backend

See the Looker (Google Cloud core) PSC Northbound Regional External L7 ALB codelab for instructions on how to access a Looker (Google Cloud core) instance that is enabled for Private Service Connect by using a backend. In the codelab, you will create an L7 regional application load balancer and Private Service Connect backend to gain northbound access to Looker (Google Cloud core). Northbound access to Looker (Google Cloud core) requires that the consumer VPC be added as an allowed VPC for the Looker (Google Cloud core) PSC instance.

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