GKE Microservices Setup

This guide walks you through deploying ThingsBoard in microservices mode on Google Kubernetes Engine. We use Google Cloud SQL for managed PostgreSQL.

Prerequisites

Install and Configure Tools

Install kubectl and gcloud. See before you begin for more info.

Create a new GCP project (recommended) or choose an existing one:

gcloud init

Enable GCP Services

gcloud services enable container.googleapis.com sql-component.googleapis.com sqladmin.googleapis.com

Pull ThingsBoard Images

Verify that you can pull the images from Docker Hub:

docker pull thingsboard/tb-node:4.4.0
docker pull thingsboard/tb-web-report:4.4.0
docker pull thingsboard/tb-web-ui:4.4.0
docker pull thingsboard/tb-js-executor:4.4.0
docker pull thingsboard/tb-http-transport:4.4.0
docker pull thingsboard/tb-mqtt-transport:4.4.0
docker pull thingsboard/tb-coap-transport:4.4.0
docker pull thingsboard/tb-lwm2m-transport:4.4.0
docker pull thingsboard/tb-snmp-transport:4.4.0
docker pull thingsboard/tb-integration-executor:4.4.0

Step 1. Clone ThingsBoard K8S Scripts Repository

Clone the repository containing the Kubernetes deployment scripts:

git clone -b release-4.4.0 https://github.com/thingsboard/thingsboard-pe-k8s.git --depth 1
cd thingsboard-pe-k8s/gcp/microservices

Step 2. Define Environment Variables

export GCP_PROJECT=$(gcloud config get-value project)
export GCP_REGION=us-central1
export GCP_ZONE=us-central1
export GCP_ZONE1=us-central1-a
export GCP_ZONE2=us-central1-b
export GCP_ZONE3=us-central1-c
export GCP_NETWORK=default
export TB_CLUSTER_NAME=tb-msa
export TB_DATABASE_NAME=tb-db
echo "Project: $GCP_PROJECT, region: $GCP_REGION, zones: $GCP_ZONE1,$GCP_ZONE2,$GCP_ZONE3, network: $GCP_NETWORK, cluster: $TB_CLUSTER_NAME, database: $TB_DATABASE_NAME"

Variable	Default	Description
`GCP_PROJECT`	(auto-detected)	Your GCP project ID
`GCP_REGION`	`us-central1`	Compute region
`GCP_ZONE1/2/3`	`us-central1-a/b/c`	Availability zones for the regional cluster
`GCP_NETWORK`	`default`	GCP network name
`TB_CLUSTER_NAME`	`tb-msa`	GKE cluster name
`TB_DATABASE_NAME`	`tb-db`	Cloud SQL instance name

Step 3. Configure and Create GKE Cluster

Create a regional cluster distributed across 3 zones. The example provisions one e2-standard-4 node per zone (3 nodes total). You can modify the machine type and node count to suit your workload. See GCP machine types for options.

gcloud container clusters create $TB_CLUSTER_NAME \
  --release-channel stable \
  --region $GCP_REGION \
  --network=$GCP_NETWORK \
  --node-locations $GCP_ZONE1,$GCP_ZONE2,$GCP_ZONE3 \
  --enable-ip-alias \
  --num-nodes=1 \
  --node-labels=role=main \
  --machine-type=e2-standard-4

Alternatively, see the regional cluster setup guide.

Step 4. Update the Context of kubectl

gcloud container clusters get-credentials $TB_CLUSTER_NAME --region $GCP_REGION

Step 5. Provision Databases

5.1 Google Cloud SQL (PostgreSQL) Instance

Prerequisites

Enable service networking:

gcloud services enable servicenetworking.googleapis.com --project=$GCP_PROJECT

gcloud compute addresses create google-managed-services-$GCP_NETWORK \
  --global \
  --purpose=VPC_PEERING \
  --prefix-length=16 \
  --network=projects/$GCP_PROJECT/global/networks/$GCP_NETWORK

gcloud services vpc-peerings connect \
  --service=servicenetworking.googleapis.com \
  --ranges=google-managed-services-$GCP_NETWORK \
  --network=$GCP_NETWORK \
  --project=$GCP_PROJECT

Create Database Server Instance

gcloud beta sql instances create $TB_DATABASE_NAME \
  --database-version=POSTGRES_16 \
  --region=$GCP_REGION --availability-type=regional \
  --no-assign-ip --network=projects/$GCP_PROJECT/global/networks/$GCP_NETWORK \
  --cpu=2 --memory=7680MB

Note the IP address (YOUR_DB_IP_ADDRESS) from the command output.

Set Database Password

gcloud sql users set-password postgres \
  --instance=$TB_DATABASE_NAME \
  --password=secret

Create Database

gcloud sql databases create thingsboard --instance=$TB_DATABASE_NAME

5.2 Cassandra (Optional)

Using Cassandra is optional. We recommend it if you plan to insert more than 5K data points per second or want to optimize storage space.

Provision Additional Node Groups

Create 3 separate node pools with 1 node per zone. At least 4 vCPUs and 16 GB of RAM is recommended.

gcloud container node-pools create cassandra1 --cluster=$TB_CLUSTER_NAME --zone=$GCP_ZONE --node-locations=$GCP_ZONE1 \
  --node-labels=role=cassandra --num-nodes=1 --min-nodes=1 --max-nodes=1 --machine-type=e2-standard-4
gcloud container node-pools create cassandra2 --cluster=$TB_CLUSTER_NAME --zone=$GCP_ZONE --node-locations=$GCP_ZONE2 \
  --node-labels=role=cassandra --num-nodes=1 --min-nodes=1 --max-nodes=1 --machine-type=e2-standard-4
gcloud container node-pools create cassandra3 --cluster=$TB_CLUSTER_NAME --zone=$GCP_ZONE --node-locations=$GCP_ZONE3 \
  --node-labels=role=cassandra --num-nodes=1 --min-nodes=1 --max-nodes=1 --machine-type=e2-standard-4

Deploy Cassandra Stateful Set

Create the namespace, then deploy Cassandra:

kubectl apply -f tb-namespace.yml
kubectl config set-context $(kubectl config current-context) --namespace=thingsboard
kubectl apply -f receipts/cassandra.yml

Update DB Settings

echo "  DATABASE_TS_TYPE: cassandra" >> tb-node-db-configmap.yml
echo "  CASSANDRA_URL: cassandra:9042" >> tb-node-db-configmap.yml
echo "  CASSANDRA_LOCAL_DATACENTER: $GCP_REGION" >> tb-node-db-configmap.yml

Create Keyspace

Create the ThingsBoard keyspace inside Cassandra:

kubectl exec -it cassandra-0 -- bash -c "cqlsh -e \
    \"CREATE KEYSPACE IF NOT EXISTS thingsboard \
    WITH replication = { \
        'class' : 'NetworkTopologyStrategy', \
        'us-central1' : '3' \
    };\""

Step 6. Obtain and Configure License Key

We assume you have already chosen your subscription plan or decided to purchase a perpetual license. If not, navigate to the pricing page.

Create a docker secret with your license key:

export TB_LICENSE_KEY=PUT_YOUR_LICENSE_KEY_HERE
kubectl create -n thingsboard secret generic tb-license --from-literal=license-key=$TB_LICENSE_KEY

Step 7. Installation

Edit tb-node-db-configmap.yml and replace YOUR_DB_IP_ADDRESS and YOUR_DB_PASSWORD:

nano tb-node-db-configmap.yml

Run the installation:

./k8s-install-tb.sh

After this command finishes you should see:

Installation finished successfully!

Step 8. Starting

Deploy thirdparty components (Zookeeper, Kafka, Redis) and main ThingsBoard microservices:

./k8s-deploy-resources.sh

After a few minutes, call kubectl get pods. If everything went fine, you should see tb-node-0 pod in the READY state.

Deploy Transport Microservices

Deploy the transport microservices you need. Omit protocols you don’t use to save resources:

# HTTP Transport (optional)
kubectl apply -f transports/tb-http-transport.yml

# MQTT Transport (optional)
kubectl apply -f transports/tb-mqtt-transport.yml

# CoAP Transport (optional)
kubectl apply -f transports/tb-coap-transport.yml

# LwM2M Transport (optional)
kubectl apply -f transports/tb-lwm2m-transport.yml

# SNMP Transport (optional)
kubectl apply -f transports/tb-snmp-transport.yml

Step 9. Configure Load Balancers

9.1 Configure HTTP(S) Load Balancer

You have 3 options:

HTTP — recommended for development.
HTTPS — recommended for production. Uses Google-managed SSL certificate.
Transparent — forwards traffic to ThingsBoard HTTP/HTTPS ports. Requires your own SSL certificate.

kubectl apply -f receipts/http-load-balancer.yml

Check the status:

kubectl get ingress

Use the address to access the web UI and connect devices via HTTP API.

Administrator account creation on first access is covered next, in Step 10. Create Your Administrator Account.

See the official documentation for Google-managed SSL certificates. Reserve a static IP:

gcloud compute addresses create thingsboard-http-lb-address --global

Edit receipts/https-load-balancer.yml and replace PUT_YOUR_DOMAIN_HERE, then deploy:

kubectl apply -f receipts/https-load-balancer.yml

Assign the domain name to the load balancer IP and wait for the certificate to provision (up to 60 minutes):

kubectl describe managedcertificate managed-cert

Follow the HTTPS (TLS) configuration guide to configure SSL in tb-node.yml. Then deploy:

kubectl apply -f receipts/transparent-http-load-balancer.yml

9.2 Configure MQTT Load Balancer (Optional)

kubectl apply -f receipts/mqtt-load-balancer.yml

The load balancer forwards all TCP traffic for ports 1883 and 8883.

For MQTT over SSL, follow the MQTT over SSL guide to configure transport/tb-mqtt-transport.yml.

9.3 Configure CoAP Load Balancer (Optional)

kubectl apply -f receipts/coap-load-balancer.yml

The load balancer forwards UDP traffic for ports 5683 (CoAP non-secure) and 5684 (CoAP secure DTLS).

For CoAP over DTLS, follow the CoAP over DTLS guide to configure transport/tb-coap-transport.yml.

9.4 Configure LwM2M Load Balancer (Optional)

kubectl apply -f receipts/lwm2m-load-balancer.yml

The load balancer forwards UDP traffic for ports 5685–5688.

For LwM2M over DTLS, follow the LwM2M over DTLS guide to configure transport/tb-lwm2m-transport.yml.

9.5 Configure Edge Load Balancer (Optional)

kubectl apply -f receipts/edge-load-balancer.yml

The load balancer forwards all TCP traffic on port 7070.

Step 10. Create Your Administrator Account

After launching ThingsBoard, open the web UI at the load balancer address. ThingsBoard prompts you to create your System Administrator account — the account that manages the platform itself (tenants, system settings, platform-wide resources).

Enter Email, Password, and Confirm password.
The Set up a demo tenant option is selected by default: it creates a ready-made tenant with dashboards, devices, and rule chains for exploring the platform before building your own solution. Clear it if you want to start with an empty platform.
Click Create account. You are signed in as the system administrator.

Your ThingsBoard instance is now installed and running.

Validate the Setup

Confirm that the load balancers created in Step 9 are provisioned and reachable, and note their addresses — you need them to open the web UI and to connect devices.

Validate Web UI Access

Check the status of the ingress you created for the HTTP(S) load balancer:

kubectl get ingress

Once an external IP address is assigned, use it to open the ThingsBoard web interface in your browser.

Validate MQTT/CoAP Access

List the cluster services to find the external IP addresses assigned to the transport load balancers you configured:

kubectl get service

Use the external IP of each load balancer to connect devices over MQTT, CoAP, LwM2M, or Edge.

[Optional] Configure Trendz Analytics

Pull Trendz Images

Pull the Trendz images from Docker Hub:

docker pull thingsboard/trendz:1.16.0
docker pull thingsboard/trendz-python-executor:1.16.0

Create a Trendz Database in the Existing Cloud SQL Instance

Edit trendz/trendz-secret.yml and replace YOUR_DB_IP_ADDRESS and YOUR_DB_PASSWORD, then apply:

kubectl apply -f ./trendz/trendz-secret.yml
kubectl apply -f ./trendz/trendz-create-db.yml

Check logs:

kubectl logs job/trendz-create-db -n thingsboard

Deploy Trendz

./k8s-deploy-trendz.sh

After this command finishes you should see:

Trendz installed successfully!

Troubleshooting

Stream the logs of the ThingsBoard node pod to diagnose startup or runtime issues:

kubectl logs -f tb-node-0

See the kubectl Cheat Sheet for more details.

Cluster Deletion

Delete ThingsBoard pods and load balancers:

./k8s-delete-resources.sh

Delete all data including database:

./k8s-delete-all.sh

Next Steps

With ThingsBoard running, these concept guides help you build your first solution:

Getting Started — a guided walkthrough of the platform after installation.
Multi-Tenancy & Hierarchy — how tenants, customers, and users are organized.
Digital Twin Model — how devices and assets are modeled in the platform.
Data Processing — how the Rule Engine transforms and routes incoming data.
Alarms & Notifications — how to detect conditions and notify users.
Data Visualization — how to build dashboards and widgets.

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