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Filebrowser on GKE Autopilot — Lab Guide

📖 Configuration Guide

Overview​

Estimated time: 45–90 minutes

File Browser is a lightweight, open-source web file manager written in Go — it serves a directory tree over HTTP for browsing, uploading, editing, and sharing files, with no external database. This lab takes you through the full operational lifecycle of the Filebrowser on GKE Autopilot module on Google Cloud: deploy it, access and verify it, run it day-to-day, observe it, diagnose common problems, and tear it down.

The lab focuses on operating the GKE module and the Google Cloud platform, not on Filebrowser product features. For the complete list of provisioned services and every configuration input (organised by group), see the Configuration Guide — this lab deliberately does not duplicate that detail so it stays accurate over time.

Objectives​

By the end of this lab you will be able to:

  • Deploy the module from the RAD platform and locate the resources it provisions.
  • Connect to the GKE cluster and access the running workload, including the default admin login.
  • Perform day-2 operations — inspect the workload, choose GCS FUSE vs. block PVC storage, and manage ingress.
  • Observe the workload with Cloud Logging and Cloud Monitoring.
  • Diagnose and resolve the most common deployment and runtime issues.
  • Tear the deployment down cleanly.

Prerequisites​

  • Services_GCP deployed in the target project (provides the VPC, GKE Autopilot cluster, Artifact Registry, and shared service accounts this module depends on).
  • A Google Cloud project with billing enabled.
  • gcloud CLI and kubectl installed; gcloud auth login and gcloud auth application-default login completed.
  • Project Owner (or equivalent) IAM on the project.
  • RAD platform access with permission to deploy modules into the project.

Set these shell variables once; every task below reuses them:

export PROJECT="<your-gcp-project-id>"
export REGION="us-central1"           # the region you deploy into

Task 1 — Deploy the module [Automated]​

  1. Click Deploy in the RAD platform top navigation, open Filebrowser (GKE) from the Platform Modules list to start configuration, set project_id, and review the inputs. Configure only what you need — the Configuration Guide documents every input by group, with defaults. Decide up front whether you want the default GCS FUSE mount for /database or a block PVC (stateful_pvc_enabled = true) for proper SQLite file locking. Review the estimated cost (if credits are enabled) and click Deploy, which opens the deployment status page with real-time logs.

  2. The platform deploys the workload into the GKE Autopilot cluster and provisions either a Cloud Storage bucket (GCS FUSE, default) or a block PVC (StatefulSet mode) mounted at /database, then builds the container image. There is no Cloud SQL instance, no Secret Manager application secret, and no database-initialisation job — Filebrowser is self-contained. First deploys typically complete in 10–15 minutes.

  3. Connect to the cluster and discover the namespace with name-agnostic filters:

    CLUSTER=$(gcloud container clusters list --project="$PROJECT" --format="value(name)" --limit=1)
    gcloud container clusters get-credentials "$CLUSTER" --region="$REGION" --project="$PROJECT"

    NS=$(kubectl get ns -o name | grep filebrowser | head -1 | cut -d/ -f2)
    echo "Cluster: $CLUSTER   Namespace: $NS"
    kubectl get all -n "$NS"

Task 2 — Access & verify [Manual]​

  1. Confirm the workload is running (a single-replica Deployment, or a StatefulSet when stateful_pvc_enabled = true) and find its address:

    kubectl get pods,svc -n "$NS"
    kubectl get statefulset,pvc -n "$NS"     # only present when stateful_pvc_enabled = true
    EXTERNAL_IP=$(kubectl get svc -n "$NS" \
      -o jsonpath='{.items[?(@.spec.type=="LoadBalancer")].status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].ip}')
    echo "External IP: $EXTERNAL_IP"

    The Service defaults to ClusterIP; without a custom domain or reserved static IP, reach the workload in-cluster or via kubectl port-forward.

  2. Confirm the service is healthy. Filebrowser exposes an unauthenticated health endpoint that returns 200 as soon as the server is listening:

    kubectl exec -n "$NS" deploy/"$(kubectl get deploy -n "$NS" -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')" \
      -- wget -qO- http://localhost:80/health

  3. Open the workload in a browser — via the reserved static IP/custom domain (enable_custom_domain = true is the default) or a port-forward:

    kubectl port-forward -n "$NS" svc/<service-name> 8080:80
    # then browse to http://localhost:8080

    Log in with the seeded default credential admin / admin. Immediately change the password (and ideally the username) under Settings → Profile — this credential is well-known and grants full control of the file tree.

Task 3 — Operate & keep it running (Day-2) [Manual]​

  1. Inspect the workload — deployment/statefulset, pods, and PVCs:

    kubectl get deploy,statefulset,pods,pvc -n "$NS"
    kubectl describe deploy -n "$NS"           # or: kubectl describe statefulset -n "$NS"

  2. Do not scale beyond one replica. min_instance_count = max_instance_count = 1 is intentional — the embedded SQLite database does not tolerate concurrent writers, even with a block PVC's proper file locking. Leave both at 1 in the RAD platform; a manual kubectl scale would be reverted on the next apply anyway.

  3. Update the application version by changing the version input in the RAD platform and applying it via Update; a new image builds and a rolling update replaces the pod. Pin application_version explicitly in production rather than tracking latest.

  4. Switch storage backend or ingress — toggle stateful_pvc_enabled (GCS FUSE vs. block PVC; Common auto-disables GCS FUSE when the PVC is on, so don't force both), or adjust enable_custom_domain / application_domains, then apply via Update.

  5. Inspect the persistent state:

    # GCS FUSE mode (default)
    gcloud storage buckets list --project="$PROJECT" --filter="name~storage"
    gcloud storage ls gs://<data-bucket>/filebrowser.db

    # StatefulSet / block PVC mode
    kubectl get pvc -n "$NS"

    Never delete the /database bucket or PVC — doing so destroys all users, settings, and share links.

Task 4 — Observe: Logging & Monitoring [Manual]​

  1. Logs — from kubectl or the Logs Explorer:

    kubectl logs -n "$NS" deploy/"$(kubectl get deploy -n "$NS" -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')" --tail=50

    Logs Explorer filter: resource.type="k8s_container" AND resource.labels.namespace_name="<namespace>".

  2. Monitoring — open the GKE / Kubernetes dashboards and review pod CPU and memory utilisation and restart counts (should stay at a single, stable pod). If uptime_check_config is enabled, review Monitoring → Uptime checks and Alerting → Policies.

Task 5 — Troubleshoot & debug [Manual]​

Durable techniques for the failure modes you are most likely to hit. These are platform-level diagnostics and do not change with Filebrowser releases.

  • Pod not Ready / CrashLoopBackOff: inspect events and logs. The startup and liveness probes target /health; a mount failure or bad image will keep the pod from becoming Ready. 
    kubectl describe pod -n "$NS" <pod>          # Events section shows scheduling/probe/mount errors
    kubectl logs -n "$NS" <pod> --previous       # logs from the crashed container
  • Double-mount at /database: if you changed stateful_pvc_enabled, confirm enable_gcs_storage_volume was correctly auto-disabled by Filebrowser_Common (both mounted at once is a misconfiguration, not a supported state). 
    kubectl describe pod -n "$NS" <pod>          # check Volumes / Mounts section
  • State not persisting across restarts: confirm stateful_pvc_mount_path matches FB_DATABASE's directory (/database by default); a mismatch stores the DB on ephemeral disk and loses state on restart.
  • Pending pod / no external IP: check kubectl describe pod events for resource or quota issues, and confirm the Service/Ingress has an assigned IP if enable_custom_domain = true.
  • Image pull errors: confirm the image exists in Artifact Registry and the node service account can pull it; custom/mirrored images use imagePullPolicy = Always, so a stale local cache is not the cause — check the registry and IAM instead.
  • Login shows admin/admin still active after redeploy: expected if no prior SQLite DB existed at /database. If a fresh admin/admin prompt appears unexpectedly on a previously-configured deployment, check whether the GCS bucket or PVC was replaced/emptied.

See the Configuration Guide's Configuration Pitfalls section for setting-specific gotchas (including the critical rule to keep max_instance_count = 1, never delete the /database volume, and let Common manage the GCS-FUSE/PVC exclusivity).

Task 6 — Tear down [Automated]​

On the Deployments page, open the deployment and click the Trash icon (Delete). Delete runs terraform destroy and is irreversible (the deployment record is retained for history). If a deployment is stuck and the RAD platform can no longer manage it (for example after manual changes that conflict with the Terraform state), use Purge instead — it removes the deployment from RAD's records without destroying the cloud resources (it makes RAD forget the project). This removes everything the module created — the Kubernetes workload and namespace, the /database GCS bucket or PVC (including the embedded SQLite database — this is destructive and unrecoverable), and Artifact Registry images. Resources owned by Services_GCP (the VPC, GKE cluster, shared Artifact Registry) are managed separately and are not removed here.

Summary​

TaskTypeOutcome
1 — DeployAutomatedModule deploys the GKE workload and /database storage (GCS FUSE or block PVC); no Cloud SQL, no init job
2 — Access & verifyManualConnect to the cluster; health check passes; log in with seeded admin/admin and change the password immediately
3 — OperateManualInspect workload, keep replicas at 1, update version, switch storage backend/ingress, inspect persistent state
4 — ObserveManualQuery Cloud Logging; review Cloud Monitoring metrics and uptime check
5 — TroubleshootManualDiagnose pod, mount, scheduling, and image-pull issues
6 — Tear downAutomatedDelete (Trash) removes the workload and the /database bucket or PVC (destructive)

By · Google Cloud certified: ACE · PCA · PCD · PDE · PSE · CDL

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