Strapi on GKE Autopilot

Strapi is the leading open-source headless CMS — delivering a fully customisable content API (REST and GraphQL) with a rich admin panel, used by enterprises and developers worldwide for content management and API-first architectures. This module deploys Strapi on GKE Autopilot on top of the App_GKE foundation, which provisions and manages the shared Google Cloud and Kubernetes infrastructure.

This guide focuses on the cloud services Strapi uses and how to explore and operate them from the Google Cloud Console and the command line. For the mechanics common to every GKE application — Workload Identity, ingress, autoscaling, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC Service Controls, backups, and the deployment lifecycle — refer to the App_GKE foundation guide rather than repeating them here.

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1. Overview

Strapi runs as a Node.js container on GKE Autopilot. The deployment wires together a focused set of Google Cloud services:

Capability	Google Cloud service	Notes
Compute	GKE Autopilot	Node.js pods, 1 vCPU / 512 MiB by default, horizontally autoscaled
Database	Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15	Required — Strapi requires PostgreSQL
Shared files	Filestore (NFS)	Media uploads and assets shared across all replicas
Object storage	Cloud Storage	A dedicated uploads bucket (strapi-uploads suffix)
Cache (optional)	Redis / Memorystore	Optional; disabled by default
Secrets	Secret Manager	Five auto-generated cryptographic secrets plus the database password
Ingress	Cloud Load Balancing	External LoadBalancer, optional custom domain + managed certificate

Sensible defaults worth knowing up front:

• PostgreSQL is required. Strapi's data layer is wired to PostgreSQL; MySQL and NONE break startup.
• A custom container image is built via Cloud Build. container_image_source defaults to "custom" — the module builds a production-ready two-stage Node.js 20 image on every version increment.
• Five cryptographic secrets are auto-generated. JWT_SECRET, ADMIN_JWT_SECRET, API_TOKEN_SALT, TRANSFER_TOKEN_SALT, and APP_KEYS are generated and stored in Secret Manager on first deploy and must never change after that — they sign all active sessions and API tokens.
• NFS is enabled by default. Strapi stores uploaded media under /uploads. Without a shared NFS volume, media is lost on pod restart.
• Redis is disabled by default. Enable it only when using plugins that explicitly require a shared cache or session store.
• Container port is 1337. Strapi's HTTP server binds to port 1337 by default.
• GCS media bucket variables are auto-injected. GCS_BUCKET_NAME and GCS_BASE_URL are set automatically; no manual configuration is required.

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2. Google Cloud Services & How to Explore Them

All commands assume you have run gcloud container clusters get-credentials <cluster> --region <region> --project <project> and that PROJECT, REGION, and NAMESPACE are set. The namespace and other identifiers are reported in the deployment Outputs.

A. GKE Autopilot — the Strapi workload

Strapi pods are scheduled on Autopilot, which bills for the CPU/memory the pods actually request. Horizontal Pod Autoscaling sizes the deployment between the minimum and maximum replica counts.

• Console: Kubernetes Engine → Workloads → select the Strapi workload to see pods, revisions, and events. Kubernetes Engine → Services & Ingress shows the external IP.
• CLI:

  kubectl get pods,svc,hpa -n "$NAMESPACE"
  kubectl logs -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name> --tail=100
  kubectl describe hpa -n "$NAMESPACE"          # current vs target utilisation

See App_GKE for how Autopilot, scaling, and the workload type (Deployment vs StatefulSet) are managed.

B. Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15

Strapi stores all application data (content types, content, users, API tokens) in a managed Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15 instance. Pods reach it privately through the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar over a Unix socket, so no public IP is exposed. On first deploy an initialization Job creates the application database and user.

• Console: SQL → select the instance for connections, backups, flags, and metrics.
• CLI:

  gcloud sql instances list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud sql instances describe <instance-name> --project "$PROJECT"
  # Open an interactive shell to inspect schema/data:
  gcloud sql connect <instance-name> --user=<db-user> --project "$PROJECT"

The instance name, database name, user, and the Secret Manager secret holding the password are all surfaced in the Outputs. For the connection model, automated backups, and password rotation, see App_GKE.

C. Filestore (NFS) and Cloud Storage

Uploaded media is written to a Filestore (NFS) share mounted into every pod so all replicas see the same files. A dedicated Cloud Storage bucket (suffix strapi-uploads) is also provisioned and configured as the Strapi GCS upload provider; the workload service account is granted access automatically.

• Console: Filestore → Instances for the NFS share; Cloud Storage → Buckets for the uploads bucket.
• CLI:

  gcloud filestore instances list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud storage buckets list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud storage ls gs://<uploads-bucket>/        # bucket name is in the Outputs
  # Confirm the NFS share is mounted inside a pod:
  kubectl exec -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name> -- df -h | grep -i nfs

See App_GKE for NFS provisioning, GCS Fuse, and CMEK options.

D. Secret Manager

Five Strapi cryptographic secrets are generated on first deploy and stored in Secret Manager: JWT_SECRET, ADMIN_JWT_SECRET, API_TOKEN_SALT, TRANSFER_TOKEN_SALT, and APP_KEYS (four comma-joined keys). The database password is also stored here. All secrets are injected into pods at runtime; plaintext never appears in configuration.

• Console: Security → Secret Manager.
• CLI:

  gcloud secrets list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud secrets versions access latest --secret=<secret-name> --project "$PROJECT"

The database password secret name is in the Outputs. See App_GKE for the Secret Store CSI integration and rotation.

E. Redis cache (optional)

When enable_redis = true, Redis is used as a session store and REST API response cache via the strapi-plugin-redis and strapi-plugin-rest-cache plugins. When redis_host is left empty and NFS is enabled, the NFS host IP is used as the Redis endpoint.

• Console: Memorystore → Redis (if using a managed instance).
• CLI:

  redis-cli -h <redis-host> ping
  redis-cli -h <redis-host> info keyspace
  # Confirm Redis env vars are injected into the pod:
  kubectl exec -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name> -- env | grep -E "^REDIS|ENABLE_REDIS"

F. Networking & ingress

By default the workload is exposed through an external Cloud Load Balancing IP. A custom domain with a Google-managed certificate can be enabled, and a static IP can be reserved so the address survives redeploys.

• Console: Network services → Load balancing; VPC network → IP addresses.
• CLI:

  kubectl get ingress,svc -n "$NAMESPACE"
  gcloud compute addresses list --project "$PROJECT"

See App_GKE for custom domains, Cloud CDN, and static IP details.

G. Cloud Logging & Monitoring

Pod stdout/stderr flow to Cloud Logging; GKE and Cloud SQL metrics flow to Cloud Monitoring. Optional uptime checks and alert policies are available.

• Console: Logging → Logs Explorer; Monitoring → Dashboards / Alerting.
• CLI:

  gcloud logging read 'resource.type="k8s_container" AND resource.labels.namespace_name="'"$NAMESPACE"'"' \
    --project "$PROJECT" --limit 50

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3. Strapi Application Behaviour

• First-deploy database setup. An initialization Job runs using postgres:15-alpine and idempotently creates the Strapi database and user, grants the necessary privileges (including CREATEDB, which Strapi's migration system requires), and signals the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy to shut down cleanly.
• GCS media provider. GCS_BUCKET_NAME and GCS_BASE_URL are automatically injected into the container. Strapi's config/plugins.js detects these variables and switches to the @strapi-community/strapi-provider-upload-google-cloud-storage provider, storing all media library uploads in the strapi-uploads GCS bucket.
• Email delivery (optional). If SMTP_HOST is set in environment_variables, config/plugins.js automatically enables the nodemailer email provider for Strapi notifications (user invitations, password resets, workflow events). Set SMTP_PASSWORD via secret_environment_variables.
• Health probe. Both startup and liveness probes target /_health — a Strapi endpoint that returns 200 only when the application and database connection are ready. The startup probe allows up to ~300 seconds for first-boot initialisation.
• Session affinity. Defaults to ClientIP — recommended because the Strapi admin panel uses persistent WebSocket connections for real-time content updates.
• Cryptographic secrets are immutable after first deploy. All five auto-generated secrets sign active sessions and API tokens. Regenerating any of them immediately invalidates all active sessions and tokens.

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4. Configuration Variables

Variables are grouped exactly as they appear on the deployment platform. Only settings specific to or notable for Strapi are listed; every other input is inherited from App_GKE with its standard behaviour and defaults.

Group 1 — Project & Identity

Variable	Default	Description
project_id	(required)	Target Google Cloud project.
region	us-central1	Region for the workload and regional resources.

Group 2 — Deployment Environment

Variable	Default	Description
tenant_deployment_id	demo	Short suffix that makes resource names unique per environment.
support_users	[]	Emails granted project access and monitoring alerts.
resource_labels	{}	Labels applied to all resources for cost/ownership tracking.

Group 3 — Application Identity

Variable	Default	Description
application_name	strapi	Base name for resources. Do not change after first deploy.
application_display_name	Strapi CMS	Friendly name shown in the Console.
application_description	Strapi Headless CMS on GKE	Workload description annotation.
application_version	5.0.0	Image version tag; increment to trigger a new Cloud Build run.

Group 4 — Runtime & Scaling

Variable	Default	Description
deploy_application	true	Set false to provision infrastructure only.
container_image_source	custom	"custom" triggers Cloud Build; "prebuilt" deploys an existing image URI.
container_image	""	Override image URI; leave empty for the module-built image.
container_build_config	{ enabled = true }	Dockerfile path, build context, and build args for Cloud Build.
enable_image_mirroring	true	Mirror image into Artifact Registry before deployment.
min_instance_count	1	Minimum pod replicas.
max_instance_count	10	Maximum pod replicas (autoscaler ceiling).
container_port	1337	Strapi's Node.js server listens on port 1337.
container_resources	{ cpu_limit = "1000m", memory_limit = "512Mi" }	CPU/memory limits and optional requests.
timeout_seconds	300	Max request duration; increase for long media processing operations.
enable_cloudsql_volume	true	Cloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar for socket connections.
enable_vertical_pod_autoscaling	false	Let Autopilot tune resource requests automatically.

Group 5 — Environment Variables & Secrets

Variable	Default	Description
environment_variables	{}	Extra non-secret settings. GCS_BUCKET_NAME and GCS_BASE_URL are injected automatically.
secret_environment_variables	{}	Map of env var → Secret Manager secret name for additional secrets.
secret_propagation_delay	30	Seconds to wait after secret creation before proceeding.
secret_rotation_period	2592000s	Pub/Sub rotation notification frequency.

Group 6 — GKE Backend & Cluster

Variable	Default	Description
service_type	LoadBalancer	How the Service is exposed.
session_affinity	ClientIP	Sticky routing recommended for Strapi WebSocket admin connections.
workload_type	null	Auto-resolves to StatefulSet when per-pod storage is enabled.
network_tags	["nfsserver"]	Node/pod tags; nfsserver is required for NFS connectivity.
gke_cluster_name	""	Target cluster name; auto-discovered when empty.
namespace_name	""	Kubernetes namespace; auto-generated when empty.

Group 7 — StatefulSet Configuration

Variable	Default	Description
stateful_pvc_enabled	null	Enable per-pod PVCs in a StatefulSet. Not needed for the default NFS-backed setup.
stateful_pvc_size	10Gi	Storage size per PVC. Immutable after creation.
stateful_pvc_mount_path	/data	Container path for the per-pod PVC.
stateful_pvc_storage_class	standard-rwo	StorageClass for PVCs.
stateful_headless_service	null	Create a headless Service for stable pod DNS.
stateful_pod_management_policy	null	OrderedReady or Parallel.
stateful_update_strategy	null	RollingUpdate or OnDelete.

Group 8 — Resource Quota

Variable	Default	Description
enable_resource_quota	false	Cap namespace CPU/memory/object counts.
quota_memory_requests / quota_memory_limits	""	Must use binary units (4Gi, 8192Mi) — bare integers are read as bytes and block scheduling.

Group 9 — Reliability Policies

Variable	Default	Description
enable_pod_disruption_budget	true	Protect availability during node upgrades.
pdb_min_available	1	Raise min_instance_count above 1 if you need eviction headroom.
enable_topology_spread	false	Spread pods across zones.

Group 10 — Observability & Health

Variable	Default	Description
startup_probe_config	HTTP /_health, 10s delay	Startup probe targeting Strapi's health endpoint.
health_check_config	HTTP /_health, 15s delay	Liveness probe targeting Strapi's health endpoint.
uptime_check_config	disabled, path /	Optional Cloud Monitoring uptime check.
alert_policies	[]	Optional metric alert policies.

Group 11 — Jobs & Scheduled Tasks

Variable	Default	Description
initialization_jobs	[]	Leave empty to use the built-in db-init job.
cron_jobs	[]	Recurring Kubernetes CronJobs triggered by Cloud Scheduler.
additional_services	[]	Sidecar or helper GKE services deployed alongside Strapi.

Group 12 — CI/CD & GitHub Integration

Standard App_GKE Cloud Build / Cloud Deploy integration — see App_GKE. Key inputs: enable_cicd_trigger, github_repository_url, github_token, enable_cloud_deploy, enable_binary_authorization.

Group 13 — Filesystem (NFS)

Variable	Default	Description
enable_nfs	true	Shared Filestore volume for Strapi media (keep enabled).
nfs_mount_path	/mnt/nfs	Mount path inside the container.
nfs_volume_name	nfs-data-volume	Kubernetes volume name for the NFS mount.

Group 14 — Cloud Storage & Artifact Registry

Variable	Default	Description
create_cloud_storage	true	Provision GCS buckets.
storage_buckets	[{ name_suffix = "data" }]	Additional buckets beyond the auto-provisioned strapi-uploads bucket.
gcs_volumes	[]	GCS Fuse volume mounts.
manage_storage_kms_iam / enable_artifact_registry_cmek	false	CMEK options.
max_images_to_retain	7	Maximum recent Artifact Registry images to keep.

Group 15 — Redis Cache

Variable	Default	Description
enable_redis	false	Use Redis for caching/sessions (disabled by default).
redis_host	""	Redis endpoint. Leave empty to fall back to the NFS host IP when enable_nfs = true.
redis_port	6379	Redis port.
redis_auth	""	Optional Redis auth password (sensitive).

Group 16 — Database Backend

Variable	Default	Description
database_type	POSTGRES	PostgreSQL is required — do not change to MySQL or NONE.
application_database_name	strapi	Database name. Immutable after first deploy.
application_database_user	strapi	Application user. Immutable after first deploy.
database_password_length	32	Generated password length (16–64).
enable_auto_password_rotation	false	Zero-downtime DB password rotation.
enable_postgres_extensions	false	Install additional PostgreSQL extensions after provisioning.

Group 17 — Backup & Maintenance

Variable	Default	Description
backup_schedule	0 2 * * *	Automated backup cron (UTC).
backup_retention_days	7	Retention; raise to 30–90 for production/compliance.
enable_backup_import / backup_source / backup_file / backup_format	restore options	Restore from a backup on deploy.

Group 18 — Custom SQL Scripts

enable_custom_sql_scripts, custom_sql_scripts_bucket, custom_sql_scripts_path, custom_sql_scripts_use_root — run SQL from a GCS bucket after provisioning. See App_GKE.

Group 19 — Custom Domain, Static IP & Networking

Variable	Default	Description
enable_custom_domain	true	Provision Ingress for custom hostnames + managed certificate.
application_domains	[]	Hostnames to serve.
reserve_static_ip	true	Stable external IP across redeploys.

Group 20 — Identity-Aware Proxy (IAP)

Variable	Default	Description
enable_iap	false	Require Google sign-in in front of Strapi.
iap_authorized_users / iap_authorized_groups	[]	Who may access.
iap_oauth_client_id / iap_oauth_client_secret	""	Required when IAP is enabled (sensitive).

Group 21 — Cloud Armor

Variable	Default	Description
enable_cloud_armor	false	Attach a Cloud Armor (WAF) policy to the Ingress backend.
admin_ip_ranges	[]	CIDRs allowed privileged access.
cloud_armor_policy_name	default-waf-policy	Policy name.
enable_cdn	false	Enable Cloud CDN on the GKE Ingress backend.

Group 22 — VPC Service Controls & Audit Logging

Variable	Default	Description
enable_vpc_sc	false	Enforce a VPC-SC perimeter (requires organization_id).
vpc_cidr_ranges / vpc_sc_dry_run	(set)	Access level CIDRs / dry-run mode.
enable_audit_logging	false	Detailed Cloud Audit Logs.

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5. Outputs

These values are returned on a successful deployment and are the quickest way to locate and explore the running resources.

Output	Description
service_name	Kubernetes Service name.
namespace	Namespace the workload runs in.
service_cluster_ip	In-cluster ClusterIP.
service_external_ip	External LoadBalancer IP (when a static IP is reserved).
service_url	URL to reach Strapi.
database_instance_name	Cloud SQL instance name.
database_name	Application database name.
database_user	Application database user.
database_password_secret	Secret Manager secret holding the DB password.
database_host / database_port	DB endpoint (127.0.0.1 via the Auth Proxy) / port.
storage_buckets	Created Cloud Storage buckets.
network_name / network_exists / regions	VPC network, presence, available regions.
container_image / container_registry	Deployed image and Artifact Registry repo.
monitoring_enabled / monitoring_notification_channels	Monitoring status and channels.
initialization_jobs / db_import_job	Names of the setup and (optional) import jobs.
deployment_id / tenant_id / resource_prefix	Naming identifiers.
project_id / project_number	Project identifiers.
cicd_enabled / cicd_configuration	CI/CD status and details (repo, trigger, registry).
kubernetes_ready	Whether the cluster/workload is ready.
vpc_sc_enabled / vpc_sc_perimeter_name / vpc_sc_dry_run_mode	VPC-SC status.
audit_logging_enabled / artifact_registry_cmek_enabled	Audit logging and CMEK status.

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6. Configuration Pitfalls & Sensible Defaults

Risk: Critical (data loss / outage / security) — High (service degraded) — Medium (cost or partial degradation) — Low (minor).

Setting	Sensible value	Risk	Consequence if wrong
APP_KEYS / JWT_SECRET / ADMIN_JWT_SECRET / API_TOKEN_SALT (auto-generated)	generated once, never changed	Critical	Rotating any of these after first deploy immediately invalidates all active sessions and API tokens; every user is logged out and all client integrations break.
database_type	POSTGRES or POSTGRES_15	Critical	Strapi requires PostgreSQL; MySQL or NONE breaks startup.
enable_nfs	true	Critical	Without shared storage, media uploads are lost on pod restart and not shared across replicas.
application_name	set once	Critical	Immutable after first deploy; changing it renames all GCP and Kubernetes resources, triggering full recreation and data loss.
application_database_name / application_database_user	set once	Critical	Immutable after first deploy; renaming causes Strapi to connect to an empty database, losing all content and users.
enable_backup_import	false unless restoring	Critical	Enabling without a valid backup_file fails the import job.
quota_memory_requests / quota_memory_limits	binary units	Critical	Bare integers are bytes and block all scheduling.
enable_cloudsql_volume	true	High	Required for PostgreSQL connectivity; blocked at plan time when disabled alongside a non-NONE database type.
memory_limit	512Mi minimum	High	Strapi is a Node.js application; too little memory causes OOM kills during admin panel operations. Raise to 1Gi or higher for production.
enable_redis	false	High	Enable only when plugins require it; enabling without a valid redis_host (and without NFS fallback) causes a startup connection error.
session_affinity	ClientIP	High	Without stickiness, the Strapi admin panel WebSocket connections drop and produce "unsaved changes" warnings.
min_instance_count	1	High	GKE does not support true scale-to-zero without KEDA; setting to 0 can leave the HPA in an inconsistent state.
enable_iap	enable for admin-facing	Medium	The Strapi admin panel is otherwise publicly reachable.
backup_retention_days	7 (raise for prod)	Medium	Too short for compliance retention.
pdb_min_available vs min_instance_count	leave headroom	Medium	1/1 can stall node upgrades (single pod cannot be evicted).
enable_topology_spread	consider for prod	Low	With multiple replicas, topology spread prevents all pods from landing in the same zone.

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For the foundation behaviour referenced throughout — IAM and Workload Identity, autoscaling, ingress and certificates, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC-SC, backups, and image mirroring — see App_GKE. Strapi-specific application configuration shared with the Cloud Run variant is described in Strapi_Common.