Apache Superset on Google Cloud Run

Apache Superset is an open-source data exploration and visualisation platform trusted by organisations worldwide. This module deploys Superset on Cloud Run v2 on top of the App_CloudRun foundation, which provisions and manages the shared Google Cloud infrastructure.

This guide focuses on the cloud services Superset uses and how to explore and operate them from the Google Cloud Console and the command line. For the mechanics common to every Cloud Run application — service identity, ingress and load balancing, scaling and concurrency, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC Service Controls, backups, and the deployment lifecycle — refer to the App_CloudRun foundation guide rather than repeating them here.

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1. Overview

Superset runs as a Python/Gunicorn container on Cloud Run v2. The deployment wires together a focused set of Google Cloud services:

Capability	Google Cloud service	Notes
Compute	Cloud Run v2	Python/Gunicorn service, 2 vCPU / 2 GiB by default, request-based autoscaling
Database	Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15	Required — stores dashboards, charts, datasets, and user settings
Object storage	Cloud Storage	A dedicated data bucket provisioned automatically
Cache & async queries	Redis	Disabled by default; strongly recommended for production multi-user deployments
Secrets	Secret Manager	Auto-generated SUPERSET_SECRET_KEY and database password
Ingress	Cloud Run URL / Cloud Load Balancing	Default run.app URL, optional external HTTPS load balancer + custom domain

Sensible defaults worth knowing up front:

• PostgreSQL 15 is required. Superset uses it as its metadata database for all dashboards, charts, datasets, and role definitions. MySQL is not supported.
• SUPERSET_SECRET_KEY is auto-generated. A 50-character random key is generated and stored in Secret Manager. It signs Flask sessions — rotating it invalidates all active user sessions. Treat it as immutable after the first deploy.
• Two-phase initialisation runs automatically. A db-init job creates the PostgreSQL database and user; then an app-init job runs schema migrations and creates the admin user. Both run on every deploy but are idempotent.
• Redis is disabled by default. Without Redis, Celery workers have no broker; async query execution and dashboard caching are unavailable. Enable for production.
• The health probe targets /health — Superset's Gunicorn readiness endpoint.
• gen2 execution environment is used. Required for full Linux compatibility and, when NFS is enabled, NFS volume mounts.

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2. Google Cloud Services & How to Explore Them

All commands assume PROJECT and REGION are set. Service and resource names are reported in the deployment Outputs.

A. Cloud Run — the Superset service

Superset runs as a Cloud Run v2 service that autoscales by request load between the minimum and maximum instance counts. Each deployment creates an immutable revision; traffic can be split across revisions for safe rollouts.

• Console: Cloud Run → select the service for revisions, traffic, logs, and metrics.
• CLI:

  gcloud run services list --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"
  gcloud run services describe <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"
  gcloud run revisions list --service <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"

See App_CloudRun for scaling, concurrency, execution environment, and traffic splitting.

B. Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15

Superset stores all metadata in a managed Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15 instance. The service connects privately through the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy over a Unix socket (no public IP). On first deploy the db-init job creates the application database and user, and the app-init job applies the schema migrations.

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

  gcloud sql instances list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud sql instances describe <instance-name> --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud sql connect <instance-name> --user=<db-user> --project "$PROJECT"

The instance name, database, user, and password secret are in the Outputs. See App_CloudRun for the connection model, backups, and password rotation.

C. Cloud Storage

A dedicated Cloud Storage bucket is provisioned automatically for Superset data exports, chart outputs, and report files. The service account is granted access automatically.

• Console: Cloud Storage → Buckets.
• CLI:

  gcloud storage buckets list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud storage ls gs://<data-bucket>/          # bucket name is in the Outputs

See App_CloudRun for GCS Fuse mounts and CMEK.

D. Redis cache and async query engine

Redis serves as Superset's caching backend and Celery broker. When enabled, it powers async SQL execution, dashboard cache warming, and scheduled reports. Without Redis, all queries run synchronously and block Gunicorn workers.

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

  redis-cli -h <redis-host> ping
  redis-cli -h <redis-host> info keyspace

E. Secret Manager

The SUPERSET_SECRET_KEY and the database password are stored in Secret Manager and injected into the service at runtime.

• Console: Security → Secret Manager.
• CLI:

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

See App_CloudRun for injection and rotation details.

F. Networking & ingress

The service is reachable at its run.app URL by default. An external HTTPS load balancer with a custom domain, Cloud CDN, and Cloud Armor can be layered on; ingress settings and VPC egress control connectivity.

• Console: Cloud Run (service URL); Network services → Load balancing.
• CLI:

  gcloud run services describe <service-name> --region "$REGION" --format='value(status.url)'
  gcloud compute addresses list --project "$PROJECT"

See App_CloudRun.

G. Cloud Logging & Monitoring

Container logs flow to Cloud Logging; Cloud Run and Cloud SQL metrics flow to Cloud Monitoring. An uptime check against /health is available but disabled by default (uptime_check_config.enabled = false). Optional alert policies are available.

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

  gcloud run services logs read <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION" --limit 50

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3. Superset Application Behaviour

• First-deploy database setup. The db-init job creates the Superset database and user idempotently before the service starts. It runs with postgres:15-alpine and shuts down the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar via quitquitquit on completion.
• Schema migrations on every deploy. The app-init job runs superset db upgrade on each deploy, applying any pending schema changes. It then runs superset fab create-admin to create or update the admin user, and superset init to load default roles and permissions. The app-init job depends on db-init completing successfully.
• Startup sequence. The app-init job has a 30-minute timeout to accommodate slow first-run migrations. The HTTP startup probe (60 s initial delay, 12 failure thresholds) gives the Gunicorn worker pool up to 180 seconds to come up.
• Flask secret key. SUPERSET_SECRET_KEY signs Flask sessions and encrypts database connection credentials stored in Superset's metadata. Changing it after the first deploy invalidates all sessions and makes stored credentials unreadable. The key is auto-generated as a 50-character random string in Secret Manager.
• Async queries and scheduled reports. Superset's Celery workers use Redis as the broker and result backend. Without Redis, async queries and scheduled reports are unavailable. Configure enable_redis = true and supply redis_host for production.
• Health path. Readiness/liveness probes target /health, which returns HTTP 200 when the Gunicorn worker pool is ready.
• Inspect running jobs:

  gcloud run jobs list --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"
  gcloud run jobs executions list --job <job-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"

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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 Superset are listed; every other input is inherited from App_CloudRun with its standard behaviour.

Group 1 — Project & Identity

Variable	Default	Description
project_id	(required)	Target Google Cloud project.
region	us-central1	Region for the service 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.

Group 3 — Application Identity

Variable	Default	Description
application_name	superset	Base name for resources. Do not change after first deploy.
application_display_name	Apache Superset	Friendly name shown in the Console.
application_description	Apache Superset - Data Exploration and Visualisation Platform	Service description.
application_version	latest	Superset image version tag; pin to a specific release for production.

Group 4 — Runtime & Scaling

Variable	Default	Description
deploy_application	true	Set false to provision infrastructure only.
container_resources	{ cpu_limit = "2000m", memory_limit = "2Gi" }	CPU and memory per instance; 2 vCPU / 2 GiB minimum for Superset.
container_port	8088	Superset/Gunicorn listens on port 8088.
container_image_source	custom	custom builds the bundled Dockerfile (required for psycopg2); prebuilt uses an existing image.
execution_environment	gen2	Cloud Run generation; gen2 required for NFS mounts and improved networking.
min_instance_count	1	Minimum instances; keep ≥ 1 to avoid cold-start delays (~30–60 s for Superset).
max_instance_count	5	Maximum instances (cost ceiling).
timeout_seconds	600	Request timeout; extended for long-running SQL queries.
enable_cloudsql_volume	true	Cloud SQL Auth Proxy for socket connections.
traffic_split	[]	Canary/blue-green traffic allocation across revisions.

Group 5 — Access & Ingress Control

Variable	Default	Description
enable_iap	false	Require Google sign-in via Identity-Aware Proxy.
iap_authorized_users / iap_authorized_groups	[]	Who may access through IAP.
ingress_settings	all	Which networks may reach the service (all / internal / LB-only).
vpc_egress_setting	PRIVATE_RANGES_ONLY	How outbound traffic is routed through the VPC connector.

Group 6 — Environment Variables & Secrets

Variable	Default	Description
environment_variables	{}	Extra non-secret settings. SUPERSET_SECRET_KEY is injected automatically.
secret_environment_variables	{}	Map of env var → Secret Manager secret name.
secret_propagation_delay / secret_rotation_period	(set)	Replication wait / rotation cadence.

Group 7 — Backup & Restore

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

Group 8 — CI/CD & Binary Authorization

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

Group 9 — Custom SQL & NFS

Variable	Default	Description
enable_custom_sql_scripts / custom_sql_scripts_bucket / custom_sql_scripts_path / custom_sql_scripts_use_root	off	Run SQL from a GCS bucket after provisioning. See App_CloudRun.
nfs_instance_name / nfs_instance_base_name	(set)	Existing NFS instance / base name for an inline one. Superset does not require NFS.

Group 10 — Domain, CDN, Cloud Armor & Image Retention

Variable	Default	Description
application_domains	[]	Custom hostnames for the external load balancer.
enable_cdn	false	Enable Cloud CDN on the LB backend.
enable_cloud_armor / admin_ip_ranges	off	Attach a WAF policy / restrict privileged access.
max_images_to_retain / delete_untagged_images / image_retention_days	(set)	Artifact Registry cleanup policy.

Group 11 — Storage & Filesystem

Variable	Default	Description
create_cloud_storage	true	Provision the data bucket.
storage_buckets / gcs_volumes	(set)	Additional buckets / GCS Fuse mounts.
enable_nfs	false	Shared Filestore volume. Superset does not require NFS.
manage_storage_kms_iam / enable_artifact_registry_cmek	false	CMEK options.

Group 12 — Database Backend

Variable	Default	Description
database_type	POSTGRES_15	Fixed — do not change. Superset requires PostgreSQL.
application_database_name	superset_db	Database name. Immutable after first deploy.
application_database_user	superset_user	Application user. Immutable after first deploy.
database_password_length	32	Generated password length (16–64).
enable_auto_password_rotation / rotation_propagation_delay_sec	off	DB password rotation.
db_host_env_var_name / db_name_env_var_name / db_user_env_var_name / db_port_env_var_name / service_url_env_var_name	(set)	Names under which connection details are injected.

Group 13 — Jobs & Scheduled Tasks

Variable	Default	Description
initialization_jobs	[]	Leave empty to use the built-in two-phase db-init + app-init pipeline.
cron_jobs	[]	Recurring jobs triggered by Cloud Scheduler — useful for cache warmup or report generation.

Group 14 — Observability & Health

Variable	Default	Description
startup_probe / startup_probe_config	HTTP /health, 60 s delay, 12 failures	Allows up to 180 s for the Gunicorn worker pool to initialise.
liveness_probe / health_check_config	HTTP /health, 30 s delay	Liveness probe.
uptime_check_config	disabled, /health	Cloud Monitoring uptime check.
alert_policies	[]	Metric alert policies.

Group 21 — Redis Cache

Variable	Default	Description
enable_redis	false	Enable Redis for Celery and caching. Strongly recommended for production.
redis_host	""	Redis hostname or IP. Required when enable_redis = true.
redis_port	6379	Redis port (number in the Cloud Run variant).
redis_auth	""	Optional Redis authentication password (sensitive).

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

Returned on a successful deployment — the quickest way to locate and explore the running resources.

Output	Description
service_name	Cloud Run service name.
service_url	Default run.app URL of the service.
service_location	Region the service runs in.
stage_services	Stage-specific service URLs (Cloud Deploy).
load_balancer_ip / load_balancer_url	External HTTPS load balancer IP / URL (when enabled).
database_instance_name	Cloud SQL instance name.
database_name / database_user	Application database name / user.
database_password_secret	Secret Manager secret holding the DB password.
database_host / database_port	DB endpoint / port.
storage_buckets	Created Cloud Storage buckets.
network_name / network_exists / regions	VPC network, presence, regions.
container_image / container_registry	Deployed image and Artifact Registry repo.
monitoring_enabled / monitoring_notification_channels / uptime_check_names	Monitoring status, channels, uptime checks.
initialization_jobs	Names of the setup jobs.
deployment_id / tenant_id / resource_prefix	Naming identifiers.
project_id / project_number	Project identifiers.
cicd_enabled / github_repository_url / github_repository_owner / github_repository_name / cicd_configuration	CI/CD status and details.
artifact_registry_repository / cloudbuild_trigger_name / cloudbuild_trigger_id	Registry and build trigger.
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
SUPERSET_SECRET_KEY (auto-generated)	immutable after first deploy	Critical	Changing the key invalidates all active sessions and makes stored database connection credentials permanently unreadable.
database_type	POSTGRES_15	Critical	Superset requires PostgreSQL; changing breaks startup.
enable_cloudsql_volume	true	Critical	Disabling removes the Auth Proxy sidecar; all PostgreSQL connections fail.
application_database_name / _user	set once	Critical	Immutable after first deploy; renaming recreates the DB/user and destroys all dashboards and metadata.
enable_backup_import	false unless restoring	Critical	Enabling without a valid backup_uri fails the import job.
enable_redis	true for production	High	Without Redis, Celery workers have no broker; async queries and scheduled reports are unavailable.
redis_host	set explicitly	High	Required when enable_redis = true; empty causes Celery workers to fail on startup.
container_resources.memory_limit	2Gi minimum	High	Under 1 GiB Gunicorn workers are OOM-killed during query execution.
container_resources.cpu_limit	2000m	High	Under 1000m the app-init migration job may time out in its 30-minute window.
min_instance_count	1	High	0 adds cold-start latency and risks missed async work; Superset takes 30–60 s to start.
startup_probe.failure_threshold	12 or higher	High	Reducing too far causes Cloud Run to kill the container before Superset finishes database migrations.
application_version	pin to a specific release	Medium	latest triggers uncontrolled upgrades that may introduce breaking API changes.
enable_iap / enable_cloud_armor	enable for production	Medium	Without them, the Superset login form is publicly reachable.
timeout_seconds	600	Medium	Reducing below 120 s causes long-running analytical queries to be aborted mid-execution.
backup_retention_days	7 (raise for prod)	Medium	Too short for compliance retention.

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For the foundation behaviour referenced throughout — service identity, scaling and concurrency, ingress and load balancing, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC-SC, backups, and image mirroring — see App_CloudRun. Superset-specific application configuration shared with the GKE variant is described in Superset_Common.