GCP Cloud Asset Inventory
A centralized metadata inventory service for managing Google Cloud resources.
| Category | Compliance & Governance |
|---|---|
| This page updated | 2 months ago |
| Pricing Details | Pricing based on usage and resource types. |
| Target Audience | Cloud administrators, DevOps teams, and IT managers. |
GCP Cloud Asset Inventory manages maintaining visibility and control over the vast array of cloud resources in a Google Cloud environment. This tool provides a centralized metadata inventory service that allows you to view, search, export, monitor, and analyze your Google Cloud asset metadata.
Technically, Cloud Asset Inventory aggregates data from various sources, including Google Cloud resources such as Compute Engine VM instances, Cloud Storage buckets, and App Engine instances, as well as policies like IAM policies, organization policies, and Access Context Manager policies. It also incorporates runtime information from OS inventory management. The service supports multiple content types, such as RESOURCE, IAM_POLICY, ORG_POLICY, and OS_INVENTORY, allowing for detailed metadata retrieval.
Operationally, enabling Cloud Asset Inventory involves activating the Cloud Asset API, which can be done via the Google Cloud Console, CLI, or APIs. Once enabled, you can create asset feeds to monitor specific resources and projects. The service offers powerful search and filtering capabilities, enabling you to locate assets based on criteria like project ID, resource type, and labels. Asset data can be exported to BigQuery, CSV, or Cloud Storage for further analysis.
Key operational considerations include understanding the supported asset types and content types, as well as the limitations on data retention and query performance. Cloud Asset Inventory retains asset metadata for up to 35 days, and assets that haven't changed within this period report their latest status. Additionally, the service has specific limits based on the type and size of the assets being managed, which users should review in GCP’s documentation.
From a technical details perspective, the API supports REST, RPC, and gcloud CLI interactions, allowing for programmatic access to asset data. This enables automation of asset management tasks and integration with existing systems. For example, you can use the SearchAllResources method to query assets across organizations, projects, or folders, and the ExportAssets operation to export data for in-depth analysis.