Redash on GCP - Developer Guide

Welcome to the Meetrix Redash developer guide for Google Cloud Platform! Redash lets you connect to any data source, build queries, visualize results, and share insights with your team. With the Meetrix pre-configured GCP image, you can deploy a production-ready Redash instance in minutes.

This guide walks you through finding the product on GCP Marketplace, configuring the deployment, pointing DNS, generating SSL, configuring email, and operating the server.

Related Article

Redash - Developer Guide (AWS)

Step-by-step guide for deploying and configuring Redash on AWS using the Meetrix pre-configured AMI and CloudFormation.

Meetrix.IO • Binuka Ranatunga

Launch the Product

Step 1: Find the Product

1. Log in to your Google account.
2. Browse all Meetrix products at the Meetrix Solutions Page and search for "Redash".
3. Open the Redash listing published by Meetrix Pte Ltd.

Step 2: Launch the Product

1. Select your GCP project from the project selector at the top.
2. Review the product description and pricing details.
3. Click the GET STARTED button.
4. Accept the terms and conditions and click AGREE.

Free Trial

This product includes a free trial with license fee credits. To activate it, tick I accept the solution trial Terms and Conditions on the launch screen before proceeding.

Configure the Deployment

You will see the deployment configuration form. Fill in the fields across the following sections:

General

• Deployment name — A unique name for this deployment.
• Deployment Service Account — Use an existing service account with the config.agent, compute.admin, and iam.serviceAccountUser roles, or create a new one.
• Machine type — Default e2-medium (2 vCPUs, 4 GB RAM) works for most teams. Choose a larger type for heavier query workloads.
• Zone — Select the GCP zone closest to your users.

Boot Disk

• Boot disk type — Default Balanced persistent disk is recommended.
• Boot disk size — Default 20 GB is sufficient for most workloads; increase it if you expect large query result caches.

Networking

• Network / Subnetwork — Leave as default unless you have a custom VPC.
• External IP — Leave as Ephemeral so the server is reachable for DNS and SSL setup.
• Allow SSH (TCP port 22) — Enabled by default. Restrict the source IP range if you want to limit SSH access to specific IPs.

Application Settings

• Domain name — The domain for your Redash instance (e.g. redash.yourdomain.com). Point your DNS A record to the instance IP before or shortly after deploying.
• Admin email — Used for SSL certificate registration via Let's Encrypt.

Click DEPLOY and wait 5–10 minutes for the deployment to complete.

Point DNS to the Server

Step 1: Get the External IP

1. Once deployment is complete, open the deployment in Solution deployments and expand the Outputs section, or click the VM instance resource name in the deployment details.
2. Copy the External IP shown there (or from the Network interfaces section of the VM instance page).

Step 2: Create a DNS A Record

1. Go to your DNS provider.
2. Add an A record pointing your Redash domain (e.g. redash.yourdomain.com) to the copied external IP.
3. Wait for DNS propagation before proceeding (typically a few minutes to 1 hour).

Access Redash

You can access Redash immediately over HTTP using the External IP address (e.g. http://<External-IP>) before DNS and SSL are configured, or via your domain once DNS has propagated and SSL is issued. On first load, complete the Redash Initial Setup form to create the admin account and organization name; all subsequent users can be managed through the Redash Settings panel.

(If you encounter a "502 Bad Gateway" error, please wait about 5 minutes and then refresh the page while the application finishes starting up.)

Once setup is complete, you'll land on the Redash home dashboard, ready to connect data sources, build queries, and create dashboards.

Generate SSL Manually

Redash will automatically try to set up SSL when a matching domain is configured. If it fails, follow these steps to generate SSL manually.

Step 1: SSH into the Server

1. Go to the VM instance page in the GCP console.
2. Click SSH to open a browser-based terminal and authorize access.

Step 2: Run the Certificate Script

The image includes a pre-configured certificate script. Run it with:

sudo bash /root/certificate_generate_standalone.sh

Email Configuration

Configure SMTP settings to enable email invitations and alerts. SSH into the server and edit the environment file with your SMTP provider details:

Apply Changes

After updating the email configuration, apply the changes by restarting the services:

cd /opt/redash
docker-compose down
docker-compose up -d

Once email is configured, invite teammates from the Redash Settings → Users section. You should see a confirmation that the invite email was sent.

Check Server Logs

Step 1: SSH into the Server

ssh -i <your key name> <username>@<External IP address>

Step 2: Check the Logs

sudo docker ps

sudo docker logs <container_id_or_name>

Shutting Down Redash

1. Go to Compute Engine → VM Instances in the GCP console; you'll find your Redash instance listed there.
2. Select the checkbox next to the instance and click Stop from the top toolbar.

You can restart the instance at any time by selecting it again and clicking Start.

Remove Redash

To fully remove the deployment and stop all billing:

1. Go to Solution deployments in the GCP console.
2. Find your Redash deployment.
3. Click Delete to remove all associated resources.

Upgrades

When there is an upgrade, we will update the product with a newer version. You can check the product version on GCP Marketplace. If a newer version is available, you can remove the previous deployment and launch the product again using the newer version. Remember to back up necessary server data before removing.

Troubleshoot

502 Bad Gateway

If you see this error right after deployment or restart, wait about 5 minutes and refresh the page while Redash finishes starting up.

Check Service Logs

sudo docker ps
sudo docker logs <container_id_or_name>

Quota or Capacity Errors

If you face a CPU quota error when deploying, request a quota increase for Compute Engine API CPUs in that region from the GCP console. If you see an insufficient capacity error for your chosen machine type, try a different zone/region or retry later.

Check Disk Usage

Log into the server and run:

df -h

If the root volume is between 90–100%, increase the persistent disk size in the GCP console, then reboot the instance and restart the Redash services.

SSL Certificate Issues

If the certificate script fails, ensure DNS has propagated before running it and that port 80 is open in your VPC firewall rules for the ACME HTTP challenge.

Conclusion

The Meetrix Redash developer guide for GCP helps you set up Redash on Google Cloud quickly and securely. Whether you're a DevOps engineer or administrator, this guide provides step-by-step instructions to deploy Redash in a scalable and reliable way.

Technical Support

If you run into any issues, our support team is here to help. Reach out to us at support@meetrix.io and we will respond within 12 hours.