google cloud shell open browser inside shell

Question

is it possible to open the browser inside gcp cloud shell, or alternatively is it possible to have a desktop access to the cloud shell through the browser ? I am trying to run istio inside cloud shell, which I have done successfully. However to view the sample application I need to open a browser inside the cloudshell itself. I am not sure how to do it from my browser on my laptop and what uri I should use.

Answer 1

Yes.

It depends on your "client" for Cloud Shell.

If you're using the browser, there's a menu option that permits publishing a Cloud Shell port (this used to be a limited set of ports e.g. 8080 but I think it's now broader).

If you're using gcloud, you can use the following command to port-forward the Cloud Shell instance's CLDS_PORT to your host's HOST_PORT:

gcloud cloud-shell ssh --ssh-flag="-L [HOST_PORT]:localhost:[CLDS_PORT]"