The standard and correct workflow for deploying a containerized application to Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) begins with the Dockerfile. First, a container image must be built from the Dockerfile using a tool like Docker. This image must then be stored in a container registry that the GKE cluster can access; Google Container Registry (GCR) or Artifact Registry are the standard, integrated choices on Google Cloud. Next, a Kubernetes Deployment manifest (a YAML file) is created. This file declaratively defines the desired state, specifying the container image location (from the registry), the number of replicas, and other configurations. Finally, the kubectl command-line tool is used to apply this manifest to the GKE cluster, which then pulls the image and creates the Pods.

A. kubectl app deploy . is not a valid or standard kubectl command for deploying applications. The correct command to apply a configuration file is kubectl apply -f .

B. gcloud app deploy . is the command used to deploy applications to Google App Engine, which is a different service (Platform-as-a-Service) from Google Kubernetes Engine.

D. Google Cloud Storage is an object storage service, not a container registry. GKE nodes cannot pull container images directly from a Cloud Storage bucket; they require a registry that implements the Docker Registry API.

1. Google Cloud Documentation

"Deploying a containerized web application": This official tutorial outlines the exact steps described in the correct answer. It details building a container image

pushing it to Artifact Registry (Google's recommended container registry)

and then deploying it to a GKE cluster using a manifest file (deployment.yaml) and kubectl apply. (See steps 3

4

and 6 in the guide).

2. Google Cloud Documentation

"Container Registry overview": "Container Registry is a private container image registry that runs on Google Cloud... You can access Container Registry through HTTPS endpoints

from gcloud

or from Docker." This confirms that a registry

not object storage

is the correct location for images.

3. Google Cloud SDK Documentation

gcloud app deploy: The official documentation for this command states

"This command is used to deploy the source code and configuration of your application to the App Engine server." This explicitly links the command to App Engine

not GKE.

4. Kubernetes Documentation

"Deployments": "A Deployment provides declarative updates for Pods... You describe a desired state in a Deployment

and the Deployment Controller changes the actual state to the desired state at a controlled rate." This supports the use of a declarative YAML file as the standard practice.