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Struggling to access your web app hosted on Google Cloud Platform? This guide provides troubleshooting steps to resolve accessibility issues on specific internet connections.
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This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/69538719/ asked by the user 'Mohamad El Baba' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/13135147/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/69583473/ provided by the user 'Mohamad El Baba' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/13135147/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

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Solving Website Accessibility Issues on GCP VM: A Guide for Developers

Have you recently deployed a web application on a Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Virtual Machine (VM) and noticed that it’s not accessible for some users? If you find yourself in this situation, you’re not alone. Many developers face similar issues when their web applications are functioning properly but are inaccessible from certain networks. In this guide, we will unpack this problem and provide a comprehensive solution to help you regain control over your application’s accessibility.

Understanding the Problem

Your web application is live and operational, but some clients report they are unable to access it. This means backend requests aren’t going through, and it can be a frustrating experience for both you and your users. Here’s what you need to consider:

Ports in Use: You have set up your app to run on specific ports (8000 for Django and 8080 for the Nginx server), and configured your firewall to only allow access to those ports.

Firewall Settings: While your firewall is designed to block unwanted access, it may still be misconfigured, leading to connection issues for certain users.

Device-Specific Issues: The problem might vary across user devices or networks, which further complicates troubleshooting.

Troubleshooting Steps

To solve the issue and ensure your web application is accessible across various networks, follow these organized troubleshooting steps:

Disable IPV6 on Your Device:

If a client is experiencing issues, ask them to temporarily disable the IPV6 adapter on their device to see if this influences accessibility.

Re-deploy on a New VM Instance:

Faulty hardware might lead to unexpected behavior. Deploy your application on another VM instance to determine if the issue persists.

Check Host-Level Firewall Settings:

SSH into the machine to inspect the firewall settings directly on the host. Ensure no additional firewall rules are restricting access to the necessary ports.

Identify Conflicting Applications:

Verify that the port used by your Django application (8000) isn’t occupied by another application. You can use commands like lsof -i :8000 to check.

Revisit Firewall Rule Configurations:

Double-check your firewall settings in GCP. Confirm that ports 8000 and 8080 are indeed open and accessible from the internet.

Change the Port:

If all else fails, consider changing the port for your Django application. In this case, switching from port 8000 to port 5000 resolved the issue effectively for me.

Conclusion

By following these troubleshooting steps, you can effectively address multi-network access issues with your web application hosted on GCP VMs. Always remember that issues may not stem solely from misconfigurations, but could also arise from network-specific challenges or device configurations.

In our case, changing the port of the Django application ultimately resolved the accessibility problem. Regularly testing your setup across different devices and networks can also preempt these frustrating situations. Always be prepared to adapt with the technology landscape and ensure your applications are accessible to all users.

If you found this guide helpful, or if you have additional steps you've taken to resolve similar issues, feel free to share your experiences in the comments below!