A comprehensive guide to building and deploying multi-architecture Docker images on Google Cloud's GKE using ARM (Axion/T2A) nodes without QEMU emulation. Covers writing a Go HTTP server, creating a multi-stage Dockerfile that uses Docker Buildx cross-compilation to produce both linux/amd64 and linux/arm64 images under a single manifest list tag, pushing to Google Artifact Registry, provisioning a mixed-architecture GKE cluster with ARM node pools, and using nodeSelector to pin workloads to ARM nodes. Includes cost comparison showing 25-30% savings versus equivalent x86 instances and guidance on when ARM is or isn't the right choice.
Table of contents
Table of ContentsPrerequisitesStep 1: Set Up Your Google Cloud ProjectStep 2: Create the GKE ClusterStep 3: Write the ApplicationStep 4: Enable Multi-Arch Builds with Docker BuildxStep 5: Write the DockerfileStep 6: Build and Push the Multi-Arch ImageStep 7: Add the Axion ARM Node PoolStep 8: Deploy the App to the ARM Node PoolStep 9: Verify the DeploymentStep 10: Cost Savings and TradeoffsCleanupConclusionProject File StructureSort: