Could not load the default credentials? (Node.js Google Compute Engine tutorial)

Question

SITUATION:

I follow this tutorial: https://cloud.google.com/nodejs/tutorials/bookshelf-on-compute-engine

Everything works fine until I do

Answer 1

There are 2 solutions for this problem. One option, as mentioned by others, is to use gcloud auth application-default login

Second option is to set the environment variable GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS. It should point to a file that defines the credentials. To get this file you need to follow these steps:

Go to the API Console Credentials page.

From the project drop-down, select your project.

On the Credentials page, select the Create credentials drop-down, then select Service account key.

From the Service account drop-down, select an existing service account or create a new one.

For Key type, select the JSON key option, then select Create. The file automatically downloads to your computer.

Put the *.json file you just downloaded in a directory of your choosing.

This directory must be private (you can't let anyone get access to this), but accessible to your web server code.

Set the environment variable GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS to the path of the JSON file downloaded.

See https://developers.google.com/identity/protocols/application-default-credentials for details