Is it possible to connect to the Google Cloud Shell instance via the ssh? Maybe somehow with gcloud? So I can use it with my favorite terminal (iTerm in particular) and not with the Web-based shell.
Answer: yes it is now been possible: https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/gcp/introducing-the-ability-to-connect-to-cloud-shell-from-any-terminal
You can connect to a vpn from the cloud shell, put the needed binary in your home directory and write the necessary startup scripts (connect to vpn and start daemon etc) on top of the
.bashrcfile so that it get executed when you start the shell from your browser.I also suggest to use mosh becasue routing this way is pretty terrible and maybe run ssh cipherless since the vpn is already encrypted.
You could also cobble the heartbeat to keep the shell alive but that's probably too much in abuseland, having a pinned tab for the cloud shell seems good enough to me.