GCP Load Balancer 404 Fix for URL Map Mismatches

Eliminate 404 responses caused by incorrect host rules or backend path routing.

April 21, 2026•1 min read

#gcp#load-balancer#404

Problem

The Google Cloud load balancer responds with 404 for valid application routes.

Root Cause

The URL map points requests to a default backend because the host rule or path matcher is incomplete.

Fix

Code

gcloud compute url-maps describe web-map --global
gcloud compute url-maps add-path-matcher web-map \
  --default-service web-backend \
  --path-matcher-name app-matcher \
  --new-hosts app.example.com \
  --path-rules "/api/*=api-backend,/docs/*=docs-backend"
gcloud compute url-maps validate web-map --global

Result

Requests match the correct backend service and the 404 responses disappear.

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