You need to give a Google Cloud VM with no external IP address private connectivity to a Cloud SQL instance using private IP. Which step is required in the consumer VPC before creating the private connection?

To establish private connectivity between a VM without an external IP and a Cloud SQL instance using private IP, you must configure Private Services Access (PSA). This involves allocating a reserved IP range in your consumer VPC network for Google's services, including Cloud SQL. This range is used by Google to create a private connection from your VPC to the Cloud SQL instance's VPC, allowing your VM to reach Cloud SQL privately. Creating a Private Service Connect endpoint is for connecting to services hosted by other VPCs or Google-managed services that support PSC, not directly for Cloud SQL private IP. Enabling Private Google Access on the subnet allows VMs without external IPs to reach Google APIs and services over Google's internal network, but it doesn't establish the necessary private connection to a Cloud SQL instance using private IP. Creating a public DNS A record is irrelevant for private connectivity and would expose the service publicly if it had a public IP, which is not the case here.