<p>I'd like to create a Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) alpha cluster and am facing the following problems:</p>

<ul>
<li>According to the <a href="https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/docs/release-notes" rel="nofollow noreferrer">release notes</a> the latest alpha version is <code>1.16.6-gke.4</code>, however <code>gcloud beta container clusters create blablu --machine-type=n1-standard-2 --cluster-version=1.16.6-gke.4 --no-enable-stackdriver-kubernetes --no-enable-autoupgrade --preemptible --enable-kubernetes-alpha --quiet --enable-pod-security-policy</code> fails due to <code>ERROR: (gcloud.beta.container.clusters.create) ResponseError: code=400, message=Node version "1.16.6-gke.4" is unsupported.</code></li>
<li>Omitting the version and specifying <code>--enable-kubernetes-alpha</code> causes a cluster with version <code>1.14.10-gke.17</code> to be created - two major versions from the current 1.16.x alpha version which doesn't make sense.</li>
<li>I tried about 20 1.16.x-gke.y versions with different values for x and y in a trial error approach without any luck.</li>
</ul>

<p>I tried these commands with <code>gcloud</code>, <code>gcloud beta</code> and <code>gcloud alpha</code>. All <code>gcloud alpha</code> commands fail due to <code>ERROR: (gcloud.alpha.container.clusters.create) ResponseError: code=404, message=Method not found.</code> which is not helpful at all.</p>

<p>I created 1.16 Alpha clusters before using the version specified in the release notes.</p>

Kalle Richter
<p>A good way to "sanity check" things like this is to use the Console and have it show you the equivalent CLI command. I tried to repro your issue and the command the Console produces this:</p>

<pre class="lang-sh prettyprint-override"><code>gcloud beta container clusters create ${CLUSTER} \
--project=${PROJECT} \
--region=${REGION} \
--release-channel="rapid" \
</code></pre>

<p>Where <code>rapid</code>==<code>1.16.5-gke.2</code></p>

<p>Even though:</p>

<pre class="lang-sh prettyprint-override"><code>gcloud container get-server-config \
--project=${PROJECT} \
--region=${REGION}
Fetching server config for ...
defaultClusterVersion: 1.14.10-gke.17
defaultImageType: COS
validImageTypes:
- UBUNTU_CONTAINERD
- COS
- UBUNTU
- COS_CONTAINERD
validMasterVersions:
- 1.15.9-gke.9
- 1.15.9-gke.8
...
validNodeVersions:
- 1.15.9-gke.9
- 1.15.9-gke.8
...
</code></pre>

<p>So I think you need to use one of the <code>--release-channel</code> flag to get the version you're seeking.</p>

<p><strong>NB</strong> I know you're probably aware that different regions|zones also (occasionally) have different GKE version availability.</p>
