Operating system details
This page provides general operating system (OS) details and featuresupport for theOS imagesthat are available on Compute Engine.
Some OS images are customized specifically to run onCompute Engine and have notable differences from the standard imagesthat come directly from the operating system vendors. These differences arealso covered for each OS.
For information about how support and maintenance is provided for theseOS images on Compute Engine, based on support package, license type,and image lifecycle stage, seeSupport and maintenance policy for OS images.
CentOS
Caution: CentOS operating systems have reachedtheir end of development and support. For more information,seeCentOS EOS guidance.CentOS Linux is a free operating system that is derived from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Google Cloud builds and supports the CentOS images available for Compute Engine. There is no license fee for using CentOS with Compute Engine.
CentOS Stream is a distribution that is continuously delivered and tracks just ahead of RHEL development. CentOS Stream is positioned as a midstream development platform between Fedora Linux and RHEL.
Automatic updates
By default, this operating system is configured to install security updates by using thednf-automatic tool. The updates have the following behaviors:
- The
dnf-automatictool does not upgrade VMs between major versions of the operating system. - The upgrade tool is configured to only apply updates marked by the vendor as security updates.
- Some updates require reboots to take effect. These reboots do not happen automatically.
Image configuration
The CentOS Stream images that are provided by Compute Engine, have the following differences in configuration from standard CentOS Stream images:
Account configuration
- There are no local users configured with passwords.
Bootloader configuration
- To force faster boot times, the boot timeout in the grub configuration is set to
0.
Network configuration
- IPv6 is enabled.
- The SSH server configuration is set up as follows:
- Password authentication is disabled.
- To prevent SSH disconnections,
ServerAliveIntervalandClientAliveIntervalare set to 7 minutes. - Root login is disabled.
/etc/udev/rules.d/75-persistent-net-generator.rulesis disabled.- To prevent MAC addresses from persisting,
/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rulesis removed. - By default, all traffic is allowed through the guest firewall because theVPC firewall rules overrides the guest firewallrules. The guest firewall rules remains enabled and can be configured through normal CentOS methods.
- VMs based on Google-provided Linux images get their interface MTUfrom the attached VPC MTU. VMs based on custom images or olderLinux images may have their MTU's hardcoded. In these cases, you have to changethe setting yourself if you want to connect the interface to a network with an MTU other than
1460. For more information about network and interface MTU, see themaximum transmission unit overview.
Package system and repository configuration
- Google Cloud repositories are enabled to install packages for the Compute Engineguest environment and theGoogle Cloud CLI.
- Repositories are set to use the CentOS default mirror network.
- Automatic updates are configured as follows:
- For CentOS Stream, automatic updates are enabled by using
dnf automatic. - For all versions, the
update_cmdproperty is set tosecurity.However, by default CentOS does not offer security tagged repositories.
- For CentOS Stream, automatic updates are enabled by using
Storage configuration
- By default, images are 20 GB. This is the recommended minimum size.
- The partition table is
GPT, and there is anEFIpartition to support booting onUEFI. - The floppy module is disabled because there is no floppy disk controller on Compute Engine .
Time configuration
- The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.
General information
| OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CentOS Stream 10 | centos-cloud | centos-stream-10 | centos-stream-10-arm64 | All except A4, G4, and A4X | GA | January 1, 2030 |
| CentOS Stream 9 | centos-cloud | centos-stream-9 | centos-stream-9-arm64 | All except A4, G4, and A4X | GA | May 31, 2027 |
| CentOS Stream 8 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS | May 2024 |
| CentOS 8 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS | Dec 2021 |
| CentOS 7 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS | June 30, 2024 |
Interfaces
| OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IRDMA | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CentOS Stream 10 | ||||||
| CentOS Stream 9 | ||||||
| CentOS Stream 8 | ||||||
| CentOS 8 | ||||||
| CentOS 7 | * | * |
* If a multiple NIC VM is created using this OS image, the VM might lose network connectivity after rebooting. This happens if one of these NICs uses a non-VirtIO interface. For more information, seeknown issues.
Security features
| OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM SEV | Confidential VM SEV-SNP | Confidential VM Intel TDX |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CentOS Stream 10 | * | † | ||
| CentOS Stream 9 | * | † | ||
| CentOS Stream 8 | ||||
| CentOS 8 | ||||
| CentOS 7 |
* This OS image doesn't support Secure Boot on ARM64.
† Intel TDX isn't supported on ARM64 for this OS image.
User space features
| OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CentOS Stream 10 | ||||
| CentOS Stream 9 | ||||
| CentOS Stream 8 | ||||
| CentOS 8 | ||||
| CentOS 7 |
Networking features
| OS version | Tier_1 networking* | 200 Gbps network bandwidth* | Jumbo frames/MTU |
|---|---|---|---|
| CentOS Stream 10* | |||
| CentOS Stream 9* | |||
| CentOS Stream 8* | |||
| CentOS 8* | EOS | EOS | EOS |
| CentOS 7* | EOS | EOS | EOS |
# Only available with certain machine series.
** This OS image has predictable network interface names disabled. Newer image families may have a different network interface naming scheme.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
For more information about GPU requirements and recommended OSes, seechoosing an OS for instances with attached GPUs.
| OS version | A4X (GB200) | A4 (B200) | A3 (H200) | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G4 (RTX PRO 6000) | G2 (L4) | N1+GPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CentOS Stream 10 | ||||||||
| CentOS Stream 9 | ||||||||
| CentOS Stream 8 | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
| CentOS 8 | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
| CentOS 7 | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
VM Manager
| OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CentOS Stream 10 | |||||
| CentOS Stream 9 | |||||
| CentOS Stream 8 | |||||
| CentOS 8 | |||||
| CentOS 7 |
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, seesupported operating systems.
| OS version | Import disk | Import virtual appliance | Import machine image |
|---|---|---|---|
| CentOS Stream 10 | |||
| CentOS Stream 9 | |||
| CentOS Stream 8 | |||
| CentOS 8 | |||
| CentOS 7 |
License
| OS version | License type | License URL |
|---|---|---|
| CentOS Stream 10 | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/centos-cloud/global/licenses/centos-stream-10 |
| CentOS Stream 9 | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/centos-cloud/global/licenses/centos-stream-9 |
| CentOS Stream 8 | EOS | EOS |
| CentOS 8 | EOS | EOS |
| CentOS 7 | EOS | EOS |
Container-Optimized OS (COS)
Container-Optimized OS from Google is an operating system image for your Compute Engine instances that is optimized for running Docker containers. Google Cloud builds and supports the Container-Optimized OS images available for Compute Engine. There is no license fee for using Container-Optimized OS with Compute Engine.
For more information about Container-Optimized OS, see the Container-Optimized OSoverview orrelease notes.
Automatic updates
This operating system can be configured to install security updates by usingAutomatic updates. On versions 117 and later, automatic updates are disabled by default. On versions 113 and earlier, automatic updates are enabled by default.
The automatic updates have the following behaviors:
- They don't upgrade instances between major versions of the operating system.
- They might require reboots to take effect. These reboots don't happen automatically.
Image configuration
Network configuration
- VMs based on Google-provided Linux images get their interface MTUfrom the attached VPC MTU. VMs based on custom images or olderLinux images may have their MTU's hardcoded. In these cases, you have to changethe setting yourself if you want to connect the interface to a network with an MTU other than
1460. For more information about network and interface MTU, see themaximum transmission unit overview.
General information
| OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| COS 125 LTS | cos-cloud | cos-125-lts | cos-arm64-125-lts | All except G2 | GA | September 2027 |
| COS 121 LTS | cos-cloud | cos-121-lts | cos-arm64-121-lts | All except G2 | GA | March 2027 |
| COS 117 LTS | cos-cloud | cos-117-lts | cos-arm64-117-lts | All except G4, G2 | GA | September 2026 |
| COS 113 LTS | cos-cloud | cos-113-lts | cos-arm64-113-lts | All except A4X, G4, G2 | GA | April 2026 |
| COS 109 LTS | cos-cloud | cos-109-lts | cos-arm64-109-lts | All except A4X, G4, G2, X4 | GA | September 2025 |
| COS 105 LTS | N/A | N/A | N/A | All except A4, G2, X4, C3-metal | EOS | March 2025 |
| COS 101 LTS | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS | September 2024 |
Interfaces
| OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IRDMA | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| COS 125 LTS | ||||||
| COS 121 LTS | ||||||
| COS 117 LTS | ||||||
| COS 113 LTS | ||||||
| COS 109 LTS | ||||||
| COS 105 LTS | ||||||
| COS 101 LTS |
Security features
| OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM SEV | Confidential VM SEV-SNP | Confidential VM Intel TDX |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| COS 125 LTS | ||||
| COS 121 LTS | ||||
| COS 117 LTS | ||||
| COS 113 LTS | ||||
| COS 109 LTS | ||||
| COS 105 LTS | ||||
| COS 101 LTS |
User space features
| OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| COS 125 LTS | ||||
| COS 121 LTS | ||||
| COS 117 LTS | ||||
| COS 113 LTS | ||||
| COS 109 LTS | ||||
| COS 105 LTS | ||||
| COS 101 LTS |
Networking features
| OS version | Tier_1 networking* | 200 Gbps network bandwidth* | Jumbo frames/MTU |
|---|---|---|---|
| COS 125 LTS | |||
| COS 121 LTS | |||
| COS 117 LTS | |||
| COS 113 LTS | |||
| COS 109 LTS | |||
| COS 105 LTS | |||
| COS 101 LTS |
# Only available with certain machine series.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
Note:Monitoring of GPU metrics is not available for GPUs running on VMs that use Container-Optimized OS.For G2 VMs, the current default driver for Container-Optimized OS, don't support L4 GPUs runningon G2 machine types. You might be able to install a supported version, seeG2 limitations.
For more information about GPU requirements and recommended OSes, seechoosing an OS for instances with attached GPUs.
| OS version | A4X (GB200) | A4 (B200) | A3 (H200) | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G4 (RTX PRO 6000) | G2 (L4) | N1+GPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| COS 125 LTS | ||||||||
| COS 121 LTS | ||||||||
| COS 117 LTS | ||||||||
| COS 113 LTS | ||||||||
| COS 109 LTS | ||||||||
| COS 105 LTS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
| COS 101 LTS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
VM Manager
| OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| COS 125 LTS | |||||
| COS 121 LTS | |||||
| COS 117 LTS | |||||
| COS 113 LTS | |||||
| COS 109 LTS | |||||
| COS 105 LTS | |||||
| COS 101 LTS |
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, seesupported operating systems.
| OS version | Import disk | Import virtual appliance | Import machine image |
|---|---|---|---|
| COS 125 LTS | |||
| COS 121 LTS | |||
| COS 117 LTS | |||
| COS 113 LTS | |||
| COS 109 LTS | |||
| COS 105 LTS | |||
| COS 101 LTS |
License
| OS version | License type | License URL |
|---|---|---|
| COS 125 LTS | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/cos-cloud/global/licenses/cos |
| COS 121 LTS | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/cos-cloud/global/licenses/cos |
| COS 117 LTS | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/cos-cloud/global/licenses/cos |
| COS 113 LTS | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/cos-cloud/global/licenses/cos |
| COS 109 LTS | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/cos-cloud/global/licenses/cos |
| COS 105 LTS | Free | EOS |
| COS 101 LTS | Free | EOS |
Debian
Debian is a free operating system offered by theDebian community. Google Cloud builds and supports the Debian images available for Compute Engine. There is no license fee for using Debian with Compute Engine.
Automatic updates
By default, this operating system is configured to install security updates by using the DebianUnattendedUpgrades tool. The updates have the following behaviors:
- The
UnattendedUpgradestool does not upgrade VMs between major versions of the operating system. - The
UnattendedUpgradestool is configured to only automatically apply updates obtained from the Debian security repository. - Some updates require reboots to take effect. These reboots do not happen automatically.
Image configuration
The Debian image build configuration is available in anopen source GitHub repository.
- Debian build tools come from the Debian Cloud teamimage project.
Debian images are always built with the latest Debian packages which reflect the most recentDebian point release.
The Debian images that are provided by Compute Engine, have the following differences in configuration from standard Debian images:
Account configuration
- There are no local users configured with passwords.
Bootloader configuration
- To force faster boot times, the boot timeout in the grub configuration is set to
0. - To allow SCSI block multi-queue usage,
scsi_mod.use_blk_mqis enabled.
Network configuration
- IPv6 is enabled.
- The SSH server configuration is set up as follows:
- Password authentication is disabled.
- Root login is disabled.
- To prevent MAC addresses from persisting,
/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rulesis removed. - VMs based on Google-provided Linux images get their interface MTUfrom the attached VPC MTU. VMs based on custom images or olderLinux images may have their MTU's hardcoded. In these cases, you have to changethe setting yourself if you want to connect the interface to a network with an MTU other than
1460. For more information about network and interface MTU, see themaximum transmission unit overview.
Package system and repository configuration
- Google Cloud repositories are enabled to install packages for the Compute Engineguest environment and theGoogle Cloud CLI. The guest environment packages and the Google Cloud CLI packages are installed and enabled by default.
- The APT sources are set to use the Debian CDN.
- The
Unattended-upgradespackage is installed and configured to download and install Debian security updates daily. This can be configured or disabled by changing the values in/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgradesand/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/02periodic. - The
cloud-initramfs-growrootpackage is removed and replaced with the Google supportedgce-disk-expandpackage. - The
linux-image-cloud-amd64kernel is installed instead of the generic Debian kernel. - The
havegedpackage is installed to provide entropy. - (Debian 13 only) The
gce-configs-trixiepackage is installed to enable VM serial port logging and ssh-in-browser, which requires additional configuration due to systemd updates in Debian 13. - (Debian 13 only) The
gce-configs-trixiepackage also provides thegoogle-keyring.gpgkey installed to/etc/apt/keyringsto comply withupdated repository authentication guidance. The/etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-cloud.listfile uses this key to authenticate againstGoogle Cloud repositories.
Storage configuration
- Images are 10 GB by default.
- The partition table is
GPT, and there is anEFIpartition to support booting onUEFI. There is also an MBR boot block to support BIOS. - The floppy module is disabled because there is no floppy disk controller on Compute Engine.
Time configuration
- The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.
General information
| OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 13 | debian-cloud | debian-13 | debian-13-arm64 | All except A4X | GA | June 30, 2030 |
| Debian 12 | debian-cloud | debian-12 | debian-12-arm64 | All except A4X, X4, C4D-metal, C4-metal, C3-metal, Z3-metal | GA | June 30, 2028 |
| Debian 11 | debian-cloud | debian-11 | N/A | All except A4X, G4, A4, A3 Ultra, X4, C4D-metal, C4-metal, C3-metal, Z3-metal |
|
|
| Debian 10 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS | June 30, 2024 |
Interfaces
| OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IRDMA | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 13 | ||||||
| Debian 12 | ||||||
| Debian 11 | ||||||
| Debian 10 |
* This OS image supports NVMe but does not include all optimizations for NVMe.
Security features
| OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM SEV | Confidential VM SEV-SNP | Confidential VM Intel TDX |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 13 | ||||
| Debian 12 | ||||
| Debian 11 | ||||
| Debian 10 |
User space features
| OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 13 | ||||
| Debian 12 | ||||
| Debian 11 | ||||
| Debian 10 |
Networking features
| OS version | Tier_1 networking* | 200 Gbps network bandwidth* | Jumbo frames/MTU |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 13 | † | ||
| Debian 12 | † | ||
| Debian 11 | * | † | |
| Debian 10 | † |
* You canupdate the gVNIC driver to the latest version to enable network egress bandwidths of 200 Gbps. For more information, see theRequirements and limitations section of "Configure per VM Tier_1 networking performance".
† Fully supported with VirtIO, but requires an updated driver to use with gVNIC. For more information, seeJumbo frames.
# Only available with certain machine series.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
For more information about GPU requirements and recommended OSes, seechoosing an OS for instances with attached GPUs.
| OS version | A4X (GB200) | A4 (B200) | A3 (H200) | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G4 (RTX PRO 6000) | G2 (L4) | N1+GPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 13 | ||||||||
| Debian 12 | ||||||||
| Debian 11 | ||||||||
| Debian 10 | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
VM Manager
| OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 13 | |||||
| Debian 12 | |||||
| Debian 11 | |||||
| Debian 10 |
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, seesupported operating systems.
| OS version | Import disk | Import virtual appliance | Import machine image |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 13 | |||
| Debian 12 | |||
| Debian 11 | |||
| Debian 10 |
License
| OS version | License type | License URL |
|---|---|---|
| Debian 13 | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/debian-cloud/global/licenses/debian-13-trixie |
| Debian 12 | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/debian-cloud/global/licenses/debian-12-bookworm |
| Debian 11 | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/debian-cloud/global/licenses/debian-11-bullseye |
| Debian 10 | EOS | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/debian-cloud/global/licenses/debian-10-buster |
Fedora CoreOS
Fedora CoreOS is a distribution that provides features that are needed to run moderninfrastructure stacks. Fedora CoreOS uses Linux containers to manage your servicesat a higher level of abstraction. Google Cloud provides Fedora CoreOSimages built and supported by Fedora. There is no license fee for using Fedora CoreOSwith Compute Engine.
Automatic updates
By default, this operating system is configured to install security updates by using the FedoraCoreOSautomatic update tool. The updates have the following behaviors:
- These automatic updates from the operating system vendor do not upgrade instances between major versions of the operating system.
- Some updates require reboots to take effect. These reboots do not happen automatically.
Image configuration
Network configuration
- VMs based on Google-provided Linux images get their interface MTUfrom the attached VPC MTU. VMs based on custom images or olderLinux images may have their MTU's hardcoded. In these cases, you have to changethe setting yourself if you want to connect the interface to a network with an MTU other than
1460. For more information about network and interface MTU, see themaximum transmission unit overview.
General information
| OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fedora CoreOS Stable | fedora-coreos-cloud | fedora-coreos-stable | fedora-coreos-stable-arm64 | All except A4, A3, A2, G2, G4 | GA | Rolling |
| Fedora CoreOS Testing | fedora-coreos-cloud | fedora-coreos-testing | fedora-coreos-testing-arm64 | All except A4, A3, A2, G2, G4 | GA | Rolling |
| Fedora CoreOS Next | fedora-coreos-cloud | fedora-coreos-next | fedora-coreos-next-arm64 | All except A4, A3, A2, G2, G4 | GA | Rolling |
Interfaces
| OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IRDMA | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fedora CoreOS Stable | ||||||
| Fedora CoreOS Testing | ||||||
| Fedora CoreOS Next |
Security features
| OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM SEV | Confidential VM SEV-SNP | Confidential VM Intel TDX |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fedora CoreOS Stable | * | |||
| Fedora CoreOS Testing | * | |||
| Fedora CoreOS Next | * |
*This OS image doesn't support Secure Boot on ARM64.
User space features
| OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fedora CoreOS Stable | ||||
| Fedora CoreOS Testing | ||||
| Fedora CoreOS Next |
Networking features
| OS version | Tier_1 networking* | 200 Gbps network bandwidth* | Jumbo frames/MTU |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fedora CoreOS Stable | |||
| Fedora CoreOS Testing | |||
| Fedora CoreOS Next |
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1machine family.
For more information about GPU requirements and recommended OSes, seechoosing an OS for instances with attached GPUs.
| OS version | A4X (GB200) | A4 (B200) | A3 (H200) | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G2 (L4) | G4 (RTX PRO 6000) | N1+GPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fedora CoreOS Stable | ||||||||
| Fedora CoreOS Testing | ||||||||
| Fedora CoreOS Next |
VM Manager
| OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fedora CoreOS Stable | |||||
| Fedora CoreOS Testing | |||||
| Fedora CoreOS Next |
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, seesupported operating systems.
| OS version | Import disk | Import virtual appliance | Import machine image |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fedora CoreOS Stable | |||
| Fedora CoreOS Testing | |||
| Fedora CoreOS Next |
License
| OS version | License type | License URL |
|---|---|---|
| Fedora CoreOS Stable | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/fedora-coreos-cloud/global/licenses/fedora-coreos-stable |
| Fedora CoreOS Testing | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/fedora-coreos-cloud/global/licenses/fedora-coreos-testing |
| Fedora CoreOS Next | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/fedora-coreos-cloud/global/licenses/fedora-coreos-next |
Oracle Linux
Oracle Linuxis a Linux operating system (OS) provided by Oracle with everything required to deploy, optimize, and manage applications on-premises, in the cloud, and at the edge.
Oracle builds and supports the Oracle Linux images available for Compute Engine. There is nolicense fee for using Oracle Linux with Compute Engine. Oracle is responsible for ensuring thatOracle Linux works with Google Cloud features and that security updates are maintained. Forissues related to Oracle Linux, you must consult community resources or get enterprise-levelsupport directly from Oracle.
For more information on Oracle Linux visitOracle's document library for Oracle Linux.
Automatic updates
By default, Oracle Linux images don't automatically install security updates. To configure automatic security updates, run the following commands:
sudo dnf install -y dnf-automatic sudo sed -i 's/upgrade_type =.*/upgrade_type = security/' /etc/dnf/automatic.conf sudo sed -i 's/apply_updates =.*/apply_updates = yes/' /etc/dnf/automatic.conf sudo systemctl enable dnf-automatic.timer sudo systemctl start dnf-automatic.timer
Automatic updates have the following behaviors:
dnf-automaticdoesn't upgrade VMs between major versions of the operating system.- The upgrade tool only applies updates marked by Oracle as security updates.
- Some updates require reboots to take effect. These reboots don't happen automatically.
Image configuration
The Oracle Linux images that are provided by Compute Engine reflect the most recent point release. Currently you cannot pin a VM to a point release. These images have the following differences in configuration from standard Oracle Linux images:
Account configuration
- There are no local users configured with passwords.
Bootloader configuration
- To force faster boot times, the boot timeout in the grub configuration is set to
0. - The I/O scheduler is set to
noop.
Network configuration
- IPv6 is enabled.
- The SSH server configuration is set up as follows:
- Password authentication is disabled.
- To prevent SSH disconnections,
ServerAliveIntervalandClientAliveIntervalare set to 7 minutes. - Root login is disabled.
/etc/udev/rules.d/75-persistent-net-generator.rulesis disabled.- To prevent MAC addresses from persisting,
/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rulesis removed. - By default, all traffic is allowed through the guest firewall because theVPC firewall rules overrides the guest firewallrules. The guest firewall rules remains enabled and can be configured through normal Oracle Linux methods.
- VMs based on Google-provided Linux images get their interface MTUfrom the attached VPC MTU. VMs based on custom images or olderLinux images may have their MTU's hardcoded. In these cases, you have to changethe setting yourself if you want to connect the interface to a network with an MTU other than
1460. For more information about network and interface MTU, see themaximum transmission unit overview.
Package system and repository configuration
- The Google Cloud repository is enabled to install packages for the Compute Engineguest environment and disabled for theGoogle Cloud CLI. TheGoogle Cloud CLIcan be installed as follows:
dnf install -y google-cloud-cli --enablerepo google-cloud-sdk - Automatic security updates are disabled by default. To enable, refer to the instructions in theAutomatic updates section.
Storage configuration
- By default, images are 20 GB. This is the recommended minimum size.
- The partition table is
GPT, and there is anEFIpartition to support booting onUEFI.
Time configuration
- The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.
General information
| OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oracle Linux 10 | oracle-linux-cloud | oracle-linux-10 | oracle-linux-10-arm64 | N2, N4, N4D, C3, C3-metal, C4, N2D, C2D, C3D, M3 and T2A | GA | Jun 2035 |
| Oracle Linux 9 | oracle-linux-cloud | oracle-linux-9 | oracle-linux-9-arm64 | N2, N4, N4D, C3, C3-metal, C4, N2D, C2D, C3D, M3 and T2A | GA | Jun 2032 |
| Oracle Linux 8 | oracle-linux-cloud | oracle-linux-8 | oracle-linux-8-arm64 | N2, N4, N4D, C3, C4, N2D, C2D, C3D, M3 and T2A | GA | Jul 2029 |
Interfaces
Oracle Linux images use theUnbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK)by default. The interface support listed in the table applies to images that use theUEK. You can optionallyconfigure Oracle Linux images to use the Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK),which is additionally installed on Oracle Linux images. If you use the RHCK,Oracle Linux images support the same interfaces as the corresponding Red HatEnterprise Linux (RHEL) listed in theRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)section of this document.
| OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IRDMA | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oracle Linux 10 | ||||||
| Oracle Linux 9 | ||||||
| Oracle Linux 8 |
Security features
| OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM SEV | Confidential VM SEV-SNP | Confidential VM Intel TDX |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oracle Linux 10 | ||||
| Oracle Linux 9 | ||||
| Oracle Linux 8 |
User space features
| OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oracle Linux 10 | ||||
| Oracle Linux 9 | ||||
| Oracle Linux 8 |
gcloud CLI is not pre-installed in the images, however the Google Cloud SDK repository is setup. To install gcloud CLI you can run this command:dnf install -y google-cloud-cli --enablerepo google-cloud-sdk
Networking features
Oracle Linux images use theUnbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK)by default. The networking features support listed in the table applies to images that use theUEK. You can optionallyconfigure Oracle Linux images to use the Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK),which is additionally installed on Oracle Linux images. If you use the RHCK,Oracle Linux images support the same networking features as the corresponding Red HatEnterprise Linux (RHEL) listed in theRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)section of this document.
| OS version | Tier_1 networking* | 200 Gbps network bandwidth* | Jumbo frames/MTU |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oracle Linux 10 | |||
| Oracle Linux 9 | |||
| Oracle Linux 8 |
# Only available with certain machine series.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
Oracle Linux images use theUnbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK) by default. The GPU support listed in the table applies to images that use the UEK. You can optionallyconfigure Oracle Linux images to use the Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK), which is additionally installed on Oracle Linux images. If you use the RHCK, Oracle Linux images support the same GPUs as the corresponding Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) listed in theRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) section of this document.
For more information about GPU requirements and recommended OSes, seechoosing an OS for instances with attached GPUs.
| OS version | A4X (GB200) | A4 (B200) | A3 (H200) | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G4 (RTX PRO 6000) | G2 (L4) | N1+GPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oracle Linux 10 | ||||||||
| Oracle Linux 9 | ||||||||
| Oracle Linux 8 |
VM Manager
| OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oracle Linux 10 | |||||
| Oracle Linux 9 | |||||
| Oracle Linux 8 |
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, seesupported operating systems.
| OS version | Import disk | Import virtual appliance | Import machine image |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oracle Linux 10 | |||
| Oracle Linux 9 | |||
| Oracle Linux 8 |
License
| OS version | License type | License URL |
|---|---|---|
| Oracle Linux 10 | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/oracle-linux-cloud/global/licenses/oracle-linux-10 |
| Oracle Linux 9 | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/oracle-linux-cloud/global/licenses/oracle-linux-9 |
| Oracle Linux 8 | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/oracle-linux-cloud/global/licenses/oracle-linux-8 |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is an open-source Linux operating system that provides both server and desktop operating systems. Google Cloud builds and supports the RHEL OS images available for Compute Engine.
RHEL images arepremium resources that incuradditional fees to use.If you want to use an existing RHEL subscription, you can use theRed Hat Cloud Access feature.
The Red Hat Knowledgebase provides you with access to articles, solutions, product documentation,and community discussions. The Red Hat Knowledgebaseis available as a single-sign-on (SSO) option through the Google Cloud console. SeeAccess Red Hat Knowledgebase.
To view a list of frequently asked questions when running RHEL on Compute Engine, seeRed Hat Enterprise Linux FAQ.
Note: For compliance with Red Hat licensingrequirements, Google reports to Red Hat your billing entity name, region, country, SKU and totalhours of usage.Automatic updates
By default, this operating system is configured to install security updates by using the RHELyum-cron (RHEL 7) ordnf automatic (RHEL 8+) tool. The updates have the following behaviors:
- These automatic updates from the operating system vendor do not upgrade instances between major versions of the operating system.
- Starting with RHEL 7, the operating system is also configured to only apply updates marked by the vendor as security updates.
- Some updates require reboots to take effect. These reboots do not happen automatically.
Image configuration
The RHEL image build configuration is available in anopen source GitHub repository.
RHEL images are always built with the latest RHEL packages, which reflect the most recent point release. Currently, you cannot pin a VM to a point release.
RHEL for SAP images are tagged to the specific point release they are built for as supported by Red Hat.
The RHEL images that are provided by Compute Engine, have the following differences in configuration from standard RHEL images:
Account configuration
- There are no local users configured with passwords.
Bootloader configuration
- To force faster boot times, the boot timeout in the grub configuration is set to
0. - The I/O scheduler is set to
noop.
Network configuration
- IPv6 is enabled.
- The SSH server configuration is set up as follows:
- Password authentication is disabled.
- To prevent SSH disconnections,
ServerAliveIntervalandClientAliveIntervalare set to 7 minutes. - Root login is disabled.
/etc/udev/rules.d/75-persistent-net-generator.rulesis disabled.- To prevent MAC addresses from persisting,
/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rulesis removed. - By default, all traffic is allowed through the guest firewall because theVPC firewall rules overrides the guest firewallrules. The guest firewall rules remains enabled and can be configured through normal RHEL methods.
- VMs based on Google-provided Linux images get their interface MTUfrom the attached VPC MTU. VMs based on custom images or olderLinux images may have their MTU's hardcoded. In these cases, you have to changethe setting yourself if you want to connect the interface to a network with an MTU other than
1460. For more information about network and interface MTU, see themaximum transmission unit overview.
Package and repository configuration
- Google Cloud repositories are enabled to install packages for the Compute Engineguest environment and theGoogle Cloud CLI.
- RHEL for SAP yum vars are set to peg the client to the supported RHEL for SAP point release.
- RHEL content comes from the Compute Engine Red Hat Update Infrastructure (RHUI) servers.If you're unable to get updates from the Red Hat Update Infrastructure (RHUI) servers, the RHUI client package might need to be updated. To update to the latest RHUI client package, run the following command:
dnf -y -q update 'google-rhui-client*'
- The Google
RHUIclient package, which contains the configuration neededto access RHEL content, is installed. - The Red Hat
subscription-managerpackage is removed because it is not used for pay as you go images. - Automatic updates are enabled as follows:
- For RHEL 8+, by using
dnf automatic. - For all versions, the
update_cmdproperty is set tosecurity.
- For RHEL 8+, by using
Storage configuration
- By default, images are 20 GB. This is the recommended minimum size.
- The partition table is
GPT, and there is anEFIpartition to support booting onUEFI.
Time configuration
- The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.
General information
| OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RHEL 10 | rhel-cloud | rhel-10 | rhel-10-arm64 | All except A4X, A4, G4 | GA | May 2035 |
| RHEL 9 | rhel-cloud | rhel-9 | rhel-9-arm64 | All except A4X, A4, G4 | GA | May 2032 |
| RHEL 8 | rhel-cloud | rhel-8 | rhel-8-arm64 | All except A4X, A4, G4, N4A, X4 | GA | May 2029 |
| RHEL 7 | N/A | N/A | N/A | All except C4 with 288 vCPUs, G4 | EOS*ELS† | June 2024 (ELS ends June 2028) |
| RHEL 6 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS* | November 2020 (ELS ends June 30, 2024) |
| RHEL 9.6 for SAP | rhel-sap-cloud | rhel-9-6-sap-ha | N/A | All except A4X, A4, G4, T2A, N4A, C4A | GA | May 2029 |
| RHEL 9.4 for SAP | rhel-sap-cloud | rhel-9-4-sap-ha | N/A | All except A4X, A4, G4, T2A, N4A, C4A | GA | April 2028 |
| RHEL 9.2 for SAP | rhel-sap-cloud | rhel-9-2-sap-ha | N/A | All except A4X, A4, G4, T2A, X4, N4A, C4A, C4D-metal, C4-metal, C3-metal, Z3-metal | GA | May 2027 |
| RHEL 9.0 for SAP | rhel-sap-cloud | rhel-9-0-sap-ha | N/A | All except A4X, A4, G4, T2A, X4, N4A, C4A, C4D-metal, C4-metal, C3-metal, Z3-metal | GA | May 2026 |
| RHEL 8.10 for SAP | rhel-sap-cloud | rhel-8-10-sap-ha | N/A | All except A4X, A4, G4, T2A, N4A, C4A | GA | May 2029 |
| RHEL 8.8 for SAP | rhel-sap-cloud | rhel-8-8-sap-ha | N/A | All except A4X, A4, G4, T2A, X4, N4A, C4A, C4D-metal, C4-metal, C3-metal, Z3-metal | GA | May 2027 |
| RHEL 8.6 for SAP | rhel-sap-cloud | rhel-8-6-sap-ha | N/A | All except A4X, A4, G4, T2A, X4, N4A, C4A, C4D-metal, C4-metal, C3-metal, Z3-metal | GA | May 2026 |
| RHEL 8.4 for SAP | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS* | May 2025 |
| RHEL 8.2 for SAP | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS* | April 2024 |
| RHEL 7.9 for SAP | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS*ELS† | June 2024 (ELS ends June 2028) |
*EOS: End of support.
†ELS: To use this OS image, you must have a subscription or an Extended Life CycleSupport (ELS) Add-On. You can append the ELS Add-On to your RHEL 6 VMs asdescribed inAppend RHEL ELS licenses.
Interfaces
*This OS image supports NVMe but does not include all optimizations for NVMe.
#If a multiple NIC VM is created using this OS image, the VM might lose network connectivity after rebooting. This happens if one of these NICs uses a non-VirtIO interface. Seeknown issues.
Security features
* This OS image doesn't support Secure Boot on ARM64.
† Intel TDX isn't supported on ARM64 for this OS image.
User space features
Networking features
| OS version | Tier_1 networking* | 200 Gbps network bandwidth* | Jumbo frames/MTU |
|---|---|---|---|
| RHEL 10* | |||
| RHEL 9* | |||
| RHEL 8* | |||
| RHEL 7* | * | † | |
| RHEL 6* | EOS | EOS | EOS |
| RHEL 9.6 for SAP | |||
| RHEL 9.4 for SAP | |||
| RHEL 9.2 for SAP* | |||
| RHEL 9.0 for SAP* | * | † | |
| RHEL 8.10 for SAP* | |||
| RHEL 8.8 for SAP* | |||
| RHEL 8.6 for SAP* | * | ||
| RHEL 8.4 for SAP* | * | † | |
| RHEL 8.2 for SAP* | * | † | |
| RHEL 7.9 for SAP* | * | † |
*You canupdate the gVNIC driver tothe latest version to enable network egress bandwidths of 200 Gbps. For more information, see theRequirements and limitationssection of "Configure per VM Tier_1 networking performance".
†Fully supported with VirtIO, but requires an updated driver to use with gVNIC. Formore information, seeJumbo frames.
#Only available with certain machine series.
**This OS image has predictable network interface names disabled. Newer image familiesmay have a different network interface naming scheme.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on ageneral-purpose N1 machine family.
For more information about GPU requirements and recommended OSes, seechoosing an OS for instances with attached GPUs.
| OS version | A4X (GB200) | A4 (B200) | A3 (H200) | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G4 (RTX PRO 6000) | G2 (L4) | N1+GPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RHEL 10 | ||||||||
| RHEL 9 | ||||||||
| RHEL 8 | ||||||||
| RHEL 7 | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
| RHEL 6 | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
| RHEL 9.6 for SAP | ||||||||
| RHEL 9.4 for SAP | ||||||||
| RHEL 9.2 for SAP | ||||||||
| RHEL 9.0 for SAP | ||||||||
| RHEL 8.10 for SAP | ||||||||
| RHEL 8.8 for SAP | ||||||||
| RHEL 8.6 for SAP | ||||||||
| RHEL 8.4 for SAP | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
| RHEL 8.2 for SAP | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
| RHEL 7.9 for SAP | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
VM Manager
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, seesupported operating systems.
License
| OS version | License type | License URL |
|---|---|---|
| RHEL 10 |
|
|
| RHEL 9 |
|
|
| RHEL 8 |
|
|
| RHEL 7 |
|
|
| RHEL 6 |
|
|
| RHEL 9.6 for SAP |
|
|
| RHEL 9.4 for SAP |
|
|
| RHEL 9.2 for SAP |
|
|
| RHEL 9.0 for SAP |
|
|
| RHEL 8.10 for SAP |
|
|
| RHEL 8.8 for SAP |
|
|
| RHEL 8.6 for SAP |
|
|
| RHEL 8.4 for SAP |
|
|
| RHEL 8.2 for SAP |
|
|
| RHEL 7.9 for SAP |
|
|
†ELS: To use this OS image, you must have a subscription or an Extended Life CycleSupport (ELS) Add-On. You can append the ELS Add-On to your RHEL 6 VMs as described inAppend RHEL ELS licenses.
Rocky Linux
Rocky Linux is a free, open, community enterprise operating system designed to be 100% bug-for-bug compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Google Cloud builds and supports the Rocky Linux images available for Compute Engine. There is no license fee for using Rocky Linux with Compute Engine.
The following three versions of Rocky Linux operating systems are available on Compute Engine:
- A fully open source version
- A version optimized for Google Cloud: this version has the suffix
-optimized-gcpand is pre-configured to use the latest version of the Google virtual network interface (gVNIC). - An accelerated version for GPU workloads: this version has the suffix
-optimized-gcp-nvidia-*which is built off of the-optimized-gcpversion and includes the indicated version of the NVIDIA driver.
Automatic updates
By default, this operating system is configured to install security updates by using thednf-automatic tool. The updates have the following behaviors:
dnf-automaticdoes not upgrade VMs between major versions of the operating system.- The upgrade tool is configured to only apply updates marked by the vendor as security updates.
- Some updates require reboots to take effect. These reboots do not happen automatically.
Image configuration
Rocky Linux images are built and maintained byCIQ. Rocky Linux images are always built with the latest Rocky Linux packages which reflect the most recent Rocky Linux point release. The Rocky Linux images that are provided by Compute Engine, have the following differences in configuration from standard Rocky Linux images:
Account configuration
- There are no local users configured with passwords.
Bootloader configuration
- To force faster boot times, the boot timeout in the grub configuration is set to
0.
Network configuration
- IPv6 is enabled.
- The SSH server configuration is set up as follows:
- Password authentication is disabled.
- To prevent SSH disconnections,
ServerAliveIntervalandClientAliveIntervalare set to 7 minutes. - Root login is disabled.
/etc/udev/rules.d/75-persistent-net-generator.rulesis disabled.- To prevent MAC addresses from persisting,
/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rulesis removed. - By default, all traffic is allowed through the guest firewall because theVPC firewall rules overrides the guest firewallrules. The guest firewall rules remains enabled and can be configured through normal Rocky Linux methods.
- VMs based on Google-provided Linux images get their interface MTUfrom the attached VPC MTU. VMs based on custom images or olderLinux images may have their MTU's hardcoded. In these cases, you have to changethe setting yourself if you want to connect the interface to a network with an MTU other than
1460. For more information about network and interface MTU, see themaximum transmission unit overview.
Package system and repository configuration
- Google Cloud repositories are enabled to install packages for the Compute Engineguest environment and theGoogle Cloud CLI.
- For the Google Cloud optimized and accelerated versions of the Rocky Linux images, the GitLabCIQ SIG/Cloud Next repository is enabled. This repository provides a Linux kernel version specifically designed to work best with Google Cloud hardware.
- For the accelerated version of the Rocky Linux image, the GitLabCIQ SIG/Cloud Next Nonfree repository is also enabled. This repository provides the proprietary drivers necessary for the system to fully utilize the GPU hardware.
- Repositories are set to use the Rocky Linux default mirror network.
- The PowerTools repository is enabled.
- Automatic updates are configured as follows:
- Automatic updates are enabled by using
dnf automatic. - For all versions, the
update_cmdproperty is set tosecurity. However, by default Rocky Linux does not offer security tagged repositories.
- Automatic updates are enabled by using
Storage configuration
- By default, images are 20 GB.
- The partition table is
GPT, and there is anEFIpartition to support booting onUEFI. - The floppy module is disabled because there is no floppy disk controller on Compute Engine .
Time configuration
- The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.
General information
| OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rocky Linux 10 | rocky-linux-cloud | rocky-linux-10 | rocky-linux-10-arm64 | All except A4X, A4, G4, A3 Ultra | GA | May 2035 |
| Rocky Linux 10 optimized for Google Cloud | rocky-linux-cloud | rocky-linux-10-optimized-gcp | rocky-linux-10-optimized-gcp-arm64 | All except A4X, A4, G4, A3 Ultra | GA | May 2035 |
| Rocky Linux 9 | rocky-linux-cloud | rocky-linux-9 | rocky-linux-9-arm64 | All except A4X, A4, G4, A3 Ultra | GA | May 2032 |
| Rocky Linux 9 optimized for Google Cloud | rocky-linux-cloud | rocky-linux-9-optimized-gcp | rocky-linux-9-optimized-gcp-arm64 | All except A4X, A4, G4, A3 Ultra | GA | May 2032 |
| Rocky Linux 9 Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 580 | rocky-linux-accelerator-cloud | rocky-linux-9-optimized-gcp-nvidia-580 | rocky-linux-9-optimized-gcp-nvidia-580-arm64 | A4X, A4, A3 Ultra | GA | Aug 2028 |
| Rocky Linux 9 Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 570 | rocky-linux-accelerator-cloud | rocky-linux-9-optimized-gcp-nvidia-570 | rocky-linux-9-optimized-gcp-nvidia-570-arm64 | A4X, A4, A3 Ultra | GA | Jan 2026 |
| Rocky Linux 9 Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 550 | rocky-linux-accelerator-cloud | rocky-linux-9-optimized-gcp-nvidia-550 | N/A | A3 Ultra | EOL | June 2025 |
| Rocky Linux 8 | rocky-linux-cloud | rocky-linux-8 | N/A | All except A4X, A4, G4, A3 Ultra, T2A, N4A,C4A, X4 | GA | May 2029 |
| Rocky Linux 8 optimized for Google Cloud | rocky-linux-cloud | rocky-linux-8-optimized-gcp | rocky-linux-8-optimized-gcp-arm64 | All except A4X, A4, G4, A3 Ultra, X4 | GA | May 2029 |
| Rocky Linux 8 Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 580 | rocky-linux-accelerator-cloud | rocky-linux-8-optimized-gcp-nvidia-580 | rocky-linux-8-optimized-gcp-nvidia-580-arm64 | A4X, A4, A3 Ultra | GA | Aug 2028 |
| Rocky Linux 8 Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 570 | rocky-linux-accelerator-cloud | rocky-linux-8-optimized-gcp-nvidia-570 | N/A | A4X, A4, A3 Ultra | GA | Jan 2026 |
| Rocky Linux 8 Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 550 | rocky-linux-accelerator-cloud | rocky-linux-8-optimized-gcp-nvidia-550 | N/A | A3 Ultra | EOL | June 2025 |
Interfaces
* Supported, but not installed by default. You must install thekmod-idpf-irdma package in the guest environment before using Cloud RDMA.
Security features
* Intel TDX isn't supported on ARM64 for this OS image.
User space features
Networking features
| OS version | Tier_1 networking* | 200 Gbps network bandwidth* | Jumbo frames/MTU |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rocky Linux 10 | |||
| Rocky Linux 10 optimized for Google Cloud | |||
| Rocky Linux 9* | |||
| Rocky Linux 9 optimized for Google Cloud* | |||
| Rocky Linux 9 Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 580 | |||
| Rocky Linux 9 Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 570 | |||
| Rocky Linux 9 Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 550 | |||
| Rocky Linux 8* | |||
| Rocky Linux 8 optimized for Google Cloud* | |||
| Rocky Linux 8 Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 580 | |||
| Rocky Linux 8 Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 570 | |||
| Rocky Linux 8 Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 550 |
# Only available with certain machine series.
** This OS image has predictable network interface names disabled. Newer image families may have a different network interface naming scheme.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
The Rocky Linux 8 and 9 Accelerated OS images are optimized for supporting yourartificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) workloads. To learn more about how theseimages are optimized for these workloads, seeOperating systems in theAI Hypercomputer documentation.
Important: If you use an "Accelerated" OS version that supports your GPU, you don't need toinstall GPU drivers.For more information about GPU requirements and recommended OSes, seechoosing an OS for instances with attached GPUs.
VM Manager
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, seesupported operating systems.
License
For version tracking, Rocky Linux accelerated images include three licenses:
- A license for the base Rocky Linux optimized OS.
- A license to designate the image as an accelerated image.
- A license for the NVIDIA driver.
| OS version | License type | License URL |
|---|---|---|
| Rocky Linux 10 | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-cloud/global/licenses/rocky-linux-10 |
| Rocky Linux 10 optimized for Google Cloud | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-cloud/global/licenses/rocky-linux-10-optimized-gcp |
| Rocky Linux 9 | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-cloud/global/licenses/rocky-linux-9 |
| Rocky Linux 9 optimized for Google Cloud | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-cloud/global/licenses/rocky-linux-9-optimized-gcp |
| Rocky Linux 9 Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 580 | Free |
|
| Rocky Linux 9 Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 570 | Free |
|
| Rocky Linux 9 Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 550 | Free |
|
| Rocky Linux 8 | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-cloud/global/licenses/rocky-linux-8 |
| Rocky Linux 8 optimized for Google Cloud | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-cloud/global/licenses/rocky-linux-8-optimized-gcp |
| Rocky Linux 8 Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 580 | Free |
|
| Rocky Linux 8 Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 570 | Free |
|
| Rocky Linux 8 Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 550 | Free |
|
SQL Server on Linux
Microsoft SQL Server can be used on Linux-based VMs or images with an on-demand license. Google does not provide pre-configured images for SQL Server on Linux.
Microsoft SQL Server images are not supported for VMs created on theN4A machine series,C4A machine series, and theT2A machine series.
License
To use on-demand / pay-as-you-go (PAYG) licenses for Microsoft SQL Server on a Linux VM or image, seeAdd a SQL Server license to an existing Linux server.
| Version | License type | License |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Enterprise on Linux | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2022-enterprise-on-linux |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Standard on Linux | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2022-standard-on-linux |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Web on Linux | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2022-web-on-linux |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Enterprise on Linux | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2019-enterprise-on-linux |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Standard on Linux | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2019-standard-on-linux |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Web on Linux | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2019-web-on-linux |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Enterprise on Linux | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2017-enterprise-on-linux |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Standard on Linux | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2017-standard-on-linux |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Web on Linux | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2017-web-on-linux |
SQL Server on Windows
Microsoft SQL Server images are similar to the standard Windows Serveroperating system images, but they include Microsoft SQL Server preinstalled.
Microsoft SQL Server images are not supported for VMs created on theC4A machine series and theT2A machine series.Using a Microsoft SQL Server Windows image with a bare metal instance isn'tsupported.
Automatic updates
By default, this operating system is configured to "Auto download and schedule the install" for Microsoft updates. To configure Windows Server automatic updates, see Configure Automatic Updates.
Image configuration
- Microsoft SQL Server images have the sameNotable differences as standard Windows Server images.
- Windows images provided by Google have a hardcoded MTU. For more information about network andinterface MTU, see themaximum transmission unit overview.
General information
To use Microsoft SQL Server on a Windows VM with an on-demand / pay-as-you-go (PAYG) license, seeAdd a SQL Server license to an existing Windows server.
| Version | Image project | Image family | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft SQL Server 2022 | windows-sql-cloud | sql-web-2022-win-2025 | GA | Jan 11, 2033 |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2019 | windows-sql-cloud | sql-web-2019-win-2025 | GA | Jan 8, 2030 |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2017 | windows-sql-cloud | sql-web-2017-win-2025 | GA | Oct 12, 2027 |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2016 | windows-sql-cloud | sql-web-2016-win-2019 | GA | Jul 14, 2026 |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2014 | EOS | EOS | EOS | Jul 9, 2024 |
SQL Server edition support
| Editions | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft SQL Server 2022 | ||||
| Microsoft SQL Server 2019 | ||||
| Microsoft SQL Server 2017 | ||||
| Microsoft SQL Server 2016 | ||||
| Microsoft SQL Server 2014 | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
Windows Server version support
| Version | Windows 2016 | Windows 2019 | Windows 2022 | Windows 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Enterprise | ||||
| Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Standard | ||||
| Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Web | ||||
| Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Enterprise | ||||
| Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Standard | ||||
| Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Web | ||||
| Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Enterprise | ||||
| Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Standard | ||||
| Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Web | ||||
| Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Express | ||||
| Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Enterprise | ||||
| Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Standard | ||||
| Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Web |
License
| Version | License type | License |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Enterprise | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2022-enterprise |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Standard | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2022-standard |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Web | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2022-web |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Enterprise | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2019-enterprise |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Standard | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2019-standard |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Web | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2019-web |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Enterprise | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2017-enterprise |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Standard | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2017-standard |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Web | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2017-web |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Express | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2017-express |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Enterprise | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2016-enterprise |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Standard | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2016-standard |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Web | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2016-web |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Enterprise | EOS | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2014-enterprise |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Standard | EOS | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2014-standard |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Web | EOS | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2014-web |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Enterprise | EOS | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2012-enterprise |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Standard | EOS | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2012-standard |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Web | EOS | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2012-web |
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), a versatile server operating system for deploying highly available enterprise-class IT services in mixed IT environments with improved performance and reduced risk.
SUSE builds and supports the SUSE images available for Compute Engine. SUSE images arepremium resources that incur additional fees to use.
To view a list of frequently asked questions when running SLES on Compute Engine, seeSUSE Linux Enterprise Server FAQ.
Note: For compliance with SUSE licensing requirements, Google reports to SUSE your billing entity name, region, country, SKU, and total hours of usage.Automatic updates
This operating system is not configured to install updates by default. For more information about configuring automatic updates for SLES, seeSUSE documentation.
Image configuration
SLES and SLES for SAP images are built and maintained by SUSE.SLES images are built with the latest SLES packages reflected in their release.
The SUSE images that are provided by Compute Engine, have the following differences in configuration from standard SUSE images:
Account configuration
- There are no local users configured with passwords.
Network configuration
- IPv6 is enabled.
- The SSH server configuration is set to disable password authentication.
- SLES does not use predictive network interface naming. In the grub kernel command-line arguments,
net.ifnames=0is set. Therefore, network interfaces use the traditional ethN naming, with the default interface always beingeth0. - VMs based on Google-provided Linux images get their interface MTUfrom the attached VPC MTU. VMs based on custom images or olderLinux images may have their MTU's hardcoded. In these cases, you have to changethe setting yourself if you want to connect the interface to a network with an MTU other than
1460. For more information about network and interface MTU, see themaximum transmission unit overview.
Package system and repository configuration
- Theguest environment for Compute Engine packages are installed from the packages that aresupplied by SUSE.
- SLES instances register with a SUSE run SMT service for Compute Engine and areconfigured to use SUSE regional mirrors in Compute Engine.
Storage configuration
- Images are 10 GB by default.
- The partition table is
GPT, and there is anEFIpartition to support booting onUEFI. There is also an MBR boot block to support BIOS. - The floppy module is disabled because there is no floppy disk controller on Compute Engine.
- Starting with SLES 16, the default file system for the root partition (/) is Btrfs, changing from the previous default of XFS. For more information, seeSUSE file system documentation.
Time configuration
- The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.
General information
| OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SLES 16.0 | suse-cloud | sles-16 | sles-16-arm64 | All except A4X, A4, G4 | GA | Dec 2030 |
| SLES 15 SP7 | suse-cloud | sles-15 | sles-15-arm64 | All except A4X, A4, G4 | GA | Jul 2034 |
| SLES 15 SP6 | suse-cloud | sles-15 | sles-15-arm64 | All except A4X, A4, G4 | GA | Dec 2028 |
| SLES 15 SP5 | suse-byos-cloud | N/A | N/A | All except A4X, A4, G4 | BYOS w/ LTSS | Dec 2027 |
| SLES 15 SP4 | suse-byos-cloud | N/A | N/A | All except A4X, A4, G4, T2A, N4A, C4A | BYOS w/ LTSS | Dec 2026 |
| SLES 15 SP3 | suse-byos-cloud | N/A | N/A | All except A4X, A4, G4, T2A, N4A,C4A, C4D-metal, C4-metal, C3-metal, X4, Z3-metal | BYOS w/ LTSS | Dec 2025 |
| SLES 15 SP2 | suse-byos-cloud | N/A | N/A | All except T2A, N4A, C4A,C3-metal, X4 | BYOS w/ LTSS | Dec 2024 |
| SLES 15 SP1 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS | Jan 2024 |
| SLES 12 SP5 | suse-cloud | sles-12 | N/A | All except T2A, N4A, C4A,C3-metal, G2, X4 | EOL | Oct 2024 |
| SLES 12 SP4 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS | June 2023 |
| SLES 16.0 for SAP | suse-sap-cloud | sles-16-sap | N/A | All except A4X, A4, G4, T2A, N4A, C4A | GA | Nov 2030 |
| SLES 15 SP7 for SAP | suse-sap-cloud | sles-15-sp7-sap | N/A | All except A4X, A4, G4, T2A, N4A, C4A | GA | Jul 2031 |
| SLES 15 SP6 for SAP | suse-sap-cloud | sles-15-sp6-sap | N/A | All except A4X, A4, G4, T2A, N4A, C4A | GA | Dec 2028 |
| SLES 15 SP5 for SAP | suse-sap-cloud | sles-15-sp5-sap | N/A | All except A4X, A4, G4, T2A, N4A, C4A | GA | Dec 2027 |
| SLES 15 SP4 for SAP | suse-sap-cloud | sles-15-sp4-sap | N/A | All except A4X, A4, G4, T2A, N4A, C4A | GA | Dec 2026 |
| SLES 15 SP3 for SAP | suse-sap-cloud | sles-15-sp3-sap | N/A | All except A4X, A4, G4, T2A, N4A, C4A, C4D-metal, C4-metal, C3-metal, X4, Z3-metal | GA | Dec 2025 |
| SLES 15 SP2 for SAP | suse-sap-cloud | sles-15-sp2-sap | N/A | All except A4, T2A, N4A, C3-metal, X4 | GA | Dec 2024 |
| SLES 15 SP1 for SAP | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS | Jan 2024 |
| SLES 12 SP5 for SAP | suse-sap-cloud | sles-12-sp5-sap | N/A | All except T2A, N4A, C4A, C4D-metal, C4-metal, C3-metal, H4D, A4, A4X, G4, G2, X4, Z3-metal | GA | Oct 2027 |
| SLES 12 SP4 for SAP | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS | June 2023 |
*BYOS with LTSS: Support for this operating system is only offered through theLong Term Service Pack Support (LTSS)that is available when using BYOS licenses from SUSE.
†ESPOS:Extended Service Pack Overlay Supportimages are set to deprecated 6 months before their EOS date. Deprecated images are still availablefor use.
Interfaces
| OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IRDMA | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SLES 16.0 | ||||||
| SLES 15 SP7 | ||||||
| SLES 15 SP6 | ||||||
| SLES 15 SP5 | ||||||
| SLES 15 SP4 | ||||||
| SLES 15 SP3 | ||||||
| SLES 15 SP2 | ||||||
| SLES 15 SP1 | ||||||
| SLES 12 SP5 | ||||||
| SLES 12 SP4 | ||||||
| SLES 16.0 for SAP | ||||||
| SLES 15 SP7 for SAP | ||||||
| SLES 15 SP6 for SAP | ||||||
| SLES 15 SP5 for SAP | ||||||
| SLES 15 SP4 for SAP | ||||||
| SLES 15 SP3 for SAP | ||||||
| SLES 15 SP2 for SAP | ||||||
| SLES 15 SP1 for SAP | ||||||
| SLES 12 SP5 for SAP | ||||||
| SLES 12 SP4 for SAP |
Security features
| OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM SEV | Confidential VM SEV-SNP | Confidential VM Intel TDX |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SLES 16.0 | * | † | ||
| SLES 15 SP7 | * | † | ||
| SLES 15 SP6 | * | † | ||
| SLES 15 SP5 | * | |||
| SLES 15 SP4 | * | |||
| SLES 15 SP3 | ||||
| SLES 15 SP2 | ||||
| SLES 15 SP1 | ||||
| SLES 12 SP5 | ||||
| SLES 12 SP4 | ||||
| SLES 16.0 for SAP | ||||
| SLES 15 SP7 for SAP | ||||
| SLES 15 SP6 for SAP | ||||
| SLES 15 SP5 for SAP | ||||
| SLES 15 SP4 for SAP | ||||
| SLES 15 SP3 for SAP | ||||
| SLES 15 SP2 for SAP | ||||
| SLES 15 SP1 for SAP | ||||
| SLES 12 SP5 for SAP | ||||
| SLES 12 SP4 for SAP |
* This OS image doesn't support Secure Boot on ARM64.
† Intel TDX isn't supported on ARM64 for this OS image.
User space features
| OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SLES 16.0 | * | |||
| SLES 15 SP7 | * | |||
| SLES 15 SP6 | * | |||
| SLES 15 SP5 | * | |||
| SLES 15 SP4 | * | |||
| SLES 15 SP3 | * | |||
| SLES 15 SP2 | * | |||
| SLES 15 SP1 | * | |||
| SLES 12 SP5 | * | |||
| SLES 12 SP4 | * | |||
| SLES 16.0 for SAP | * | |||
| SLES 15 SP7 for SAP | * | |||
| SLES 15 SP6 for SAP | * | |||
| SLES 15 SP5 for SAP | * | |||
| SLES 15 SP4 for SAP | * | |||
| SLES 15 SP3 for SAP | * | |||
| SLES 15 SP2 for SAP | * | |||
| SLES 15 SP1 for SAP | * | |||
| SLES 12 SP5 for SAP | * | |||
| SLES 12 SP4 for SAP | * |
*This OS image doesn't support custom hostnames. For more information seeCustom Hostnames.
Networking features
| OS version | Tier_1 networking* | 200 Gbps network bandwidth* | Jumbo frames/MTU |
|---|---|---|---|
| SLES 16.0 | |||
| SLES 15 SP7 | |||
| SLES 15 SP6 | |||
| SLES 15 SP5 | |||
| SLES 15 SP4 | |||
| SLES 15 SP3 | |||
| SLES 15 SP2 | * | † | |
| SLES 15 SP1 | † | ||
| SLES 12 SP5 | |||
| SLES 12 SP4 | † | ||
| SLES 16.0 for SAP | |||
| SLES 15 SP7 for SAP | |||
| SLES 15 SP6 for SAP | |||
| SLES 15 SP5 for SAP | |||
| SLES 15 SP4 for SAP | |||
| SLES 15 SP3 for SAP | |||
| SLES 15 SP2 for SAP | * | † | |
| SLES 15 SP1 for SAP | † | ||
| SLES 12 SP5 for SAP | |||
| SLES 12 SP4 for SAP | † |
*You canupdate the gVNIC driver tothe latest version to enable network egress bandwidths of 200 Gbps. For more information, see theRequirements and limitationssection of "Configure per VM Tier_1 networking performance".
†Fully supported with VirtIO, but requires an updated driver to use with gVNIC. Formore information, seeJumbo frames.
#Only available with certain machine series.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1machine family.
Note: V100 GPUs aren't supported on SLES.
For more information about GPU requirements and recommended OSes, seechoosing an OS for instances with attached GPUs.
| OS version | A4X (GB200) | A4 (B200) | A3 (H200) | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G4 (RTX PRO 6000) | G2 (L4) | N1+GPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SLES 16.0 | ||||||||
| SLES 15 SP7 | ||||||||
| SLES 15 SP6 | ||||||||
| SLES 15 SP5 | ||||||||
| SLES 15 SP4 | ||||||||
| SLES 15 SP3 | ||||||||
| SLES 15 SP2 | ||||||||
| SLES 15 SP1 | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
| SLES 12 SP5 | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
| SLES 12 SP4 | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
| SLES 16.0 for SAP | ||||||||
| SLES 15 SP7 for SAP | ||||||||
| SLES 15 SP6 for SAP | ||||||||
| SLES 15 SP5 for SAP | ||||||||
| SLES 15 SP4 for SAP | ||||||||
| SLES 15 SP3 for SAP | ||||||||
| SLES 15 SP2 for SAP | ||||||||
| SLES 15 SP1 for SAP | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
| SLES 12 SP5 for SAP | ||||||||
| SLES 12 SP4 for SAP | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
VM Manager
| OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SLES 16.0 | |||||
| SLES 15 SP7 | |||||
| SLES 15 SP6 | |||||
| SLES 15 SP5 | |||||
| SLES 15 SP4 | |||||
| SLES 15 SP3 | |||||
| SLES 15 SP2 | |||||
| SLES 15 SP1 | |||||
| SLES 12 SP5 | |||||
| SLES 12 SP4 | |||||
| SLES 16.0 for SAP | |||||
| SLES 15 SP7 for SAP | |||||
| SLES 15 SP6 for SAP | |||||
| SLES 15 SP5 for SAP | |||||
| SLES 15 SP4 for SAP | |||||
| SLES 15 SP3 for SAP | |||||
| SLES 15 SP2 for SAP | |||||
| SLES 15 SP1 for SAP | |||||
| SLES 12 SP5 for SAP | |||||
| SLES 12 SP4 for SAP |
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, seesupported operating systems.
| OS version | Import disk | Import virtual appliance | Import machine image |
|---|---|---|---|
| SLES 16.0 | |||
| SLES 15 SP7 | |||
| SLES 15 SP6 | |||
| SLES 15 SP5 | |||
| SLES 15 SP4 | |||
| SLES 15 SP3 | |||
| SLES 15 SP2 | |||
| SLES 15 SP1 | |||
| SLES 12 SP5 | |||
| SLES 12 SP4 | |||
| SLES 16.0 for SAP | |||
| SLES 15 SP7 for SAP | |||
| SLES 15 SP6 for SAP | |||
| SLES 15 SP5 for SAP | |||
| SLES 15 SP4 for SAP | |||
| SLES 15 SP3 for SAP | |||
| SLES 15 SP2 for SAP | |||
| SLES 15 SP1 for SAP | |||
| SLES 12 SP5 for SAP | |||
| SLES 12 SP4 for SAP |
License
For version tracking, Rocky Linux accelerated images include three licenses:
- A license for the base Rocky Linux optimized OS.
- A license to designate the image as an accelerated image.
- A license for the NVIDIA driver.
| OS version | License type | License URL |
|---|---|---|
| SLES 16.0 |
|
|
| SLES 15 SP7 |
|
|
| SLES 15 SP6 |
|
|
| SLES 15 SP5 |
|
|
| SLES 15 SP4 |
|
|
| SLES 15 SP3 |
|
|
| SLES 15 SP2 |
|
|
| SLES 15 SP1 |
|
|
| SLES 12 SP5 |
|
|
| SLES 12 SP4 |
|
|
| SLES 16.0 for SAP |
|
|
| SLES 15 SP7 for SAP |
|
|
| SLES 15 SP6 for SAP |
|
|
| SLES 15 SP5 for SAP |
|
|
| SLES 15 SP4 for SAP |
|
|
| SLES 15 SP3 for SAP |
|
|
| SLES 15 SP2 for SAP |
|
|
| SLES 15 SP1 for SAP |
|
|
| SLES 12 SP5 for SAP |
|
|
| SLES 12 SP4 for SAP |
|
|
*BYOS with LTSS: Support for this operating system is only offered through theLong Term Service Pack Support (LTSS)that is available when using BYOS licenses from SUSE.
Ubuntu LTS
Ubuntu is a free operating system developed and supported byCanonical.
UbuntuLong Term Support (LTS)images receive bug fixes and security updates for five years after theirrelease date. LTS images can run on your instances for several yearswithout having to upgrade to a newer release.
UbuntuMinimal images are supported the same as Ubuntu LTS images.
Regular (non LTS) Ubuntu images are supported for 9 months from their release date. To continue to use a regular Ubuntu image, you will have to upgrade to the next regular Ubuntu release or LTS release after the support cycle ends to receive fixes and updates. Compute Engine recommends using Ubuntu LTS images unless you require features or software packages that are not yet included in an LTS release. If your instances run Ubuntu releases that are no longer supported,upgrade to a supported Ubuntu release.
Automatic updates
By default, this operating system is configured to install security updates by using the UbuntuAutomaticSecurityUpdates tool. The updates have the following behaviors:
- The
AutomaticSecurityUpdatestool does not upgrade VMs between major versions of the operating system. - The
AutomaticSecurityUpdatestool is configured to only automatically apply updates obtained from the Ubuntu security repository. - Some updates require reboots to take effect. These reboots do not happen automatically.
Image configuration
Ubuntu images are built and maintained by Canonical. Ubuntu images are always built with the latestUbuntu packages which reflect the most recent Ubuntu point release.
The Ubuntu images that are provided by Compute Engine, have the following differences in configuration from standard Ubuntu images:
Account configuration
- There are no local users configured with passwords.
Bootloader configuration
- Ubuntu uses
cloud-initto do some boot time initialization. Thecloud.cfgfile is configured for Compute Engine and enables only thecloud-initmodules that are used. - To force faster boot times, the boot timeout in the grub configuration is set to
0. - To allow SCSI block multi-queue usage,
scsi_mod.use_blk_mqis enabled.
Network configuration
- IPv6 is enabled.
- The SSH server configuration is set to disable password authentication.
- To prevent MAC addresses from persisting,
/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rulesis removed.
Package system and repository configuration
- Theguest environmentfor Compute Engine packages are installed from theUbuntu supplied packages.
- For Ubuntu 18.04+, theGoogle Cloud CLI is installed and maintained as a snap package.
- The APT sources are set to use the Ubuntu Compute Engine mirrors via
cloud-init. - The
Unattended-upgradespackage is installed and configured to download and install Debian security updates daily. Thiscan be configured or disabled by changing the values in/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgradesand/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/02periodic. - The
linux-image-gcpkernel is used instead of the generic Ubuntu kernel.The Google Cloud kernel reflects the latest rollingHWE kernelfor Ubuntu LTS.
Storage configuration
- Images are 10 GB by default.
- The partition table is
GPT, and there is anEFIpartition to support booting onUEFI. There is also an MBR boot block to support BIOS. - The floppy module is disabled because there is no floppy disk controller on Compute Engine.
Time configuration
- The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.
General information
For information about non LTS Ubuntu releases, see theUbuntu release wiki.
| OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | ubuntu-os-cloud | ubuntu-2404-lts-amd64 | ubuntu-2404-lts-arm64 | All except A4X, A4, A3 Ultra | GA | June 2029 (ESM April 2034) |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 570 | ubuntu-os-accelerator-images | ubuntu-accelerator-2404-amd64-with-nvidia-570 | ubuntu-accelerator-2404-arm64-with-nvidia-570 | A4X, A4, A3 Ultra | GA | June 2029 (ESM April 2034) |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 550 | ubuntu-os-accelerator-images | ubuntu-accelerator-2404-amd64-with-nvidia-550 | ubuntu-accelerator-2404-arm64-with-nvidia-550 | A3 Ultra | GA | June 2025 |
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | ubuntu-os-cloud | ubuntu-2204-lts | ubuntu-2204-lts-arm64 | All except A4X, A4, A3 Ultra | GA | April 2027 (ESM April 2032) |
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 570 | ubuntu-os-accelerator-images | ubuntu-accelerator-2204-amd64-with-nvidia-570 | ubuntu-accelerator-2204-arm64-with-nvidia-570 | A4X, A4, A3 Ultra | GA | April 2027 (ESM April 2032) |
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 550 | ubuntu-os-accelerator-images | ubuntu-accelerator-2204-amd64-with-nvidia-550 | ubuntu-accelerator-2204-arm64-with-nvidia-550 | A3 Ultra | GA | June 2025 |
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | ubuntu-os-cloud | ubuntu-2004-lts | ubuntu-2004-lts-arm64 | All except A4X, A4, G4, A3 Ultra | GA | May 2025 (ESM May 2030) |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | Ubuntu ESM* / Ubuntu Pro† | May 2023 (ESM April 2028) |
| Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | Ubuntu ESM* / Ubuntu Pro† | April 2021 (ESM April 2026) |
| Ubuntu 14.04 LTS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | April 2024 |
*Ubuntu ESM: You can apply your existingESM subscription to the Google provided OS image. The image that is provided by Google Cloud contains enhancements that might not be included if you bring your own OS image.
†Ubuntu Pro: To continue using Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04 LTS images,upgrade from Ubuntu to Ubuntu Pro.
Interfaces
Security features
* Intel TDX isn't supported on ARM64 for this OS image.
User space features
* This OS image doesn't support custom hostnames. For more information, seeCustom Hostnames.
Networking features
* You canupdate the gVNIC driver to the latest version to enable network egress bandwidths of 200 Gbps. For more information, see theRequirements and limitations section of "Configure per VM Tier_1 networking performance".
† Fully supported with VirtIO, but requires an updated driver to use with gVNIC. For more information, seeJumbo frames.
# Only available with certain machine series.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
The Ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04 LTS Accelerated OS images are optimized for supporting your artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) workloads. To learn more about how these images are optimized for these workloads, seeAccelerator OS images in the AI Hypercomputer documentation.
Important: If you use an "Accelerated" OS version that supports your GPU, youdon't need toinstall GPU drivers.For more information about GPU requirements and recommended OSes, seechoosing an OS for instances with attached GPUs.
| OS version | A4X (GB200) | A4 (B200) | A3 (H200) | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G4 (RTX PRO 6000) | G2 (L4) | N1+GPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | ||||||||
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 570 | ||||||||
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 550 | ||||||||
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | ||||||||
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 570 | ||||||||
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 550 | ||||||||
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | ||||||||
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | |
| Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | |
| Ubuntu 14.04 LTS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
VM Manager
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, seesupported operating systems.
License
For version tracking, Rocky Linux accelerated images include three licenses:
- A license for the base Rocky Linux optimized OS.
- A license to designate the image as an accelerated image.
- A license for the NVIDIA driver.
| OS version | License type | License URL |
|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-2404-lts |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 570 | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-2404-lts |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 550 | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-2404-lts |
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-2204-lts |
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 570 | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-2204-lts |
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Accelerated with NVIDIA driver version 550 | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-2204-lts |
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-2004-lts |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | Ubuntu ESM* / Ubuntu Pro† | EOS |
| Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | Ubuntu ESM* / Ubuntu Pro† | EOS |
| Ubuntu 14.04 LTS | Ubuntu ESM* | EOS |
*Ubuntu ESM: You can apply your existingESM subscription to the Google provided OS image. The image that is provided by Google Cloud contains enhancements that might not be included if you bring your own OS image.
†Ubuntu Pro: To continue using Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04 LTS images, you mustupgrade from Ubuntu to Ubuntu Pro.
Ubuntu Pro
Ubuntu Pro is a premium operating system developed and supported byCanonical.
Ubuntu Pro images running on Compute Engine receive bug fixes and security updates for 10 years after their release date, along with access toUbuntu ESM. For Ubuntu 16.04, security updates and ESM are available for 8 years.
Ubuntu Pro images are premium resources that incur additional fees to use. For information about Ubuntu Pro license cost, see theUbuntu Pro pricing page. An Ubuntu Pro image running on Compute Engine has an on-demand license and does not require an additional Ubuntu Pro subscription.
To view a list of frequently asked questions when running Ubuntu Pro on Compute Engine, seeUbuntu Pro FAQ.
Note: For compliance with Canonical licensing requirements, Google reports to Canonical your billing entity name, region, country, SKU, and total hours of usage.Automatic updates
By default, this operating system is configured to install security updates by using the UbuntuAutomaticSecurityUpdates tool. The updates have the following behaviors:
- The
AutomaticSecurityUpdatestool does not upgrade VMs between major versions of the operating system. - The
AutomaticSecurityUpdatestool is configured to only automatically apply updates obtained from the Ubuntu security repository. - Some updates require reboots to take effect. These reboots do not happen automatically.
Image configuration
Ubuntu Pro images are built and maintained by Canonical. Ubuntu Pro images are always built with the latestUbuntu packages which reflect the most recent Ubuntu point release.
The Ubuntu Pro images that are provided by Compute Engine, have the following differences in configuration from standard Ubuntu images:
Account configuration
- There are no local users configured with passwords.
Bootloader configuration
- Ubuntu uses
cloud-initto do some boot time initialization. Thecloud.cfgfile is configured for Compute Engine and enables only thecloud-initmodules that are used. - To force faster boot times, the boot timeout in the grub configuration is set to
0. - To allow SCSI block multi-queue usage,
scsi_mod.use_blk_mqis enabled.
Network configuration
- IPv6 is enabled.
- The SSH server configuration is set to disable password authentication.
- To prevent MAC addresses from persisting,
/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rulesis removed.
Package system and repository configuration
- Theguest environmentfor Compute Engine packages are installed from theUbuntu supplied packages.
- TheGoogle Cloud CLI is installed and maintained as a snap package.
- The APT sources are set to use the Ubuntu Compute Engine mirrors via
cloud-init. - The
Unattended-upgradespackage is installed and configured to download and install Debian security updates daily. Thiscan be configured or disabled by changing the values in/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgradesand/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/02periodic. - The
linux-image-gcpkernel is used instead of the generic Ubuntu kernel.The Google Cloud kernel reflects the latest rollingHWE kernelfor Ubuntu LTS.
Storage configuration
- Images are 10 GB by default.
- The partition table is
GPT, and there is anEFIpartition to support booting onUEFI. There is also an MBR boot block to support BIOS. - Ubuntu uses
cloud-initto do some boot time initialization. Thecloud.cfgfile is configured for Compute Engine and enables only thecloud-initmodules that are used. - There are no local users configured with passwords.
- The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.
- The floppy module is disabled because there is no floppy disk controller on Compute Engine.
Time configuration
- The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.
General information
For information about upgrading from Ubuntu LTS to Ubuntu Pro, seeUpgrade from Ubuntu to Ubuntu Pro.
| OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS | ubuntu-os-pro-cloud | ubuntu-pro-2404-lts-amd64 | ubuntu-pro-2404-lts-arm64 | All except A4X, A4 | GA | April 2034 |
| Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS | ubuntu-os-pro-cloud | ubuntu-pro-2204-lts | ubuntu-pro-2204-lts-arm64 | All except A4X, A4 | GA | April 2032 |
| Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS | ubuntu-os-pro-cloud | ubuntu-pro-2004-lts | ubuntu-pro-2004-lts-arm64 | All except A4X, A4, G4 | GA | April 2030 |
| Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS | ubuntu-os-pro-cloud | ubuntu-pro-1804-lts | ubuntu-pro-1804-lts-arm64 | All except A4X, A4, G4, C4-metal, C4A, C3-metal, C4D-metal, X4, Z3-metal | GA | April 2028 |
| Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS | ubuntu-os-pro-cloud | ubuntu-pro-1604-lts | N/A | All except A4X, A4, G4, T2A, C4A, C3-metal, C4-metal, C4D-metal, X4, Z3-metal | GA | April 2026 |
Interfaces
| OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IRDMA | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS | ||||||
| Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS | ||||||
| Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS | ||||||
| Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS | ||||||
| Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS | * |
*This OS image supports NVMe but doesn't support the hot-plugging of NVMe drives.Hot-plugging is the process of adding or removing a device while the system is running.
Security features
| OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM SEV | Confidential VM SEV-SNP | Confidential VM Intel TDX |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS | † | |||
| Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS | † | |||
| Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS | ||||
| Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS | ||||
| Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS |
* Intel TDX isn't supported on ARM64 for this OS image.
User space features
* This OS image doesn't support custom hostnames. For more information, seeCustom Hostnames.
Networking features
| OS version | Tier_1 networking* | 200 Gbps network bandwidth* | Jumbo frames/MTU |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS | |||
| Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS | |||
| Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS | |||
| Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS | |||
| Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS | * | † |
* You canupdate the gVNIC driver to the latest version to enable network egress bandwidths of 200 Gbps. For more information, see theRequirements and limitations section of "Configure per VM Tier_1 networking performance".
† Fully supported with VirtIO, but requires an updated driver to use with gVNIC. For more information, seeJumbo frames.
# Only available with certain machine series.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
For more information about GPU requirements and recommended OSes, seechoosing an OS for instances with attached GPUs.
| OS version | A4X (GB200) | A4 (B200) | A3 (H200) | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G4 (RTX PRO 6000) | G2 (L4) | N1+GPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS | ||||||||
| Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS | ||||||||
| Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS | ||||||||
| Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS | ||||||||
| Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS |
VM Manager
| OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS | |||||
| Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS | |||||
| Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS | |||||
| Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS | |||||
| Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS |
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, seesupported operating systems.
| OS version | Import disk | Import virtual appliance | Import machine image |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS | |||
| Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS | |||
| Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS | |||
| Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS | |||
| Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS |
License
For version tracking, Rocky Linux accelerated images include three licenses:
- A license for the base Rocky Linux optimized OS.
- A license to designate the image as an accelerated image.
- A license for the NVIDIA driver.
| OS version | License type | License URL |
|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-pro-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-pro-2404-lts |
| Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-pro-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-pro-2204-lts |
| Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-pro-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-pro-2004-lts |
| Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-pro-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-pro-1804-lts |
| Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-pro-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-pro-1604-lts |
Windows client
Google doesn't provide Windows client images. You must bring your own Windows client images.
Windows client images can't be used with bare metal instances. Also, Windowsclient images aren't supported forN4A machine series,C4A machine series, andT2A machine series VMs.
Automatic updates
The Windows client update settings determine how versions of Windows client use Windows Updates. To configure Windows automatic updates, see Configure Automatic Updates.
Storage
Google doesn't test theVSS agent on any client images.
General information
| OS version | Lifecycle stage* | EOS date |
|---|---|---|
| Windows 11 25h2 x64 | GA | Oct 2028 |
| Windows 11 24h2 x64 | GA | Oct 2027 |
| Windows 11 23h2 x64** | GA | Nov 2026 |
| Windows 11 22h2 x64** | EOS | Oct 2025 |
| Windows 11 21h2 x64** | EOS | Oct 2024 |
| Windows 10 22h2 x64 | EOS | Oct 2025 |
| Windows 10 22h2 x86 | EOS | Oct 2025 |
| Windows 10 21h2 x64 | EOS | June 2024 |
| Windows 10 21h2 x86 | EOS | June 2024 |
| Windows 8.1 x64 | EOS | Jan 2023 |
| Windows 8.1 x86 | EOS | Jan 2023 |
*Lifecycle stage: Google Cloud Support typically coincides with Extended Support EndDate. For information about the end of support (EOS) date for each of the operating systems in thetable below, see theMicrosoft Lifecycle Policy.
**Windows 11: vTPM and Secure Boot must be enabled. Due to CPUrequirements, N1 and M1sole-tenant node types are not recommended.
Interfaces
| OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IRDMA | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows 11 25h2 x64 | ||||||
| Windows 11 24h2 x64 | ||||||
| Windows 11 23h2 x64 | ||||||
| Windows 11 22h2 x64 | ||||||
| Windows 11 21h2 x64 | ||||||
| Windows 10 22h2 x64 | ||||||
| Windows 10 22h2 x86 | ||||||
| Windows 10 21h2 x64 | ||||||
| Windows 10 21h2 x86 | ||||||
| Windows 8.1 x64 | ||||||
| Windows 8.1 x86 |
Security features
| OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM support |
|---|---|---|
| Windows 11 25h2 x64 | ** | |
| Windows 11 24h2 x64 | ** | |
| Windows 11 23h2 x64 | ** | |
| Windows 11 22h2 x64 | ** | |
| Windows 11 21h2 x64 | ** | |
| Windows 10 22h2 x64 | ||
| Windows 10 22h2 x86 | ||
| Windows 10 21h2 x64 | ||
| Windows 10 21h2 x86 | ||
| Windows 8.1 x64 | ||
| Windows 8.1 x86 |
**Windows 11: vTPM and Secure Boot must be enabled. Due to CPUrequirements, N1 and M1sole-tenant node types are not recommended.
User space features
| OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows 11 25h2 x64 | * | † | ^ | |
| Windows 11 24h2 x64 | * | † | ^ | |
| Windows 11 23h2 x64 | * | † | ‡ | |
| Windows 11 22h2 x64 | * | † | ‡ | |
| Windows 11 21h2 x64 | * | † | ‡ | |
| Windows 10 22h2 x64 | * | † | ‡ | |
| Windows 10 22h2 x86 | * | † | ||
| Windows 10 21h2 x64 | * | † | ‡ | |
| Windows 10 21h2 x86 | * | † | ||
| Windows 8.1 x64 | † | |||
| Windows 8.1 x86 | † |
*Guest environment: For this OS, the guest environment can be manuallyinstalled. To install the guest environment, seeInstall the guest environment.
†gcloud CLI: For this OS, the gcloud CLI can be manuallyinstalled. To install the gcloud CLI, seeInstall the gcloud CLI.
‡Suspend and resume: For this OS, some power policy configurations areincompatible with suspend and resume. For more information, seetroubleshooting VM suspension.
^Suspend and resume: Suspend and resume for Windows 11 24h2 x64 & Windows 1125h2 x64 isn't supported. This is aknown issue and a fix is in progress.
Networking features
| OS version | Tier_1 networking* | 200 Gbps network bandwidth* | Jumbo frames/MTU |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows 11 25h2 x64 | |||
| Windows 11 24h2 x64 | |||
| Windows 11 23h2 x64 | |||
| Windows 11 22h2 x64 | |||
| Windows 11 21h2 x64 | |||
| Windows 10 22h2 x64 | |||
| Windows 10 22h2 x86 | |||
| Windows 10 21h2 x64 | |||
| Windows 10 21h2 x86 | |||
| Windows 8.1 x64 | |||
| Windows 8.1 x86 |
*Only available withsupported machine series.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
For more information about GPU requirements and recommended OSes, seechoosing an OS for instances with attached GPUs.
| OS version | A4X (GB200) | A4 (B200) | A3 (H200) | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G4 (RTX PRO 6000) | G2 (L4) | N1+GPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows 11 25h2 x64 | ||||||||
| Windows 11 24h2 x64 | ||||||||
| Windows 11 23h2 x64 | ||||||||
| Windows 11 22h2 x64 | ||||||||
| Windows 11 21h2 x64 | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
| Windows 10 22h2 x64 | ||||||||
| Windows 10 22h2 x86 | ||||||||
| Windows 10 21h2 x64 | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
| Windows 10 21h2 x86 | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
| Windows 8.1 x64 | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
| Windows 8.1 x86 | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
*For this Windows client version, NVIDIA V100 GPUs are not supported.
VM Manager
| OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows 11 25h2 x64 | |||||
| Windows 11 24h2 x64 | |||||
| Windows 11 23h2 x64 | |||||
| Windows 11 22h2 x64 | |||||
| Windows 11 21h2 x64 | |||||
| Windows 10 22h2 x64 | |||||
| Windows 10 22h2 x86 | |||||
| Windows 10 21h2 x64 | |||||
| Windows 10 21h2 x86 | |||||
| Windows 8.1 x64 | |||||
| Windows 8.1 x86 |
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, seesupported operating systems.
| OS version | Import disk | Import virtual appliance |
|---|---|---|
| Windows 11 25h2 x64 | ||
| Windows 11 24h2 x64 | ||
| Windows 11 23h2 x64 | ||
| Windows 11 22h2 x64 | ||
| Windows 11 21h2 x64 | ||
| Windows 10 22h2 x64 | ||
| Windows 10 22h2 x86 | ||
| Windows 10 21h2 x64 | ||
| Windows 10 21h2 x86 | ||
| Windows 8.1 x64 | ||
| Windows 8.1 x86 |
License
For version tracking, Rocky Linux accelerated images include three licenses:
- A license for the base Rocky Linux optimized OS.
- A license to designate the image as an accelerated image.
- A license for the NVIDIA driver.
| OS version | License type | License URL |
|---|---|---|
| Windows 11 25h2 x64 | BYOL | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-11-x64-byol |
| Windows 11 24h2 x64 | BYOL | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-11-x64-byol |
| Windows 11 23h2 x64 | BYOL | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-11-x64-byol |
| Windows 11 22h2 x64 | BYOL | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-11-x64-byol |
| Windows 11 21h2 x64 | BYOL | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-11-x64-byol |
| Windows 10 22h2 x64 | BYOL | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-10-x64-byol |
| Windows 10 22h2 x86 | BYOL | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-10-x86-byol |
| Windows 10 21h2 x64 | BYOL | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-10-x64-byol |
| Windows 10 21h2 x86 | BYOL | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-10-x86-byol |
| Windows 8.1 x64 | BYOL | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-8-x64-byol |
| Windows 8.1 x86 | BYOL | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-8-x86-byol |
Windows Server
Windows Server images arepremium resources that incur additional fees to use. Google Cloud builds and supports the Windows Server images available for Compute Engine.
Windows server images can't be used with bare metal instances.
To bring your own Windows license (BYOL), you must either import an existing image, or you mustbuild a custom image.
Automatic updates
By default, this operating system is configured to "Auto download and schedule the install" for Microsoft updates. To configure Windows Server automatic updates, see Configure Automatic Updates.
Image configuration
Windows Server images are built with the latest updates, but have the following differences in configuration from standard Windows Server images:
Account configuration
- The Administrator account is disabled.
- User passwords must be at least eight characters long.
- The
LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicyproperty is enabled to grant access to administrative file shares.
Activation configuration
- Windows Server images can't activate without a network connection to
kms.windows.googlecloud.com, and stop functioning if they don't authenticate within 30 days. Make sure to [allow access in your VPC network](/compute/docs/instances/windows/creating-managing-windows-instances#kms-server). - A KMS client key is installed and the KMS client is set to activate by using the Compute Engine KMS servers.
Bootloader configuration
- BootStatusPolicy is set to
IgnoreAllFailures. - Emergency Management Services (EMS) redirection is enabled on the COM2 port. For more information, seebootcfg ems.
Network configuration
- The Compute Engine metadata server is added to the
hostsfile, which is typically in the%WinDir%\System32\drivers\etcdirectory. - The Windows firewall is open to allow communication with the Compute Engine metadata server.
- TCP KeepAliveTime is set to 5 minutes.
- Web Proxy Auto Discovery (WPAD) is disabled.
- The NetKVM adapter is set to use DHCP.
- Remote Desktop (RDP) is enabled and the associated Windows firewall ports opened.
- WinRM over HTTPS is configured using a self signed certificate and the associated Windows firewall ports are open.
- Windows images provided by Google have a hardcoded MTU. For more information about network andinterface MTU, see themaximum transmission unit overview.
Package system and Windows Update
- Windows Server images update automatically according to the default update schedule for Windows Server.
- To install packages for theguest environment, Google Cloud repositories are enabled.
- To manage Compute Engine component packages for Windows,GooGet is installed, which you can configure to update packages automatically.
- TheGoogle Cloud CLI is installed with its own Python 2.7 environment. Google Cloud CLI works with project service accounts, instance scopes, and works in PowerShell and the standard command-line environment.
- To boot Windows on Compute Engine,Compute Engine drivers are installed.
- PowerShell v5 and v7 are installed.
Power configuration
- Power settings are changed to never turn off the monitor.
Storage configuration
- The partition table is GPT, and there is an EFI partition to support booting on UEFI.
- The paging file is set to a static size of 1 GB.
- The
EnableQueryAccessAlignmentproperty is enabled for the VioSCSI driver.
Time configuration
- The
RealTimeIsUniversalregistry key is set. The BIOS is a UTC clock, and is not set to the local time. - The time zone is set to UTC (Coordinated Universal Time).
- NTP is set to sync to the Compute Engine metadata server.
General information
| OS version | Image project | Image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage* | EOS and image deprecation date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows Server 2025 | windows-cloud | windows-2025windows-2025-core | All except T2A, N4A, C4A, C4D-metal, C4-metal, C3-metal, Z3, A4X, A4, A3, X4 | GA | Oct 10, 2034 |
| Windows Server 2022 | windows-cloud | windows-2022windows-2022-core | All except T2A, N4A, C4A, C4-metal, C4D-metal, C3-metal, Z3, A4, A3, X4 | GA | Oct 14, 2031 |
| Windows Server 2019 | windows-cloud | windows-2019windows-2019-core | All except T2A, N4A, C4A, C4-metal, C4D-metal, C3-metal, Z3, A4, G4, A3, X4 | GA | Jan 9, 2029 |
| Windows Server 2016 | windows-cloud | windows-2016windows-2016-core | All except T2A, N4A, C4A, C4-metal, C4D-metal, C3-metal, Z3, A4, A3, G4, G2, X4 | GA | Jan 12, 2027 |
| Windows Server 2012 R2 | N/A | N/A | Only C2, C2D, E2, M1, M2, N1, N2, N2D | EOS | Oct 10, 2023 |
| Windows Server 2012 | N/A | N/A | Only C2, C2D, E2, M1, M2, N1, N2, N2D | EOS | Oct 10, 2023 |
*Lifecycle stage: Google Cloud Support typically coincides withExtended Support End Date. Forinformation about the end of support (EOS) date for each of the operating systems in the previoustable, see theMicrosoft Lifecycle Policy.
Interfaces
| OS version | SCSI | NVMe | VSS agent | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IRDMA | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows Server 2025 | |||||||
| Windows Server 2022 | |||||||
| Windows Server 2019 | |||||||
| Windows Server 2016 | |||||||
| Windows Server 2012 R2 | |||||||
| Windows Server 2012 |
Security features
| OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM support |
|---|---|---|
| Windows Server 2025 | ||
| Windows Server 2022 | ||
| Windows Server 2019 | ||
| Windows Server 2016 | ||
| Windows Server 2012 R2 | ||
| Windows Server 2012 |
User space features
| OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows Server 2025 | † | |||
| Windows Server 2022 | * | |||
| Windows Server 2019 | * | |||
| Windows Server 2016 | * | |||
| Windows Server 2012 R2 | ||||
| Windows Server 2012 |
*For this OS, some power policy configurations are incompatible with suspend and resume. For more information, see troubleshooting VM suspension.
†Not currently supported due to a known issue.
Networking features
| OS version | Tier_1 networking* | 200 Gbps network bandwidth* | Jumbo frames/MTU |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows Server 2025 | |||
| Windows Server 2022 | |||
| Windows Server 2019 | |||
| Windows Server 2016 | |||
| Windows Server 2012 R2 | |||
| Windows Server 2012 |
*Only available withsupported machine series.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
Limitations
- You can't use Windows operating systems with the
a2-megagpu-16gmachine type.When using A100 GPUs with a Windows operating system, choose a different A2 machine type. - You can't use Windows operating systems on
g4-standard-384machine types.
For more information about GPU requirements and recommended OSes, seechoosing an OS for instances with attached GPUs.
| OS version | A4X (GB200) | A4 (B200) | A3 (H200) | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G4 (RTX PRO 6000) | G2 (L4) | N1+GPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows Server 2025 | ||||||||
| Windows Server 2022 | ||||||||
| Windows Server 2019 | ||||||||
| Windows Server 2016 | ||||||||
| Windows Server 2012 R2 | ||||||||
| Windows Server 2012 | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
*For this Windows client version, NVIDIA V100 GPUs are not supported.
VM Manager
| OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows Server 2025 | |||||
| Windows Server 2022 | |||||
| Windows Server 2019 | |||||
| Windows Server 2016 | |||||
| Windows Server 2012 R2 | |||||
| Windows Server 2012 |
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, seesupported operating systems.
| OS version | Import disk | Import virtual appliance |
|---|---|---|
| Windows Server 2025 | ||
| Windows Server 2022 | ||
| Windows Server 2019 | ||
| Windows Server 2016 | ||
| Windows Server 2012 R2 | ||
| Windows Server 2012 |
*Self-import is available.
License
For version tracking, Rocky Linux accelerated images include three licenses:
- A license for the base Rocky Linux optimized OS.
- A license to designate the image as an accelerated image.
- A license for the NVIDIA driver.
| OS version | License type | License URL |
|---|---|---|
| Windows Server 2025 |
|
|
| Windows Server 2022 |
|
|
| Windows Server 2019 |
|
|
| Windows Server 2016 |
|
|
| Windows Server 2012 R2 |
|
|
| Windows Server 2012 |
|
|
1See the notes onBring Your Own License (BYOL) for Microsoft Licensing.
Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under theCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under theApache 2.0 License. For details, see theGoogle Developers Site Policies. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Last updated 2025-12-02 UTC.