Use operating system (OS) images to create boot disks for your virtual machine(VM) instances. You can use one of the following OS image types:

• Public OS images are provided and maintained byGoogle, open source communities, and third-party vendors. By default, allGoogle Cloud projects have access to these OS images and can use them tocreate VM instances.
• Custom OS images are available only to yourGoogle Cloud project. You cancreate a custom OS imagefrom boot disks and other images. Then, use the custom OS image tocreate VM instances.

Some OS images are also capable of runningcontainers on Compute Engine.

Public OS images

Compute Engine offers many preconfigured public OS images that havecompatible Linux or Windows operating systems. Use these OS images tocreate and start instances.Compute Engine uses your selected image to create a persistent bootdisk for each VM. By default, the boot disk for a VM is the samesize as the image that you selected. If your VM requires a largerboot disk than the image size,resize the boot disk.

List of public OS images available on Compute Engine

To see a full list of public OS images with each image's name, size, andversion number, you can use the Google Cloud console or the Google Cloud CLI.Compute Engine updates public OS images regularly, or when a patch fora critical impact common vulnerability and exposure (CVE) is available.

Compute Engine provides 64-bit versions of these public OS images.For more information about each OS, including how each OS is customized to runon Compute Engine, seeOperating system details.

gcloud compute images list

Custom OS images

A custom OS image is a boot disk image that you own and control access to. Usecustom OS images for the following tasks:

• Import a virtual diskto Compute Engine from your on-premises environment or from VMs thatare running on your local workstation or on another cloud platform. You canmanuallyimport boot disk imagesto Compute Engine, but one disk at a time.

  Note: If you are planning to migrate several VMs toCompute Engine, consider using theVM migration service.

• Create an imagefrom the boot disks of your existing Compute EngineVM instances. Then use that image tocreate new boot disksfor your VMs. This process lets you create new VMs thatare preconfigured with the apps that you need without having toconfigure apublic OS image from scratch.

• Copy one image to another image by using either thegcloud CLI or theAPI. Use the same process thatyou use tocreate an image,but specify another image as the image source. You can alsocreate an image from a custom image in a different project.

Guest operating system features

Some guest operating system features are available only on certain OS images.For example,multiqueue SCSI isenabled only on some public OS images.

To enable these features on your custom OS images, specify one ormore guest operating system features when youcreate a custom OS image.

OS image costs

Premium OS images,whether public or custom, incur licensing fees to run onCompute Engine. You have two options:

• Attach an on-demand/pay-as-you-go (PAYG) license

• Bring your own license (BYOL)/Bring your own subscription (BYOS)

  For more information about licenses, seeLicense types and pricing.

For custom OS images, you also incur animage storage charge while you keep your custom OS image in your project.

Image families

Image families help you manage images in your project bygrouping related images together, so that you can roll forward androll back between specific image versions. An image family always points to thelatest version of an OS image that is not deprecated. Mostpublic OS images are grouped into an imagefamily. For example, thedebian-11 image family in thedebian-cloud projectalways points to the most recent Debian 11 image.

Custom image families

If you regularly update yourcustom OS imageswith newer configurations and software, you can group those images into a customimage family. The image family always points to the most recent OS image in thatfamily, so your instance templates and scripts can use that image without havingto update references to a specific image version.

Also, because the image family never points to a deprecated image, you can rollthe image family back to a previous OS image version by deprecating the mostrecent image in that family. Note that the rollback is possible only if theprevious image version is not deprecated. For more information, seeSetting image versions in an image family.

For best practices recommendations when working with image families, seeImage families best practices.

Partner supported operating systems

These are operating systems that you can run on Google Cloud,but the partner or distributor is responsible for ensuring that these operatingsystems work with Google Cloud features and that security updates aremaintained. For issues specific to the partner supported operating systems, youmust use either community resources or get enterprise-level support from thepartner.

The following partner supported operating systems can run on Google Cloud.

Oracle Linux

Oracle Linux is an operating system that is offered by Oracle.Oracle Linux images are available on Google Cloud provided by Oracle. Youcan also import Oracle Linux images to Google Cloud.

If you require support that is specific to the Oracle Linux operating system,you can either consult community resources, or get enterprise-level supportdirectly from Oracle.

Import Oracle Linux OS images

To import Oracle Linux OS image to Compute Engine, you can use the import toolavailable from Migrate to Virtual Machines. This tool ensures the imported OS imagesare set up correctly for working in a Google Cloud environment. For detailedinstructions, seeImport virtual disk images.For a list of the Oracle Linux OS versions supported for import, seeOperating systems supported by partners.

AlmaLinux is an operating system offered by theAlmaLinux project.AlmaLinux images are available in thealmalinux-cloud project. Tolist AlmaLinux OS images, use the followinggcloud command:

gcloud compute images list --project almalinux-cloud --no-standard-images

Fedora Cloud

Fedora Cloud is an operating system maintained by theFedora Cloud project.Fedora Cloud images are available in thefedora-cloud project. To listFedora Cloud OS images, use the followinggcloud command:

gcloud compute images list --project fedora-cloud --no-standard-images

FreeBSD

FreeBSD is an operating system maintained by theFreeBSDproject.FreeBSD images are available in thefreebsd-org-cloud-dev project. To listFreeBSD OS images, use the followinggcloud command:

gcloud compute images list --project freebsd-org-cloud-dev --no-standard-images

gVNIC support for FreeBSD (Preview) isavailable with release 14.0 and later. To use gVNIC with other releases, thedriver can beinstalled manually.

To create a VM that uses gVNIC with a FreeBSD release earlier than 14.0, you mustcreate a custom OS image that supports gVNICand then use that OS image when creating the VM.

openSUSE

openSUSE is a Linux-based operating system sponsored by SUSE. openSUSE images areavailable in theopensuse-cloud project. To list openSUSE OS images, use thefollowinggcloud command:

gcloud compute images list --project opensuse-cloud --no-standard-images

HPC OS images

The following OS images are available for creating VMs that are optimizedto run high performance computing (HPC) workloads on Compute Engine:

For CentOS 7:

• Image family:hpc-centos-7, Image project:cloud-hpc-image-public

For Rocky Linux 8:

• Image family:hpc-rocky-linux-8, Image project:cloud-hpc-image-public

For information about using this OS image, seeCreating an HPC-ready VM instance.

What's next

• View the source image for aVM instance.
• ReadImage management best practices.
• Learn aboutSupport and maintenance policy for OS images.
• Create and start an instance.
• Read aboutCompute Engine instances.
• Create a custom image.
• Build an image from scratch.