Version 1.15. This version is no longer supported. For information about how to upgrade to version 1.16, see Upgrade clusters in the latest documentation. For more information about supported and unsupported versions, see the Version history page in the latest documentation.
Google Distributed Cloud supports a wide variety of systems running on the
hardware that the target operating system distributions support.
A Google Distributed Cloud configuration can run on minimal hardware, or on
multiple machines to provide flexibility, availability, and performance.
Regardless of your Google Distributed Cloud configuration, your nodes and clusters
must have enough CPU, RAM, and storage resources to meet the needs of clusters
and the workloads that you're running.
Minimum and recommended CPU, RAM, and storage requirements
When you install Google Distributed Cloud, you can create different types of
clusters:
A user cluster that runs workloads.
An admin cluster that creates and controls user clusters to run workloads.
A standalone cluster is a single cluster that can manage and run
workloads, but a standalone cluster can't create or manage user clusters.
A hybrid cluster can manage and run workloads, and a hybrid cluster can
also create and manage additional user clusters.
In addition to cluster type, you can choose from the following installation
profiles in terms of resource requirements:
Default: The default profile has standard system resource requirements,
and you can use it for all cluster types.
Edge: The edge profile has significantly reduced system resource
requirements. Use of this profile is recommended for edge devices with limited
resources. You can only use the edge profile for standalone clusters.
Resource requirements for all cluster types using the default profile
The following table describes the minimum and recommended hardware requirements
that Google Distributed Cloud needs to operate and manage admin, hybrid, user, and
standalone clusters using the default profile:
Resource
Minimum
Recommended
CPUs / vCPUs*
4 core
8 core
RAM
16 GiB
32 GiB
Storage
128 GiB
256 GiB
* Google Distributed Cloud supports only x86-64 CPUs and vCPUs at the
CPU microarchitecture level v3 (x86-64-v3) and higher.
Resource requirements for standalone clusters using the edge profile
The following table describes the minimum and recommended hardware requirements
that Google Distributed Cloud needs to operate and manage standalone clusters
using the edge profile:
Resource
Minimum
Recommended
CPUs / vCPUs*
2 core
4 core
RAM
Ubuntu: 4 GiB
RHEL: 6 GiB
Ubuntu: 8 GiB
RHEL: 12 GiB
Storage
128 GiB
256 GiB
* Google Distributed Cloud supports only x86-64 CPUs and vCPUs at the
CPU microarchitecture level v3 (x86-64-v3) and higher.
To configure standalone clusters using the edge profile, follow these best practices:
Run bmctl on a separate workstation. If you must run bmctl on the target
cluster node, you need 2 GiB of memory to meet the
minimum requirements. For example, you require 6 GiB for Ubuntu and
8 GiB for CentOS or RHEL.
Set MaxPodsPerNode to 110. The cluster runs no more than 30 user pods per
node on average. You might need extra resources for a higher MaxPodsPerNode
configuration or run more than 30 user pods per node.
VM Runtime on GDC components aren't considered in this minimum
resource configuration. VM Runtime on GDC requires additional
resources depending on the number of VMs deployed in the cluster.
Additional storage requirements
Google Distributed Cloud doesn't provide any storage resources. You must provision
and configure the required storage on your system.
The node machines have the following prerequisites:
Their operating system is one of the supported Linux distributions. For more
information, see,
Select your operating system.
The Linux kernel version is 4.17.0 or newer. Ubuntu 18.04 and 18.04.1 are on
Linux kernel version 4.15 and therefore incompatible.
Meet the minimum hardware requirements.
Internet access.
Layer 3 connectivity to all other node machines.
Access to the control plane VIP.
Properly configured DNS name servers.
No duplicate host names.
One of the following NTP services is enabled and working:
chrony
ntp
ntpdate
systemd-timesyncd
A working package manager, such as apt or dnf.
On Ubuntu, you must disable Uncomplicated Firewall (UFW).
Run systemctl stop ufw to disable UFW.
On Ubuntu and starting with Google Distributed Cloud 1.8.2, you aren't required
to disable AppArmor. If you deploy clusters using earlier releases of
Google Distributed Cloud disable AppArmor with the following command:
systemctl stop apparmor
Cluster creation only checks for the required
free space for the Google Distributed Cloud system components. This change
gives you more control on the space you allocate for application workloads.
Whenever you install Google Distributed Cloud, ensure
that the file systems backing the following directories have the required
capacity and meet the following requirements:
/: 17 GiB (18,253,611,008 bytes).
/var/lib/containerd:
30 GiB (32,212,254,720 bytes) for control plane nodes.
10 GiB (10,485,760 bytes) for worker nodes.
/var/lib/kubelet: 500 MiB (524,288,000 bytes).
/var/lib/etcd: 20 GiB (21,474,836,480 bytes, applicable to control plane nodes only).
Regardless of cluster version, the preceding lists of directories can be on
the same or different partitions. If they are on the same underlying
partition, then the space requirement is the sum of the space
required for each individual directory on that partition. For all release
versions, the cluster creation process creates the directories, if needed.
/var/lib/etcd and /etc/kubernetes directories are either non-existent or
empty.
In addition to the prerequisites for installing and running Google Distributed Cloud,
customers are expected to comply with relevant standards governing their industry
or business segment, such as PCI DSS requirements for businesses that process
credit cards or Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs) for businesses
in the defense industry.
Load balancer machines prerequisites
When your deployment doesn't have a specialized load balancer node pool, you can
have worker nodes or control plane nodes build a load balancer node pool. In
that case, they have additional prerequisites:
Machines are in the same Layer 2 subnet.
All VIPs are in the load balancer nodes subnet and routable from the gateway
of the subnet.
The gateway of the load balancer subnet should listen to gratuitous ARPs to
forward packets to the main load balancer.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-09-04 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eGoogle Distributed Cloud can be configured with varying hardware, offering flexibility in minimal or multi-machine setups to support diverse performance and availability needs.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eDifferent cluster types are available, including user, admin, standalone, and hybrid, each with unique management and workload capabilities.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eInstallation profiles like "default" and "edge" cater to different resource availability, with "edge" suitable for resource-constrained environments, such as standalone clusters.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eMinimum and recommended resource specifications for CPU, RAM, and storage are provided for both default and edge profiles, highlighting different needs for each cluster type.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eNodes must meet specific operating system and kernel requirements, have internet access, and satisfy other prerequisites, including proper DNS, NTP configuration, and firewall settings.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["# Cluster node machine prerequisites\n\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\nGoogle Distributed Cloud supports a wide variety of systems running on the\nhardware that the target operating system distributions support.\nA Google Distributed Cloud configuration can run on minimal hardware, or on\nmultiple machines to provide flexibility, availability, and performance.\n\nRegardless of your Google Distributed Cloud configuration, your nodes and clusters\nmust have enough CPU, RAM, and storage resources to meet the needs of clusters\nand the workloads that you're running.\n\nMinimum and recommended CPU, RAM, and storage requirements\n----------------------------------------------------------\n\nWhen you install Google Distributed Cloud, you can create different types of\nclusters:\n\n- A user cluster that runs workloads.\n- An admin cluster that creates and controls user clusters to run workloads.\n- A standalone cluster is a single cluster that can manage and run workloads, but a standalone cluster can't create or manage user clusters.\n- A hybrid cluster can manage and run workloads, and a hybrid cluster can also create and manage additional user clusters.\n\nIn addition to cluster type, you can choose from the following installation\nprofiles in terms of resource requirements:\n\n- **Default**: The default profile has standard system resource requirements,\n and you can use it for all cluster types.\n\n- **Edge**: The edge profile has significantly reduced system resource\n requirements. Use of this profile is recommended for edge devices with limited\n resources. You can only use the edge profile for standalone clusters.\n\n| **Warning:** The following resource requirements don't take into account the requirements of your workloads. You must consider separately the resource requirements for your workloads to operate optimally.\n\n### Resource requirements for all cluster types using the default profile\n\nThe following table describes the minimum and recommended hardware requirements\nthat Google Distributed Cloud needs to operate and manage admin, hybrid, user, and\nstandalone clusters using the default profile:\n\n^\\*^ Google Distributed Cloud supports only x86-64 CPUs and vCPUs at the\nCPU microarchitecture level v3 (x86-64-v3) and higher.\n\n### Resource requirements for standalone clusters using the edge profile\n\nThe following table describes the minimum and recommended hardware requirements\nthat Google Distributed Cloud needs to operate and manage standalone clusters\nusing the edge profile:\n\n^\\*^ Google Distributed Cloud supports only x86-64 CPUs and vCPUs at the\nCPU microarchitecture level v3 (x86-64-v3) and higher.\n\nTo configure standalone clusters using the edge profile, follow these best practices:\n\n- Run `bmctl` on a separate workstation. If you must run `bmctl` on the target\n cluster node, you need 2 GiB of memory to meet the\n minimum requirements. For example, you require 6 GiB for Ubuntu and\n 8 GiB for CentOS or RHEL.\n\n- Set `MaxPodsPerNode` to 110. The cluster runs no more than 30 user pods per\n node on average. You might need extra resources for a higher `MaxPodsPerNode`\n configuration or run more than 30 user pods per node.\n\n- VM Runtime on GDC components aren't considered in this minimum\n resource configuration. VM Runtime on GDC requires additional\n resources depending on the number of VMs deployed in the cluster.\n\nAdditional storage requirements\n-------------------------------\n\nGoogle Distributed Cloud doesn't provide any storage resources. You must provision\nand configure the required storage on your system.\n\nFor detailed storage requirements, see the\n[Installation prerequisites overview](/anthos/clusters/docs/bare-metal/1.15/installing/install-prereq).\n\nFor more information about how to configure the storage required, see\n[Configuring storage for Google Distributed Cloud](/anthos/clusters/docs/bare-metal/1.15/installing/storage).\n\nNode machine prerequisites\n--------------------------\n\nThe node machines have the following prerequisites:\n\n- Their operating system is one of the supported Linux distributions. For more information, see, [Select your operating system](/anthos/clusters/docs/bare-metal/1.15/installing/os-reqs).\n- The Linux kernel version is 4.17.0 or newer. Ubuntu 18.04 and 18.04.1 are on Linux kernel version 4.15 and therefore incompatible.\n- Meet the minimum hardware requirements.\n- Internet access.\n- Layer 3 connectivity to all other node machines.\n- Access to the control plane VIP.\n- Properly configured DNS name servers.\n- No duplicate host names.\n- One of the following NTP services is enabled and working:\n - chrony\n - ntp\n - ntpdate\n - systemd-timesyncd\n- A working package manager, such as apt or dnf.\n- On Ubuntu, you must disable Uncomplicated Firewall (UFW). Run `systemctl stop ufw` to disable UFW.\n- On Ubuntu and starting with Google Distributed Cloud 1.8.2, you aren't required\n to disable AppArmor. If you deploy clusters using earlier releases of\n Google Distributed Cloud disable AppArmor with the following command:\n `systemctl stop apparmor`\n\n- Cluster creation only checks for the required\n free space for the Google Distributed Cloud system components. This change\n gives you more control on the space you allocate for application workloads.\n Whenever you install Google Distributed Cloud, ensure\n that the file systems backing the following directories have the required\n capacity and meet the following requirements:\n\n - `/`: 17 GiB (18,253,611,008 bytes).\n - `/var/lib/containerd`:\n - 30 GiB (32,212,254,720 bytes) for control plane nodes.\n - 10 GiB (10,485,760 bytes) for worker nodes.\n - `/var/lib/kubelet`: 500 MiB (524,288,000 bytes).\n - `/var/lib/etcd`: 20 GiB (21,474,836,480 bytes, applicable to control plane nodes only).\n\n | **Note:** The preceding storage space requirements are for system components only. You may require additional storage depending on the workloads that you plan to deploy.\n\n Regardless of cluster version, the preceding lists of directories can be on\n the same or different partitions. If they are on the same underlying\n partition, then the space requirement is the sum of the space\n required for each individual directory on that partition. For all release\n versions, the cluster creation process creates the directories, if needed.\n- `/var/lib/etcd` and `/etc/kubernetes` directories are either non-existent or\n empty.\n\nIn addition to the prerequisites for installing and running Google Distributed Cloud,\ncustomers are expected to comply with relevant standards governing their industry\nor business segment, such as PCI DSS requirements for businesses that process\ncredit cards or Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs) for businesses\nin the defense industry.\n\nLoad balancer machines prerequisites\n------------------------------------\n\nWhen your deployment doesn't have a specialized load balancer node pool, you can\nhave worker nodes or control plane nodes build a load balancer node pool. In\nthat case, they have additional prerequisites:\n\n- Machines are in the same Layer 2 subnet.\n- All VIPs are in the load balancer nodes subnet and routable from the gateway of the subnet.\n- The gateway of the load balancer subnet should listen to gratuitous ARPs to forward packets to the main load balancer.\n\nWhat's next\n-----------\n\n- [Set up networks](/anthos/clusters/docs/bare-metal/1.15/concepts/network-reqs)\n- [Select your operating system](/anthos/clusters/docs/bare-metal/1.15/installing/os-reqs)"]]
