GKE on Bare Metal runs on Linux. This page defines the supported Linux distributions and versions, and a brief description of the installation requirements. You must configure the base operating system of your node machines in order to use GKE on Bare Metal. Each Linux distribution supports configuring Docker 19.03+ on your admin workstation. If you choose to use containerd as the container runtime for your clusters, GKE on Bare Metal still uses Docker to create your clusters.
For more detailed installation steps, identify your operating system from the following:
CentOS
GKE on Bare Metal supports the following versions for CentOS:
- CentOS 8.1
- CentOS 8.2
- CentOS 8.3
To fully configure your node machines and admin workstation, you need to configure or disable firewalld and set up proper time synchronization. For more detailed installation steps, see Configuring CentOS.
RHEL
GKE on Bare Metal supports the following versions for RHEL:
- RHEL 8.1
- RHEL 8.2
- RHEL 8.3
To fully configure your node machines and admin workstation, you need to configure or disable firewalld. To simplify installation, we recommend that you configure RHEL using a minimal installation with headless management. For more detailed installation steps, see Configuring RHEL.
Ubuntu
GKE on Bare Metal supports the following versions for Ubuntu:
- 18.04
- 20.04
To fully configure your node machines and admin workstation, you need to disable apparmor and ufw. For more detailed installation steps, see Configuring Ubuntu.