Operating system details

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Some operating system images are customized specifically to run on Compute Engine and have notable differences from the standard images that come directly from the operating system vendors.

For information about how support and maintenance is provided for these operating systems on Compute Engine, based on support package, license type, and image lifecycle stage, see Support and maintenance policy for OS images.

The following sections provide more information about these differences.

CentOS

CentOS Linux is a free operating system that is derived from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

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 the RHEL yum-cron or dnf-automatic tool. The updates have the following behaviors:

  • The yum-cron or dnf-automatic 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 and CentOS Stream images that are provided by Compute Engine, have the following differences in configuration from standard CentOS 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 DHCP client is set to retry every 10 seconds instead of every 5 minutes. The client is also set to persistent mode instead of oneshot.
  • The SSH server configuration is set up as follows:
    • Password authentication is disabled.
    • To prevent SSH disconnections, ServerAliveInterval and ClientAliveInterval are set to 7 minutes.
    • Root login is disabled.
  • /etc/udev/rules.d/75-persistent-net-generator.rules is disabled.
  • To prevent MAC addresses from persisting, /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules is removed.
  • By default, all traffic is allowed through the guest firewall because the VPC firewall rules overrides the guest firewall rules. The guest firewall rules remains enabled and can be configured through normal CentOS methods.
  • VMs based on Google-provided Linux images get their interface MTU from the attached VPC MTU. VMs based on custom images or older Linux images may have their MTU's hardcoded. In these cases, you have to change the 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 the maximum transmission unit overview.

Package system and repository configuration

  • Google Cloud repositories are enabled to install packages for the Compute Engine guest environment and the Google Cloud CLI.
  • Repositories are set to use the CentOS default mirror network.
    • For CentOS Stream 8, the PowerTools repository is enabled.
    • For CentOS 7, EPEL is enabled.
  • Automatic updates are configured as follows:
    • For CentOS 7, automatic updates are enabled by using yum-cron.
    • For CentOS Stream, automatic updates are enabled by using dnf automatic.
    • For all versions, the update_cmd property is set to security.However, by default CentOS does not offer security tagged repositories.
    • IPv6 endpoints are disabled in the yum or dnf config files for all versions.

Storage configuration

  • By default, images are 20 GB. This is the recommended minimum size.
  • The partition table is GPT, and there is an EFI partition to support booting on UEFI.
  • 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 Image family Machine series* Lifecycle stage EOL and image deprecation date
CentOS Stream 9 centos-cloud centos-stream-9 All except T2A GA TBD
CentOS Stream 8 centos-cloud centos-stream-8 All except T2A GA May 2024
CentOS 8 N/A N/A N/A EOL Dec 2021
CentOS 7 centos-cloud centos-7 All except T2A GA June 30, 2024
CentOS 6 N/A N/A N/A EOL November 30, 2020

*Machine series: The T2A machine series is currently in preview.

Security features

OS version Shielded VM support Confidential VM support
CentOS Stream 9
CentOS Stream 8
CentOS 8
CentOS 7
CentOS 6

User space features

OS version Guest environment installed gcloud CLI installed OS Login supported Suspend and resume supported
CentOS Stream 9
CentOS Stream 8
CentOS 8
CentOS 7
CentOS 6

Supported interfaces

OS version SCSI NVMe Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) Multiple network interfaces
CentOS Stream 9
CentOS Stream 8
CentOS 8
CentOS 7
CentOS 6

Compute optimization

OS version GPU supported
CentOS Stream 9
CentOS Stream 8
CentOS 8
CentOS 7
CentOS 6

VM Manager

OS version OS Config agent installed OS inventory supported OS configuration supported OS patch supported
CentOS Stream 9
CentOS Stream 8
CentOS 8
CentOS 7
CentOS 6

Import

For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, see supported operating systems.

OS version Import disk Import virtual appliance Import machine image
CentOS Stream 9
CentOS Stream 8
CentOS 8
CentOS 7
CentOS 6

License

OS version License type License
CentOS Stream 9 Free https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/centos-cloud/global/licenses/centos-stream-9
CentOS Stream 8 Free https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/centos-cloud/global/licenses/centos-stream
CentOS 8 EOL EOL
CentOS 7 Free https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/centos-cloud/global/licenses/centos-7
CentOS 6 EOL EOL

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 OS overview or release notes.

Automatic updates

By default, this operating system is configured to install security updates by using Automatic updates. 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 MTU from the attached VPC MTU. VMs based on custom images or older Linux images may have their MTU's hardcoded. In these cases, you have to change the 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 the maximum transmission unit overview.

General information

OS version Image project Image family Machine series* Lifecycle stage EOL and image deprecation date
COS 97 LTS cos-cloud cos-97-lts All except T2A GA March 2024
COS 93 LTS cos-cloud cos-93-lts All except T2A GA October 2023
COS 89 LTS cos-cloud cos-89-lts All except T2A GA March 2023
COS 85 LTS EOL EOL N/A EOL September 2022
COS 81 LTS EOL EOL N/A EOL September 2021

*Machine series: The T2A machine series is currently in preview.

Security features

OS version Shielded VM support Confidential VM support
COS 97 LTS
COS 93 LTS
COS 89 LTS
COS 85 LTS
COS 81 LTS

User space features

OS version Guest environment installed gcloud CLI installed OS Login supported Suspend and resume supported
COS 97 LTS
COS 93 LTS
COS 89 LTS
COS 85 LTS
COS 81 LTS

Supported interfaces

OS version SCSI NVMe Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) Multiple network interfaces
COS 97 LTS
COS 93 LTS
COS 89 LTS
COS 85 LTS
COS 81 LTS

Compute optimization

OS version GPU supported
COS 97 LTS
COS 93 LTS
COS 89 LTS
COS 85 LTS
COS 81 LTS

VM Manager

OS version OS Config agent installed OS inventory supported OS configuration supported OS patch supported
COS 97 LTS
COS 93 LTS
COS 89 LTS
COS 85 LTS
COS 81 LTS

Import

For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, see supported operating systems.

OS version Import disk Import virtual appliance Import machine image
COS 97 LTS
COS 93 LTS
COS 89 LTS
COS 85 LTS
COS 81 LTS

License

OS version License type License
COS 97 LTS Free https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/cos-cloud/global/licenses/cos
COS 93 LTS Free https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/cos-cloud/global/licenses/cos
COS 89 LTS Free https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/cos-cloud/global/licenses/cos
COS 85 LTS Free https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/cos-cloud/global/licenses/cos
COS 81 LTS EOL EOL

Debian

Debian is a free operating system offered by the Debian 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 Debian UnattendedUpgrades tool. The updates have the following behaviors:

  • The UnattendedUpgrades tool does not upgrade VMs between major versions of the operating system.
  • The UnattendedUpgrades tool 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 an open source GitHub repository.

  • Debian build tools come from the Debian Cloud team image project.

Debian images are always built with the latest Debian packages which reflect the most recent Debian 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.
  • The I/O scheduler is set to noop.
  • To allow SCSI block multi-queue usage, scsi_mod.use_blk_mq is 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.rules is removed.
  • Debian 9 does not use predictive network interface naming. In the grub kernel command-line arguments, net.ifnames=0 is set. Therefore, network interfaces still use the traditional ethN naming, with the default interface always being eth0.
  • VMs based on Google-provided Linux images get their interface MTU from the attached VPC MTU. VMs based on custom images or older Linux images may have their MTU's hardcoded. In these cases, you have to change the 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 the maximum transmission unit overview.

Package system and repository configuration

  • Google Cloud repositories are enabled to install packages for the Compute Engine guest environment and the Google 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-upgrades package 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-upgrades and /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/02periodic.
  • The cloud-initramfs-growroot package is removed and replaced with the Google supported gce-disk-expand package.
  • Debian 10+ includes the following:
    • The linux-image-cloud-amd64 kernel instead of the generic Debian kernel.
    • The haveged package to provide entropy.

Storage configuration

  • Images are 10 GB by default.
  • The partition table is GPT, and there is an EFI partition to support booting on UEFI. 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 EOL and image deprecation date
Debian 11 debian-cloud debian-11 debian-11-arm64 All GA June 2026
Debian 10 debian-cloud debian-10 N/A All except T2A LTS1 June 2024
Debian 9 N/A N/A N/A All except T2A EOL June 2022
Debian 8 N/A N/A N/A N/A EOL June 2018

*Arm image family: The T2A machine series is currently in preview.

†Debian LTS: Debian is supporting this release with Debian LTS. Critical security updates are provided via the Debian LTS project for the duration of the LTS lifecycle.

Security features

OS version Shielded VM support Confidential VM support
Debian 11
Debian 10
Debian 9
Debian 8

User space features

Note: Suspend and resume is supported for Debian 8, 9, and 11, but some configuration is required for Debian 8 and 9.
OS version Guest environment installed gcloud CLI installed OS Login supported Suspend and resume supported
Debian 11
Debian 10
Debian 9
Debian 8

Supported interfaces

OS version SCSI NVMe Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) Multiple network interfaces
Debian 11
Debian 10
Debian 9 *
Debian 8 *

*Has support for NVMe but does not include all optimizations for NVMe.

Compute optimization

OS version GPU supported
Debian 11
Debian 10
Debian 9
Debian 8

VM Manager

OS version OS Config agent installed OS inventory supported OS configuration supported OS patch supported
Debian 11
Debian 10
Debian 9
Debian 8

Import

For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, see supported operating systems.

OS version Import disk Import virtual appliance Import machine image
Debian 11
Debian 10
Debian 9
Debian 8

License

OS version License type License
Debian 11 Free https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/debian-cloud/global/licenses/debian-11-bullseye
Debian 10 Free https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/debian-cloud/global/licenses/debian-10-buster
Debian 9 EOL https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/debian-cloud/global/licenses/debian-9-stretch
Debian 8 EOL EOL

Fedora CoreOS

Fedora CoreOS is a distribution that provides features that are needed to run modern infrastructure stacks. Fedora CoreOS uses Linux containers to manage your services at a higher level of abstraction. Google Cloud provides Fedora CoreOS images built and supported by Fedora. There is no license fee for using Fedora CoreOS with Compute Engine.

Automatic updates

By default, this operating system is configured to install security updates by using the FedoraCoreOS automatic 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 MTU from the attached VPC MTU. VMs based on custom images or older Linux images may have their MTU's hardcoded. In these cases, you have to change the 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 the maximum transmission unit overview.

General information

OS version Image project Image family Machine series* Lifecycle stage EOL and image deprecation date
Fedora CoreOS Stable fedora-coreos-cloud fedora-coreos-stable All except T2A GA TBD
Fedora CoreOS Testing fedora-coreos-cloud fedora-coreos-testing All except T2A GA TBD
Fedora CoreOS Next fedora-coreos-cloud fedora-coreos-next All except T2A GA TBD

*Machine series: The T2A machine series is currently in preview.

Security features

OS version Shielded VM support Confidential VM support
Fedora CoreOS Stable
Fedora CoreOS Testing
Fedora CoreOS Next

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

Supported interfaces

OS version SCSI NVMe Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) Multiple network interfaces
Fedora CoreOS Stable
Fedora CoreOS Testing
Fedora CoreOS Next

Compute optimization

OS version GPU supported
Fedora CoreOS Stable
Fedora CoreOS Testing
Fedora CoreOS Next

VM Manager

OS version OS Config agent installed OS inventory supported OS configuration supported OS patch supported
Fedora CoreOS Stable
Fedora CoreOS Testing
Fedora CoreOS Next

Import

For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, see supported 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
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

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 are premium resources that incur additional fees to use. If you want to use an existing RHEL subscription, you can use the Red Hat Cloud Access feature.

To view a list of frequently asked questions when running RHEL on Compute Engine, see Red Hat Enterprise Linux FAQ.

Automatic updates

By default, this operating system is configured to install security updates by using the RHEL yum-cron 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 an open 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 DHCP client is set to retry every 10 seconds instead of every 5 minutes. The client is also set to persistent mode instead of oneshot.
  • The SSH server configuration is set up as follows:
    • Password authentication is disabled.
    • To prevent SSH disconnections, ServerAliveInterval and ClientAliveInterval are set to 7 minutes.
    • Root login is disabled.
  • /etc/udev/rules.d/75-persistent-net-generator.rules is disabled.
  • To prevent MAC addresses from persisting, /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules is removed.
  • By default, all traffic is allowed through the guest firewall because the VPC firewall rules overrides the guest firewall rules. The guest firewall rules remains enabled and can be configured through normal RHEL methods.
  • VMs based on Google-provided Linux images get their interface MTU from the attached VPC MTU. VMs based on custom images or older Linux images may have their MTU's hardcoded. In these cases, you have to change the 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 the maximum transmission unit overview.

Package and repository configuration

  • Google Cloud repositories are enabled to install packages for the Compute Engine guest environment and the Google Cloud CLI.
  • For RHEL 7, EPEL is enabled.
  • 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.
  • The Google RHUI client package, which contains the configuration needed to access RHEL content, is installed.
  • The Red Hat subscription-manager package is removed because it is not used for pay as you go images.
  • Automatic updates are enabled as follows:
    • For RHEL 7, by using yum-cron.
    • For RHEL 8+, by using dnf automatic.
    • For all versions, the update_cmd property is set to security.
    • IPv6 endpoints are disabled in the yum or dnf config files.

Storage configuration

  • By default, images are 20 GB. This is the recommended minimum size.
  • The partition table is GPT, and there is an EFI partition to support booting on UEFI.
  • The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.

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 EOL and image deprecation date
RHEL 9 rhel-cloud rhel-9 rhel-9-arm64 All GA May 2032
RHEL 8 rhel-cloud rhel-8 N/A All except T2A GA May 2029
RHEL 7 rhel-cloud rhel-7 N/A All except T2A GA June 2024
RHEL 6 N/A N/A N/A N/A EOS†
ELS‡		 November 30, 2020
June 30, 2024
RHEL 8.6 for SAP rhel-sap-cloud rhel-8-6-sap-ha N/A All except T2A GA May 2026
RHEL 8.4 for SAP rhel-sap-cloud rhel-8-4-sap-ha N/A All except T2A GA May 2025
RHEL 8.2 for SAP rhel-sap-cloud rhel-8-2-sap-ha N/A All except T2A GA April 2024
RHEL 8.1 for SAP rhel-sap-cloud rhel-8-1-sap-ha N/A All except T2A GA November 2023
RHEL 7.9 for SAP rhel-sap-cloud rhel-7-9-sap-ha N/A All except T2A GA June 2024
RHEL 7.7 for SAP rhel-sap-cloud rhel-7-7-sap-ha N/A All except T2A GA August 2023
RHEL 7.6 for SAP rhel-sap-cloud rhel-7-6-sap-ha N/A All except T2A GA October 2022
RHEL 7.4 for SAP N/A N/A N/A N/A EOS† August 2021

*Arm image family: The T2A machine series is currently in preview.

†EOS: end of support

‡ELS: To use this OS image, you must have a subscription or an Extended Life Cycle Support (ELS) Add-On. You can append the ELS Add-On to your RHEL 6 VMs as described in Append RHEL ELS licenses.

Security features

OS version Shielded VM support Confidential VM support
RHEL 9
RHEL 8
RHEL 7
RHEL 6
RHEL 8.6 for SAP
RHEL 8.4 for SAP
RHEL 8.2 for SAP
RHEL 8.1 for SAP
RHEL 7.9 for SAP
RHEL 7.7 for SAP
RHEL 7.6 for SAP
RHEL 7.4 for SAP

User space features

OS version Guest environment installed gcloud CLI installed OS Login supported Suspend and resume supported
RHEL 9
RHEL 8
RHEL 7
RHEL 6
RHEL 8.6 for SAP
RHEL 8.4 for SAP
RHEL 8.2 for SAP
RHEL 8.1 for SAP
RHEL 7.9 for SAP
RHEL 7.7 for SAP
RHEL 7.6 for SAP
RHEL 7.4 for SAP

Supported interfaces

OS version SCSI NVMe Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) Multiple network interfaces
RHEL 9
RHEL 8
RHEL 7
RHEL 6 *
RHEL 8.6 for SAP
RHEL 8.4 for SAP
RHEL 8.2 for SAP
RHEL 8.1 for SAP
RHEL 7.9 for SAP
RHEL 7.7 for SAP
RHEL 7.6 for SAP
RHEL 7.4 for SAP

*Has support for NVMe but does not include all optimizations for NVMe.

Compute optimization

OS version GPU supported
RHEL 9
RHEL 8
RHEL 7
RHEL 6
RHEL 8.6 for SAP
RHEL 8.4 for SAP
RHEL 8.2 for SAP
RHEL 8.1 for SAP
RHEL 7.9 for SAP
RHEL 7.7 for SAP
RHEL 7.6 for SAP
RHEL 7.4 for SAP

VM Manager

OS version OS Config agent installed OS inventory supported OS configuration supported OS patch supported
RHEL 9
RHEL 8
RHEL 7
RHEL 6
RHEL 8.6 for SAP
RHEL 8.4 for SAP
RHEL 8.2 for SAP
RHEL 8.1 for SAP
RHEL 7.9 for SAP
RHEL 7.7 for SAP
RHEL 7.6 for SAP
RHEL 7.4 for SAP

Import

For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, see supported operating systems.

OS version Import disk Import virtual appliance Import machine image
RHEL 9
RHEL 8
RHEL 7
RHEL 6
RHEL 8.6 for SAP
RHEL 8.4 for SAP
RHEL 8.2 for SAP
RHEL 8.1 for SAP
RHEL 7.9 for SAP
RHEL 7.7 for SAP
RHEL 7.6 for SAP
RHEL 7.4 for SAP

License

OS version License type License
RHEL 9 On-demand https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-9-server
RHEL 8 On-demand (Default) https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-8-server
BYOS https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-8-byos
RHEL 7 On-demand (Default) https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-7-server
BYOS https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-7-byos
RHEL 6 BYOS https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-6-byos
ELS‡ https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-6-els
RHEL 8.6 for SAP On-demand https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-sap-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-8-sap
RHEL 8.4 for SAP On-demand https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-sap-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-8-sap
BYOS N/A
RHEL 8.2 for SAP On-demand https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-sap-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-8-sap
BYOS N/A
RHEL 8.1 for SAP On-demand https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-sap-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-8-sap
N/A
RHEL 7.9 for SAP On-demand https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-sap-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-7-sap
BYOS N/A
RHEL 7.7 for SAP On-demand https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-sap-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-7-sap
BYOS N/A
RHEL 7.6 for SAP On-demand https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-sap-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-7-sap
BYOS N/A
RHEL 7.4 for SAP BYOS N/A

‡ELS: To use this OS image, you must have a subscription or an Extended Life Cycle Support (ELS) Add-On. You can append the ELS Add-On to your RHEL 6 VMs as described in Append 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 two 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-gcp and is pre-configured to use the latest version of the Google virtual network interface (gVNIC).
Automatic updates

By default, this operating system is configured to install security updates by using the dnf-automatic tool. The updates have the following behaviors:

  • dnf-automatic 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 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 DHCP client is set to retry every 10 seconds instead of every 5 minutes. The client is also set to persistent mode instead of oneshot.
  • The SSH server configuration is set up as follows:
    • Password authentication is disabled.
    • To prevent SSH disconnections, ServerAliveIntervaland ClientAliveInterval are set to 7 minutes.
    • Root login is disabled.
  • /etc/udev/rules.d/75-persistent-net-generator.rules is disabled.
  • To prevent MAC addresses from persisting, /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules is removed.
  • By default, all traffic is allowed through the guest firewall because the VPC firewall rules overrides the guest firewall rules. 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 MTU from the attached VPC MTU. VMs based on custom images or older Linux images may have their MTU's hardcoded. In these cases, you have to change the 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 the maximum transmission unit overview.

Package system and repository configuration

  • Google Cloud repositories are enabled to install packages for the Compute Engine guest environment and the Google Cloud CLI.
  • 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, theupdate_cmd property is set to security.However, by default Rocky Linux does not offer security tagged repositories.
    • IPv6 endpoints are disabled in the dnf config file.

Storage configuration

  • By default, images are 20 GB.
  • The partition table is GPT, and there is an EFI partition to support booting on UEFI.
  • 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 EOL and image deprecation date
Rocky Linux 9 optimized for Google Cloud rocky-linux-cloud rocky-linux-9-optimized-gcp rocky-linux-9-optimized-gcp-arm64 All GA May 2032
Rocky Linux 9 rocky-linux-cloud rocky-linux-9 rocky-linux-9-arm64 All GA May 2032
Rocky Linux 8 optimized for Google Cloud rocky-linux-cloud rocky-linux-8-optimized-gcp rocky-linux-8-optimized-gcp-arm64 All GA May 2029
Rocky Linux 8 rocky-linux-cloud rocky-linux-8 N/A All except T2A GA May 2029

*Arm image family: The T2A machine series is currently in preview.

Security features

OS version Shielded VM support Confidential VM support
Rocky Linux 9 optimized for Google Cloud
Rocky Linux 9
Rocky Linux 8 optimized for Google Cloud
Rocky Linux 8

User space features

OS version Guest environment installed gcloud CLI installed OS Login supported Suspend and resume supported
Rocky Linux 9 optimized for Google Cloud
Rocky Linux 9
Rocky Linux 8 optimized for Google Cloud
Rocky Linux 8

Supported interfaces

OS version SCSI NVMe Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) Multiple network interfaces
Rocky Linux 9 optimized for Google Cloud
Rocky Linux 9
Rocky Linux 8 optimized for Google Cloud
Rocky Linux 8

Compute optimization

OS version GPU supported
Rocky Linux 9 optimized for Google Cloud
Rocky Linux 9
Rocky Linux 8 optimized for Google Cloud
Rocky Linux 8

VM Manager

OS version OS Config agent installed OS inventory supported OS configuration supported OS patch supported*
Rocky Linux 9 optimized for Google Cloud
Rocky Linux 9
Rocky Linux 8 optimized for Google Cloud
Rocky Linux 8

*Patch compliance reporting: For all supported Rocky Linux operating systems, you can run patch jobs and create patch deployments. However, patch compliance reporting is not supported and these VMs are displayed in the No data category on the OS patch management dashboard.

Import

For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, see supported operating systems.

OS version Import disk Import virtual appliance Import machine image
Rocky Linux 9 optimized for Google Cloud
Rocky Linux 9
Rocky Linux 8 optimized for Google Cloud
Rocky Linux 8

License

OS version License type License
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 Free https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-cloud/global/licenses/rocky-linux-9
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 Free https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-cloud/global/licenses/rocky-linux-8

SQL Server

Microsoft SQL Server images are similar to the standard Windows Server operating system images, but they include Microsoft SQL Server preinstalled.

Microsoft SQL Server images are not supported for VMs created on the T2A machine series (Preview).

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

Version support

To use Microsoft SQL Server on a Linux VM with an on-demand / pay-as-you-go (PAYG) license, see Using Microsoft SQL Server on Linux.

Version Image project Image family Lifecycle stage Enterprise Standard Web Express
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 windows-sql-cloud sql-web-2019-win-2022
sql-web-2019-win-2019
sql-std-2019-win-2022
sql-std-2019-win-2019
sql-ent-2019-win-2022
sql-ent-2019-win-2019 		GA
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 windows-sql-cloud sql-web-2017-win-2022
sql-web-2017-win-2019
sql-web-2017-win-2016
sql-std-2017-win-2022
sql-std-2017-win-2019
sql-std-2017-win-2016
sql-exp-2017-win-2019
sql-exp-2017-win-2016
sql-ent-2017-win-2022
sql-ent-2017-win-2019
sql-ent-2017-win-2016
sql-exp-2017-win-2012-r2 		GA
Microsoft SQL Server 2016 windows-sql-cloud sql-web-2016-win-2019
sql-web-2016-win-2016
sql-web-2016-win-2012-r2
sql-std-2016-win-2019
sql-std-2016-win-2016
sql-std-2016-win-2012-r2
sql-ent-2016-win-2019
sql-ent-2016-win-2016
sql-ent-2016-win-2012-r2 		GA
Microsoft SQL Server 2014 windows-sql-cloud sql-web-2014-win-2012-r2
sql-std-2014-win-2012-r2
sql-ent-2014-win-2016
sql-ent-2014-win-2012-r2 		GA
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 EOL EOL
 		EOL

Windows Server version support

Version Windows 2012 R2 Windows 2016 Windows 2019 Windows 2022
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
Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Enterprise
Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Standard
Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Web

License

Version License type License
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 On-demand https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2014-enterprise
Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Standard On-demand https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2014-standard
Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Web On-demand https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2014-web
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Enterprise EOL https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2012-enterprise
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Standard EOL https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2012-standard
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Web EOL 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 are premium resources that incur additional fees to use.

To view a list of frequently asked questions when running SLES on Compute Engine, see SUSE Linux Enterprise Server FAQ.

Automatic updates

This operating system is not configured to install updates by default. For more information about configuring automatic updates for SLES, see SUSE 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=0 is set. Therefore, network interfaces use the traditional ethN naming, with the default interface always being eth0.
  • VMs based on Google-provided Linux images get their interface MTU from the attached VPC MTU. VMs based on custom images or older Linux images may have their MTU's hardcoded. In these cases, you have to change the 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 the maximum transmission unit overview.

Package system and repository configuration

  • The guest environment for Compute Engine packages are installed from the packages that are supplied by SUSE.
  • SLES instances register with a SUSE run SMT service for Compute Engine and are configured to use SUSE regional mirrors in Compute Engine.

Storage configuration

  • Images are 10 GB by default.
  • The partition table is GPT, and there is an EFI partition to support booting on UEFI. 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 EOL and image deprecation date
SLES 15 SP4 suse-cloud sles-15 sles-15-arm64 All GA TBD
SLES 15 SP3 suse-byos-cloud N/A N/A All except T2A GA Dec 2025
SLES 15 SP2 suse-byos-cloud N/A N/A All except T2A GA Dec 2024
SLES 15 SP1 suse-byos-cloud N/A N/A All except T2A GA Jan 2024
SLES 15 suse-byos-cloud N/A N/A All except T2A GA Dec 2022
SLES 12 SP5 suse-cloud sles-12 N/A All except T2A GA Oct 2027
SLES 12 SP4 suse-byos-cloud N/A N/A All except T2A GA June 2023
SLES 12 SP3 N/A N/A N/A N/A EOL June 2022
SLES 12 SP2 N/A N/A N/A N/A EOL March 2021
SLES 12 SP1 N/A N/A N/A N/A EOL May 2020
SLES 11 SP4 suse-byos-cloud sles-11-byos N/A All except T2A LTSS† March 2022
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP suse-sap-cloud sles-15-sp4-sap N/A All except T2A GA TBD
SLES 15 SP3 for SAP suse-sap-cloud sles-15-sp3-sap N/A All except T2A GA Dec 2025
SLES 15 SP2 for SAP suse-sap-cloud sles-15-sp2-sap N/A All except T2A GA Dec 2024
SLES 15 SP1 for SAP suse-sap-cloud sles-15-sp1-sap N/A All except T2A GA Jan 2024
SLES 15 for SAP N/A N/A N/A All except T2A ESPOS‡ Dec 2022
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP suse-sap-cloud sles-12-sp5-sap N/A All except T2A GA Oct 2027
SLES 12 SP4 for SAP suse-sap-cloud sles-12-sp4-sap N/A All except T2A GA June 2023
SLES 12 SP3 for SAP N/A N/A N/A N/A EOL June 2022
SLES 12 SP2 for SAP N/A N/A N/A N/A EOL March 2021
SLES 12 SP1 for SAP N/A N/A N/A N/A EOL May 2020

*Arm image family: The T2A machine series is currently in preview.

†LTSS: Support for this operating system is only offered through the Long Term Service Pack Support (LTSS) that is available when using BYOS licenses from SUSE.

‡ESPOS: Extended Service Pack Overlay Support images are set to deprecated 6 months before their EOL date. Deprecated images are still available for use.

Security features

OS version Shielded VM support Confidential VM support
SLES 15 SP4
SLES 15 SP3
SLES 15 SP2
SLES 15 SP1
SLES 15
SLES 12 SP5
SLES 12 SP4
SLES 12 SP3
SLES 12 SP2
SLES 12 SP1
SLES 11 SP4
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP
SLES 15 SP3 for SAP
SLES 15 SP2 for SAP
SLES 15 SP1 for SAP
SLES 15 for SAP
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP
SLES 12 SP4 for SAP
SLES 12 SP3 for SAP
SLES 12 SP2 for SAP
SLES 12 SP1 for SAP

User space features

OS version Guest environment installed gcloud CLI installed OS Login supported Suspend and resume supported
SLES 15 SP4
SLES 15 SP3
SLES 15 SP2
SLES 15 SP1
SLES 15
SLES 12 SP5
SLES 12 SP4
SLES 12 SP3
SLES 12 SP2
SLES 12 SP1
SLES 11 SP4
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP
SLES 15 SP3 for SAP
SLES 15 SP2 for SAP
SLES 15 SP1 for SAP
SLES 15 for SAP
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP
SLES 12 SP4 for SAP
SLES 12 SP3 for SAP
SLES 12 SP2 for SAP
SLES 12 SP1 for SAP

Supported interfaces

OS version SCSI NVMe Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) Multiple network interfaces
SLES 15 SP4
SLES 15 SP3
SLES 15 SP2
SLES 15 SP1
SLES 15
SLES 12 SP5
SLES 12 SP4
SLES 12 SP3 *
SLES 12 SP2 *
SLES 12 SP1 *
SLES 11 SP4 *
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP
SLES 15 SP3 for SAP
SLES 15 SP2 for SAP
SLES 15 SP1 for SAP
SLES 15 for SAP
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP
SLES 12 SP4 for SAP
SLES 12 SP3 for SAP *
SLES 12 SP2 for SAP *
SLES 12 SP1 for SAP *

*Has support for NVMe but does not include all optimizations for NVMe.

Compute optimization

OS version GPU supported
SLES 15 SP4
SLES 15 SP3
SLES 15 SP2
SLES 15 SP1
SLES 15
SLES 12 SP5
SLES 12 SP4
SLES 12 SP3
SLES 12 SP2
SLES 12 SP1
SLES 11 SP4
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP
SLES 15 SP3 for SAP
SLES 15 SP2 for SAP
SLES 15 SP1 for SAP
SLES 15 for SAP
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP
SLES 12 SP4 for SAP
SLES 12 SP3 for SAP
SLES 12 SP2 for SAP
SLES 12 SP1 for SAP

VM Manager

OS version OS Config agent installed OS inventory supported OS configuration supported OS patch supported*
SLES 15 SP4
SLES 15 SP3
SLES 15 SP2
SLES 15 SP1
SLES 15
SLES 12 SP5
SLES 12 SP4
SLES 12 SP3
SLES 12 SP2
SLES 12 SP1
SLES 11 SP4
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP
SLES 15 SP3 for SAP
SLES 15 SP2 for SAP
SLES 15 SP1 for SAP
SLES 15 for SAP
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP
SLES 12 SP4 for SAP
SLES 12 SP3 for SAP
SLES 12 SP2 for SAP
SLES 12 SP1 for SAP

*Patch compliance reporting: For all SUSE Enterprise Linux Server (SLES) operating systems, including SLES for SAP and openSuse, you can run patch jobs and create patch deployments. However, patch compliance reporting is not supported and these VMs are displayed in the No data category on the OS patch management dashboard.

Import

For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, see supported operating systems.

OS version Import disk Import virtual appliance Import machine image
SLES 15 SP4
SLES 15 SP3
SLES 15 SP2
SLES 15 SP1
SLES 15
SLES 12 SP5
SLES 12 SP4
SLES 12 SP3
SLES 12 SP2
SLES 12 SP1
SLES 11 SP4
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP
SLES 15 SP3 for SAP
SLES 15 SP2 for SAP
SLES 15 SP1 for SAP
SLES 15 for SAP
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP
SLES 12 SP4 for SAP
SLES 12 SP3 for SAP
SLES 12 SP2 for SAP
SLES 12 SP1 for SAP

License

OS version License type License
SLES 15 SP4 On-demand (Default) https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-cloud/global/licenses/sles-15
BYOS https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-15-byos
SLES 15 SP3 BYOS https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-15-byos
SLES 15 SP2 BYOS https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-15-byos
SLES 15 SP1 BYOS https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-15-byos
SLES 15 BYOS https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-15-byos
SLES 12 SP5 On-demand (Default) https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-cloud/global/licenses/sles-12
BYOS https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-12-byos
SLES 12 SP4 BYOS https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-12-byos
SLES 12 SP3 BYOS https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-12-byos
SLES 12 SP2 EOL N/A
SLES 12 SP1 EOL N/A
SLES 11 SP4 BYOS with LTSS‡ https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-11-byos
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP On-demand (Default) https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-sap-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-15
BYOS https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-15-byos
SLES 15 SP3 for SAP On-demand (Default) https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-sap-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-15
BYOS https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-15-byos
SLES 15 SP2 for SAP On-demand (Default) https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-sap-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-15
BYOS https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-15-byos
SLES 15 SP1 for SAP On-demand (Default) https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-sap-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-15
BYOS https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-15-byos
SLES 15 for SAP On-demand (Default) https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-sap-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-15
BYOS https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-15-byos
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP On-demand (Default) https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-sap-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-12
BYOS https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-12-byos
SLES 12 SP4 for SAP On-demand (Default) https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-sap-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-12
BYOS https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-12-byos
SLES 12 SP3 for SAP On-demand (Default) https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-sap-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-12
BYOS https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-12-byos
SLES 12 SP2 for SAP EOL N/A
SLES 12 SP1 for SAP EOL N/A

‡LTSS: Support for this operating system is only offered through the Long 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 by Canonical.

Ubuntu Long Term Support (LTS) images receive bug fixes and security updates for five years after their release date. LTS images can run on your instances for several years without having to upgrade to a newer release.

Ubuntu Minimal 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 Ubuntu AutomaticSecurityUpdates tool. The updates have the following behaviors:

  • The AutomaticSecurityUpdates tool does not upgrade VMs between major versions of the operating system.
  • The AutomaticSecurityUpdates tool 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 latest Ubuntu 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-init to do some boot time initialization. The cloud.cfg file is configured for Compute Engine and enables only the cloud-init modules 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_mq is 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.rules is removed.

Package system and repository configuration

  • The guest environment for Compute Engine packages are installed from the Ubuntu supplied packages.
  • For Ubuntu 18.04+, the Google 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-upgrades package 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-upgrades and /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/02periodic.
  • The linux-image-gcp kernel is used instead of the generic Ubuntu kernel. The Google Cloud kernel reflects the latest rolling HWE kernel for Ubuntu LTS.

Storage configuration

  • Images are 10 GB by default.
  • The partition table is GPT, and there is an EFI partition to support booting on UEFI. 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 Ubuntu release wiki.

OS version Image project Image family Arm image family* Machine series Lifecycle stage EOL and image deprecation date
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS ubuntu-os-cloud ubuntu-2204-lts ubuntu-2204-lts-arm64 All GA April 2027 (ESM April 2032)
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS ubuntu-os-cloud ubuntu-2004-lts ubuntu-2004-lts-arm64 All GA April 2025 (ESM April 2030)
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS ubuntu-os-cloud ubuntu-1804-lts ubuntu-1804-lts-arm64 All GA April 2023 (ESM April 2028)
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS N/A N/A N/A All except T2A Ubuntu ESM† / Ubuntu Pro‡ April 2021 (ESM April 2026)
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS N/A N/A N/A All except T2A Ubuntu ESM† April 2024

*Arm image family: The T2A machine series is currently in preview.

†Ubuntu ESM: You can apply your existing ESM 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 LTS images by upgrading to Ubuntu Pro, see Upgrade from Ubuntu to Ubuntu Pro.

Security features

OS version Shielded VM support Confidential VM support
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

User space features

OS version Guest environment installed gcloud CLI installed OS Login supported Suspend and resume supported
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Supported interfaces

OS version SCSI NVMe Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) Multiple network interfaces
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Compute optimization

OS version GPU supported
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

VM Manager

OS version OS Config agent installed OS inventory supported OS configuration supported OS patch supported
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Import

For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, see supported operating systems.

OS version Import disk Import virtual appliance Import machine image
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

License

OS version License type License
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 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 Free https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-1804-lts
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Ubuntu ESM* / Ubuntu Pro† N/A
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Ubuntu ESM* N/A

*Ubuntu ESM: You can apply your existing ESM 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 use Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, you must Upgrade from Ubuntu to Ubuntu Pro.

Ubuntu Pro

Ubuntu Pro is a premium operating system developed and supported by Canonical.

Ubuntu Pro images running on Compute Engine receive bug fixes and security updates for 10 years after their release date, along with access to Ubuntu 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 the Ubuntu 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, see Ubuntu Pro FAQ.

Automatic updates

By default, this operating system is configured to install security updates by using the Ubuntu AutomaticSecurityUpdates tool. The updates have the following behaviors:

  • The AutomaticSecurityUpdates tool does not upgrade VMs between major versions of the operating system.
  • The AutomaticSecurityUpdates tool 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 latest Ubuntu 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-init to do some boot time initialization. The cloud.cfg file is configured for Compute Engine and enables only the cloud-init modules 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_mq is 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.rules is removed.

Package system and repository configuration

  • The guest environment for Compute Engine packages are installed from the Ubuntu supplied packages.
  • The Google 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-upgrades package 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-upgrades and /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/02periodic.
  • The linux-image-gcp kernel is used instead of the generic Ubuntu kernel. The Google Cloud kernel reflects the latest rolling HWE kernel for Ubuntu LTS.

Storage configuration

  • Images are 10 GB by default.
  • The partition table is GPT, and there is an EFI partition to support booting on UEFI. There is also an MBR boot block to support BIOS.
  • Ubuntu uses cloud-init to do some boot time initialization. The cloud.cfg file is configured for Compute Engine and enables only the cloud-init modules 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, see Upgrade from Ubuntu to Ubuntu Pro.

OS version Image project Image family Machine series* Lifecycle stage EOL and image deprecation date
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS ubuntu-os-pro-cloud ubuntu-pro-2204-lts All except T2A GA April 2032
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS ubuntu-os-pro-cloud ubuntu-pro-2004-lts All except T2A GA April 2030
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS ubuntu-os-pro-cloud ubuntu-pro-1804-lts All except T2A GA April 2028
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS ubuntu-os-pro-cloud ubuntu-pro-1604-lts All except T2A GA April 2026

*Machine series: The T2A machine series is currently in preview.

Security features

OS version Shielded VM support Confidential VM support
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS

User space features

OS version Guest environment installed gcloud CLI installed OS Login supported Suspend and resume supported
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS

Supported interfaces

OS version SCSI NVMe Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) Multiple network interfaces
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS

Compute optimization

OS version GPU supported
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 installed OS inventory supported OS configuration supported OS patch supported
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, see supported operating systems.

OS version Import disk Import virtual appliance Import machine image
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS

License

OS version License type License
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 are not supported for VMs created on the T2A machine series (Preview).

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 provides NVMe drivers for 64-bit Windows images, but not for 32-bit Windows images. Google tests a limited number of Windows client versions. For images that require Secure Boot, Google provides signed NVMe drivers for Windows 8.1 64-bit, which you can also use on Windows 10.

Google does not test the VSS agent on any client images.

General information

OS version Built by Lifecycle stage*
Windows 10 x64 N/A Via migration
Windows 10 x86 N/A Via migration
Windows 8.1 x64 N/A Via migration
Windows 8.1 x86 N/A Via migration
Windows 7 x64† N/A Via migration; EOL
Windows 7 x86† N/A Via migration; EOL

*Google Support typically coincides with Extended Support End Date. For information about the end of support (EOS) date for each of the operating systems in the table below, see the Microsoft Lifecycle Policy.
†For information about Extended Security Updates (ESU) for Windows 7, see Microsoft's Extended Security Updates Lifecycle FAQ.

Security features

OS version Shielded VM support Confidential VM support
Windows 10 x64
Windows 10 x86
Windows 8.1 x64
Windows 8.1 x86
Windows 7 x64
Windows 7 x86

User space features

OS version Guest environment installed gcloud CLI installed OS Login supported Suspend and resume supported
Windows 10 x64 N/A N/A N/A N/A
Windows 10 x86 N/A N/A N/A N/A
Windows 8.1 x64 N/A N/A N/A N/A
Windows 8.1 x86 N/A N/A N/A N/A
Windows 7 x64 N/A N/A N/A N/A
Windows 7 x86 N/A N/A N/A N/A

Compute optimization

OS version GPUs supported
Windows 10 x64
Windows 10 x86
Windows 8.1 x64 †
Windows 8.1 x86 †
Windows 7 x64 *, †
Windows 7 x86 *, †

*NVIDIA® V100 GPUs are not supported.
†NVIDIA® A100 GPUs are not supported.

Supported interfaces

OS version SCSI NVMe Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) Multiple network interfaces
Windows 10 x64
Windows 10 x86
Windows 8.1 x64
Windows 8.1 x86
Windows 7 x64
Windows 7 x86

VM Manager

OS version OS Config agent installed OS inventory supported OS configuration supported OS patch supported
Windows 10 x64
Windows 10 x86
Windows 8.1 x64
Windows 8.1 x86
Windows 7 x64
Windows 7 x86

License

OS version License type License
Windows 10 x64 BYOL https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-10-x64-byol
Windows 10 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 7 x64 BYOL https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-7-x64-byol
Windows 7 x86 BYOL https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-7-x86-byol

Windows Server

Windows Server images are premium resources that incur additional fees to use. Google Cloud builds and supports the Windows Server images available for Compute Engine.

To bring your own Windows license (BYOL), you must either import an existing image, or you must build 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 LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy property is enabled to grant access to administrative file shares.

Activation configuration

  • Windows Server images cannot activate without a network connection to kms.windows.googlecloud.com, and stop functioning if they do not authenticate within 30 days. Make sure to allow access in your VPC network.
  • 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, see bootcfg ems.

Network configuration

  • The Compute Engine metadata server is added to the hosts file, which is typically in the %WinDir%\System32\drivers\etc directory.
  • 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 and interface MTU, see the maximum 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 the guest 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.
  • The Google 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 EnableQueryAccessAlignment property is enabled for the VioSCSI driver.

Time configuration

  • The RealTimeIsUniversal registry 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†
Windows Server 2022 windows-cloud windows-2022
windows-2022-core
 All except T2A GA
Windows Server 2019 windows-cloud windows-2019
windows-2019-for-containers
windows-2019-core
windows-2019-core-for-containers 		All except T2A GA
Windows Server 2016 windows-cloud windows-2016
windows-2016-core 		All except T2A GA
Windows Server 2012 R2 windows-cloud windows-2012-r2
windows-2012-r2-core 		All except T2A GA
Windows Server 2012 N/A N/A All except T2A Via migration
Windows Server 2008 R2‡ (SP1 required) N/A N/A All except T2A Via migration; EOL
Windows Server 2008 N/A N/A All except T2A Via migration; EOL
Windows Server 2003 (R2 optional, SP2 required) N/A N/A All except T2A Via migration; EOL
Windows Server 1709, 1803, 1809, 1903, 1909, 2004, 20h2 N/A N/A N/A EOL

*Machine series: The T2A machine series is currently in preview.

†Google Support typically coincides with Extended Support End Date. For information about the end of support (EOS) date for each of the operating systems in the table below, see the Microsoft Lifecycle Policy.

‡For information about Extended Security Updates (ESU) for Windows 2008 R2, see Microsoft's Extended Security Updates Lifecycle FAQ.

Upstream support stage

OS version Servicing channel* Support ends
Windows Server 2022 LTSC October 14, 2031
Windows Server 2022 Core LTSC October 14, 2031
Windows Server 2019 LTSC January 9, 2029
Windows Server 2019 for Containers LTSC January 9, 2029
Windows Server 2019 Core LTSC January 9, 2029
Windows Server 2019 Core for Containers LTSC January 9, 2029
Windows Server 2016 LTSC January 12, 2027
Windows Server 2016 Core LTSC January 12, 2027
Windows Server 2012 R2 LTSC October 10, 2023
Windows Server 2012 R2 Core LTSC October 10, 2023
Windows Server 2008 R2 SP2 LTSC January 14, 2020
Windows Server 20h2 Core SAC August 9, 2022
Windows Server 2004 Core SAC December 14, 2021
Windows Server 1909 Core SAC May 11, 2021
Windows Server 1909 Core for Containers SAC May 11, 2021
Windows Server 1903 Core SAC December 8, 2020
Windows Server 1903 Core for Containers SAC December 8, 2020
Windows Server 1809 Core SAC May 12, 2020
Windows Server 1809 Core for Containers SAC May 12, 2020
Windows Server 1803 Core SAC November 12, 2019
Windows Server 1803 Core for Containers SAC November 12, 2019

*LTSC refers to the Long-Term Servicing Channel, and SAC refers to the Semi-Annual Channel. For more information, see Windows Server servicing channels.

Security features

OS version Shielded VM support Confidential VM support
Windows Server 2022
Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows Server 2012
Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1 required)
Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2003 (R2 optional, SP2 required)
Windows Server 1709, 1803, 1809, 1903, 1909, 2004, 20h2 EOL EOL

User space features

OS version Guest environment installed gcloud CLI installed OS Login supported Suspend and resume supported
Windows Server 2022 N/A
Windows Server 2019 N/A
Windows Server 2016 N/A
Windows Server 2012 R2 N/A
Windows Server 2012 N/A
Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1 required) N/A
Windows Server 2008 EOL N/A
Windows Server 2003 (R2 optional, SP2 required) EOL N/A
Windows Server 1709, 1803, 1809, 1903, 1909, 2004, 20h2 EOL N/A

Supported interfaces

OS version SCSI NVMe VSS agent Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) Multiple network interfaces
Windows Server 2022
Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows Server 2012
Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1 required)
Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2003 (R2 optional, SP2 required)
Windows Server 1709, 1803, 1809, 1903, 1909, 2004, 20h2 EOL EOL EOL

Compute optimization

OS version GPUs supported
Windows Server 2022
Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2012 R2 †
Windows Server 2012 †
Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1 required) *, †
Windows Server 2008 *, †
Windows Server 2003 (R2 optional, SP2 required) *, †
Windows Server 1709, 1803, 1809, 1903, 1909, 2004, 20h2 EOL

*NVIDIA® V100 GPUs are not supported.
†NVIDIA® A100 GPUs are not supported.

Import

OS version Import disk Import virtual appliance Migrate for Compute Engine
Windows Server 2022
Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows Server 2012 1
Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1 required) 2
Windows Server 2008 3
Windows Server 2003 (R2 optional, SP2 required) 4 4 5
Windows Server 1709, 1803, 1809, 1903, 1909, 2004, 20h2 EOL EOL EOL

1VSS not supported.
2Supported with deprecated Python agent.
364-bit supported, 32 bit only supported for offline migration with manual adaptations.
4Self-import is available.
5Only supported for offline migration with manual adaptions.
6Not tested by Google.

VM Manager

OS version OS Config agent installed OS inventory supported OS configuration supported OS patch supported
Windows Server 2022
Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows Server 2012
Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1 required)
Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2003 (R2 optional, SP2 required)
Windows Server 1709, 1803, 1809, 1903, 1909, 2004, 20h2 EOL EOL EOL EOL

License

OS version License type License
Windows Server 2022 On-demand (Default) https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-server-2022-dc
BYOL https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-server-2022-byol
Windows Server 2019 On-demand (Default) https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-server-2019-dc
BYOL https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-server-2019-byol
Windows Server 2016 On-demand (Default) https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-server-2016-dc
BYOL https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-server-2016-byol
Windows Server 2012 R2 On-demand (Default) https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-server-2012-r2-dc
BYOL https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-server-2012-r2-byol
Windows Server 2012 BYOL https: