This page provides general operating system (OS) details and feature support for the OS images that are available on Compute Engine.
Some OS 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. These differences are also covered for each OS.
For information about how support and maintenance is provided for these OS images on Compute Engine, based on support package, license type, and image lifecycle stage, see Support and maintenance policy for OS images.
CentOS
CentOS Linux is a free operating system that is derived from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Google Cloud builds and supports the CentOS images available for Compute Engine. There is no license fee for using CentOS with Compute Engine.
CentOS Stream is a distribution that is continuously delivered and tracks just ahead of RHEL development. CentOS Stream is positioned as a midstream development platform between Fedora Linux and RHEL.
Automatic updates
By default, this operating system is configured to install security updates by using the
dnf-automatic
tool. The updates have the following behaviors:
- The
dnf-automatic
tool does not upgrade VMs between major versions of the operating system. - The upgrade tool is configured to only apply updates marked by the vendor as security updates.
- Some updates require reboots to take effect. These reboots do not happen automatically.
Image configuration
The CentOS Stream images that are provided by Compute Engine, have the following differences in configuration from standard CentOS Stream images:
Account configuration
- There are no local users configured with passwords.
Bootloader configuration
- To force faster boot times, the boot timeout in the grub configuration is set to
0
.
Network configuration
- IPv6 is enabled.
- The SSH server configuration is set up as follows:
- Password authentication is disabled.
- To prevent SSH disconnections,
ServerAliveInterval
andClientAliveInterval
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.
- Automatic updates are configured as follows:
- For CentOS Stream, automatic updates are enabled by using
dnf automatic
. - For all versions, the
update_cmd
property is set tosecurity
.However, by default CentOS does not offer security tagged repositories.
- For CentOS Stream, automatic updates are enabled by using
Storage configuration
- By default, images are 20 GB. This is the recommended minimum size.
- The partition table is
GPT
, and there is anEFI
partition to support booting onUEFI
. - The floppy module is disabled because there is no floppy disk controller on Compute Engine .
Time configuration
- The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.
General information
OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
CentOS Stream 9 | centos-cloud |
centos-stream-9 |
centos-stream-9-arm64 |
All | GA | May 31, 2027 |
CentOS Stream 8 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS | May 2024 |
CentOS 8 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS | Dec 2021 |
CentOS 7 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS | June 30, 2024 |
Interfaces
OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
CentOS Stream 9 | |||||
CentOS Stream 8 | |||||
CentOS 8 | |||||
CentOS 7 | * | * |
* If a multiple NIC VM is created using this OS image, the VM might lose network connectivity after rebooting. This happens if one of these NICs uses a non-VirtIO interface. For more information, see known issues.
Security features
OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM SEV | Confidential VM SEV-SNP (Preview) |
---|---|---|---|
CentOS Stream 9 | * | ||
CentOS Stream 8 | |||
CentOS 8 | |||
CentOS 7 |
* This OS image doesn't support Secure Boot on ARM64.
User space features
OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
---|---|---|---|---|
CentOS Stream 9 | ||||
CentOS Stream 8 | ||||
CentOS 8 | ||||
CentOS 7 |
Networking features
OS version | Tier_1 networking# | 200 Gbps network bandwidth# | Jumbo frames/MTU |
---|---|---|---|
CentOS Stream 9** | |||
CentOS Stream 8** | |||
CentOS 8** | EOS | EOS | EOS |
CentOS 7** | EOS | EOS | EOS |
# Only available with certain machine series.
** This OS image has predictable network interface names disabled.
Newer image families may have a different network interface naming scheme.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
OS version | N1+GPU | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G2 (L4) |
---|---|---|---|---|
CentOS Stream 9 | ||||
CentOS Stream 8 | ||||
CentOS 8 | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
CentOS 7 | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
VM Manager
OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
CentOS Stream 9 | |||||
CentOS Stream 8 | |||||
CentOS 8 | |||||
CentOS 7 |
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 |
License
OS version | License type | License URL |
---|---|---|
CentOS Stream 9 | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/centos-cloud/global/licenses/centos-stream-9 |
CentOS Stream 8 | EOS | EOS |
CentOS 8 | EOS | EOS |
CentOS 7 | EOS | EOS |
Container-Optimized OS (COS)
Container-Optimized OS from Google is an operating system image for your Compute Engine instances that is optimized for running Docker containers. Google Cloud builds and supports the Container-Optimized OS images available for Compute Engine. There is no license fee for using Container-Optimized OS with Compute Engine.
For more information about Container-Optimized OS, see the Container-Optimized 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 | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
COS 117 LTS | cos-cloud |
cos-117-lts |
cos-arm64-117-lts |
All except G2 | GA | September 2026 |
COS 113 LTS | cos-cloud |
cos-113-lts |
cos-arm64-113-lts |
All except G2 | GA | April 2026 |
COS 109 LTS | cos-cloud |
cos-109-lts |
cos-arm64-109-lts |
All except G2, X4 | GA | September 2025 |
COS 105 LTS | cos-cloud |
cos-105-lts |
cos-arm64-105-lts |
All except G2, X4, C3-metal | GA | March 2025 |
COS 101 LTS | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS | September 2024 |
Interfaces
OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
COS 117 LTS | |||||
COS 113 LTS | |||||
COS 109 LTS | |||||
COS 105 LTS | |||||
COS 101 LTS |
Security features
OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM SEV | Confidential VM SEV-SNP (Preview) |
---|---|---|---|
COS 117 LTS | |||
COS 113 LTS | |||
COS 109 LTS | |||
COS 105 LTS | |||
COS 101 LTS |
User space features
OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
---|---|---|---|---|
COS 117 LTS | ||||
COS 113 LTS | ||||
COS 109 LTS | ||||
COS 105 LTS | ||||
COS 101 LTS |
Networking features
OS version | Tier_1 networking# | 200 Gbps network bandwidth# | Jumbo frames/MTU |
---|---|---|---|
COS 117 LTS | |||
COS 113 LTS | |||
COS 109 LTS | |||
COS 105 LTS | |||
COS 101 LTS |
# Only available with certain machine series.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
For G2 VMs, the current default driver for Container-Optimized OS, don't support L4 GPUs running on G2 machine types. You might be able to install a supported version, see G2 limitations.
OS version | N1+GPU | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G2 (L4) |
---|---|---|---|---|
COS 117 LTS | ||||
COS 113 LTS | ||||
COS 109 LTS | ||||
COS 105 LTS | ||||
COS 101 LTS |
VM Manager
OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
COS 117 LTS | |||||
COS 113 LTS | |||||
COS 109 LTS | |||||
COS 105 LTS | |||||
COS 101 LTS |
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, see supported operating systems.
OS version | Import disk | Import virtual appliance | Import machine image |
---|---|---|---|
COS 117 LTS | |||
COS 113 LTS | |||
COS 109 LTS | |||
COS 105 LTS | |||
COS 101 LTS |
License
OS version | License type | License URL |
---|---|---|
COS 117 LTS | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/cos-cloud/global/licenses/cos
|
COS 113 LTS | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/cos-cloud/global/licenses/cos
|
COS 109 LTS | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/cos-cloud/global/licenses/cos
|
COS 105 LTS | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/cos-cloud/global/licenses/cos
|
COS 101 LTS | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/cos-cloud/global/licenses/cos
|
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
. - 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. - 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 supportedgce-disk-expand
package. - The
linux-image-cloud-amd64
kernel is installed instead of the generic Debian kernel. - The
haveged
package is installed to provide entropy.
Storage configuration
- Images are 10 GB by default.
- The partition table is
GPT
, and there is anEFI
partition to support booting onUEFI
. There is also an MBR boot block to support BIOS. - The floppy module is disabled because there is no floppy disk controller on Compute Engine.
Time configuration
- The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.
General information
OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Debian 12 | debian-cloud |
debian-12 |
debian-12-arm64 |
All except X4, C3-metal | GA | TBD |
Debian 11 | debian-cloud |
debian-11 |
N/A | All except X4, C3-metal |
|
|
Debian 10 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS | June 30, 2024 |
Debian 9 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS | June 2022 |
Interfaces
OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Debian 12 | |||||
Debian 11 | |||||
Debian 10 | |||||
Debian 9 | * |
* This OS image supports NVMe but does not include all optimizations for NVMe.
Security features
OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM SEV | Confidential VM SEV-SNP (Preview) |
---|---|---|---|
Debian 12 | |||
Debian 11 | |||
Debian 10 | |||
Debian 9 |
User space features
OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
---|---|---|---|---|
Debian 12 | ||||
Debian 11 | ||||
Debian 10 | ||||
Debian 9 |
Networking features
OS version | Tier_1 networking# | 200 Gbps network bandwidth# | Jumbo frames/MTU |
---|---|---|---|
Debian 12 | * | † | |
Debian 11 | * | † | |
Debian 10 | † | ||
Debian 9 | EOS | EOS | EOS |
* You can
update the gVNIC driver
to the latest version to enable network egress bandwidths of 200 Gbps.
For more information, see the
Requirements and limitations
section of "Configure per VM Tier_1 networking performance".
† Fully supported with VirtIO, but requires an updated driver to
use with gVNIC. For more information, see
Jumbo frames.
# Only available with certain machine series.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
OS version | N1+GPU | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G2 (L4) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Debian 12 | ||||
Debian 11 | ||||
Debian 10 | ||||
Debian 9 | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
VM Manager
OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Debian 12 | |||||
Debian 11 | |||||
Debian 10 | |||||
Debian 9 | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
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 12 | |||
Debian 11 | |||
Debian 10 | |||
Debian 9 |
License
OS version | License type | License URL |
---|---|---|
Debian 12 | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/debian-cloud/global/licenses/debian-12-bookworm
|
Debian 11 | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/debian-cloud/global/licenses/debian-11-bullseye
|
Debian 10 | EOS | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/debian-cloud/global/licenses/debian-10-buster
|
Debian 9 | EOS | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/debian-cloud/global/licenses/debian-9-stretch
|
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 | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fedora CoreOS Stable | fedora-coreos-cloud |
fedora-coreos-stable |
fedora-coreos-stable-arm64 |
All except C3-metal, A3, A2, G2, X4 | GA | Rolling |
Fedora CoreOS Testing | fedora-coreos-cloud |
fedora-coreos-testing |
fedora-coreos-testing-arm64 |
All except C3-metal, A3, A2, G2, X4 | GA | Rolling |
Fedora CoreOS Next | fedora-coreos-cloud |
fedora-coreos-next |
fedora-coreos-next-arm64 |
All except C3-metal, A3, A2, G2, X4 | GA | Rolling |
Interfaces
OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fedora CoreOS Stable | |||||
Fedora CoreOS Testing | |||||
Fedora CoreOS Next |
Security features
OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM SEV | Confidential VM SEV-SNP (Preview) |
---|---|---|---|
Fedora CoreOS Stable | * | ||
Fedora CoreOS Testing | * | ||
Fedora CoreOS Next | * |
*This OS image doesn't support Secure Boot on ARM64.
User space features
OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
---|---|---|---|---|
Fedora CoreOS Stable | ||||
Fedora CoreOS Testing | ||||
Fedora CoreOS Next |
Networking features
OS version | Tier_1 networking# | 200 Gbps network bandwidth# | Jumbo frames/MTU |
---|---|---|---|
Fedora CoreOS Stable | |||
Fedora CoreOS Testing | |||
Fedora CoreOS Next |
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
OS version | N1+GPU | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G2 (L4) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Fedora CoreOS Stable | ||||
Fedora CoreOS Testing | ||||
Fedora CoreOS Next |
VM Manager
OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fedora CoreOS Stable | |||||
Fedora CoreOS Testing | |||||
Fedora CoreOS Next |
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, 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 URL |
---|---|---|
Fedora CoreOS Stable | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/fedora-coreos-cloud/global/licenses/fedora-coreos-stable
|
Fedora CoreOS Testing | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/fedora-coreos-cloud/global/licenses/fedora-coreos-testing |
Fedora CoreOS Next | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/fedora-coreos-cloud/global/licenses/fedora-coreos-next |
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.
The Red Hat Knowledgebase provides you with access to articles, solutions, product documentation, and community discussions. The Red Hat Knowledgebase is available as a single-sign-on (SSO) option through the Google Cloud console. See Access Red Hat Knowledgebase.
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
(RHEL 7) or dnf automatic
(RHEL 8+) tool. The updates have the
following behaviors:
- These automatic updates from the operating system vendor do not upgrade instances between major versions of the operating system.
- Starting with RHEL 7, the operating system is also configured to only apply updates marked by the vendor as security updates.
- Some updates require reboots to take effect. These reboots do not happen automatically.
Image configuration
The RHEL image build configuration is available in 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 SSH server configuration is set up as follows:
- Password authentication is disabled.
- To prevent SSH disconnections,
ServerAliveInterval
andClientAliveInterval
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.
- RHEL for SAP yum vars are set to peg the client to the supported RHEL for SAP point release.
- RHEL content comes from the Compute Engine Red Hat Update Infrastructure (RHUI) servers.
If you're unable to get updates from the Red Hat Update Infrastructure (RHUI) servers, the RHUI client package might need to be updated. To update to the latest RHUI client package, run the following command:
dnf -y -q update 'google-rhui-client*'
- The Google
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 8+, by using
dnf automatic
. - For all versions, the
update_cmd
property is set tosecurity
.
- For RHEL 8+, by using
Storage configuration
- By default, images are 20 GB. This is the recommended minimum size.
- The partition table is
GPT
, and there is anEFI
partition to support booting onUEFI
.
Time configuration
- The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.
General information
OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
RHEL 9 | rhel-cloud |
rhel-9 |
rhel-9-arm64 |
All except X4 | GA | May 2032 |
RHEL 8 | rhel-cloud |
rhel-8 |
N/A | All except T2A, C4A, X4 | GA | May 2029 |
RHEL 7 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS*ELS† | June 2024 (ELS ends June 2028) |
RHEL 6 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS* | November 2020 (ELS ends June 30, 2024) |
RHEL 9.4 for SAP | rhel-sap-cloud |
rhel-9-4-sap-ha |
N/A | All except T2A, X4, C4A | GA | April 2028 |
RHEL 9.2 for SAP | rhel-sap-cloud |
rhel-9-2-sap-ha |
N/A | All except T2A, X4, C3-metal, C4A | GA | May 2027 |
RHEL 9.0 for SAP | rhel-sap-cloud |
rhel-9-0-sap-ha |
N/A | All except T2A, X4, C3-metal, C4A | GA | May 2026 |
RHEL 8.10 for SAP | rhel-sap-cloud |
rhel-8-10-sap-ha |
N/A | All except T2A, X4, C4A | GA | May 2029 |
RHEL 8.8 for SAP | rhel-sap-cloud |
rhel-8-8-sap-ha |
N/A | All except T2A, X4, C3-metal, C4A | GA | May 2027 |
RHEL 8.6 for SAP | rhel-sap-cloud |
rhel-8-6-sap-ha |
N/A | All except T2A, X4, C3-metal, C4A | GA | May 2026 |
RHEL 8.4 for SAP |
|
rhel-8-4-sap-ha |
N/A | All except T2A, X4, C3-metal, C4A | GA | May 2025 |
RHEL 8.2 for SAP | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS* | April 2024 |
RHEL 7.9 for SAP | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS*ELS† | June 2024 (ELS ends June 2028) |
*EOS: End of support.
†ELS: To use this OS image, you must have a subscription or an Extended Life Cycle Support (ELS) Add-On. You can append the ELS Add-On to your RHEL 6 VMs as described in Append RHEL ELS licenses.
Interfaces
*This OS image supports NVMe but does not include all optimizations for NVMe.
#If a multiple NIC VM is created using this OS image, the VM might lose network connectivity after rebooting. This happens if one of these NICs uses a non-VirtIO interface. See known issues.
Security features
*This OS image doesn't support Secure Boot on ARM64.
User space features
Networking features
OS version | Tier_1 networking# | 200 Gbps network bandwidth# | Jumbo frames/MTU |
---|---|---|---|
RHEL 9** | |||
RHEL 8** | |||
RHEL 7** | * | † | |
RHEL 6** | EOS | EOS | EOS |
RHEL 9.4 for SAP | |||
RHEL 9.2 for SAP** | |||
RHEL 9.0 for SAP** | * | † | |
RHEL 8.10 for SAP** | |||
RHEL 8.8 for SAP** | |||
RHEL 8.6 for SAP** | * | ||
RHEL 8.4 for SAP** | * | † | |
RHEL 8.2 for SAP** | * | † | |
RHEL 7.9 for SAP** | * | † |
*You can update the gVNIC driver to the latest version to enable network egress bandwidths of 200 Gbps. For more information, see the Requirements and limitations section of "Configure per VM Tier_1 networking performance".
†Fully supported with VirtIO, but requires an updated driver to use with gVNIC. For more information, see Jumbo frames.
#Only available with certain machine series.
**This OS image has predictable network interface names disabled. Newer image families may have a different network interface naming scheme.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
VM Manager
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, see supported operating systems.
License
OS version | License type | License URL |
---|---|---|
RHEL 9 |
|
|
RHEL 8 |
|
|
RHEL 7 |
|
|
RHEL 6 |
|
|
RHEL 9.4 for SAP |
|
|
RHEL 9.2 for SAP |
|
|
RHEL 9.0 for SAP |
|
|
RHEL 8.10 for SAP |
|
|
RHEL 8.8 for SAP |
|
|
RHEL 8.6 for SAP |
|
|
RHEL 8.4 for SAP |
|
|
RHEL 8.2 for SAP |
|
|
RHEL 7.9 for SAP |
|
|
†ELS: To use this OS image, you must have a subscription or an Extended Life 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 SSH server configuration is set up as follows:
- Password authentication is disabled.
- To prevent SSH disconnections,
ServerAliveInterval
andClientAliveInterval
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, the
update_cmd
property is set tosecurity
. However, by default Rocky Linux does not offer security tagged repositories.
- Automatic updates are enabled by using
Storage configuration
- By default, images are 20 GB.
- The partition table is
GPT
, and there is anEFI
partition to support booting onUEFI
. - The floppy module is disabled because there is no floppy disk controller on Compute Engine .
Time configuration
- The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.
General information
OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rocky Linux 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 except X4 | GA | May 2029 |
Rocky Linux 8 | rocky-linux-cloud |
rocky-linux-8 |
N/A | All except T2A, C4A, X4 | GA | May 2029 |
Interfaces
OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rocky Linux 9 optimized for Google Cloud | |||||
Rocky Linux 9 | |||||
Rocky Linux 8 optimized for Google Cloud | |||||
Rocky Linux 8 |
Security features
OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM SEV | Confidential VM SEV-SNP (Preview) |
---|---|---|---|
Rocky Linux 9 optimized for Google Cloud | |||
Rocky Linux 9 | |||
Rocky Linux 8 optimized for Google Cloud | |||
Rocky Linux 8 |
User space features
Networking features
OS version | Tier_1 networking# | 200 Gbps network bandwidth# | Jumbo frames/MTU |
---|---|---|---|
Rocky Linux 9 optimized for Google Cloud** | |||
Rocky Linux 9** | |||
Rocky Linux 8 optimized for Google Cloud** | |||
Rocky Linux 8** |
# Only available with certain machine series.
** This OS image has predictable network interface names disabled.
Newer image families may have a different network interface naming scheme.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
OS version | N1+GPU | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G2 (L4) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Rocky Linux 9 optimized for Google Cloud | ||||
Rocky Linux 9 | ||||
Rocky Linux 8 optimized for Google Cloud | ||||
Rocky Linux 8 |
VM Manager
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 URL |
---|---|---|
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 on Linux
Microsoft SQL Server can be used on Linux-based VMs or images with an on-demand license. Google does not provide pre-configured images for SQL Server on Linux.
Microsoft SQL Server images are not supported for VMs created on the C4A machine series and the T2A machine series.
License
To use on-demand / pay-as-you-go (PAYG) licenses for Microsoft SQL Server on a Linux VM or image, see Add a SQL Server license to an existing Linux server.
Version | License type | License |
---|---|---|
Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Enterprise on Linux | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2022-enterprise-on-linux |
Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Standard on Linux | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2022-standard-on-linux |
Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Web on Linux | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2022-web-on-linux |
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Enterprise on Linux | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2019-enterprise-on-linux |
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Standard on Linux | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2019-standard-on-linux |
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Web on Linux | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2019-web-on-linux |
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Enterprise on Linux | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2017-enterprise-on-linux |
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Standard on Linux | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2017-standard-on-linux |
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Web on Linux | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2017-web-on-linux |
SQL Server on Windows
Microsoft SQL Server images are similar to the standard Windows Server operating system images, but they include Microsoft SQL Server preinstalled.
Microsoft SQL Server images are not supported for VMs created on the C4A machine series and the T2A machine series. Using a Microsoft SQL Server Windows image with a bare metal instance isn't supported.
Automatic updates
By default, this operating system is configured to "Auto download and schedule the install" for Microsoft updates. To configure Windows Server automatic updates, see Configure Automatic Updates.
Image configuration
- Microsoft SQL Server images have the same Notable differences as standard Windows Server images.
- Windows images provided by Google have a hardcoded MTU. For more information about network and interface MTU, see the maximum transmission unit overview.
General information
To use Microsoft SQL Server on a Windows VM with an on-demand / pay-as-you-go (PAYG) license, see Add a SQL Server license to an existing Windows server.
Version | Image project | Image family | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
---|---|---|---|---|
Microsoft SQL Server 2022 | windows-sql-cloud |
sql-web-2022-win-2025
|
GA | Jan 11, 2033 |
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 | windows-sql-cloud |
sql-web-2019-win-2025
|
GA | Jan 8, 2030 |
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 | windows-sql-cloud |
sql-web-2017-win-2025
|
GA | Oct 12, 2027 |
Microsoft SQL Server 2016 | windows-sql-cloud |
sql-web-2016-win-2019
|
GA | Jul 14, 2026 |
Microsoft SQL Server 2014 | EOS | EOS | EOS | Jul 9, 2024 |
SQL Server edition support
Editions | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express |
---|---|---|---|---|
Microsoft SQL Server 2022 | ||||
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 | ||||
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 | ||||
Microsoft SQL Server 2016 | ||||
Microsoft SQL Server 2014 | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
Windows Server version support
Version | Windows 2016 | Windows 2019 | Windows 2022 | Windows 2025 |
---|---|---|---|---|
Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Enterprise | ||||
Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Standard | ||||
Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Web | ||||
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Enterprise | ||||
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Standard | ||||
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Web | ||||
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Enterprise | ||||
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Standard | ||||
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Web | ||||
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Express | ||||
Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Enterprise | ||||
Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Standard | ||||
Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Web |
License
Version | License type | License |
---|---|---|
Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Enterprise | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2022-enterprise |
Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Standard | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2022-standard |
Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Web | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2022-web |
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Enterprise | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2019-enterprise |
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Standard | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2019-standard |
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Web | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2019-web |
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Enterprise | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2017-enterprise |
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Standard | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2017-standard |
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Web | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2017-web |
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Express | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2017-express |
Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Enterprise | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2016-enterprise |
Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Standard | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2016-standard |
Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Web | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2016-web |
Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Enterprise | EOS | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2014-enterprise |
Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Standard | EOS | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2014-standard |
Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Web | EOS | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2014-web |
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Enterprise | EOS | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2012-enterprise |
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Standard | EOS | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2012-standard |
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Web | EOS | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2012-web |
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), a versatile server operating system for deploying highly available enterprise-class IT services in mixed IT environments with improved performance and reduced risk.
SUSE builds and supports the SUSE images available for Compute Engine. SUSE images 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 beingeth0
. - 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 anEFI
partition to support booting onUEFI
. There is also an MBR boot block to support BIOS. - The floppy module is disabled because there is no floppy disk controller on Compute Engine.
Time configuration
- The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.
General information
OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SLES 15 SP6 | suse-cloud |
sles-15 |
sles-15-arm64 |
All | GA | TBD |
SLES 15 SP5 | suse-byos-cloud |
N/A | N/A | All | BYOS w/ LTSS | Dec 2027 |
SLES 15 SP4 | suse-byos-cloud |
N/A | N/A | All | BYOS w/ LTSS | Dec 2026 |
SLES 15 SP3 | suse-byos-cloud |
N/A | N/A | All except T2A, C3-metal, C4A, X4 | BYOS w/ LTSS | Dec 2025 |
SLES 15 SP2 | suse-byos-cloud |
N/A | N/A | All except T2A, C3-metal, C4A, X4 | BYOS w/ LTSS | Dec 2024 |
SLES 15 SP1 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS | Jan 2024 |
SLES 12 SP5 | suse-cloud |
sles-12 |
N/A | All except T2A, C3-metal, C4A, G2, X4 | GA | Oct 2027 |
SLES 12 SP4 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS | June 2023 |
SLES 15 SP6 for SAP | suse-sap-cloud |
sles-15-sp6-sap |
N/A | All except T2A, C4A | GA | TBD |
SLES 15 SP5 for SAP | suse-sap-cloud |
sles-15-sp5-sap |
N/A | All except T2A, C4A | GA | Dec 2027 |
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP | suse-sap-cloud |
sles-15-sp4-sap |
N/A | All except T2A, C4A | GA | Dec 2026 |
SLES 15 SP3 for SAP | suse-sap-cloud |
sles-15-sp3-sap |
N/A | All except T2A, C4A, C3-metal, X4 | GA | Dec 2025 |
SLES 15 SP2 for SAP | suse-sap-cloud |
sles-15-sp2-sap |
N/A | All except T2A, C4A, C3-metal, X4 | GA | Dec 2024 |
SLES 15 SP1 for SAP | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS | Jan 2024 |
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP | suse-sap-cloud |
sles-12-sp5-sap |
N/A | All except T2A, C4A, C3-metal, G2, X4 | GA | Oct 2027 |
SLES 12 SP4 for SAP | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | EOS | June 2023 |
*BYOS with LTSS: Support for this operating system is only offered through 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 EOS date. Deprecated images are still available for use.
Interfaces
OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
SLES 15 SP6 | |||||
SLES 15 SP5 | |||||
SLES 15 SP4 | |||||
SLES 15 SP3 | |||||
SLES 15 SP2 | |||||
SLES 15 SP1 | |||||
SLES 12 SP5 | |||||
SLES 12 SP4 | |||||
SLES 15 SP6 for SAP | |||||
SLES 15 SP5 for SAP | |||||
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP | |||||
SLES 15 SP3 for SAP | |||||
SLES 15 SP2 for SAP | |||||
SLES 15 SP1 for SAP | |||||
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP | |||||
SLES 12 SP4 for SAP |
Security features
OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM SEV | Confidential VM SEV-SNP (Preview) |
---|---|---|---|
SLES 15 SP6 | * | ||
SLES 15 SP5 | * | ||
SLES 15 SP4 | * | ||
SLES 15 SP3 | |||
SLES 15 SP2 | |||
SLES 15 SP1 | |||
SLES 12 SP5 | |||
SLES 12 SP4 | |||
SLES 15 SP6 for SAP | |||
SLES 15 SP5 for SAP | |||
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP | |||
SLES 15 SP3 for SAP | |||
SLES 15 SP2 for SAP | |||
SLES 15 SP1 for SAP | |||
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP | |||
SLES 12 SP4 for SAP |
*This OS image doesn't support Secure Boot on ARM64.
User space features
OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
---|---|---|---|---|
SLES 15 SP6 | * | |||
SLES 15 SP5 | * | |||
SLES 15 SP4 | * | |||
SLES 15 SP3 | * | |||
SLES 15 SP2 | * | |||
SLES 15 SP1 | * | |||
SLES 12 SP5 | * | |||
SLES 12 SP4 | * | |||
SLES 15 SP6 for SAP | * | |||
SLES 15 SP5 for SAP | * | |||
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP | * | |||
SLES 15 SP3 for SAP | * | |||
SLES 15 SP2 for SAP | * | |||
SLES 15 SP1 for SAP | * | |||
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP | * | |||
SLES 12 SP4 for SAP | * |
*This OS image doesn't support custom hostnames. For more information see Custom Hostnames.
Networking features
OS version | Tier_1 networking# | 200 Gbps network bandwidth# | Jumbo frames/MTU |
---|---|---|---|
SLES 15 SP6 | |||
SLES 15 SP5 | |||
SLES 15 SP4 | |||
SLES 15 SP3 | |||
SLES 15 SP2 | * | † | |
SLES 15 SP1 | † | ||
SLES 12 SP5 | |||
SLES 12 SP4 | † | ||
SLES 15 SP6 for SAP | |||
SLES 15 SP5 for SAP | |||
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP | |||
SLES 15 SP3 for SAP | |||
SLES 15 SP2 for SAP | * | † | |
SLES 15 SP1 for SAP | † | ||
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP | |||
SLES 12 SP4 for SAP | † |
*You can update the gVNIC driver to the latest version to enable network egress bandwidths of 200 Gbps. For more information, see the Requirements and limitations section of "Configure per VM Tier_1 networking performance".
†Fully supported with VirtIO, but requires an updated driver to use with gVNIC. For more information, see Jumbo frames.
#Only available with certain machine series.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
OS version | N1+GPU | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G2 (L4) |
---|---|---|---|---|
SLES 15 SP6 | ||||
SLES 15 SP5 | ||||
SLES 15 SP4 | ||||
SLES 15 SP3 | ||||
SLES 15 SP2 | ||||
SLES 15 SP1 | ||||
SLES 12 SP5 | ||||
SLES 12 SP4 | ||||
SLES 15 SP6 for SAP | ||||
SLES 15 SP5 for SAP | ||||
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP | ||||
SLES 15 SP3 for SAP | ||||
SLES 15 SP2 for SAP | ||||
SLES 15 SP1 for SAP | ||||
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP | ||||
SLES 12 SP4 for SAP |
VM Manager
OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch* | Vulnerability reports |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
SLES 15 SP6 | |||||
SLES 15 SP5 | |||||
SLES 15 SP4 | |||||
SLES 15 SP3 | |||||
SLES 15 SP2 | |||||
SLES 15 SP1 | |||||
SLES 12 SP5 | |||||
SLES 12 SP4 | |||||
SLES 15 SP6 for SAP | |||||
SLES 15 SP5 for SAP | |||||
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP | |||||
SLES 15 SP3 for SAP | |||||
SLES 15 SP2 for SAP | |||||
SLES 15 SP1 for SAP | |||||
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP | |||||
SLES 12 SP4 for SAP |
*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 Patch 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 SP6 | |||
SLES 15 SP5 | |||
SLES 15 SP4 | |||
SLES 15 SP3 | |||
SLES 15 SP2 | |||
SLES 15 SP1 | |||
SLES 12 SP5 | |||
SLES 12 SP4 | |||
SLES 15 SP6 for SAP | |||
SLES 15 SP5 for SAP | |||
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP | |||
SLES 15 SP3 for SAP | |||
SLES 15 SP2 for SAP | |||
SLES 15 SP1 for SAP | |||
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP | |||
SLES 12 SP4 for SAP |
License
OS version | License type | License URL |
---|---|---|
SLES 15 SP6 |
|
|
SLES 15 SP5 |
|
|
SLES 15 SP4 |
|
|
SLES 15 SP3 |
|
|
SLES 15 SP2 |
|
|
SLES 15 SP1 |
|
|
SLES 12 SP5 |
|
|
SLES 12 SP4 |
|
|
SLES 15 SP6 for SAP |
|
|
SLES 15 SP5 for SAP |
|
|
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP |
|
|
SLES 15 SP3 for SAP |
|
|
SLES 15 SP2 for SAP |
|
|
SLES 15 SP1 for SAP |
|
|
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP |
|
|
SLES 12 SP4 for SAP |
|
|
*BYOS with LTSS: Support for this operating system is only offered through 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. Thecloud.cfg
file is configured for Compute Engine and enables only thecloud-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 anEFI
partition to support booting onUEFI
. There is also an MBR boot block to support BIOS. - The floppy module is disabled because there is no floppy disk controller on Compute Engine.
Time configuration
- The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.
General information
For information about non LTS Ubuntu releases, see the Ubuntu release wiki.
OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | ubuntu-os-cloud |
ubuntu-2404-lts-amd64 |
ubuntu-2404-lts-arm64 |
All | GA | June 2029 (ESM April 2034) |
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 | EOS | EOS | EOS | All except C3-metal, C4A, X4 | Ubuntu ESM* / Ubuntu Pro† | May 2023 (ESM April 2028) |
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | EOS | EOS | EOS | All except T2A, C4A, M3, H3, C3-metal, Z3, X4 | Ubuntu ESM* / Ubuntu Pro† | April 2021 (ESM April 2026) |
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS | April 2024 |
* Ubuntu ESM: You can apply your 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
and 18.04 LTS images,
upgrade from Ubuntu to Ubuntu Pro.
Interfaces
OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | |||||
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | |||||
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | |||||
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | |||||
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | |||||
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS |
Security features
OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM SEV | Confidential VM SEV-SNP (Preview) |
---|---|---|---|
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | |||
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 24.04 LTS | * | |||
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | * | |||
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | * | |||
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | * | |||
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | * | |||
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS | * |
* This OS image doesn't support custom hostnames. For more information, see Custom Hostnames.
Networking features
OS version | Tier_1 networking# | 200 Gbps network bandwidth# | Jumbo frames/MTU |
---|---|---|---|
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | |||
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | |||
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | |||
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | |||
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | * | † | |
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS | † |
* You can
update the gVNIC driver
to the latest version to enable network egress bandwidths of 200 Gbps.
For more information, see the
Requirements and limitations
section of "Configure per VM Tier_1 networking performance".
† Fully supported with VirtIO, but requires an updated driver to
use with gVNIC. For more information, see
Jumbo frames.
# Only available with certain machine series.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
OS version | N1+GPU | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G2 (L4) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | ||||
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | ||||
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | ||||
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | ||||
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS | EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
VM Manager
OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | |||||
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 24.04 LTS | |||
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 URL |
---|---|---|
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-2404-lts |
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-2204-lts |
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-2004-lts |
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | Ubuntu ESM* / Ubuntu Pro† | EOS |
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | Ubuntu ESM* / Ubuntu Pro† | EOS |
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS | Ubuntu ESM* | EOS |
* Ubuntu ESM: You can apply your 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
and 18.04 LTS images, 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. Thecloud.cfg
file is configured for Compute Engine and enables only thecloud-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 anEFI
partition to support booting onUEFI
. There is also an MBR boot block to support BIOS. - Ubuntu uses
cloud-init
to do some boot time initialization. Thecloud.cfg
file is configured for Compute Engine and enables only thecloud-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 | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS | ubuntu-os-pro-cloud |
ubuntu-pro-2404-lts-amd64 |
ubuntu-pro-2404-lts-arm64 |
All | GA | April 2034 |
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS | ubuntu-os-pro-cloud |
ubuntu-pro-2204-lts |
ubuntu-pro-2204-lts-arm64 |
All | GA | April 2032 |
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS | ubuntu-os-pro-cloud |
ubuntu-pro-2004-lts |
ubuntu-pro-2004-lts-arm64 |
All | GA | April 2030 |
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS | ubuntu-os-pro-cloud |
ubuntu-pro-1804-lts |
ubuntu-pro-1804-lts-arm64 |
All except C4A, X4, C3-metal | GA | April 2028 |
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS | ubuntu-os-pro-cloud |
ubuntu-pro-1604-lts |
N/A | All except T2A, C4A, X4, C3-metal | GA | April 2026 |
Interfaces
OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS | |||||
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS | |||||
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS | |||||
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS | |||||
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS | * |
*This OS image supports NVMe but doesn't support the hot-plugging of NVMe drives. Hot-plugging is the process of adding or removing a device while the system is running.
Security features
OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM SEV | Confidential VM SEV-SNP (Preview) |
---|---|---|---|
Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS | |||
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS | |||
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS | |||
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS | |||
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS |
User space features
* This OS image doesn't support custom hostnames. For more information, see Custom Hostnames.
Networking features
OS version | Tier_1 networking# | 200 Gbps network bandwidth# | Jumbo frames/MTU |
---|---|---|---|
Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS | |||
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS | |||
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS | |||
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS | |||
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS | * | † |
* You can
update the gVNIC driver
to the latest version to enable network egress bandwidths of 200 Gbps.
For more information, see the
Requirements and limitations
section of "Configure per VM Tier_1 networking performance".
† Fully supported with VirtIO, but requires an updated driver to
use with gVNIC. For more information, see
Jumbo frames.
# Only available with certain machine series.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
OS version | N1+GPU | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G2 (L4) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS | ||||
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS | ||||
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS | ||||
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS | ||||
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS |
VM Manager
OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS | |||||
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS | |||||
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS | |||||
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS | |||||
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS |
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, see supported operating systems.
OS version | Import disk | Import virtual appliance | Import machine image |
---|---|---|---|
Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS | |||
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS | |||
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS | |||
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS | |||
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS |
License
OS version | License type | License URL |
---|---|---|
Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-pro-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-pro-2404-lts |
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-pro-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-pro-2204-lts |
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-pro-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-pro-2004-lts |
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-pro-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-pro-1804-lts |
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS | On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-pro-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-pro-1604-lts |
Windows client
Google doesn't provide Windows client images. You must bring your own Windows client images.
Windows client images can't be used with bare metal instances. Also, Windows client images aren't supported for C4A machine series and T2A machine series VMs.
Automatic updates
The Windows client update settings determine how versions of Windows client use Windows Updates. To configure Windows automatic updates, see Configure Automatic Updates.
Storage
Google doesn't test the VSS agent on any client images.
General information
OS version | Lifecycle stage* | EOS date |
---|---|---|
Windows 11 23h2 x64** | GA | Nov 2026 |
Windows 11 22h2 x64** | GA | Oct 2025 |
Windows 11 21h2 x64** | EOS | Oct 2024 |
Windows 10 22h2 x64 | GA | Oct 2025 |
Windows 10 22h2 x86 | GA | Oct 2025 |
Windows 10 21h2 x64 | EOS | June 2024 |
Windows 10 21h2 x86 | EOS | June 2024 |
Windows 8.1 x64 | EOS | Jan 2023 |
Windows 8.1 x86 | EOS | Jan 2023 |
Windows 7 x64 | EOS† | Jan 2020 |
Windows 7 x86 | EOS† | Jan 2020 |
*Lifecycle stage: Google Cloud 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.
†Windows 7 EOS: For information about Extended Security Updates (ESU) for Windows 7, see Microsoft's Extended Security Updates Lifecycle FAQ.
**Windows 11: vTPM and Secure Boot must be enabled. Due to CPU requirements, N1 and M1 sole-tenant node types are not recommended.
Interfaces
OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Windows 11 23h2 x64 | |||||
Windows 11 22h2 x64 | |||||
Windows 11 21h2 x64 | |||||
Windows 10 22h2 x64 | |||||
Windows 10 22h2 x86 | |||||
Windows 10 21h2 x64 | |||||
Windows 10 21h2 x86 | |||||
Windows 8.1 x64 | |||||
Windows 8.1 x86 | |||||
Windows 7 x64 | |||||
Windows 7 x86 |
Security features
OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM support |
---|---|---|
Windows 11 23h2 x64 | ** | |
Windows 11 22h2 x64 | ** | |
Windows 11 21h2 x64 | ** | |
Windows 10 22h2 x64 | ||
Windows 10 22h2 x86 | ||
Windows 10 21h2 x64 | ||
Windows 10 21h2 x86 | ||
Windows 8.1 x64 | ||
Windows 8.1 x86 | ||
Windows 7 x64 | ||
Windows 7 x86 |
**Windows 11: vTPM and Secure Boot must be enabled. Due to CPU requirements, N1 and M1 sole-tenant node types are not recommended.
User space features
OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
---|---|---|---|---|
Windows 11 23h2 x64 | * | † | ‡ | |
Windows 11 22h2 x64 | * | † | ‡ | |
Windows 11 21h2 x64 | * | † | ‡ | |
Windows 10 22h2 x64 | * | † | ‡ | |
Windows 10 22h2 x86 | * | † | ||
Windows 10 21h2 x64 | * | † | ‡ | |
Windows 10 21h2 x86 | * | † | ||
Windows 8.1 x64 | † | |||
Windows 8.1 x86 | † | |||
Windows 7 x64 | ||||
Windows 7 x86 |
*Guest environment: For this OS, the guest environment can be manually installed. To install the guest environment, see Install the guest environment.
†gcloud CLI: For this OS, the gcloud CLI can be manually installed. To install the gcloud CLI, see Install the gcloud CLI.
‡Suspend and resume: For this OS, some power policy configurations are incompatible with suspend and resume. For more information, see troubleshooting VM suspension.
Networking features
OS version | Tier_1 networking# | 200 Gbps network bandwidth# | Jumbo frames/MTU |
---|---|---|---|
Windows 11 23h2 x64 | * | * | † |
Windows 11 22h2 x64 | * | * | † |
Windows 11 21h2 x64 | * | * | † |
Windows 10 22h2 x64 | * | * | † |
Windows 10 22h2 x86 | * | † | |
Windows 10 21h2 x64 | * | * | † |
Windows 10 21h2 x86 | * | † | |
Windows 8.1 x64 | † | ||
Windows 8.1 x86 | † | ||
Windows 7 x64 | EOS | EOS | EOS |
Windows 7 x86 | EOS | EOS | EOS |
*The gVNIC driver available in this OS image provides up to 50 Gbps of network bandwidth. To get up to 200 Gbps of network bandwidth, you must use an updated version of the gVNIC driver. For more information, see Update to the latest gVNIC driver for Windows.
† To use Jumbo Frames with gVNIC on Windows, you can use an updated version of the gVNIC driver. For more information, see Update to the latest gVNIC driver for Windows.
#Only available with supported machine series.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
OS version | N1+GPU | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G2 (L4) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Windows 11 23h2 x64 | ||||
Windows 11 22h2 x64 | ||||
Windows 11 21h2 x64 | ||||
Windows 10 22h2 x64 | ||||
Windows 10 22h2 x86 | ||||
Windows 10 21h2 x64 | ||||
Windows 10 21h2 x86 | ||||
Windows 8.1 x64 | ||||
Windows 8.1 x86 | ||||
Windows 7 x64 | * | |||
Windows 7 x86 | * |
*For this Windows client version, NVIDIA V100 GPUs are not supported.
VM Manager
OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Windows 11 23h2 x64 | |||||
Windows 11 22h2 x64 | |||||
Windows 11 21h2 x64 | |||||
Windows 10 22h2 x64 | |||||
Windows 10 22h2 x86 | |||||
Windows 10 21h2 x64 | |||||
Windows 10 21h2 x86 | |||||
Windows 8.1 x64 | |||||
Windows 8.1 x86 | |||||
Windows 7 x64 | |||||
Windows 7 x86 |
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 |
---|---|---|
Windows 11 23h2 x64 | ||
Windows 11 22h2 x64 | ||
Windows 11 21h2 x64 | ||
Windows 10 22h2 x64 | ||
Windows 10 22h2 x86 | ||
Windows 10 21h2 x64 | ||
Windows 10 21h2 x86 | ||
Windows 8.1 x64 | ||
Windows 8.1 x86 | ||
Windows 7 x64 | ||
Windows 7 x86 |
License
OS version | License type | License URL |
---|---|---|
Windows 11 23h2 x64 | BYOL | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-11-x64-byol |
Windows 11 22h2 x64 | BYOL | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-11-x64-byol |
Windows 11 21h2 x64 | BYOL | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-11-x64-byol |
Windows 10 22h2 x64 | BYOL | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-10-x64-byol |
Windows 10 22h2 x86 | BYOL | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-10-x86-byol |
Windows 10 21h2 x64 | BYOL | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-10-x64-byol |
Windows 10 21h2 x86 | BYOL | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-10-x86-byol |
Windows 8.1 x64 | BYOL | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-8-x64-byol |
Windows 8.1 x86 | BYOL | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-8-x86-byol |
Windows 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.
Except for Windows Server 2012, 2008, and 2003, the Windows Server images in Compute Engine have an on-demand license and do not require a separate Windows license.
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 can't activate without a network connection to
kms.windows.googlecloud.com
, and stop functioning if they don't authenticate within 30 days. Make sure to [allow access in your VPC network](/compute/docs/instances/windows/creating-managing-windows-instances#kms-server). - A KMS client key is installed and the KMS client is set to activate by using the Compute Engine KMS servers.
Bootloader configuration
-
BootStatusPolicy is set to
IgnoreAllFailures
. - Emergency Management Services (EMS) redirection is enabled on the COM2 port. For more information, 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* | EOS and image deprecation date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Windows Server 2025 | windows-cloud |
windows-2025 windows-2025-core |
All except T2A, C4A, C3-metal, Z3, A3, X4 | GA | Oct 10, 2034 |
Windows Server 2022 | windows-cloud |
windows-2022 windows-2022-core |
All except T2A, C4A, C3-metal, Z3, A3, X4 | GA | Oct 14, 2031 |
Windows Server 2019 | windows-cloud |
windows-2019 windows-2019-core |
All except T2A, C4A, C3-metal, Z3, A3, X4 | GA | Jan 9, 2029 |
Windows Server 2016 | windows-cloud |
windows-2016 windows-2016-core |
All except T2A, C4A, C3-metal, Z3, A3, G2, X4 | GA | Jan 12, 2027 |
Windows Server 2012 R2 | N/A | N/A | Only C2, C2D, E2, M1, M2, N1, N2, N2D | EOS | Oct 10, 2023 |
Windows Server 2012 | N/A | N/A | Only C2, C2D, E2, M1, M2, N1, N2, N2D | EOS | Oct 10, 2023 |
Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1 required) | N/A | N/A | Only C2, C2D, E2, M1, M2, N1, N2, N2D | EOS‡ | Jan 14, 2020 |
Windows Server 2008 | N/A | N/A | Only C2, C2D, E2, M1, M2, N1, N2, N2D | EOS | N/A |
Windows Server 2003 (R2 optional, SP2 required) | N/A | N/A | Only C2, C2D, E2, M1, M2, N1, N2, N2D | EOS | N/A |
*Lifecycle stage: Google Cloud 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 previous table, see the Microsoft Lifecycle Policy.
‡Windows 2008 R2: For information about Extended Security Updates (ESU), see Microsoft's Extended Security Updates Lifecycle FAQ.
Interfaces
OS version | SCSI | NVMe | VSS agent | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
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Windows Server 2025 | ||||||
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) |
Security features
OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM support |
---|---|---|
Windows Server 2025 | ||
Windows Server 2022 | ||
Windows Server 2019 | ||
Windows Server 2016 | ||
Windows Server 2012 R2 | ||
Windows Server 2012 | ||
Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1 required) | ||
Windows Server 2008 | ||
Windows Server 2003 (R2 optional, SP2 required) |
User space features
OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
---|---|---|---|---|
Windows Server 2025 | † | |||
Windows Server 2022 | * | |||
Windows Server 2019 | * | |||
Windows Server 2016 | * | |||
Windows Server 2012 R2 | ||||
Windows Server 2012 | ||||
Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1 required) | ||||
Windows Server 2008 | EOS | |||
Windows Server 2003 (R2 optional, SP2 required) | EOS |
*For this OS, some power policy configurations are incompatible with suspend and resume. For more information, see troubleshooting VM suspension.
†Not currently supported due to a known issue.
Networking features
OS version | Tier_1 networking# | 200 Gbps network bandwidth# | Jumbo frames/MTU |
---|---|---|---|
Windows Server 2025 | * | * | † |
Windows Server 2022 | * | * | † |
Windows Server 2019 | * | * | † |
Windows Server 2016 | * | * | † |
Windows Server 2012 R2 | * | * | † |
Windows Server 2012 | |||
Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1 required) | EOS | EOS | EOS |
Windows Server 2008 | EOS | EOS | EOS |
Windows Server 2003 (R2 optional, SP2 required) | EOS | EOS | EOS |
*The gVNIC driver available in this OS image provides up to 50 Gbps of network bandwidth. To get up to 200 Gbps of network bandwidth, you must use an updated version of the gVNIC driver. For more information, see Update to the latest gVNIC driver for Windows.
† To use Jumbo Frames with gVNIC on Windows, you can use an updated version of the gVNIC driver. For more information, see Update to the latest gVNIC driver for Windows.
#Only available with supported machine series.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
OS version | N1+GPU | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G2 (L4) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Windows Server 2025 | ||||
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) | * |
*For this Windows client version, NVIDIA V100 GPUs are not supported.
VM Manager
OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Windows Server 2025 | |||||
Windows Server 2022 | |||||
Windows Server 2019 | |||||
Windows Server 2016 | |||||
Windows Server 2012 R2 | |||||
Windows Server 2012 | |||||
Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1 required) | |||||
Windows Server 2008 | |||||
Windows Server 2003 (R2 optional, SP2 required) |
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 |
---|---|---|
Windows Server 2025 | ||
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) | * | * |
*Self-import is available.
License
OS version | License type | License URL |
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Windows Server 2025 |
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Windows Server 2022 |
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Windows Server 2019 |
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Windows Server 2016 |
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Windows Server 2012 R2 |
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Windows Server 2012 |
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Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1 required) |
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Windows Server 2008 |
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Windows Server 2003 (R2 optional, SP2 required) |
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