OS image lifecycle

Linux Windows

This document describes the lifecycle of an operating system (OS) image, starting from its creation through to its end-of-support (EOS) stage.

An OS image transitions through two stages as part of its lifecycle: general availability and end-of-support.

Lifecycle stages

The following outlines the lifecycle stages of an OS image on Compute Engine.

Mainstream support or general availability (GA)

In this stage the following processes take place:

The OS image provider creates a new OS image and assigns a name by using the naming convention for that OS distribution. For example, debian-11-bullseye-v20230801.
With the creation of a new OS image, Compute Engine generates a new image family. For example, debian-11.

Image families help you manage OS images in your project by grouping related images together, so that you can roll forward and roll back between specific OS image versions. For more information, see Image families best practices.

All calls to the image family references this recently created OS image. For example, if you specify an image family during VM creation by using the --image-family flag from the Google Cloud CLI, then the latest version of the image is used.
At scheduled intervals, Compute Engine applies critical security or bug fixes, that are sent by the OS provider, to the OS image. In these updates, new features might be introduced. New features are typically not backported to the OS image after this stage. When an update is sent, the following takes place:
- The current OS image is updated and a new name is generated. For example, the debian-11-bullseye-v20230801 with the updates becomes debian-11-bullseye-v20230901.
- The debian-11 image family now points to the new debian-11-bullseye-v20230901 OS image.
- The previous OS image (debian-11-bullseye-v20230801) is marked deprecated.

End of support (EOS)

At some point, each OS image reaches EOS. For EOS dates, see Operating system details.

In this stage, OS providers stop providing monthly updates and the OS images are marked deprecated. You might still be able to use these OS images, but you are responsible for acquiring updates, which are subject to availability from the OS distribution, vendor, or open source community.

When an OS image reaches EOS, the following takes place:

The latest image in the image family is either deleted or marked deprecated.
You can no longer use the image family. However, you can still use some or all of the OS images by referencing them directly with the exception of Windows where all OS images are deleted at EOS.

To create a VM from a deprecated image, you must use the gcloud CLI or REST. When specifying the image, you must use the --image flag because image families don't point to deprecated images. For more information about creating VMs, see Create a VM instance from a public image.
When an OS image reaches or goes past the extended lifecycle stage, Google generally doesn't backport new features, including machine families and CPU platforms, to these deprecated versions.

All VMs that use EOS OS images continue to work on Compute Engine and are still eligible for Google Cloud support beyond their EOS date. However, if the any issue with the VM is identified to be associated with the deprecated OS image, Google might not be able to resolve the issue as OS provider support is no longer available.

For some operating systems, when they reach EOS, OS distributors provide a maintenance, extended or long-term package that can be applied to your OS:

For Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) OS: Maintenance support, Extended life phase, Extended Lifecycle support ELS (Add-On), or Extended Update Support (EUS)
For SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) OS: Long Term Service Pack Support, Extended Service Pack Overlap Support (ESPOS)
For Ubuntu Pro OS: Extended Security Maintenance (ESM)
For Windows OS: Extended Security Updates

For more details on these extended lifecycle packages, see the documentation for the OS provider.

OS image naming convention, update schedule, and EOS policy

The following table outlines the naming convention for OS images and image families, the update schedule, and the applicable EOS policy.

Definitions

The following notations are used in the table:

V is the numeric version for the OS. For example RHEL-7 where 7 is the numeric version
R is the release string sometimes referred to as the development codename for the OS. For example, debian-12-bookworm-v20240213 where bookworm is the release string. Release strings only apply to Debian and Ubuntu OS images.
N is the numeric build number. Build numbers only apply to Container-Optimized OS and Fedora CoreOS.
YYYYMMDD is the Year/Month/Day that identifies the date that the OS image was built or published. For some OS, the date is preceded by a lowercase v. For example, vYYYYMMDD.

OS	Image family	OS image	Update schedule	EOS policy
CentOS CentOS Stream	centos-V centos-stream-V	centos-V-vYYYYMMDD centos-stream-V-vYYYYMMDD	Monthly	OS images are marked deprecated but are still available for use.
Container-Optimized OS	cos-V-lts cos-arm64-V	cos-V-N cos-arm64-V-N	Monthly	OS images are marked deprecated but are still available for use.
Debian	debian-V debian-V-arm64	debian-V-R-vYYYYMMDD debian-V-R-arm64-vYYYYMMDD	Monthly	OS images are marked deprecated but are still available for use.
Fedora CoreOS	fedora-coreos-R fedora-coreos-R-arm64	fedora-coreos-V-YYYYMMDD-N-gcp-x86-64 fedora-coreos-V-YYYYMMDD-N-gcp-aarch64	Critical bug or security issues	OS images are deleted on the EOS date.
RHEL	rhel-V rhel-V-arm64	rhel-V-vYYYYMMDD rhel-V-arm64-vYYYYMMDD	Monthly	OS images are marked deprecated but are still available for use.
RHEL BYOS	rhel-V-byos rhel-V-byos-arm64 rhel-V-sap-byos	rhel-V-byos-vYYYYMMDD rhel-V-byos-arm64-vYYYYMMDD rhel-V-sap-byos-vYYYYMMDD	Monthly	OS images are marked deprecated but are still available for use.
RHEL for SAP	rhel-V-sap-ha	rhel-V-sap-vYYYYMMDD	Monthly	OS images are marked deprecated but are still available for use.
Rocky Linux	rocky-linux-V rocky-linux-V-arm64 rocky-linux-V-optimized-gcp rocky-linux-V-optimized-gcp-arm64	rocky-linux-V-vYYYMMDD rocky-linux-arm64-V-vYYYMMDD rocky-linux-V-optimized-gcp-vYYYYMMDD rocky-linux-V-optimized-gcp-arm64-vYYYYMMDD	Monthly	OS images are marked deprecated but are still available for use.
SQL Server on Windows Server	sql-R-V-win-V	sql-V-R-windows-V-dc-vYYYYMMDD	Monthly	OS images are deleted on the EOS date.
SLES	sles-V sles-V-arm64	sles-V-vYYYYMMDD-x86-64 sles-V-vYYYYMMDD-arm64	Quarterly	Only the latest OS image is marked deprecated. Deprecated OS images are deleted six months after the deprecation date.
SLES for SAP	sles-V-sap sles-V-sap-hardened	sles-V-sap-vYYYYMMDD-x86-64 sles-V-sap-hardened-vYYYYMMDD-x86-64	Quarterly	Only the latest OS image is marked deprecated. Deprecated OS images are deleted six months after the deprecation date.
SLES for SAP BYOS	sles-V-byos sles-V-byos-arm64 sles-V-sap-byos	sles-V-byos-vYYYYMMDD-x86-64 sles-V-byos-vYYYYMMDD-arm64 sles-V-sap-byos-vYYYYMMDD-x86-64	Quarterly	Only the latest OS image is marked deprecated. Deprecated OS images are deleted six months after the deprecation date.
Ubuntu LTS	ubuntu-V-lts ubuntu-V-lts-arm64 ubuntu-minimal-V-lts ubuntu-minimal-V-lts-arm64	ubuntu-V-R-vYYYYMMDD ubuntu-V-R-arm64-vYYYYMMDD ubuntu-minimal-V-R-vYYYYMMDD ubuntu-minimal-V-R-arm64-vYYYYMMDD	Critical bug or security issues	OS images are marked deprecated but are still available for use.
Ubuntu Pro	ubuntu-pro-V-lts ubuntu-pro-V-lts-arm64 ubuntu-pro-fips-V-lts	ubuntu-pro-V-R-vYYYYMMDD ubuntu-pro-V-R-arm64-vYYYYMMDD ubuntu-pro-fips-V-R-vYYYYMMDD	Critical bug or security issues	OS images are marked deprecated but are still available for use.
Windows Server	windows-V windows-V-core	windows-server-V-dc-vYYYYMMDD windows-server-V-dc-core-vYYYYMMDD	Monthly	OS images are deleted on the EOS date.

What's next

Learn more about the operating systems that are available on Compute Engine.