Create an instance that uses IPv6 addresses

By default, Compute Engine instances are created with IPv4 addresses. You can optionally create compute instances that use IPv6 addresses. Compute instances that have both IPv4 and IPv6 configurations are called dual-stack instances. The IPv6 address is in addition to any IPv4 addresses that are configured on the network interface.

You can configure IPv6 addresses on a Compute Engine instance if the subnet that the instance is connected to has an IPv6 range configured.

Any network interface on the compute instance can have IPv6 addresses configured. For more information about configuring multiple network interfaces, see Multiple network interfaces.

The stack type of an instance's network interface determines the type of subnets to which it can connect:

IPv4-only network interfaces can connect to dual-stack and IPv4-only subnets.
Dual-stack network interfaces can connect to dual-stack subnets.
IPv6-only network interfaces can connect to dual-stack and IPv6-only subnets (Preview).

Additionally, a subnet's IPv6 access type configuration determines whether the subnet has an internal or external IPv6 range. Connected instances inherit the IPv6 access type from the subnet.

For more information about IPv6 addresses, see IPv6 overview.

Limitations

IPv6-only instances (Preview) are supported with only Ubuntu and Debian OS.

Before you begin

You must create the network and subnets prior to creating the compute instance.
If you haven't already, then set up authentication. Authentication is the process by which your identity is verified for access to Google Cloud services and APIs. To run code or samples from a local development environment, you can authenticate to Compute Engine by selecting one of the following options:

Select the tab for how you plan to use the samples on this page:
Console

When you use the Google Cloud console to access Google Cloud services and APIs, you don't need to set up authentication.
gcloud
1. Install the Google Cloud CLI, then initialize it by running the following command:
  gcloud init
  Note: If you installed the gcloud CLI previously, make sure you have the latest version by running gcloud components update.
2. Set a default region and zone.
REST

To use the REST API samples on this page in a local development environment, you use the credentials you provide to the gcloud CLI.
For more information, see Authenticate for using REST in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.

Required roles

To get the permissions that you need to create an instance with IPv6 addresses, ask your administrator to grant you the Compute Instance Admin (v1) (roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1) IAM role on the project. For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

You might also be able to get the required permissions through custom roles or other predefined roles.

Permissions required for this task

To perform this task, you must have the following permissions:

compute.instances.create on the project
To use a custom image to create the VM: compute.images.useReadOnly on the image
To use a snapshot to create the VM: compute.snapshots.useReadOnly on the snapshot
To use an instance template to create the VM: compute.instanceTemplates.useReadOnly on the instance template
To assign a legacy network to the VM: compute.networks.use on the project
To specify a static IP address for the VM: compute.addresses.use on the project
To assign an external IP address to the VM when using a legacy network: compute.networks.useExternalIp on the project
To specify a subnet for the VM: compute.subnetworks.use on the project or on the chosen subnet
To assign an external IP address to the VM when using a VPC network: compute.subnetworks.useExternalIp on the project or on the chosen subnet
To set VM instance metadata for the VM: compute.instances.setMetadata on the project
To set tags for the VM: compute.instances.setTags on the VM
To set labels for the VM: compute.instances.setLabels on the VM
To set a service account for the VM to use: compute.instances.setServiceAccount on the VM
To create a new disk for the VM: compute.disks.create on the project
To attach an existing disk in read-only or read-write mode: compute.disks.use on the disk
To attach an existing disk in read-only mode: compute.disks.useReadOnly on the disk

Create a dual-stack instance

To create an instance with an internal IPv4 address and an external IPv6 address, connect the compute instance to a dual-stack subnet.

If you're using Shared VPC, and want to create a dual-stack instance that is connected to a shared subnet, see Create an instance in the Shared VPC documentation.

Console

Go to the Create an instance page.

Go to Create an instance
If prompted, select your project and click Continue. The Create an instance page appears and displays the Machine configuration pane.
In the Machine configuration pane, do the following:
1. In the Name field, specify a name for your instance. For more information, see Naming resources.
2. Optional: In the Zone field, select a zone for this instance. Choose a zone in a region that contains a subnet that has an IPv6 range configured.
3. Select the machine family for your instance. The Google Cloud console then displays the machine series that are available for your selected machine family. The following machine family options are available:
  - General purpose
  - Compute optimized
  - Memory optimized
  - Storage optimized
  - GPUs
4. In the Series column, select the machine series for your instance.
5. In the Machine type section, select the machine type for your instance.
In the navigation menu, click Networking. In the Networking pane that appears, do the following:
1. In the Network interfaces section, click the network interface to expand and edit it.
2. For Network and Subnetwork, select the network and subnetwork that has an IPv6 range configured.
3. For IP stack type, select IPv4 and IPv6 (dual-stack).
4. For Primary internal IPv4 address, select one of the following:
  - To assign a new ephemeral IPv4 internal address, choose Ephemeral.
  - To assign an existing static external IP address, choose the name of a reserved IPv4 address from the list.
  - To create and assign a new static internal IPv4 address, choose Reserve static internal IPv4 address.
5. Optional: For External IPv4 address, select one of the following:
  - To assign an ephemeral external IPv4 address, choose Ephemeral.
  - To create an instance without an external IPv4 address, choose None.
  - To assign an existing static external IP address, choose the name of a reserved IPv4 address from the list.
  - To create and assign a new static external IPv4 address, choose Reserve static external IPv4 address.
6. Optional: To configure an external IPv6 address, for External IPv6 address, select one of the following:
  - To assign a new ephemeral external IPv6 address, choose Auto-allocate.
  - To assign an existing static external IP address, choose the name of a reserved IPv6 address from the list.
  - To create and assign a new static external IPv6 address, choose Reserve static external IPv6 address.
7. To finish modifying the network interface, click Done.
8. Optional: To configure an additional network interface, click Add a network interface and repeat the previous steps for the Networking pane.
Optional: Specify other configuration options. For more information, see Configuration options during instance creation.
To create and start the instance, click Create.

gcloud

Create an instance by using the gcloud compute instances create command.

gcloud compute instances create INSTANCE_NAME \
    --subnet=SUBNET_NAME \
    --zone=ZONE \
    --stack-type=IPV4_IPV6

Replace the following:

INSTANCE_NAME: the name for the instance
SUBNET_NAME: the subnet to connect the instance to; the subnet must have an IPv6 subnet range
ZONE: the zone to deploy the instance in

REST

Select an image. Make a note of the name of the image or image family and the name of the project containing the image.
Use the instances.insert method to create an instance from an image family or from a specific version of an OS image:

Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:
- PROJECT_ID: ID of the project to create the instance in.
- ZONE: zone to create the instance in.
- MACHINE_TYPE_ZONE: if using a custom machine type, then specify the zone containing the custom machine type to use for the new instance; otherwise, specify the zone to create the instance in.
- MACHINE_TYPE: machine type, predefined or custom, for the new instance—for example, n4-standard-2
- INSTANCE_NAME: a name for the new instance
- REGION: the region that contains the subnet
- SUBNET: a dual-stack subnet
- IMAGE_PROJECT: Optional: the image project that contains the image
- IMAGE: Optional: specify one of the following:
  - A specific version of the OS image—for example, debian-12-bookworm-v20241009
  - An image family, which must be formatted as family/IMAGE_FAMILY. This creates the instance from the most recent, non-deprecated OS image. For example, if you specify family/debian-12, Compute Engine creates an instance using the latest version of the OS image in the Debian 12 image family. For more information about using image families, see Image families best practices.
HTTP method and URL:
```
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instances
```
Request JSON body:
```
{
    "machineType": "zones/MACHINE_TYPE_ZONE/machineTypes/MACHINE_TYPE",
    "name": "INSTANCE_NAME",
    "networkInterfaces": [
      {
        "subnetwork": "regions/REGION/subnetworks/SUBNET",
        "stackType": "IPV4_IPV6"
      }
    ],
    "disks": [
      {
        "initializeParams": {
          "sourceImage": "projects/IMAGE_PROJECT/global/images/IMAGE"
        },
        "boot": true
      }
    ],
}
```
To send your request, expand one of these options:
curl (Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell)

Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to the gcloud CLI with your user account by running gcloud init or gcloud auth login , or by using Cloud Shell, which automatically logs you into the gcloud CLI . You can check the currently active account by running gcloud auth list.

Save the request body in a file named request.json, and execute the following command:
```
curl -X POST \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8" \
     -d @request.json \
     "https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instances"
```
PowerShell (Windows)

Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to the gcloud CLI with your user account by running gcloud init or gcloud auth login . You can check the currently active account by running gcloud auth list.

Save the request body in a file named request.json, and execute the following command:
```
$cred = gcloud auth print-access-token
$headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred" }

Invoke-WebRequest `
    -Method POST `
    -Headers $headers `
    -ContentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8" `
    -InFile request.json `
    -Uri "https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instances" | Select-Object -Expand Content
```
You should receive a JSON response similar to the following:
```
{
  "kind": "compute#operation",
  "id": "9216044482154695709",
  "name": "operation-1739207409646-62dccc7d7bc58-d1350b42-64fdb7f7",
  "zone": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/{api_version}/projects/`PROJECT_ID`/zones/`ZONE`",
  "operationType": "insert",
  "targetLink": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/{api_version}/projects/`PROJECT_ID`/zones/`ZONE`/instances/`INSTANCE_NAME`",
  "targetId": "2679381553616227357",
  "status": "RUNNING",
  "user": "USER_ID",
  "progress": 0,
  "insertTime": "2025-02-10T09:10:10.551-08:00",
  "startTime": "2025-02-10T09:10:10.551-08:00",
  "selfLink": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/{api_version}/projects/`PROJECT_ID`/zones/`ZONE`/operations/operation-1565289606387-58f9f62f5989c-e582f586-6d22f38"
 "kind": "compute#operation"
}
```

Create an IPv6-only instance

To create an IPv6-only instance, follow the steps in this section.

For a Compute Engine instance with a single network interface, the instance can have either an internal or external IPv6 address, depending on the access type of the network to which its interface is connected. You must create a custom mode Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) network with a subnet that has an IPv6 address range.

Before you can create a multi-NIC VM instance that uses both internal and external IPv6 addresses, you must create the following:

The internal network and subnet: A custom mode VPC network with IPv6 ULA enabled, a subnet with an IPv6 address range, and the access type set to internal.
The external network and subbet: A second custom mode VPC network, a second subnet with an IPv6 address range, and the access type set to external.

When you create the instance, you configure two network interfaces, one that connects to the subnet with the internal IPv6 address range and one that connects to the subnet with the external address range.

If you're using Shared VPC, and want to create an IPv6-only instance that is connected to a shared subnet, see Create an instance in the Shared VPC documentation.

Console

Go to the Create an instance page.

Go to Create an instance
If prompted, select your project and click Continue. The Create an instance page appears and displays the Machine configuration pane.
In the Machine configuration pane, do the following:
1. In the Name field, specify a name for your instance. For more information, see Naming resources.
2. Optional: In the Zone field, select a zone for this instance. Choose a zone in a region that contains a subnet that has an IPv6 range configured.
3. Select the machine family for your instance. The Google Cloud console then displays the machine series that are available for your selected machine family. The following machine family options are available:
  - General purpose
  - Compute optimized
  - Memory optimized
  - Storage optimized
  - GPUs
4. In the Series column, select the machine series for your instance.
5. In the Machine type section, select the machine type for your instance.
In the navigation menu, click Networking. In the Networking pane that appears, do the following:
1. In the Network interfaces section, click the network interface to expand and edit it.
2. For Network and Subnetwork, select the network and subnetwork that has an IPv6 range configured.
  
  The IPv6 access type of the subnet determines whether the instance receives an internal IPv6 address or an external IPv6 address. To assign an internal IPv6 address, you must select a network that was created with the Configure a ULA internal IPv6 range for this VPC Network option. Otherwise, you can configure only external IPv6 addresses.
3. For IP stack type, select IPv6 (single stack).
4. If you selected a subnet with an access type of Internal, then for Primary internal IPv6 address, select one of the following:
  - To assign a new ephemeral IPv6 address, choose Auto-allocated (/96)
  - To assign an existing static internal IP address, choose the name of a reserved IPv6 address from the list.
  - To create and assign a new static internal IPv6 address, choose Reserve static internal IPv6 address.
5. If you selected a subnet with an access type of External, then for External IPv6 address, select one of the following:
  - To assign a new ephemeral external IPv6 address, choose Auto-allocate.
  - To assign an existing static external IP address, choose the name of a reserved IPv6 address from the list.
  - To create and assign a new static external IPv6 address, choose Reserve static external IPv6 address.
6. To finish modifying the network interface, click Done.
7. Optional: To add an additional IPv6 address, do the following:
  1. Select Add a network interface.
  2. Repeat the previous steps in this task for the Networking pane.
Optional: Specify other configuration options. For more information, see Configuration options during instance creation.
To create and start the instance, click Create.

gcloud

Create an instance by using the gcloud beta compute instances create command. To assign both internal and external IPv6 addresses, you must create the instance with at least two network interfaces.

gcloud beta compute instances create INSTANCE_NAME \
    --zone ZONE \
    --machine-type=MACHINE_TYPE \
    --create-disk=boot=yes,image='projects/IMAGE_PROJECT/global/images/IMAGE',size=SIZE \
    --network-interface=subnet=SUBNET_INTERNAL_NAME,stack-type=IPV6_ONLY \
    --network-interface=subnet=SUBNET_EXTERNAL_NAME,stack-type=IPV6_ONLY,ipv6-network-tier=PREMIUM

Replace the following:

INSTANCE_NAME: a name for the instance
ZONE: the zone where the instance is created, such as europe-west1-b. The instance's region is inferred from the zone.
MACHINE_TYPE: Optional: machine type, predefined or custom, for the new instance. For example, n4-standard-2.
IMAGE_PROJECT: Optional: the image project that contains the image
IMAGE: Optional: specify one of the following:
- A specific version of the OS image—for example, debian-12-bookworm-v202410095.
- An image family, which must be formatted as family/IMAGE_FAMILY. This creates the instance from the most recent, non-deprecated OS image. For example, if you specify family/debian-12, Compute Engine creates an instance using the latest version of the OS image in the Debian 12 image family. For more information about using image families, see Image families best practices.
SIZE: Optional: the size of the new disk. The value must be a whole number. The default unit of measurement is GiB.
SUBNET_INTERNAL_NAME: name of the subnet that is configured for internal IP addresses to use with the instance.
SUBNET_EXTERNAL_NAME: name of the subnet that is configured for external IP addresses to use with the instance.

REST

Select an image. Make a note of the name of the image or image family and the name of the project containing the image.
Use the instances.insert method to create an instance from an image family or from a specific version of an OS image:

Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:
- PROJECT_ID: ID of the project to create the instance in.
- ZONE: zone to create the instance in.
- MACHINE_TYPE_ZONE: if using a custom machine type, then specify the zone containing the custom machine type to use for the new instance; otherwise,specify the zone to create the instance in.
- MACHINE_TYPE: machine type, predefined or custom, for the new instance—for example, n4-standard-2.
- INSTANCE_NAME: a name for the new instance
- REGION: the region that contains the subnet
- SUBNET_INTERNAL: an IPv6-only subnet. The network for this subnet must have an access type of INTERNAL and have IPv6 ULA enabled.
- SUBNET_EXTERNAL: an IPv6-only subnet. The network for this subnet must have an access type of INTERNAL.
- IMAGE_PROJECT: Optional: the image project that contains the image
- IMAGE: Optional: specify one of the following:
  - A specific version of the OS image—for example, debian-12-bookworm-v20241009
  - An image family, which must be formatted as family/IMAGE_FAMILY. This creates the instance from the most recent, non-deprecated OS image. For example, if you specify family/debian-12, Compute Engine creates an instance using the latest version of the OS image in the Debian 12 image family. For more information about using image families, see Image families best practices.
HTTP method and URL:
```
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/beta/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instances
```
Request JSON body:
```
{
    "machineType": "zones/MACHINE_TYPE_ZONE/machineTypes/MACHINE_TYPE",
    "name": "INSTANCE_NAME",
    "networkInterfaces": [
      {
        "subnetwork": "regions/REGION/subnetworks/SUBNET_INTERNAL",
        "stackType": "IPV6_ONLY"
      },
      {
        "subnetwork": "regions/REGION/subnetworks/SUBNET_EXTERNAL",
        "stackType": "IPV6_ONLY"
      }
    ],
    "disks": [
      {
        "initializeParams": {
          "sourceImage": "projects/IMAGE_PROJECT/global/images/IMAGE"

        },
        "boot": true
      }
    ]
}
```
To send your request, expand one of these options:
curl (Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell)

Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to the gcloud CLI with your user account by running gcloud init or gcloud auth login , or by using Cloud Shell, which automatically logs you into the gcloud CLI . You can check the currently active account by running gcloud auth list.

Save the request body in a file named request.json, and execute the following command:
```
curl -X POST \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8" \
     -d @request.json \
     "https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/beta/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instances"
```
PowerShell (Windows)

Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to the gcloud CLI with your user account by running gcloud init or gcloud auth login . You can check the currently active account by running gcloud auth list.

Save the request body in a file named request.json, and execute the following command:
```
$cred = gcloud auth print-access-token
$headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred" }

Invoke-WebRequest `
    -Method POST `
    -Headers $headers `
    -ContentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8" `
    -InFile request.json `
    -Uri "https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/beta/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instances" | Select-Object -Expand Content
```
You should receive a JSON response similar to the following:
```
{
  "kind": "compute#operation",
  "id": "9216044482154695709",
  "name": "operation-1739207409646-62dccc7d7bc58-d1350b42-64fdb7f7",
  "zone": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/beta/projects/`PROJECT_ID`/zones/`ZONE`",
  "operationType": "insert",
  "targetLink": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/beta/projects/`PROJECT_ID`/zones/`ZONE`/instances/`INSTANCE_NAME`",
  "targetId": "2679381553616227357",
  "status": "RUNNING",
  "user": "USER_ID",
  "progress": 0,
  "insertTime": "2025-02-10T09:10:10.551-08:00",
  "startTime": "2025-02-10T09:10:10.551-08:00",
  "selfLink": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/beta/projects/`PROJECT_ID`/zones/`ZONE`/operations/operation-1565289606387-58f9f62f5989c-e582f586-6d22f38"
 "kind": "compute#operation"
}
```

Create an instance that uses IPv6 addresses

Limitations

Before you begin

Console

gcloud

REST

Required roles

Permissions required for this task

Create a dual-stack instance

Console

gcloud

REST

curl (Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell)

PowerShell (Windows)

Create an IPv6-only instance

Console

gcloud

REST

curl (Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell)

PowerShell (Windows)

What's next