Configure per VM Tier_1 networking performance

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Compute Engine lets you select a high-bandwidth per VM Tier_1 networking performance configuration for certain Compute Engine virtual machine (VM) and bare metal instances. Compute instances with Tier_1 networking configurations are especially useful for large, distributed compute workloads with lots of heavy internode communications, such as high performance computing (HPC), machine learning (ML), and deep learning (DL).

Combining these high network throughput instances with high-performance Local SSD storage is beneficial for I/O-intensive, flash-optimized databases.

Before you begin

• Review the pricing for per VM Tier_1 networking performance at Tier_1 higher bandwidth network pricing.
• If you haven't already, set up authentication. Authentication verifies your identity 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. After installation, initialize the Google Cloud CLI by running the following command:

     gcloud init

     If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

     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.

  Install the Google Cloud CLI. After installation, initialize the Google Cloud CLI by running the following command:

  gcloud init

  If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

  Note: If you installed the gcloud CLI previously, make sure you have the latest version by running gcloud components update.

  For more information, see Authenticate for using REST in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.

Required roles

To get the permissions that you need to configure an instance to use per VM Tier_1 networking performance, ask your administrator to grant you the following IAM roles on your project:

• Compute Instance Admin (v1) (roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1)
• Create Service Accounts (roles/iam.serviceAccountCreator)

For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

These predefined roles contain the permissions required to configure an instance to use per VM Tier_1 networking performance. To see the exact permissions that are required, expand the Required permissions section:

Required permissions

The following permissions are required to configure an instance to use per VM Tier_1 networking performance:

• To create instances:
  • 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
• To update an instance to include Tier_1 networking:
  • compute.instances.update
  • Permission to use the resources that you want to modify on the instance, forexample compute.networks.use
• To create an instance template with Tier_1 networking: compute.instanceTemplates.create

You might also be able to get these permissions with custom roles or other predefined roles.

Limitations

• Compute Engine is the only product area supporting Tier_1 networking.
• Tier_1 networking is supported with N2, N2D, C2, C2D, C3, C3D, C4, C4A, C4D, M3, M4, and Z3 machine types that have the minimum required vCPUs.
• For VMs, Tier_1 networking requires the gVNIC virtual network driver and a gVNIC-compatible OS or custom image.
• Third generation and later VMs require gVNIC driver version 1.4.2 or later to deliver the highest network bandwidth. Make sure the operating system (OS) image that you use fully supports Tier_1 networking. Fully supported OS images include the updated gVNIC driver. You can update the gVNIC driver on images that don't have the latest version.
• Purchasable stock keeping units (SKUs) for Tier_1 networking are excluded from committed use discounts.
• Large C4, C4D, C3, C3D, and Z3 VMs might encounter NUMA-related bottlenecks when bandwidth is pushed beyond 100 Gbps. Depending on your application architecture, you might need to control for thread and interrupt placement. On Linux, guest OS features such as Receive Flow Steering (RFS) can help address this issue. Verify that your applications are NUMA-tuned to maximize your performance.

Bandwidth tiers

The egress bandwidth limit represents the maximum possible amount of data per unit of time (for example, gigabits per second, or Gbps) that Google Cloud allows a Compute Engine instance to emit from its network interfaces (NICs). The egress bandwidth includes data transferred to all Persistent Disk and Google Cloud Hyperdisk volumes attached to the instance.

Note the following about bandwidth limits:

• The default bandwidth limit ranges from 10 Gbps to 200 Gbps, depending on the machine type and instance size.
• Tier_1 networking increases the maximum egress bandwidth limit for compute instances. The maximum egress bandwidth limit ranges from 50 Gbps to 200 Gbps, depending on the size and machine type of your instance.
• The actual egress bandwidth is always less than or equal to the egress bandwidth limit.

To achieve the highest possible egress bandwidth, all of the following must be true:

• The sending and receiving compute instances must be in the same zone.
• The instances must have NICs in the same VPC network or in VPC networks connected by VPC Network Peering.
• Packets sent between the instances must use internal IP address destinations.
• The VPC network that is used by the instances uses the highest maximum transmission unit (MTU) setting. A higher MTU reduces the packet-header overhead and thus increases payload data throughput.

For a complete discussion about egress and ingress bandwidth limits, see Network bandwidth.

General-purpose C4 VMs and bare metal instances

The following table describes the egress bandwidth limits for C4 VMs and bare metal instances. For C4 VMs with Local SSD, only machine types with 288 vCPUs support Tier_1 networking.

vCPUs	Internal IP	Tier_1 Internal IP	External IP	Tier_1 External IP
2	10 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
4	23 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
8	23 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
16	23 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
24	23 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
32	23 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
48	34 Gbps	50 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
96	67 Gbps	100 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
144	100 Gbps	150 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
192	100 Gbps	200 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
288	100 Gbps	200 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps

General-purpose C4A VMs

The following table describes the egress bandwidth limits for C4A VMs.

vCPUs	Internal IP	Tier_1 Internal IP	External IP	Tier_1 External IP
1	10 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
2	10 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
4	23 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
8	23 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
16	23 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
32	23 Gbps	50 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
48	34 Gbps	50 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
64	45 Gbps	75 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
72	50 Gbps	100 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps

General-purpose C4D VMs and bare metal instances

The following table describes the egress bandwidth limits for C4D instances.

vCPUs	Internal IP	Tier_1 Internal IP	External IP	Tier_1 External IP
2	10 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
4	20 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
8	20 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
16	20 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
32	23 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
48	34 Gbps	50 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
64	45 Gbps	75 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
96	67 Gbps	100 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
192	100 Gbps	150 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
384	100 Gbps	200 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps

General-purpose C3 VMs and bare metal instances

The following table describes the egress bandwidth limits for C3 VMs and bare metal instances.

Note: If you are using a C3 bare metal instance, you can maximize network bandwidth performance by disabling sleep states. For more information, see the troubleshooting documentation.

vCPUs	Internal IP	Tier_1 Internal IP	External IP	Tier_1 External IP
4	23 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
8	23 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
22	23 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
44	32 Gbps	50 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
88	62 Gbps	100 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
176	100 Gbps	200 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
192	100 Gbps	200 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps

General-purpose C3D VMs

vCPUs	Internal IP	Tier_1 Internal IP	External IP	Tier_1 External IP
4	20 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
8	20 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
16	20 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
30	20 Gbps	50 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
60	40 Gbps	75 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
90	60 Gbps	100 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
180	100 Gbps	150 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
360	100 Gbps	200 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps

Compute-optimized C2 VMs

The following table describes the egress bandwidth limits for C2 VMs.

vCPUs	Internal IP	Tier_1 Internal IP	External IP	Tier_1 External IP
4	10 Gbps	Not applicable (N/A)	7 Gbps	N/A
8	16 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
16	32 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
30	32 Gbps	50 Gbps	7 Gbps	7 Gbps
60	32 Gbps	100 Gbps	7 Gbps	7 Gbps

Compute-optimized C2D VMs

The following table describes the egress bandwidth limits for C2D VMs.

vCPUs	Internal IP	Tier_1 Internal IP	External IP	Tier_1 External IP
2	10 Gbps	Not applicable (N/A)	7 Gbps	N/A
4	10 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
8	16 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
16	32 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
32	32 Gbps	50 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
56	32 Gbps	50 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
112	32 Gbps	100 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps

Compute-optimized H3 VMs

The following table describes the egress bandwidth limits for H3 VMs.

vCPUs	Internal IP	External IP
88	200 Gbps	1 Gbps

Memory-optimized M4 VMs

The following table describes the egress bandwidth limits for M4 VMs.

vCPUs	Internal IP	Tier_1 Internal IP	External IP	Tier_1 External IP
16	16 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
32	32 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
56	32 Gbps	50 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
64	32 Gbps	50 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
112	50 Gbps	100 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
224	100 Gbps	200 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps

Memory-optimized M3 VMs

The following table describes the egress bandwidth limits for M3 VMs.

vCPUs	Internal IP	Tier_1 Internal IP	External IP	Tier_1 External IP
32	32 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
64	32 Gbps	50 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
128	32 Gbps	100 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps

General-purpose N2 VMs

The following table describes the egress bandwidth limits for N2 VMs.

vCPUs	Internal IP	Tier_1 Internal IP	External IP	Tier_1 External IP
2	10 Gbps	Not applicable (N/A)	7 Gbps	N/A
4	10 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
8	16 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
16	32 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
32	32 Gbps	50 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
48	32 Gbps	50 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
64	32 Gbps	75 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
80	32 Gbps	100 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
96	32 Gbps	100 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
128	32 Gbps	100 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps

General-purpose N2 (custom size shapes) VMs

The following table describes the egress bandwidth limits for custom-sized N2 VMs.

vCPUs	Internal IP	Tier_1 Internal IP	External IP	Tier_1 External IP
2, 4, or 6	10 Gbps	Not applicable (N/A)	7 Gbps	N/A
8, 10, 12, or 14	16 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, or 30	32 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
32, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56, or 60	32 Gbps	50 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
64, 68, 72, or 76	32 Gbps	75 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
80 or more	32 Gbps	100 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps

General-purpose N2D VMs

The following table describes the egress bandwidth limits for N2D VMs.

vCPUs	Internal IP	Tier_1 Internal IP	External IP	Tier_1 External IP
2	10 Gbps	Not applicable (N/A)	7 Gbps	N/A
4	10 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
8	16 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
16	32 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
32	32 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
48	32 Gbps	50 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
64	32 Gbps	50 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
80	32 Gbps	50 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
96	32 Gbps	100 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
128	32 Gbps	100 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
224	32 Gbps	100 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps

General-purpose N2D (custom size shapes) VMs

The following table describes the egress bandwidth limits for custom-sized N2D VMs.

vCPUs	Internal IP	Tier_1 Internal IP	External IP	Tier_1 External IP
2 or 4	10 Gbps	Not applicable (N/A)	7 Gbps	N/A
8	16 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
16 or 32	32 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
48, 64, or 80	32 Gbps	50 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
96	32 Gbps	100 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps

Memory-optimized X4 instance

The following table describes the egress bandwidth limits for X4 bare metal instances.

Note: If using a X4 bare metal instance, to maximize network bandwidth performance, see the Troubleshooting documentation for information about disabling sleep states.

vCPUs	Internal IP	External IP
960	100 Gbps	7 Gbps
1440	100 Gbps	7 Gbps
1920	100 Gbps	7 Gbps

Storage-optimized Z3 VMs

The following table describes the egress bandwidth limits for Z3 VMs.

Note: If you are using a Z3 bare metal instance, you can maximize network bandwidth performance by disabling sleep states. For more information, see the troubleshooting documentation.

vCPUs	Internal IP	Tier_1 Internal IP	External IP	Tier_1 External IP
8, 14, 16, or 22	23 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
32	32 Gbps	N/A	7 Gbps	N/A
44	32 Gbps	50 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
88	62 Gbps	100 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
176	100 Gbps	200 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps
192	100 Gbps	200 Gbps	7 Gbps	25 Gbps

Configure an instance with Tier_1 networking

You can enable Tier_1 networking when creating a compute instance if the instance doesn't use the VirtioNet interface. You can also edit an instance to add or remove Tier_1 networking, provided the instance was created with the gVNIC or IDPF network interface .

Optionally, you can also enable faster network packet processing with DPDK to run performance-intensive applications on an instance that uses Tier_1 networking.

Create instances and containers that use Tier_1 networking

Use the Google Cloud console, the Google Cloud CLI or REST to add Tier_1 networking to a new compute instance or container.

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the VM instances page.

   Go to VM instances

2. Select your project.

3. Click Create instance.

4. Specify a Name for your compute instance. For more information, see Resource naming convention.

5. Select a region and zone that supports the machine type you plan to use.

6. Select a Machine configuration for your instance. To create an instance with Tier_1 networking, you must select a supported machine series and type.

   • Click the General purpose tab before selecting N2, N2D, C4, C4A, C4D, C3, or C3D from the Series drop-down menu.
   • Click the Compute optimized tab before selecting C2 or C2D from the Series menu.
   • Click the Memory optimized tab before selecting M3 or M4 from the Series menu.
   • Click the Storage optimized tab before selecting Z3 from the Series menu.

   If you get an error that the machine type is not available in the selected region, change the region to one that supports your chosen machine type.

7. In the Machine type menu, choose a machine type that aligns with the bandwidth tier size requirements.

8. To select a compatible operating system, in the Boot disk section, click Change, and then select a supported operating system or use the Custom Images tab to select a custom image.

9. Optional. In the Firewall section, choose your firewall rules.

10. Expand the Advanced options section.

11. Expand the Networking section, and then do the following:

    1. In the Network interface card menu, select gVNIC.

       Note: The option - in the Network interface card menu indicates that the NIC type can be either gVNIC or VirtioNet (VirtIO) depending on the machine type. For some machine types, only gVNIC is available for the network interface card. If both gVNIC and VirtIO are available for a VM instance, then choose gVNIC instead of using the default NIC type, which is VirtIO.

    2. In the Network bandwidth section, select the Enable per VM Tier_1 networking performance checkbox.

    3. If the machine type supports multiple NICs or your instance uses IPv6 addresses, then configure your Network interfaces.

12. Click Create.

gcloud

Use the gcloud compute instances create command to create an instance with a gVNIC virtual network driver. Use the --network-performance-configs flag and the --network-interface flag to configure a network performance setting for an instance. If you don't specify these flags the instance is created with the default network performance configuration.

To create an instance running container images, use the gcloud compute instances create-with-container command.

gcloud compute instances create INSTANCE_NAME  \
    --image=OS_IMAGE  \
    --machine-type=MACHINE_TYPE  \
    --network-performance-configs=total-egress-bandwidth-tier=TIER_1  \
    --network-interface=nic-type=GVNIC

Replace the following:

• INSTANCE_NAME: the name of the instance
• OS_IMAGE: an image that supports gVNIC image
• MACHINE_TYPE: a machine type that supports a high-bandwidth configuration

For example:

gcloud compute instances create instance-1 \
    --network-performance-configs=total-egress-bandwidth-tier=TIER_1 \
    --network-interface=nic-type=GVNIC \
    --image-family=rocky-linux-8-optimized-gcp \
    --image-project=rocky-linux-cloud \
    --machine-type=n2-standard-32

REST

Call the Compute Engine API instances.insert method to create a compute instance with a high-bandwidth network configuration. In the request body, do the following:

• Set the networkPerformanceConfig parameters to totalEgressBandwidthTier and TIER_1.
• Set the networkInterface parameters to nicType and GVNIC.

POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instances

{
  "name": INSTANCE_NAME,
    "description": string,
    ...
    "networkPerformanceConfig": {
        "totalEgressBandwidthTier": TIER_1
  },
    "networkInterfaces": [
      {
        "nicType": "GVNIC"
    },
    ...
    ]
  }

Replace the following:

• PROJECT_ID: your project ID
• ZONE: the zone where you want to create the instance
• INSTANCE_NAME: the name of the instance

Update a compute instance to include Tier_1 networking

Refer to the Updating instance properties documentation to verify that you are meeting all the requirements to successfully update your compute instance. Use the Google Cloud console, the Google Cloud CLI or REST to update an instance.

You can modify an existing instance to change the network configuration to include or exclude per VM Tier_1 networking performance. Your instance must already have a gVNIC interface associated with it; you can't edit your instance to add a network interface. To update the network configuration, you must stop and restart the instance.

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the VM instances page.

   Go to VM instances

2. Select your project.

3. Click the name of the instance that you want to modify.

4. Click Stop to stop the instance. If there is no Stop option, click More actions > Stop.

5. Click Edit.

6. If your instance was originally configured with a gVNIC card, select the Enable per VM Tier_1 networking performance checkbox to add per VM Tier_1 networking performance, or deselect the checkbox to remove this feature from your instance.

7. Save your changes.

8. Restart your instance.

gcloud

1. Export your instance's information to a YAML file using the gcloud compute instances export command.

   gcloud compute instances export INSTANCE_NAME \
      --zone=ZONE --destination=PATH_TO_FILE
   

   Replace the following:

   • INSTANCE_NAME: the name of the instance
   • ZONE: the name of the zone where the instance is located

   • PATH_TO_FILE: the relative path to the YAML file

     For example:

        gcloud compute instances export instance-1 \
            --zone=europe-west1-c --destination=test-file.yaml
        

2. Use the Cloud Shell Editor, or the editor of your choice to open the YAML file you created.

3. In the file, locate the configuration section for networkPerformanceConfig. Change the setting for totalEgressBandwidthTier as shown in the following example:

   networkPerformanceConfig:
    totalEgressBandwidthTier: TIER_1
   

   Setting totalEgressBandwidthTier to TIER_1 adds Tier_1 networking. Setting it to DEFAULT removes the configuration.

   Tip: To avoid getting an error such as "ERROR: (gcloud.compute.instances.update-from-file) Cannot parse YAML: [Expected type for field value, found True (type )]", add quotes (' ') around any label values of yes or no in the exported instance configuration file. This indicates the values are strings, not Boolean values.

4. Use the gcloud compute instance update-from-file command to update the instance with the changes in the file.

    gcloud compute instances update-from-file INSTANCE_NAME \
        --zone=ZONE \
        --source=PATH_TO_FILE \
        --most-disruptive-allowed-action=RESTART
   

   Replace the following:

   • INSTANCE_NAME: the name of the instance
   • ZONE: the name of the zone where the instance is located
   • PATH_TO_FILE: your YAML filename

   The --most-disruptive-allowed-action=RESTART flag setting automatically restarts your instance with the updated configuration.

REST

Call the instances.update method to modify the network configuration.

PUT https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instances/RESOURCE_ID?most_disruptive_allowed_action=RESTART

{
  "networkPerformanceConfig":{
      "totalEgressBandwidthTier": "TIER_1"
  },
...
}

Setting totalEgressBandwidthTier to TIER_1 adds Tier_1 networking. Setting it to DEFAULT removes the configuration.

Replace the following:

• PROJECT_ID: your project ID
• ZONE: the zone where your instance resides
• RESOURCE_ID: the name of your instance

The most_disruptive_allowed_action=RESTART query parameter automatically restarts your instance with the updated configuration.

Verify high-bandwidth configuration in a compute instance

Use the Google Cloud console, the Google Cloud CLI or REST to generate a description of an existing compute instance, or an existing instance that runs container images, to verify the instances's bandwidth tier.

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the VM instances page.

   Go to VM instances

2. Select your project and click Continue.

3. Click the instance name to see its configuration details and see if the instance uses per VM Tier_1 networking performance.

gcloud

Use the gcloud compute instances describe command to check if your instance uses per VM Tier_1 networking performance.

For example:

gcloud compute instances describe INSTANCE_NAME  \
    --format="text(name, networkPerformanceConfig)"

The output is similar to the following:

name: instance-1
networkPerformanceConfig.totalEgressBandwidthTier:TIER_1

If the output shows the value DEFAULT, then Tier_1 networking isn't enabled.

REST

Call the instances.get method to view the network configuration.

GET https://compute.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instances/RESOURCE_ID/

Replace the following:

• PROJECT_ID: your project name
• ZONE: the zone where your instance resides
• RESOURCE_ID: the name of your instance

The output should contain the following lines:

{
  "name": RESOURCE_ID,
    "description": string,
    ...
    "networkPerformanceConfig": {
        "totalEgressBandwidthTier": "TIER_1"
    },
    ...
  }

If the output shows the value DEFAULT, then Tier_1 networking is not enabled.

Create an instance template with Tier_1 networking

Use the Google Cloud console, the Google Cloud CLI or REST to create an instance template with per VM Tier_1 networking performance. Refer to the Creating an instance template documentation to verify that you are meeting all the requirements to create your instance template.

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Instance templates page.

   Go to Instance templates

2. Click Create instance template.

3. Enter values for the following fields, or accept the default values.

4. Specify a Name for your instance template. For more information, see Resource naming convention.

5. Select a region and zone that supports Tier_1 networking.

6. Select a Machine configuration for your compute instance. To create an instance that uses Tier_1 networking, you must select a supported machine series and machine type.

   • Click the General purpose tab before selecting N2, N2D, C4, C4A, C4D, C3, or C3D from the Series drop-down menu.
   • Click the Compute optimized tab before selecting C2 or C2D from the Series menu.
   • Click the Storage optimized tab before selecting Z3 from the Series menu.

7. In the Machine type menu, choose a machine type that aligns with the bandwidth tier size requirements.

8. In the Boot disk section, click Change, and then select a gVNIC-compatible or custom image.

9. Optional. In the Firewall section, choose your firewall rules.

10. Expand the Advanced options section.

11. Expand the Networking section, and then do the following:

    1. In the Network interface card menu, select gVNIC.

       Note: The option - in the Network interface card menu indicates that the NIC type can be either gVNIC or VirtioNet (VirtIO) depending on the machine family type. For some machine family types, only gVNIC is available for the network interface card. If both gVNIC and VirtIO are available for the machine type, then choose gVNIC instead of using the default NIC type, which is VirtIO.

    2. In the Network bandwidth section, select the Enable per VM Tier_1 networking performance checkbox.

    3. If the machine type supports multiple NICs or the instance uses IPv6 addresses, then configure the Network interfaces accordingly.

12. Click Create.

gcloud

Use the gcloud compute instance-templates create command with both the --network-performance-configs and the --network-interface flags.

gcloud compute instance-templates create INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_NAME \
    --image=OS_IMAGE \
    --machine-type=MACHINE_TYPE \
    --network-performance-configs=total-egress-bandwidth-tier=TIER_1 \
    --network-interface=nic-type=GVNIC

Replace the following:

• INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_NAME: the name of your instance template
• OS_IMAGE: an operating system image that supports gVNIC
• MACHINE_TYPE: a machine type that supports Tier_1 networking, as described in Bandwidth tiers.

For example:

gcloud compute instance-templates create instance-template-1 \
    --image-family=rocky-linux-8-optimized-gcp \
    --image-project=rocky-linux-cloud \
    --network-performance-configs=total-egress-bandwidth-tier=TIER_1 \
    --machine-type=n2-standard-32 \
    --network-interface=nic-type=GVNIC

REST

Call the instanceTemplates.insert method. Within the request body, set the networkPerformanceConfig parameter to totalEgressBandwidthTier and TIER_1. Set the networkInterfaces parameter to nicType and GVNIC.

POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/global/instancesTemplates

{
  "name": "INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_NAME",
  "properties": {
    "machineType": "zones/ZONE/machineTypes/MACHINE_TYPE",
    ...
    "networkPerformanceConfig": {
        "totalEgressBandwidthTier": "TIER_1"
     },
    "networkInterfaces": [
      {
        "nicType": "GVNIC"
      },
    ...
    ]
  }
}

Replace the following:

• PROJECT_ID: your project name
• INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_NAME: a name for the instance template
• ZONE: the zone where your instance is located
• MACHINE_TYPE: the machine type of the instance
• RESOURCE_ID: the name of your instance

Benchmark a higher bandwidth configuration

You can run a benchmark test to check your compute instances's performance with per VM Tier_1 networking performance. Be sure to remove the benchmarking resources that you create during testing when you are finished to avoid unexpected resource charges.

What's next

• Review per VM Tier_1 networking performance pricing
• Learn about the gVNIC network interface driver