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You must provide a laptop to install and upgrade Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) air-gapped appliance.
Upgrades and patches happen in the field without connection to Google
facilities or existing Google Distributed Cloud air-gapped data center environments.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-09-04 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eA laptop is required for installing and upgrading the Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) air-gapped appliance.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe laptop needs root access for the installation and upgrade process.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe laptop must have two Ethernet ports, at least 2 TB of storage, 32 GB of memory, and an 8 vCPU equivalent.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe laptop can either utilize the provided GDC \u003ccode\u003ebootstrapper.iso\u003c/code\u003e package or have Ubuntu 20.04 installed as an alternative compatible OS.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eUpgrades and patches are applied in the field, without external Google connections.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["# Laptop prerequisites\n\nYou must provide a laptop to install and upgrade Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) air-gapped appliance.\nUpgrades and patches happen in the field without connection to Google\nfacilities or existing Google Distributed Cloud air-gapped data center environments.\n| **Important:** To access the URLs on this page, you must connect to the internet. The URLs are provided for use when you have such access.\n\nMachine access\n--------------\n\nYou must have root access on the laptop.\n\nPhysical specifications\n-----------------------\n\nThe laptop must meet the following physical specifications, similar to a\nCompute Engine `n1-standard-8` machine\n(\u003chttps://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/general-purpose-machines#n1_machines\u003e):\n\n- [**Ethernet ports**](/distributed-cloud/hosted/docs/latest/appliance/overview#networking_sw)\n - Switch mgmt0 (1 GbEth)\n - MGMT/Data network (1 GbEth or 10 GbEth)\n- **Storage**\n - Enough storage and fast enough hosting releases for upgrade purposes. This requirement potentially implies multiple versions.\n - 2 T\n- **Memory**\n - 32 GB on par with the `n1-standard-8` machine\n- **CPU**\n - On par with the 8 vCPU `n1-standard-8` machine\n- **Operating system (OS) compatibility**\n - **Option A (preferred):** Install the GDC `bootstrapper.iso` package.\n - **Option B:** If the customer wants their own OS image, install the GDC bootstrapper-compatible OS (Ubuntu 20.04) distribution and software."]]
