Supported operating systems

To migrate a virtual machine (VM) from any migration source, the VM must be running an operating system supported by Migrate to Virtual Machines. This page lists the operating systems supported by Migrate to Virtual Machines for each migration source.

Some Compute Engine features require agents and services running on the VM. These agents and services are installed automatically during the migration. However, certain security features such as SELinux, anti-viruses, and firewalls, may interfere with these services and prevent certain features from functioning. In order to make sure that the guest environment functions properly, follow the steps in Loaded services for the guest environment and if needed, the Troubleshooting steps for Compute Engine.

To request support for any operating system, contact us at: m2vm-os-support-request@google.com.

VMware source

You can migrate a VM from a VMware source, if the VM is running an operating system that is listed in the following table.

OS Version Default license License option BIOS to UEFI conversion supported
CentOS 7.0 - 7.9 N/A N/A Yes
8.0 - 8.5 N/A N/A Yes
Stream 8 N/A N/A Yes
Stream 9 N/A N/A Yes
Debian 10.0 - 10.12 N/A N/A No
11.0 - 11.6 N/A N/A No
12 N/A N/A No
RHEL 6.10 BYOL PAYG with ELS (see Append RHEL ELS licenses) No
7.0 - 7.9 BYOL PAYG No
8.0 - 8.6 BYOL PAYG Yes
9.0 - 9.1 BYOL PAYG Yes
9.2 BYOL PAYG No
Rocky Linux 8.4 - 8.5 N/A N/A No
9 N/A N/A No
SLES 12 SP5 BYOL PAYG Yes
12 SP4 SAP BYOL PAYG No
15 SP3 BYOL PAYG Yes
15 SP5 BYOL PAYG No
15 SP2 SAP BYOL PAYG No
Ubuntu 18.04.6 N/A N/A No
20.04.0 - 20.04.03 N/A N/A No
22.04 N/A N/A No
20.04.4 N/A N/A No
Windows Server (Essentials, Standard, and Datacenter) 2016 PAYG BYOL Only for Datacenter
2019 PAYG BYOL Only for Datacenter
2022 PAYG BYOL Only for Datacenter

AWS source

You can migrate a VM from an AWS source, if the VM is running an operating system that is listed in the following table.

OS Version Default license License option BIOS to UEFI conversion supported ARM supported
Amazon Linux 2 N/A N/A No No
CentOS 7.0 - 7.9 N/A N/A Yes No
8.0 - 8.5 N/A N/A Yes No
Stream 8 N/A N/A Yes No
Stream 9 N/A N/A Yes No
Debian 10.0 - 10.12 N/A N/A No No
11.0 - 11.6 N/A N/A No Yes
12 N/A N/A No Yes
RHEL 6.10 PAYG PAYG with ELS (see Append RHEL ELS licenses) No No
7.0 - 7.9 PAYG PAYG No No
7.0 - 7.9 SAP PAYG PAYG No
8.0 - 8.9 PAYG PAYG Yes No
8.0 - 8.9 SAP PAYG PAYG No
9.0 - 9.1 PAYG PAYG Yes Yes
9.2 PAYG PAYG No Yes
9.0 - 9.2 SAP PAYG PAYG No
Rocky Linux 8.4 - 8.5 N/A N/A No Yes
9 N/A N/A No Yes
SLES 12 SP5 PAYG PAYG Yes No
15 SP3 PAYG PAYG Yes No
15 SP5 PAYG PAYG No Yes
Ubuntu 18.04.6 N/A N/A No No
20.04.0 - 20.04.03 N/A N/A No Yes
20.04.4 N/A N/A No Yes
22.04 N/A N/A No Yes
Windows Server (Essentials, Standard, and Datacenter) 2016 PAYG BYOL Only for Datacenter Not applicable (N/A)
2019 PAYG BYOL Only for Datacenter N/A
2022 PAYG BYOL Only for Datacenter N/A

Azure source

You can migrate a VM from an Azure source, if the VM is running an operating system that is listed in the following table.

OS Version Default license License option BIOS to UEFI conversion supported ARM supported
CentOS 7.6 - 7.9 N/A N/A Yes No
8.0 - 8.5 N/A N/A Yes No
Stream 8 N/A N/A Yes No
Stream 9 N/A N/A Yes No
Debian 11.0 - 11.6 N/A N/A No Yes
12 N/A N/A No Yes
RHEL 7.4 - 7.8 PAYG PAYG No No
7.9 PAYG PAYG Yes No
7.4 - 7.9 SAP PAYG PAYG No
8.0 - 8.9 PAYG PAYG Yes No
8.0 - 8.9 SAP PAYG PAYG No
9.0 - 9.2 PAYG PAYG Yes Yes
9.0 - 9.2 SAP PAYG PAYG No
Rocky Linux 8.4 - 8.5 N/A N/A No Yes
9 N/A N/A Yes Yes
SLES 12 SP5 PAYG PAYG Yes No
15 SP3 PAYG PAYG Yes No
15 SP5 PAYG PAYG Yes Yes
Ubuntu 20.04.0 - 20.04.03 N/A N/A No Yes
20.04.4 N/A N/A No Yes
22.04 N/A N/A No Yes
Windows Server (Essentials, Standard, and Datacenter) 2016 PAYG BYOL Only for Datacenter N/A
2019 PAYG BYOL Only for Datacenter N/A
2022 PAYG BYOL Only for Datacenter N/A
2022 Azure Edition BYOL N/A No

Image import

You can import a virtual disk to Compute Engine using Migrate to Virtual Machines, if the VM is running an operating system that is listed in the following table.

OS Version Default license License option BIOS to UEFI conversion supported
CentOS 7.0 - 7.9 N/A N/A Yes
8.0 - 8.5 N/A N/A Yes
Stream 8 N/A N/A Yes
Stream 9 N/A N/A Yes
Debian 10.0 - 10.12 N/A N/A No
11.0 - 11.6 N/A N/A No
12 N/A N/A No
RHEL 6.10 BYOL PAYG with ELS (see Append RHEL ELS licenses) No
7.0 - 7.9 BYOL PAYG No
8.0 - 8.6 BYOL PAYG Yes
9.0 - 9.1 BYOL PAYG Yes
9.2 BYOL PAYG No
Rocky Linux 8.4 - 8.5 N/A N/A No
9 N/A N/A No
SLES 12 SP5 BYOL PAYG Yes
12 SP4 SAP BYOL PAYG No
15 SP3 BYOL PAYG Yes
15 SP5 BYOL PAYG No
15 SP2 SAP BYOL PAYG No
Ubuntu 18.04.6 N/A N/A No
20.04.0 - 20.04.03 N/A N/A No
22.04 N/A N/A No
20.04.4 N/A N/A No
Windows Server (Essentials, Standard, and Datacenter) 2016 PAYG BYOL Only for Datacenter
2019 PAYG BYOL Only for Datacenter
2022 PAYG BYOL Only for Datacenter

Operating systems with migration support only

Migrate to Virtual Machines supports migrating VMs running the following operating systems that have reached end of life (EOL). You can migrate VMs running operating systems that have reached EOL to Google Cloud, however, note that not all Compute Engine features might be supported. Contact the Migrate to Virtual Machines support team if you need assistance to migrate these VMs.

OS Version Default license License option BIOS to UEFI conversion supported Comments
CentOS 6.0 - 6.10 N/A N/A No
8.0 - 8.4 N/A N/A Yes
Debian 8.0 - 8.11 N/A N/A No
9.0 - 9.13 N/A N/A No
Oracle Linux 6.0 - 6.7 BYOL N/A No Requires kernel-uek version of at least 4.1.12-37.4.1
6.8 - 6.10 BYOL N/A No
7.0 - 7.9 BYOL N/A No
8.0 - 8.8 BYOL N/A No
RHEL 6.0 - 6.9 BYOL N/A No
SLES 11 SP3 BYOL N/A No
11 SP4 BYOL BYOL No
Ubuntu 14.04 N/A N/A No
16.04 N/A N/A No
18.04 N/A N/A No
Windows Client 7 SP1 (x86 and x64) BYOL N/A No
8 (x86 and x64) BYOL N/A No
8.1 (x86 and x64) BYOL N/A No
10 (x86 and x64) BYOL N/A No
Windows Server (Essentials, Standard, and Datacenter) 2008 R2 PAYG BYOL No (only for Datacenter)
2012 PAYG BYOL Yes (only for Datacenter)
2012 R2 PAYG BYOL Yes (only for Datacenter)

Licensing

Compute Engine supports pay as you go (PAYG) licenses and bring your own licenses (BYOL). The default license type for migrated VMs is assigned by Migrate to Virtual Machines based on the migrated OS. For more information, see the tables in the preceding sections.

If the operating system supports multiple license types, you can change the license type when you configure the target Compute Engine instance. For more information, see Configuring the target for a migrated VM.

Support for encrypted disks

Migrate to Virtual Machines does not support software encrypted disks because they cannot be read without a key. Specifically, you cannot migrate Windows 10 and later systems that use BitLocker drive encryption.

Support for Compute Engine machine series

Migrate to Virtual Machines supports migrating virtual machine instances (VMs) to Compute Engine 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation machine series.

Note that the 3rd generation machine series such as C3, H3, and M3 require non-volatile memory express (NVMe) and Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) drivers which may not be supported by some older operating systems. If a migrating VM is running an operating system that doesn't support gVNIC or NVMe, Migrate to Virtual Machines blocks you from selecting an incompatible 3rd generation machine series.

For information on different machine types that support NVMe and gVNIC, go to the Machine series comparison section, click Choose VM properties to compare, and select Disk interface type and Network interfaces. For more information on machine types and their requirements, see General-purpose machine family for Compute Engine.