This page provides general operating system (OS) details and feature support for the OS images that are available on Compute Engine.
Some OS images are customized specifically to run on Compute Engine and have notable differences from the standard images that come directly from the operating system vendors. These differences are also covered for each OS.
For information about how support and maintenance is provided for these OS images on Compute Engine, based on support package, license type, and image lifecycle stage, see Support and maintenance policy for OS images .
AlmaLinux
AlmaLinux is an open source, community owned and governed, forever-free enterprise Linux distribution, focused on long-term stability, providing a robust production-grade platform. AlmaLinux OS is binary compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). The AlmaLinux OS Foundation builds and supports the AlmaLinux images available for Compute Engine. There is no license fee for using AlmaLinux with Compute Engine.
Automatic updates
By default, this operating system is configured to install security updates by using the dnf-automatic
tool. The updates have the following behaviors:
- The
dnf-automatictool does not upgrade VMs between major versions of the operating system. - The upgrade tool is configured to only apply updates marked by the vendor as security updates.
- Some updates require reboots to take effect. These reboots do not happen automatically.
Image configuration
AlmaLinux images are built and maintained by the AlmaLinux OS Foundation. AlmaLinux images are always built with the latest AlmaLinux packages which reflect the most recent AlmaLinux point release. The AlmaLinux images that are provided by Compute Engine, have the following differences in configuration from standard AlmaLinux cloud images:
Account configuration
- There are no local users configured with passwords.
Bootloader configuration
- To force faster boot times, the boot timeout in the grub configuration is set to
0.
Network configuration
- The SSH server configuration is set up as follows:
- Password authentication is disabled.
- Root login is disabled.
- By default, all traffic is allowed through the guest firewall because the VPC firewall rules overrides the guest firewall rules. The guest firewall rules remains enabled and can be configured through normal AlmaLinux methods.
Package system and repository configuration
- Google Cloud repositories are enabled to install packages for the Compute Engine guest environment
and the Google Cloud CLI
.
- Automatic updates are enabled by using
dnf automatic.
Storage configuration
- By default, images are 10 GB.
- The partition table is
GPT, and there is anEFIpartition to support booting onUEFI. - The floppy module is disabled because there is no floppy disk controller on Compute Engine .
- The nouveau module is disabled as it does not work with Compute Engine GPUs.
Time configuration
- The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.
GA AlmaLinux versions
The following section summarizes feature support for versions of this OS that are in General Availability (GA).
General information
| OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
almalinux-cloud
|
almalinux-10
|
almalinux-10-arm64
|
All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4, A3 Ultra | GA | May 2035 | |
almalinux-cloud
|
almalinux-9
|
almalinux-9-arm64
|
All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4, A3 Ultra | GA | May 2032 | |
almalinux-cloud
|
almalinux-8
|
almalinux-8-arm64
|
All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4, A3 Ultra, X4 | GA | May 2029 |
Interfaces
| OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IRDMA | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Security features
| OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM SEV | Confidential VM SEV-SNP | Confidential VM Intel TDX |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes * | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes * | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
* Intel TDX isn't supported on ARM64 for this OS image.
User space features
| OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Networking features
| OS version | Tier_1 networking * | 200 Gbps network bandwidth * | Jumbo frames/MTU |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes |
* You can update the gVNIC driver to the latest version to enable network egress bandwidths of 200 Gbps. For more information, see the Requirements and limitations section of "Configure per VM Tier_1 networking performance".
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
For more information about GPU requirements and recommended OSes, see choosing an OS for instances with attached GPUs .
| OS version | A4X Max (GB300) | A4X (GB200) | A4 (B200) | A3 (H200) | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G4 (RTX PRO 6000) | G2 (L4) | N1+GPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
VM Manager
| OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, see supported operating systems .
| OS version | Import disk | Import virtual appliance | Import machine image |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes |
License
| OS version | License type | License URL |
|---|---|---|
| Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/almalinux-cloud/global/licenses/almalinux-10
|
|
| Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/almalinux-cloud/global/licenses/almalinux-9
|
|
| Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/almalinux-cloud/global/licenses/almalinux-8
|
CentOS
CentOS Linux is a free operating system that is derived from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Google Cloud builds and supports the CentOS images available for Compute Engine. There is no license fee for using CentOS with Compute Engine.
CentOS Stream is a distribution that is continuously delivered and tracks just ahead of RHEL development. CentOS Stream is positioned as a midstream development platform between Fedora Linux and RHEL.
Automatic updates
By default, this operating system is configured to install security updates by using the dnf-automatic
tool. The updates have the following behaviors:
- The
dnf-automatictool does not upgrade VMs between major versions of the operating system. - The upgrade tool is configured to only apply updates marked by the vendor as security updates.
- Some updates require reboots to take effect. These reboots do not happen automatically.
Image configuration
The CentOS Stream images that are provided by Compute Engine, have the following differences in configuration from standard CentOS Stream images:
Account configuration
- There are no local users configured with passwords.
Bootloader configuration
- To force faster boot times, the boot timeout in the grub configuration is set to
0.
Network configuration
- IPv6 is enabled.
- The SSH server configuration is set up as follows:
- Password authentication is disabled.
- To prevent SSH disconnections,
ServerAliveIntervalandClientAliveIntervalare set to 7 minutes. - Root login is disabled.
-
/etc/udev/rules.d/75-persistent-net-generator.rulesis disabled. - To prevent MAC addresses from persisting,
/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rulesis removed. - By default, all traffic is allowed through the guest firewall because the VPC firewall rules overrides the guest firewall rules. The guest firewall rules remains enabled and can be configured through normal CentOS methods.
- VMs based on Google-provided Linux images get their interface MTU
from the attached VPC MTU. VMs based on custom images or older
Linux images may have their MTU's hardcoded. In these cases, you have to change
the setting yourself if you want to connect the interface to a network with an
MTU other than
1460. For more information about network and interface MTU, see the maximum transmission unit overview .
Package system and repository configuration
- Google Cloud repositories are enabled to install packages for the Compute Engine guest environment
and the Google Cloud CLI
.
- Repositories are set to use the CentOS default mirror network.
- Automatic updates are configured as follows:
- For CentOS Stream, automatic updates are enabled by using
dnf automatic. - For all versions, the
update_cmdproperty is set tosecurity.However, by default CentOS does not offer security tagged repositories.
- For CentOS Stream, automatic updates are enabled by using
Storage configuration
- By default, images are 20 GB. This is the recommended minimum size.
- The partition table is
GPT, and there is anEFIpartition to support booting onUEFI. - The floppy module is disabled because there is no floppy disk controller on Compute Engine .
Time configuration
- The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.
GA CentOS versions
The following section summarizes feature support for versions of this OS that are in General Availability (GA).
General information
| OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
centos-cloud
|
centos-stream-10
|
centos-stream-10-arm64
|
All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, and G4 | GA | January 1, 2030 | |
centos-cloud
|
centos-stream-9
|
centos-stream-9-arm64
|
All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, and G4 | GA | May 31, 2027 |
Interfaces
| OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IRDMA | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
* If a multiple NIC VM is created using this OS image, the VM might lose network connectivity after rebooting. This happens if one of these NICs uses a non-VirtIO interface. For more information, see known issues .
Security features
| OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM SEV | Confidential VM SEV-SNP | Confidential VM Intel TDX |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes * | Yes | Yes | Yes † | |
| Yes * | Yes | Yes | Yes † |
*
This OS image doesn't support Secure Boot on ARM64.
†
Intel TDX isn't supported on ARM64 for this OS image.
User space features
| OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Networking features
| OS version | Tier_1 networking * | 200 Gbps network bandwidth * | Jumbo frames/MTU |
|---|---|---|---|
|
CentOS Stream 10 *
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
CentOS Stream 9 *
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
#
Only available with certain machine series.
**
This OS image has predictable network interface names disabled.
Newer image families may have a different network interface naming scheme.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
For more information about GPU requirements and recommended OSes, see choosing an OS for instances with attached GPUs .
| OS version | A4X Max (GB300) | A4X (GB200) | A4 (B200) | A3 (H200) | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G4 (RTX PRO 6000) | G2 (L4) | N1+GPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
VM Manager
| OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, see supported operating systems .
| OS version | Import disk | Import virtual appliance | Import machine image |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes |
License
| OS version | License type | License URL |
|---|---|---|
| Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/centos-cloud/global/licenses/centos-stream-10
|
|
| Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/centos-cloud/global/licenses/centos-stream-9
|
End of support CentOS versions
The following section summarizes feature support for versions of this OS that are in end of support.
Container-Optimized OS (COS)
Container-Optimized OS from Google is an operating system image for your Compute Engine instances that is optimized for running Docker containers. Google Cloud builds and supports the Container-Optimized OS images available for Compute Engine. There is no license fee for using Container-Optimized OS with Compute Engine.
For more information about Container-Optimized OS, see the Container-Optimized OS overview or release notes .
Automatic updates
This operating system can be configured to install security updates by using Automatic updates . On versions 117 and later, automatic updates are disabled by default. On versions 113 and earlier, automatic updates are enabled by default.
The automatic updates have the following behaviors:
- They don't upgrade instances between major versions of the operating system.
- They might require reboots to take effect. These reboots don't happen automatically.
Image configuration
Network configuration
- VMs based on Google-provided Linux images get their interface MTU
from the attached VPC MTU. VMs based on custom images or older
Linux images may have their MTU's hardcoded. In these cases, you have to change
the setting yourself if you want to connect the interface to a network with an
MTU other than
1460. For more information about network and interface MTU, see the maximum transmission unit overview .
GA COS versions
The following section summarizes feature support for versions of this OS that are in General Availability (GA).
General information
| OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
COS 125 LTS
|
cos-cloud
|
cos-125-lts
|
cos-arm64-125-lts
|
All except G2 | GA | September 2027 |
|
COS 121 LTS
|
cos-cloud
|
cos-121-lts
|
cos-arm64-121-lts
|
All except A4X Max, G2 | GA | March 2027 |
|
COS 117 LTS
|
cos-cloud
|
cos-117-lts
|
cos-arm64-117-lts
|
All except A4X Max, G4, G2 | GA | September 2026 |
|
COS 113 LTS
|
cos-cloud
|
cos-113-lts
|
cos-arm64-113-lts
|
All except A4X, G4, G2 | GA | April 2026 |
Interfaces
| OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IRDMA | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
COS 125 LTS
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
COS 121 LTS
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
COS 117 LTS
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
COS 113 LTS
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Security features
| OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM SEV | Confidential VM SEV-SNP | Confidential VM Intel TDX |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
COS 125 LTS
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
COS 121 LTS
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
COS 117 LTS
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
COS 113 LTS
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
User space features
| OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
COS 125 LTS
|
Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
COS 121 LTS
|
Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
COS 117 LTS
|
Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
COS 113 LTS
|
Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Networking features
| OS version | Tier_1 networking * | 200 Gbps network bandwidth * | Jumbo frames/MTU |
|---|---|---|---|
|
COS 125 LTS
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
COS 121 LTS
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
COS 117 LTS
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
COS 113 LTS
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
#
Only available with certain machine series.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
For G2 VMs, the current default driver for Container-Optimized OS, don't support L4 GPUs running on G2 machine types. You might be able to install a supported version, see G2 limitations .
For more information about GPU requirements and recommended OSes, see choosing an OS for instances with attached GPUs .
| OS version | A4X Max (GB300) | A4X (GB200) | A4 (B200) | A3 (H200) | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G4 (RTX PRO 6000) | G2 (L4) | N1+GPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
COS 125 LTS
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
|
COS 121 LTS
|
No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
|
COS 117 LTS
|
No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
|
COS 113 LTS
|
No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
VM Manager
| OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
COS 125 LTS
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
|
COS 121 LTS
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
|
COS 117 LTS
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
|
COS 113 LTS
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, see supported operating systems .
| OS version | Import disk | Import virtual appliance | Import machine image |
|---|---|---|---|
|
COS 125 LTS
|
No | No | No |
|
COS 121 LTS
|
No | No | No |
|
COS 117 LTS
|
No | No | No |
|
COS 113 LTS
|
No | No | No |
License
| OS version | License type | License URL |
|---|---|---|
|
COS 125 LTS
|
Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/cos-cloud/global/licenses/cos
|
|
COS 121 LTS
|
Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/cos-cloud/global/licenses/cos
|
|
COS 117 LTS
|
Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/cos-cloud/global/licenses/cos
|
|
COS 113 LTS
|
Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/cos-cloud/global/licenses/cos
|
End of support COS versions
The following section summarizes feature support for versions of this OS that are in end of support.
Debian
Debian is a free operating system offered by the Debian community . Google Cloud builds and supports the Debian images available for Compute Engine. There is no license fee for using Debian with Compute Engine.
Automatic updates
By default, this operating system is configured to install security updates by using the Debian UnattendedUpgrades
tool. The updates have the following behaviors:
- The
UnattendedUpgradestool does not upgrade VMs between major versions of the operating system. - The
UnattendedUpgradestool is configured to only automatically apply updates obtained from the Debian security repository. - Some updates require reboots to take effect. These reboots do not happen automatically.
Image configuration
The Debian image build configuration is available in an open source GitHub repository .
- Debian build tools come from the Debian Cloud team image project .
Debian images are always built with the latest Debian packages which reflect the most recent Debian point release.
The Debian images that are provided by Compute Engine, have the following differences in configuration from standard Debian images:
Account configuration
- There are no local users configured with passwords.
Bootloader configuration
- To force faster boot times, the boot timeout in the grub configuration is set to
0. - To allow SCSI block multi-queue usage,
scsi_mod.use_blk_mqis enabled.
Network configuration
- IPv6 is enabled.
- The SSH server configuration is set up as follows:
- Password authentication is disabled.
- Root login is disabled.
- To prevent MAC addresses from persisting,
/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rulesis removed. - VMs based on Google-provided Linux images get their interface MTU
from the attached VPC MTU. VMs based on custom images or older
Linux images may have their MTU's hardcoded. In these cases, you have to change
the setting yourself if you want to connect the interface to a network with an
MTU other than
1460. For more information about network and interface MTU, see the maximum transmission unit overview .
Package system and repository configuration
- Google Cloud repositories are enabled to install packages for the Compute Engine guest environment and the Google Cloud CLI . The guest environment packages and the Google Cloud CLI packages are installed and enabled by default.
- The APT sources are set to use the Debian CDN.
- The
Unattended-upgradespackage is installed and configured to download and install Debian security updates daily. This can be configured or disabled by changing the values in/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgradesand/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/02periodic. - The
cloud-initramfs-growrootpackage is removed and replaced with the Google supportedgce-disk-expandpackage. - The
linux-image-cloud-amd64kernel is installed instead of the generic Debian kernel. - The
havegedpackage is installed to provide entropy. - ( Debian 13 only
) The
gce-configs-trixiepackage is installed to enable VM serial port logging and ssh-in-browser, which requires additional configuration due to systemd updates in Debian 13. - ( Debian 13 only
) The
gce-configs-trixiepackage also provides thegoogle-keyring.gpgkey installed to/etc/apt/keyringsto comply with updated repository authentication guidance. The/etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-cloud.listfile uses this key to authenticate against Google Cloud repositories.
Storage configuration
- Images are 10 GB by default.
- The partition table is
GPT, and there is anEFIpartition to support booting onUEFI. There is also an MBR boot block to support BIOS. - The floppy module is disabled because there is no floppy disk controller on Compute Engine.
Time configuration
- The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.
GA Debian versions
The following section summarizes feature support for versions of this OS that are in General Availability (GA).
General information
| OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Debian 13
|
debian-cloud
|
debian-13
|
debian-13-arm64
|
All except A4X Max, A4X | GA | June 30, 2030 |
|
Debian 12
|
debian-cloud
|
debian-12
|
debian-12-arm64
|
All except A4X Max, A4X, X4, C4D-metal, C4-metal, C3-metal, Z3-metal | GA | June 30, 2028 |
|
Debian 11
|
debian-cloud
|
debian-11
|
N/A | All except A4X Max, A4X, G4, A4, A3 Ultra, X4, C4D-metal, C4-metal, C3-metal, Z3-metal | GA | August 31, 2026 |
Interfaces
| OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IRDMA | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Debian 13
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
Debian 12
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
|
Debian 11
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
* This OS image supports NVMe but does not include all optimizations for NVMe.
Security features
| OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM SEV | Confidential VM SEV-SNP | Confidential VM Intel TDX |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Debian 13
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
|
Debian 12
|
Yes | Yes | No | No |
|
Debian 11
|
Yes | Yes | No | No |
User space features
| OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Debian 13
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Debian 12
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Debian 11
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Networking features
| OS version | Tier_1 networking * | 200 Gbps network bandwidth * | Jumbo frames/MTU |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Debian 13
|
Yes | Yes | Yes † |
|
Debian 12
|
Yes | Yes | Yes † |
|
Debian 11
|
Yes | No * | Yes † |
*
You can update the gVNIC driver
to the latest version to enable network egress bandwidths of 200 Gbps.
For more information, see the Requirements and limitations
section of "Configure per VM Tier_1 networking performance".
†
Fully supported with VirtIO, but requires an updated driver to
use with gVNIC. For more information, see Jumbo frames
.
#
Only available with certain machine series.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
For more information about GPU requirements and recommended OSes, see choosing an OS for instances with attached GPUs .
| OS version | A4X Max (GB300) | A4X (GB200) | A4 (B200) | A3 (H200) | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G4 (RTX PRO 6000) | G2 (L4) | N1+GPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Debian 13
|
No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Debian 12
|
No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Debian 11
|
No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
VM Manager
| OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Debian 13
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Debian 12
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Debian 11
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, see supported operating systems .
| OS version | Import disk | Import virtual appliance | Import machine image |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Debian 13
|
No | No | No |
|
Debian 12
|
No | No | No |
|
Debian 11
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
License
| OS version | License type | License URL |
|---|---|---|
|
Debian 13
|
Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/debian-cloud/global/licenses/debian-13-trixie
|
|
Debian 12
|
Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/debian-cloud/global/licenses/debian-12-bookworm
|
|
Debian 11
|
Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/debian-cloud/global/licenses/debian-11-bullseye
|
End of support Debian versions
The following section summarizes feature support for versions of this OS that are in end of support.
Fedora CoreOS
Fedora CoreOS is a distribution that provides features that are needed to run modern infrastructure stacks. Fedora CoreOS uses Linux containers to manage your services at a higher level of abstraction. Google Cloud provides Fedora CoreOS images built and supported by Fedora. There is no license fee for using Fedora CoreOS with Compute Engine.
Automatic updates
By default, this operating system is configured to install security updates by using the FedoraCoreOS automatic update tool. The updates have the following behaviors:
- These automatic updates from the operating system vendor do not upgrade instances between major versions of the operating system.
- Some updates require reboots to take effect. These reboots do not happen automatically.
Image configuration
Network configuration
- VMs based on Google-provided Linux images get their interface MTU
from the attached VPC MTU. VMs based on custom images or older
Linux images may have their MTU's hardcoded. In these cases, you have to change
the setting yourself if you want to connect the interface to a network with an
MTU other than
1460. For more information about network and interface MTU, see the maximum transmission unit overview .
GA Fedora CoreOS versions
The following section summarizes feature support for versions of this OS that are in General Availability (GA).
General information
| OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Fedora CoreOS Stable
|
fedora-coreos-cloud
|
fedora-coreos-stable
|
fedora-coreos-stable-arm64
|
All except GPU machine types | GA | Rolling |
|
Fedora CoreOS Testing
|
fedora-coreos-cloud
|
fedora-coreos-testing
|
fedora-coreos-testing-arm64
|
All except GPU machine types | GA | Rolling |
|
Fedora CoreOS Next
|
fedora-coreos-cloud
|
fedora-coreos-next
|
fedora-coreos-next-arm64
|
All except GPU machine types | GA | Rolling |
Interfaces
| OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IRDMA | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Fedora CoreOS Stable
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
Fedora CoreOS Testing
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
Fedora CoreOS Next
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Security features
| OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM SEV | Confidential VM SEV-SNP | Confidential VM Intel TDX |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Fedora CoreOS Stable
|
Yes * | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Fedora CoreOS Testing
|
Yes * | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Fedora CoreOS Next
|
Yes * | Yes | Yes | Yes |
* This OS image doesn't support Secure Boot on ARM64.
User space features
| OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Fedora CoreOS Stable
|
No | No | No | No |
|
Fedora CoreOS Testing
|
No | No | No | No |
|
Fedora CoreOS Next
|
No | No | No | No |
Networking features
| OS version | Tier_1 networking * | 200 Gbps network bandwidth * | Jumbo frames/MTU |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Fedora CoreOS Stable
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Fedora CoreOS Testing
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Fedora CoreOS Next
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
For more information about GPU requirements and recommended OSes, see choosing an OS for instances with attached GPUs .
| OS version | A4X Max (GB300) | A4X (GB200) | A4 (B200) | A3 (H200) | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G2 (L4) | G4 (RTX PRO 6000) | N1+GPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Fedora CoreOS Stable
|
No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
|
Fedora CoreOS Testing
|
No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
|
Fedora CoreOS Next
|
No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
VM Manager
| OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Fedora CoreOS Stable
|
No | No | No | No | No |
|
Fedora CoreOS Testing
|
No | No | No | No | No |
|
Fedora CoreOS Next
|
No | No | No | No | No |
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, see supported operating systems .
| OS version | Import disk | Import virtual appliance | Import machine image |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Fedora CoreOS Stable
|
No | No | No |
|
Fedora CoreOS Testing
|
No | No | No |
|
Fedora CoreOS Next
|
No | No | No |
License
| OS version | License type | License URL |
|---|---|---|
|
Fedora CoreOS Stable
|
Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/fedora-coreos-cloud/global/licenses/fedora-coreos-stable
|
|
Fedora CoreOS Testing
|
Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/fedora-coreos-cloud/global/licenses/fedora-coreos-testing
|
|
Fedora CoreOS Next
|
Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/fedora-coreos-cloud/global/licenses/fedora-coreos-next
|
Oracle Linux
Oracle Linux is a Linux operating system (OS) provided by Oracle with everything required to deploy, optimize, and manage applications on-premises, in the cloud, and at the edge.
Oracle builds and supports the Oracle Linux images available for Compute Engine. There is no license fee for using Oracle Linux with Compute Engine. Oracle is responsible for ensuring that Oracle Linux works with Google Cloud features and that security updates are maintained. For issues related to Oracle Linux, you must consult community resources or get enterprise-level support directly from Oracle.
For more information on Oracle Linux visit Oracle's document library for Oracle Linux .
Automatic updates
By default, Oracle Linux images don't automatically install security updates. To configure automatic security updates, run the following commands:
sudo dnf install -y dnf-automatic sudo sed -i 's/upgrade_type =.*/upgrade_type = security/' /etc/dnf/automatic.conf sudo sed -i 's/apply_updates =.*/apply_updates = yes/' /etc/dnf/automatic.conf sudo systemctl enable dnf-automatic.timer sudo systemctl start dnf-automatic.timer
Automatic updates have the following behaviors:
-
dnf-automaticdoesn't upgrade VMs between major versions of the operating system. - The upgrade tool only applies updates marked by Oracle as security updates.
- Some updates require reboots to take effect. These reboots don't happen automatically.
Image configuration
The Oracle Linux images that are provided by Compute Engine reflect the most recent point release. Currently you cannot pin a VM to a point release. These images have the following differences in configuration from standard Oracle Linux images:
Account configuration
- There are no local users configured with passwords.
Bootloader configuration
- To force faster boot times, the boot timeout in the grub configuration is set to
0. - The I/O scheduler is set to
noop.
Network configuration
- IPv6 is enabled.
- The SSH server configuration is set up as follows:
- Password authentication is disabled.
- To prevent SSH disconnections,
ServerAliveIntervalandClientAliveIntervalare set to 7 minutes. - Root login is disabled.
-
/etc/udev/rules.d/75-persistent-net-generator.rulesis disabled. - To prevent MAC addresses from persisting,
/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rulesis removed. - By default, all traffic is allowed through the guest firewall because the VPC firewall rules overrides the guest firewall rules. The guest firewall rules remains enabled and can be configured through normal Oracle Linux methods.
- VMs based on Google-provided Linux images get their interface MTU
from the attached VPC MTU. VMs based on custom images or older
Linux images may have their MTU's hardcoded. In these cases, you have to change
the setting yourself if you want to connect the interface to a network with an
MTU other than
1460. For more information about network and interface MTU, see the maximum transmission unit overview .
Package system and repository configuration
- The Google Cloud repository is enabled to install packages for the Compute Engine guest environment
and disabled for the Google Cloud CLI
. The Google Cloud CLI
can be installed as follows:
dnf install -y google-cloud-cli --enablerepo google-cloud-sdk - Automatic security updates are disabled by default. To enable, refer to the instructions in the Automatic updates section .
Storage configuration
- By default, images are 20 GB. This is the recommended minimum size.
- The partition table is
GPT, and there is anEFIpartition to support booting onUEFI.
Time configuration
- The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.
GA Oracle Linux versions
The following section summarizes feature support for versions of this OS that are in General Availability (GA).
General information
| OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
oracle-linux-cloud
|
oracle-linux-10
|
oracle-linux-10-arm64
|
N2, N4, N4D, C3, C3-metal, C4, N2D, C2D, C3D, M3 and T2A | GA | Jun 2035 | |
oracle-linux-cloud
|
oracle-linux-9
|
oracle-linux-9-arm64
|
N2, N4, N4D, C3, C3-metal, C4, N2D, C2D, C3D, M3 and T2A | GA | Jun 2032 | |
oracle-linux-cloud
|
oracle-linux-8
|
oracle-linux-8-arm64
|
N2, N4, N4D, C3, C4, N2D, C2D, C3D, M3 and T2A | GA | Jul 2029 |
Interfaces
Oracle Linux images use the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK) by default. The interface support listed in the table applies to images that use the UEK. You can optionally configure Oracle Linux images to use the Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK) , which is additionally installed on Oracle Linux images. If you use the RHCK, Oracle Linux images support the same interfaces as the corresponding Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) listed in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) section of this document.
| OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IRDMA | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
Security features
| OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM SEV | Confidential VM SEV-SNP | Confidential VM Intel TDX |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | No | No | |
| Yes | Yes | No | No | |
| Yes | Yes | No | No |
User space features
| OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
gcloud CLI is not pre-installed in the images, however the Google Cloud SDK repository is setup. To install gcloud CLI you can run this command: dnf install -y google-cloud-cli --enablerepo google-cloud-sdk
Networking features
Oracle Linux images use the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK) by default. The networking features support listed in the table applies to images that use the UEK. You can optionally configure Oracle Linux images to use the Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK) , which is additionally installed on Oracle Linux images. If you use the RHCK, Oracle Linux images support the same networking features as the corresponding Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) listed in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) section of this document.
| OS version | Tier_1 networking * | 200 Gbps network bandwidth * | Jumbo frames/MTU |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | No | Yes | |
| Yes | No | Yes | |
| Yes | No | Yes |
#
Only available with certain machine series.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
Oracle Linux images use the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK) by default. The GPU support listed in the table applies to images that use the UEK. You can optionally configure Oracle Linux images to use the Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK) , which is additionally installed on Oracle Linux images. If you use the RHCK, Oracle Linux images support the same GPUs as the corresponding Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) listed in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) section of this document.
For more information about GPU requirements and recommended OSes, see choosing an OS for instances with attached GPUs .
| OS version | A4X Max (GB300) | A4X (GB200) | A4 (B200) | A3 (H200) | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G4 (RTX PRO 6000) | G2 (L4) | N1+GPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | |
| No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | |
| No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
VM Manager
| OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, see supported operating systems .
| OS version | Import disk | Import virtual appliance | Import machine image |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | No | No | |
| Yes | No | No | |
| Yes | No | No |
License
| OS version | License type | License URL |
|---|---|---|
| Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/oracle-linux-cloud/global/licenses/oracle-linux-10
|
|
| Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/oracle-linux-cloud/global/licenses/oracle-linux-9
|
|
| Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/oracle-linux-cloud/global/licenses/oracle-linux-8
|
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is an open-source Linux operating system that provides both server and desktop operating systems. Google Cloud builds and supports the RHEL OS images available for Compute Engine, including select images pre-configured with Logical Volume Manager (LVM) partitioning.
RHEL images are premium resources that incur additional fees to use. If you want to use an existing RHEL subscription, you can use the Red Hat Cloud Access feature.
The Red Hat Knowledgebase provides you with access to articles, solutions, product documentation, and community discussions. The Red Hat Knowledgebase is available as a single-sign-on (SSO) option through the Google Cloud console. See Access Red Hat Knowledgebase .
Red Hat provides Extended Update Support (EUS) for specific minor releases of RHEL. EUS extends the support duration for these point releases, offering security updates and critical fixes for up to 2 years after the initial release. For more information, see the Red Hat EUS Overview .
To view a list of frequently asked questions when running RHEL on Compute Engine, see Red Hat Enterprise Linux FAQ .
Automatic updates
By default, this operating system is configured to install security updates by using the RHEL yum-cron
(RHEL 7) or dnf automatic
(RHEL 8+) tool. The updates have the
following behaviors:
- These automatic updates from the operating system vendor do not upgrade instances between major versions of the operating system.
- Starting with RHEL 7, the operating system is also configured to only apply updates marked by the vendor as security updates.
- Some updates require reboots to take effect. These reboots do not happen automatically.
Image configuration
The RHEL image build configuration is available in an open source GitHub repository .
RHEL images are always built with the latest RHEL packages, which reflect the most recent point release. Currently, you cannot pin a VM to a point release.
RHEL for SAP images are tagged to the specific point release they are built for as supported by Red Hat.
The RHEL images that are provided by Compute Engine, have the following differences in configuration from standard RHEL images:
Account configuration
- There are no local users configured with passwords.
Bootloader configuration
- To force faster boot times, the boot timeout in the grub configuration is set to
0. - The I/O scheduler is set to
noop.
EUS configuration
- Before the RHEL EUS version becomes EOL, it will need to be upgraded to the EUS version. You can
check your current EUS version by running the following command:
cat /etc/dnf/vars/releasever
- To lock the RHEL to the new point release version, run the following command:
echo \" VERSION \" | sudo tee /etc/dnf/vars/releasever
Replace
VERSIONwith the version in the format ofmajor.minor. For example, for version 9.6 specify9.6. - To upgrade to the next RHEL EUS version, run the following command:
sudo dnf -y --releasever= VERSION upgrade
Replace
VERSIONwith the version in the format ofmajor.minor. For example, for version 9.6 specify9.6.
Logical Volume Manager (LVM) configuration
- LVM-enabled RHEL images include a predefined partitioning scheme:
- EFI system partition: 200 MB for bootloader files.
-
/bootpartition: 1 GB (XFS filesystem) for kernel images and boot-related
files. - LVM Physical Volume: A single LVM Physical Volume (PV) uses most of the disk space. This PV belongs to a Volume Group named
rootvg.
- Within the
rootvgVolume Group, the following Logical Volumes (LVs) are created by default:LV name Mount point Default size Filesystem rootlv/ 2.0 GB XFS usrlv/usr 10.0 GB XFS varlv/var 8.0 GB XFS tmplv/tmp 2.0 GB XFS homelv/home 1.0 GB XFS - Unallocated space: The remaining space on the disk within
rootvgis left unallocated. This lets you create new Logical Volumes or extend the existing ones as needed. The minimum recommended disk size for these images is 50GB.
- Unallocated space: The remaining space on the disk within
- Key differences from standard RHEL images:
- No automatic disk expansion: Unlike standard Compute Engine RHEL images,
the LVM images do not
include the
gce-disk-expandpackage. When you resize the boot disk in the Google Cloud console or by usinggcloud, the underlying Physical Volume and Volume Group see the additional space, but the Logical Volumes (such asrootlvorusrlv) don't automatically grow. You must use standard LVM commands to use the new space. - LVM tools: The
lvm2package is installed by default, providing all necessary command-line tools (pvcreate,vgcreate,lvcreate,lvextend,resize2fs,xfs_growfs, etc.). - Filesystem layout: The root filesystem and other system directories like
/usr,/varare on separate Logical Volumes, as detailed in the Logical Volumes table.
- No automatic disk expansion: Unlike standard Compute Engine RHEL images,
the LVM images do not
include the
Network configuration
- IPv6 is enabled.
- The SSH server configuration is set up as follows:
- Password authentication is disabled.
- To prevent SSH disconnections,
ServerAliveIntervalandClientAliveIntervalare set to 7 minutes. - Root login is disabled.
-
/etc/udev/rules.d/75-persistent-net-generator.rulesis disabled. - To prevent MAC addresses from persisting,
/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rulesis removed. - By default, all traffic is allowed through the guest firewall because the VPC firewall rules overrides the guest firewall rules. The guest firewall rules remains enabled and can be configured through normal RHEL methods.
- VMs based on Google-provided Linux images get their interface MTU
from the attached VPC MTU. VMs based on custom images or older
Linux images may have their MTU's hardcoded. In these cases, you have to change
the setting yourself if you want to connect the interface to a network with an
MTU other than
1460. For more information about network and interface MTU, see the maximum transmission unit overview .
Package and repository configuration
- Google Cloud repositories are enabled to install packages for the Compute Engine guest environment and the Google Cloud CLI .
- RHEL for SAP yum vars are set to peg the client to the supported RHEL for SAP point release.
- Compute Engine offers Red Hat Update Infrastructure (RHUI) servers for on-demand
RHEL images. If your VMs don't have external IP addresses assigned, they can
use Private Google Access. This access lets them reach the RHUI servers at
35.190.247.13and2600:1901:0:292d::for package updates. You must ensure that firewall rules permit egress to these IP addresses. For networks that don't have a default route to the internet, you must create a custom route for destination35.190.247.13/32to the default internet gateway next hop. For more information about Private Google Access, see Private Google Access . - If you're unable to get updates
from the Red Hat Update Infrastructure (RHUI) servers, the RHUI client package might need to be
updated. To update to the latest RHUI client package, run the following command:
dnf -y -q update 'google-rhui-client*'
- The Google
RHUIclient package, which contains the configuration needed to access RHEL content, is installed. - The Red Hat
subscription-managerpackage is removed because it is not used for pay as you go images. - Automatic updates are enabled as follows:
- For RHEL 8+, by using
dnf automatic. - For all versions, the
update_cmdproperty is set tosecurity.
- For RHEL 8+, by using
Storage configuration
- By default, images are 20 GB. This is the recommended minimum size.
- The partition table is
GPT, and there is anEFIpartition to support booting onUEFI.
Time configuration
- The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.
GA RHEL versions
The following section summarizes feature support for versions of this OS that are in General Availability (GA).
General information
| OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | LVM x86 image family # | LVM Arm image family # | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
rhel-cloud
|
rhel-10
|
rhel-10-arm64
|
rhel-10-lvm
|
rhel-10-lvm-arm64
|
All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4 | GA | May 2035 | |
rhel-cloud
|
rhel-9
|
rhel-9-arm64
|
rhel-9-lvm
|
rhel-9-lvm-arm64
|
All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4 | GA | May 2032 | |
rhel-cloud
|
rhel-8
|
rhel-8-arm64
|
rhel-8-lvm
|
rhel-8-lvm-arm64
|
All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4, N4A, X4, C4A-metal | GA | May 2029 | |
rhel-sap-cloud
|
rhel-9-6-sap-ha
|
N/A | N/A | N/A | All except A4X, A4, G4, T2A, N4A, C4A | GA | May 2029 | |
rhel-sap-cloud
|
rhel-9-4-sap-ha
|
N/A | N/A | N/A | All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4, T2A, N4A, C4A, C4A-metal | GA | April 2028 | |
rhel-sap-cloud
|
rhel-9-2-sap-ha
|
N/A | N/A | N/A | All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4, T2A, X4, N4A, C4A, C4A-metal, C4D-metal, C4-metal, C3-metal, Z3-metal | GA | May 2027 | |
rhel-sap-cloud
|
rhel-9-0-sap-ha
|
N/A | N/A | N/A | All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4, T2A, X4, N4A, C4A, C4A-metal, C4D-metal, C4-metal, C3-metal, Z3-metal | GA | May 2026 | |
rhel-sap-cloud
|
rhel-8-10-sap-ha
|
N/A | N/A | N/A | All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4, T2A, N4A, C4A, C4A-metal | GA | May 2029 | |
rhel-sap-cloud
|
rhel-8-8-sap-ha
|
N/A | N/A | N/A | All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4, T2A, X4, N4A, C4A, C4A-metal, C4D-metal, C4-metal, C3-metal, Z3-metal | GA | May 2027 | |
rhel-sap-cloud
|
rhel-8-6-sap-ha
|
N/A | N/A | N/A | All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4, T2A, X4, N4A, C4A, C4A-metal, C4D-metal, C4-metal, C3-metal, Z3-metal | GA | May 2026 | |
rhel-cloud
|
rhel-10-0-eus
|
rhel-10-0-eus-arm64
|
N/A | N/A | All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4 | GA | May 2027 | |
rhel-cloud
|
rhel-9-6-eus
|
rhel-9-6-eus-arm64
|
N/A | N/A | All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4 | GA | May 2027 | |
rhel-cloud
|
rhel-9-4-eus
|
rhel-9-4-eus-arm64
|
N/A | N/A | All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4 | GA | May 2026 |
* EOS : End of support.
† ELS : To use this OS image, you must have a subscription or an Extended Life Cycle Support (ELS) Add-On. You can append the ELS Add-On to your RHEL 6 VMs as described in Append RHEL ELS licenses .
# LVM : Logical Volume Manager (LVM) is a disk management tool that abstracts physical storage into volume groups, allowing you to span file systems across multiple disks and resize them dynamically. For detailed information, see the official Red Hat LVM documentation .
Interfaces
| OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IRDMA | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
* This OS image supports NVMe but does not include all optimizations for NVMe.
# If a multiple NIC VM is created using this OS image, the VM might lose network connectivity after rebooting. This happens if one of these NICs uses a non-VirtIO interface. See known issues .
Security features
| OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM SEV | Confidential VM SEV-SNP | Confidential VM Intel TDX |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes * | Yes | Yes | Yes † | |
| Yes * | Yes | Yes | Yes † | |
| Yes * | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Yes | Yes | No | No | |
| Yes | Yes | No | No | |
| Yes | Yes | No | No | |
| Yes | Yes | No | No | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
*
This OS image doesn't support Secure Boot on ARM64.
†
Intel TDX isn't supported on ARM64 for this OS image.
User space features
| OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Networking features
| OS version | Tier_1 networking * | 200 Gbps network bandwidth * | Jumbo frames/MTU |
|---|---|---|---|
|
RHEL 10 *
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
RHEL 9 *
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
RHEL 8 *
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
|
RHEL 9.2 for SAP *
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
RHEL 9.0 for SAP *
|
Yes | No * | Yes † |
|
RHEL 8.10 for SAP *
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
RHEL 8.8 for SAP *
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
RHEL 8.6 for SAP *
|
Yes | No * | Yes |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes |
* You can update the gVNIC driver to the latest version to enable network egress bandwidths of 200 Gbps. For more information, see the Requirements and limitations section of "Configure per VM Tier_1 networking performance".
† Fully supported with VirtIO, but requires an updated driver to use with gVNIC. For more information, see Jumbo frames .
# Only available with certain machine series.
** This OS image has predictable network interface names disabled. Newer image families may have a different network interface naming scheme.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
For more information about GPU requirements and recommended OSes, see choosing an OS for instances with attached GPUs .
| OS version | A4X Max (GB300) | A4X (GB200) | A4 (B200) | A3 (H200) | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G4 (RTX PRO 6000) | G2 (L4) | N1+GPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
VM Manager
| OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, see supported operating systems .
| OS version | Import disk | Import virtual appliance | Import machine image |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| No | No | No | |
| No | No | No | |
| No | No | No | |
| No | No | No | |
| No | No | No | |
| No | No | No | |
| No | No | No | |
| No | No | No | |
| No | No | No | |
| No | No | No |
License
- On-demand (Default)
- BYOS
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-10-server -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-10-byos
- On-demand (Default)
- BYOS
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-9-server -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-9-byos
- On-demand (Default)
- BYOS
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-8-server -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-8-byos
- On-demand
- BYOS
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-sap-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-9-sap -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-sap-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-9-sap-byos
- On-demand
- BYOS
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-sap-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-9-sap -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-sap-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-9-sap-byos
- On-demand
- BYOS
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-sap-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-9-sap -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-sap-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-9-sap-byos
- On-demand
- BYOS
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-sap-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-9-sap -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-sap-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-9-sap-byos
- On-demand
- BYOS
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-sap-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-8-sap -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-sap-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-8-sap-byos
- On-demand
- BYOS
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-sap-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-8-sap -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-sap-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-8-sap-byos
- On-demand
- BYOS
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-sap-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-8-sap -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-sap-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-8-sap-byos
- On-demand
- BYOS
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-10-server -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-sap-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-10-byos
- On-demand
- BYOS
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-9-server -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-sap-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-9-byos
- On-demand
- BYOS
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-9-server -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-sap-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-9-byos
† ELS : To use this OS image, you must have a subscription or an Extended Life Cycle Support (ELS) Add-On. You can append the ELS Add-On to your RHEL 6 VMs as described in Append RHEL ELS licenses .
End of support RHEL versions
The following section summarizes feature support for versions of this OS that are in end of support.
Rocky Linux
Rocky Linux is a free, open, community enterprise operating system designed to be 100% bug-for-bug compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Google Cloud builds and supports the Rocky Linux images available for Compute Engine. There is no license fee for using Rocky Linux with Compute Engine.
The following three versions of Rocky Linux operating systems are available on Compute Engine:
- A fully open source version
- A version optimized for Google Cloud: this version has the suffix
-optimized-gcpand is pre-configured to use the latest version of the Google virtual network interface (gVNIC). - An accelerated version for GPU workloads: this version has the suffix
-optimized-gcp-nvidia-*which is built off of the-optimized-gcpversion and includes the indicated version of the NVIDIA driver.
Automatic updates
By default, this operating system is configured to install security updates by using the dnf-automatic
tool. The updates have the following behaviors:
-
dnf-automaticdoes not upgrade VMs between major versions of the operating system. - The upgrade tool is configured to only apply updates marked by the vendor as security updates.
- Some updates require reboots to take effect. These reboots do not happen automatically.
Image configuration
Rocky Linux images are built and maintained by CIQ . Rocky Linux images are always built with the latest Rocky Linux packages which reflect the most recent Rocky Linux point release. The Rocky Linux images that are provided by Compute Engine, have the following differences in configuration from standard Rocky Linux images:
Account configuration
- There are no local users configured with passwords.
Bootloader configuration
- To force faster boot times, the boot timeout in the grub configuration is set to
0.
Network configuration
- IPv6 is enabled.
- The SSH server configuration is set up as follows:
- Password authentication is disabled.
- To prevent SSH disconnections,
ServerAliveIntervalandClientAliveIntervalare set to 7 minutes. - Root login is disabled.
-
/etc/udev/rules.d/75-persistent-net-generator.rulesis disabled. - To prevent MAC addresses from persisting,
/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rulesis removed. - By default, all traffic is allowed through the guest firewall because the VPC firewall rules overrides the guest firewall rules. The guest firewall rules remains enabled and can be configured through normal Rocky Linux methods.
- VMs based on Google-provided Linux images get their interface MTU
from the attached VPC MTU. VMs based on custom images or older
Linux images may have their MTU's hardcoded. In these cases, you have to change
the setting yourself if you want to connect the interface to a network with an
MTU other than
1460. For more information about network and interface MTU, see the maximum transmission unit overview .
Package system and repository configuration
- Google Cloud repositories are enabled to install packages for the Compute Engine guest environment
and the Google Cloud CLI
.
- For the Google Cloud optimized and accelerated versions of the Rocky Linux images, the GitLab CIQ SIG/Cloud Next repository is enabled. This repository provides a Linux kernel version specifically designed to work best with Google Cloud hardware.
- For the accelerated version of the Rocky Linux image, the GitLab CIQ SIG/Cloud Next Nonfree repository is also enabled. This repository provides the proprietary drivers necessary for the system to fully utilize the GPU hardware.
- Repositories are set to use the Rocky Linux default mirror network.
- The PowerTools repository is enabled.
- Automatic updates are configured as follows:
- Automatic updates are enabled by using
dnf automatic. - For all versions, the
update_cmdproperty is set tosecurity. However, by default Rocky Linux does not offer security tagged repositories.
- Automatic updates are enabled by using
Storage configuration
- By default, images are 20 GB.
- The partition table is
GPT, and there is anEFIpartition to support booting onUEFI. - The floppy module is disabled because there is no floppy disk controller on Compute Engine .
Time configuration
- The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.
64k page size kernel configuration for ARM
CIQ SIG/Cloud Next now provides a 64k page size kernel kernel-64k
for ARM architecture,
along with kernel modules (kmods) built specifically for it. If you install kernel-64k
on
a system with existing SIG/Cloud Next (SCN) kmods, the corresponding 64k-compatible kmods are
automatically installed alongside them. After rebooting into the 64k kernel, the kmods are available
and functional.
This kernel is validated on the C4A machine series
with the kmod-idpf-irdma
kernel module, which provides an updated IDPF driver for HPC workloads.
-
How to enable the 64k page size kernel
Before you enable the 64k kernel, ensure that the CIQ SIG/Cloud Next repository is enabled (set to
1) at the default priority-1by running the following command:grep -E '^\[|^priority=|^enabled=' /etc/yum.repos.d/ciq-sigcloud-next.repo
Installing the
kernel-64kpackage doesn't set it as the default kernel. To set the 64k kernel as the default, run the following commands:k=$(echo /boot/vmlinuz*64k) grubby --set-default=$k \ --update-kernel=$k \ --args="crashkernel=2G-:640M"
-
Limitations
Non-default kernels, including
kernel-64k, undergo less kmod testing than the default kernel. You should validate your specific workloads on this kernel.
GA Rocky Linux versions
The following section summarizes feature support for versions of this OS that are in General Availability (GA).
General information
| OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
rocky-linux-cloud
|
rocky-linux-10
|
rocky-linux-10-arm64
|
All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4, A3 Ultra | GA | May 2035 | |
rocky-linux-cloud
|
rocky-linux-10-optimized-gcp
|
rocky-linux-10-optimized-gcp-arm64
|
All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4, A3 Ultra | GA | May 2035 | |
rocky-linux-accelerator-cloud
|
rocky-linux-10-optimized-gcp-nvidia-580
|
rocky-linux-10-optimized-gcp-nvidia-580-arm64
|
A4X Max, A4X, A4, A3 Ultra | GA | May 2035 | |
rocky-linux-cloud
|
rocky-linux-9
|
rocky-linux-9-arm64
|
All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4, A3 Ultra | GA | May 2032 | |
rocky-linux-cloud
|
rocky-linux-9-optimized-gcp
|
rocky-linux-9-optimized-gcp-arm64
|
All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4, A3 Ultra | GA | May 2032 | |
rocky-linux-accelerator-cloud
|
rocky-linux-9-optimized-gcp-nvidia-580
|
rocky-linux-9-optimized-gcp-nvidia-580-arm64
|
A4X Max, A4X, A4, A3 Ultra | GA | Aug 2028 | |
rocky-linux-cloud
|
rocky-linux-8
|
N/A | All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4, A3 Ultra, T2A, N4A, C4A, X4 | GA | May 2029 | |
rocky-linux-cloud
|
rocky-linux-8-optimized-gcp
|
rocky-linux-8-optimized-gcp-arm64
|
All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4, A3 Ultra, X4 | GA | May 2029 | |
rocky-linux-accelerator-cloud
|
rocky-linux-8-optimized-gcp-nvidia-580
|
rocky-linux-8-optimized-gcp-nvidia-580-arm64
|
A4X Max, A4X, A4, A3 Ultra | GA | Aug 2028 |
Interfaces
| OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IRDMA | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes * | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes * | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes * | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
*
Supported, but not installed by default. You must install the kmod-idpf-irdma
package in the guest environment before using Cloud RDMA.
Security features
| OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM SEV | Confidential VM SEV-SNP | Confidential VM Intel TDX |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes * | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes * | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes * | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes * | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
* Intel TDX isn't supported on ARM64 for this OS image.
User space features
| OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Networking features
| OS version | Tier_1 networking * | 200 Gbps network bandwidth * | Jumbo frames/MTU |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
|
Rocky Linux 9 *
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Rocky Linux 9 optimized for Google Cloud *
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
|
Rocky Linux 8 *
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Rocky Linux 8 optimized for Google Cloud *
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Yes | Yes | Yes |
#
Only available with certain machine series.
**
This OS image has predictable network interface names disabled.
Newer image families may have a different network interface naming scheme.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
The Rocky Linux 8 and 9 Accelerated OS images are optimized for supporting your artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) workloads. To learn more about how these images are optimized for these workloads, see Operating systems in the AI Hypercomputer documentation.
For more information about GPU requirements and recommended OSes, see choosing an OS for instances with attached GPUs .
| OS version | A4X Max (GB300) | A4X (GB200) | A4 (B200) | A3 (H200) | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G4 (RTX PRO 6000) | G2 (L4) | N1+GPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
| No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
| No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
VM Manager
| OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, see supported operating systems .
| OS version | Import disk | Import virtual appliance | Import machine image |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| No | No | No | |
| No | No | No | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| No | No | No | |
| No | No | No | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes |
License
For version tracking, Rocky Linux accelerated images include three licenses:
- A license for the base Rocky Linux optimized OS.
- A license to designate the image as an accelerated image.
- A license for the NVIDIA driver.
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-cloud/global/licenses/rocky-linux-10
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-cloud/global/licenses/rocky-linux-10-optimized-gcp
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-cloud/global/licenses/rocky-linux-10-optimized-gcp -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-accelerator-cloud/global/licenses/rocky-linux-10-accelerated -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-accelerator-cloud/global/licenses/nvidia-580
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-cloud/global/licenses/rocky-linux-9
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-cloud/global/licenses/rocky-linux-9-optimized-gcp
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-cloud/global/licenses/rocky-linux-9-optimized-gcp -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-accelerator-cloud/global/licenses/rocky-linux-9-accelerated -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-accelerator-cloud/global/licenses/nvidia-580
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-cloud/global/licenses/rocky-linux-8
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-cloud/global/licenses/rocky-linux-8-optimized-gcp
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-cloud/global/licenses/rocky-linux-8-optimized-gcp -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-accelerator-cloud/global/licenses/rocky-linux-8-accelerated -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-accelerator-cloud/global/licenses/nvidia-580
End of support Rocky Linux versions
The following section summarizes feature support for versions of this OS that are in end of support.
SQL Server on Linux
Microsoft SQL Server can be used on Linux-based VMs or images with an on-demand license. Google does not provide pre-configured images for SQL Server on Linux.
Microsoft SQL Server images are not supported for VMs created on the N4A machine series , C4A machine series , and the T2A machine series .
License
To use on-demand / pay-as-you-go (PAYG) licenses for Microsoft SQL Server on a Linux VM or image, see Add a SQL Server license to an existing Linux server .
| Version | License type | License |
|---|---|---|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Enterprise on Linux
|
On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2022-enterprise-on-linux
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Standard on Linux
|
On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2022-standard-on-linux
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Web on Linux
|
On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2022-web-on-linux
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Enterprise on Linux
|
On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2019-enterprise-on-linux
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Standard on Linux
|
On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2019-standard-on-linux
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Web on Linux
|
On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2019-web-on-linux
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Enterprise on Linux
|
On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2017-enterprise-on-linux
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Standard on Linux
|
On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2017-standard-on-linux
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Web on Linux
|
On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/linux-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2017-web-on-linux
|
SQL Server on Windows
Microsoft SQL Server images are similar to the standard Windows Server operating system images, but they include Microsoft SQL Server preinstalled.
Microsoft SQL Server images are not supported for VMs created on the C4A machine series and the T2A machine series . Using a Microsoft SQL Server Windows image with a bare metal instance isn't supported.
Automatic updates
By default, this operating system is configured to "Auto download and schedule the install" for Microsoft updates. To configure Windows Server automatic updates, see Configure Automatic Updates .
Image configuration
- Microsoft SQL Server images have the same Notable differences as standard Windows Server images .
- Windows images provided by Google have a hardcoded MTU. For more information about network and interface MTU, see the maximum transmission unit overview .
General information
To use Microsoft SQL Server on a Windows VM with an on-demand / pay-as-you-go (PAYG) license, see Add a SQL Server license to an existing Windows server .
| Version | Image project | Image family | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2022
|
windows-sql-cloud
|
sql-web-2022-win-2025
|
GA | Jan 11, 2033 |
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2019
|
windows-sql-cloud
|
sql-web-2019-win-2025
|
GA | Jan 8, 2030 |
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2017
|
windows-sql-cloud
|
sql-web-2017-win-2025
|
GA | Oct 12, 2027 |
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2016
|
windows-sql-cloud
|
sql-web-2016-win-2019
|
GA | Jul 14, 2026 |
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2014
|
EOS | EOS | EOS | Jul 9, 2024 |
SQL Server edition support
| Editions | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2022
|
||||
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2019
|
||||
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2017
|
||||
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2016
|
||||
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2014
|
EOS | EOS | EOS | EOS |
Windows Server version support
| Version | Windows 2016 | Windows 2019 | Windows 2022 | Windows 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Enterprise
|
||||
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Standard
|
||||
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Web
|
||||
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Enterprise
|
||||
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Standard
|
||||
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Web
|
||||
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Enterprise
|
||||
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Standard
|
||||
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Web
|
||||
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Express
|
||||
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Enterprise
|
||||
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Standard
|
||||
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Web
|
License
| Version | License type | License |
|---|---|---|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Enterprise
|
On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2022-enterprise
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Standard
|
On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2022-standard
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Web
|
On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2022-web
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Enterprise
|
On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2019-enterprise
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Standard
|
On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2019-standard
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Web
|
On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2019-web
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Enterprise
|
On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2017-enterprise
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Standard
|
On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2017-standard
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Web
|
On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2017-web
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Express
|
On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2017-express
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Enterprise
|
On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2016-enterprise
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Standard
|
On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2016-standard
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Web
|
On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2016-web
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Enterprise
|
EOS | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2014-enterprise
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Standard
|
EOS | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2014-standard
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Web
|
EOS | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2014-web
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Enterprise
|
EOS | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2012-enterprise
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Standard
|
EOS | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2012-standard
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Web
|
EOS | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-sql-cloud/global/licenses/sql-server-2012-web
|
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) , a versatile server operating system for deploying highly available enterprise-class IT services in mixed IT environments with improved performance and reduced risk.
SUSE builds and supports the SUSE images available for Compute Engine. SUSE images are premium resources that incur additional fees to use.
To view a list of frequently asked questions when running SLES on Compute Engine, see SUSE Linux Enterprise Server FAQ .
Automatic updates
This operating system is not configured to install updates by default. For more information about configuring automatic updates for SLES, see SUSE documentation .
Image configuration
SLES and SLES for SAP images are built and maintained by SUSE. SLES images are built with the latest SLES packages reflected in their release.
The SUSE images that are provided by Compute Engine, have the following differences in configuration from standard SUSE images:
Account configuration
- There are no local users configured with passwords.
Network configuration
- IPv6 is enabled.
- The SSH server configuration is set to disable password authentication.
- SLES does not use predictive network interface naming. In the grub kernel command-line arguments,
net.ifnames=0is set. Therefore, network interfaces use the traditional ethN naming, with the default interface always beingeth0. - VMs based on Google-provided Linux images get their interface MTU
from the attached VPC MTU. VMs based on custom images or older
Linux images may have their MTU's hardcoded. In these cases, you have to change
the setting yourself if you want to connect the interface to a network with an
MTU other than
1460. For more information about network and interface MTU, see the maximum transmission unit overview .
Package system and repository configuration
- The guest environment for Compute Engine packages are installed from the packages that are supplied by SUSE .
- SLES instances register with a SUSE run SMT service for Compute Engine and are configured to use SUSE regional mirrors in Compute Engine.
Storage configuration
- Images are 10 GB by default.
- The partition table is
GPT, and there is anEFIpartition to support booting onUEFI. There is also an MBR boot block to support BIOS. - The floppy module is disabled because there is no floppy disk controller on Compute Engine.
- Starting with SLES 16, the default file system for the root partition (/) is Btrfs, changing from the previous default of XFS. For more information, see SUSE file system documentation .
Time configuration
- The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.
GA SLES versions
The following section summarizes feature support for versions of this OS that are in General Availability (GA).
General information
| OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
SLES 16.0
|
suse-cloud
|
sles-16
|
sles-16-arm64
|
All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4 | GA | Dec 2030 |
|
SLES 15 SP7
|
suse-cloud
|
sles-15
|
sles-15-arm64
|
All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4 | GA | Jul 2034 |
|
SLES 15 SP6
|
suse-cloud
|
sles-15
|
sles-15-arm64
|
All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4 | GA | Dec 2028 |
|
SLES 16.0 for SAP
|
suse-sap-cloud
|
sles-16-sap
|
N/A | All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4, T2A, N4A, C4A, C4A-metal | GA | Nov 2030 |
|
SLES 15 SP7 for SAP
|
suse-sap-cloud
|
sles-15-sp7-sap
|
N/A | All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4, T2A, N4A, C4A, C4A-metal | GA | Jul 2031 |
|
SLES 15 SP6 for SAP
|
suse-sap-cloud
|
sles-15-sp6-sap
|
N/A | All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4, T2A, N4A, C4A, C4A-metal | GA | Dec 2028 |
|
SLES 15 SP5 for SAP
|
suse-sap-cloud
|
sles-15-sp5-sap
|
N/A | All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4, T2A, N4A, C4A, C4A-metal | GA | Dec 2027 |
|
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP
|
suse-sap-cloud
|
sles-15-sp4-sap
|
N/A | All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4, T2A, N4A, C4A, C4A-metal | GA | Dec 2026 |
|
SLES 15 SP5
|
suse-byos-cloud
|
N/A | N/A | All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4 | BYOS w/ LTSS | Dec 2027 |
|
SLES 15 SP4
|
suse-byos-cloud
|
N/A | N/A | All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4, T2A, N4A, C4A, C4A-metal | BYOS w/ LTSS | Dec 2026 |
|
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP
|
suse-sap-cloud
|
sles-12-sp5-sap
|
N/A | All except T2A, N4A, C4A, C4A-metal, C4D-metal, C4-metal, C3-metal, H4D, A4, A4X, A4X Max, G4, G2, X4, Z3-metal | BYOS w/ LTSS | Oct 2027 |
* BYOS with LTSS : Support for this operating system is only offered through the Long Term Service Pack Support (LTSS) that is available when using BYOS licenses from SUSE.
† ESPOS : Extended Service Pack Overlay Support images are set to deprecated 6 months before their EOS date. Deprecated images are still available for use.
Interfaces
| OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IRDMA | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
SLES 16.0
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP7
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP6
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 16.0 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP7 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP6 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP5 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP5
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP4
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
Security features
| OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM SEV | Confidential VM SEV-SNP | Confidential VM Intel TDX |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
SLES 16.0
|
Yes * | Yes | Yes | Yes † |
|
SLES 15 SP7
|
Yes * | Yes | Yes | Yes † |
|
SLES 15 SP6
|
Yes * | Yes | Yes | Yes † |
|
SLES 16.0 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
|
SLES 15 SP7 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
|
SLES 15 SP6 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
|
SLES 15 SP5 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
|
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
|
SLES 15 SP5
|
Yes * | Yes | Yes | No |
|
SLES 15 SP4
|
Yes * | Yes | No | No |
|
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP
|
Yes | No | No | No |
*
This OS image doesn't support Secure Boot on ARM64.
†
Intel TDX isn't supported on ARM64 for this OS image.
User space features
| OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
SLES 16.0
|
Yes * | No | No | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP7
|
Yes * | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP6
|
Yes * | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 16.0 for SAP
|
Yes * | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP7 for SAP
|
Yes * | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP6 for SAP
|
Yes * | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP5 for SAP
|
Yes * | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP
|
Yes * | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP5
|
Yes * | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP4
|
Yes * | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP
|
Yes * | No | Yes | Yes |
* This OS image doesn't support custom hostnames. For more information see Custom Hostnames .
Networking features
| OS version | Tier_1 networking * | 200 Gbps network bandwidth * | Jumbo frames/MTU |
|---|---|---|---|
|
SLES 16.0
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP7
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP6
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 16.0 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP7 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP6 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP5 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP5
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP4
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
* You can update the gVNIC driver to the latest version to enable network egress bandwidths of 200 Gbps. For more information, see the Requirements and limitations section of "Configure per VM Tier_1 networking performance".
† Fully supported with VirtIO, but requires an updated driver to use with gVNIC. For more information, see Jumbo frames .
# Only available with certain machine series.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
For more information about GPU requirements and recommended OSes, see choosing an OS for instances with attached GPUs .
| OS version | A4X (GB200) | A4 (B200) | A3 (H200) | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G4 (RTX PRO 6000) | G2 (L4) | N1+GPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
SLES 16.0
|
No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP7
|
No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP6
|
No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 16.0 for SAP
|
No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP7 for SAP
|
No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP6 for SAP
|
No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP5 for SAP
|
No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP
|
No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP5
|
No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP4
|
No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP
|
No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
VM Manager
| OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
SLES 16.0
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP7
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP6
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 16.0 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP7 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP6 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP5 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP5
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP4
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, see supported operating systems .
| OS version | Import disk | Import virtual appliance | Import machine image |
|---|---|---|---|
|
SLES 16.0
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP7
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP6
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 16.0 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP7 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP6 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP5 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP5
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 15 SP4
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
License
For version tracking, Rocky Linux accelerated images include three licenses:
- A license for the base Rocky Linux optimized OS.
- A license to designate the image as an accelerated image.
- A license for the NVIDIA driver.
- On-demand (Default)
- BYOS
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-cloud/global/licenses/sles-16 -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-16-byos
- On-demand (Default)
- BYOS
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-cloud/global/licenses/sles-15 -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-15-byos
- On-demand (Default)
- BYOS
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-cloud/global/licenses/sles-15 -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-15-byos
- On-demand (Default)
- BYOS
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-sap-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-16 -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-16-byos
- On-demand (Default)
- BYOS
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-sap-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-15 -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-15-byos
- On-demand (Default)
- BYOS
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-sap-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-15 -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-15-byos
- On-demand (Default)
- BYOS
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-sap-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-15 -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-15-byos
- On-demand (Default)
- BYOS
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-sap-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-15 -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-15-byos
- On-demand (Default)
- BYOS
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-cloud/global/licenses/sles-15 -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-15-byos
- On-demand (Default)
- BYOS
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-cloud/global/licenses/sles-15 -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-15-byos
- On-demand (Default)
- BYOS
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-sap-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-12 -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-sap-12-byos
* BYOS with LTSS : Support for this operating system is only offered through the Long Term Service Pack Support (LTSS) that is available when using BYOS licenses from SUSE.
End of support SLES versions
The following section summarizes feature support for versions of this OS that are in end of support.
Ubuntu LTS
Ubuntu is a free operating system developed and supported by Canonical .
Ubuntu Long Term Support (LTS) images receive bug fixes and security updates for five years after their release date. LTS images can run on your instances for several years without having to upgrade to a newer release.
Ubuntu Minimal images are supported the same as Ubuntu LTS images.
Regular (non LTS) Ubuntu images are supported for 9 months from their release date. To continue to use a regular Ubuntu image, you will have to upgrade to the next regular Ubuntu release or LTS release after the support cycle ends to receive fixes and updates. Compute Engine recommends using Ubuntu LTS images unless you require features or software packages that are not yet included in an LTS release. If your instances run Ubuntu releases that are no longer supported, upgrade to a supported Ubuntu release .
Automatic updates
By default, this operating system is configured to install security updates by using the Ubuntu AutomaticSecurityUpdates
tool. The updates have the following behaviors:
- The
AutomaticSecurityUpdatestool does not upgrade VMs between major versions of the operating system. - The
AutomaticSecurityUpdatestool is configured to only automatically apply updates obtained from the Ubuntu security repository. - Some updates require reboots to take effect. These reboots do not happen automatically.
Image configuration
Ubuntu images are built and maintained by Canonical. Ubuntu images are always built with the latest Ubuntu packages which reflect the most recent Ubuntu point release.
The Ubuntu images that are provided by Compute Engine, have the following differences in configuration from standard Ubuntu images:
Account configuration
- There are no local users configured with passwords.
Bootloader configuration
- Ubuntu uses
cloud-initto do some boot time initialization. Thecloud.cfgfile is configured for Compute Engine and enables only thecloud-initmodules that are used. - To force faster boot times, the boot timeout in the grub configuration is set to
0. - To allow SCSI block multi-queue usage,
scsi_mod.use_blk_mqis enabled.
Network configuration
- IPv6 is enabled.
- The SSH server configuration is set to disable password authentication.
- To prevent MAC addresses from persisting,
/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rulesis removed.
Package system and repository configuration
- The guest environment for Compute Engine packages are installed from the Ubuntu supplied packages .
- For Ubuntu 18.04+, the Google Cloud CLI is installed and maintained as a snap package.
- The APT sources are set to use the Ubuntu Compute Engine mirrors via
cloud-init. - The
Unattended-upgradespackage is installed and configured to download and install Debian security updates daily. This can be configured or disabled by changing the values in/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgradesand/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/02periodic. - The
linux-image-gcpkernel is used instead of the generic Ubuntu kernel. The Google Cloud kernel reflects the latest rolling HWE kernel for Ubuntu LTS.
Storage configuration
- Images are 10 GB by default.
- The partition table is
GPT, and there is anEFIpartition to support booting onUEFI. There is also an MBR boot block to support BIOS. - The floppy module is disabled because there is no floppy disk controller on Compute Engine.
Time configuration
- The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.
GA Ubuntu LTS versions
The following section summarizes feature support for versions of this OS that are in General Availability (GA).
General information
For information about non LTS Ubuntu releases, see the Ubuntu release wiki .
| OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ubuntu-os-cloud
|
ubuntu-2404-lts-amd64
|
ubuntu-2404-lts-arm64
|
All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, A3 Ultra | GA | June 2029 (ESM April 2034) | |
ubuntu-os-accelerator-images
|
ubuntu-accelerator-2404-amd64-with-nvidia-580
|
ubuntu-accelerator-2404-arm64-with-nvidia-580
|
A4X Max, A4X, A4, A3 Ultra | GA | June 2029 (ESM April 2034) | |
ubuntu-os-accelerator-images
|
ubuntu-accelerator-2404-amd64-with-nvidia-570
|
ubuntu-accelerator-2404-arm64-with-nvidia-570
|
A4X, A4, A3 Ultra | GA | June 2029 (ESM April 2034) | |
ubuntu-os-cloud
|
ubuntu-2204-lts
|
ubuntu-2204-lts-arm64
|
All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, A3 Ultra | GA | April 2027 (ESM April 2032) | |
ubuntu-os-accelerator-images
|
ubuntu-accelerator-2204-amd64-with-nvidia-580
|
ubuntu-accelerator-2204-arm64-with-nvidia-580
|
A4X Max, A4X, A4, A3 Ultra | GA | April 2027 (ESM April 2032) | |
ubuntu-os-accelerator-images
|
ubuntu-accelerator-2204-amd64-with-nvidia-570
|
ubuntu-accelerator-2204-arm64-with-nvidia-570
|
A4X, A4, A3 Ultra | GA | April 2027 (ESM April 2032) |
*
Ubuntu ESM: You can apply your existing ESM subscription
to the Google provided
OS image. The image that is provided by Google Cloud contains enhancements
that might not be included if you bring your own OS image.
†
Ubuntu Pro: To continue using Ubuntu 16.04
and 18.04 LTS images, upgrade from Ubuntu to Ubuntu Pro
.
Interfaces
| OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IRDMA | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Security features
| OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM SEV | Confidential VM SEV-SNP | Confidential VM Intel TDX |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes † | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes † | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
* Intel TDX isn't supported on ARM64 for this OS image.
User space features
| OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes * | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes * | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes * | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes * | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes * | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes * | Yes | Yes | Yes |
* This OS image doesn't support custom hostnames. For more information, see Custom Hostnames .
Networking features
| OS version | Tier_1 networking * | 200 Gbps network bandwidth * | Jumbo frames/MTU |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes |
*
You can update the gVNIC driver
to the latest version to enable network egress bandwidths of 200 Gbps.
For more information, see the Requirements and limitations
section of "Configure per VM Tier_1 networking performance".
†
Fully supported with VirtIO, but requires an updated driver to
use with gVNIC. For more information, see Jumbo frames
.
#
Only available with certain machine series.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
The Ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04 LTS Accelerated OS images are optimized for supporting your artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) workloads. To learn more about how these images are optimized for these workloads, see Accelerator OS images in the AI Hypercomputer documentation.
For more information about GPU requirements and recommended OSes, see choosing an OS for instances with attached GPUs .
| OS version | A4X Max (GB300) | A4X (GB200) | A4 (B200) | A3 (H200) | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G4 (RTX PRO 6000) | G2 (L4) | N1+GPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
| No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
| No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
| No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
VM Manager
| OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, see supported operating systems .
| OS version | Import disk | Import virtual appliance | Import machine image |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes |
License
For version tracking, Rocky Linux accelerated images include three licenses:
- A license for the base Rocky Linux optimized OS.
- A license to designate the image as an accelerated image.
- A license for the NVIDIA driver.
| OS version | License type | License URL |
|---|---|---|
| Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-2404-lts
|
|
| Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-2404-lts
|
|
| Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-2404-lts
|
|
| Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-2204-lts
|
|
| Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-2204-lts
|
|
| Free | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-2204-lts
|
*
Ubuntu ESM: You can apply your existing ESM subscription
to the Google provided
OS image. The image that is provided by Google Cloud contains enhancements
that might not be included if you bring your own OS image.
†
Ubuntu Pro: To continue using Ubuntu 16.04
and 18.04 LTS images, you must upgrade from Ubuntu to Ubuntu Pro
.
End of support Ubuntu LTS versions
The following section summarizes feature support for versions of this OS that are in end of support.
Ubuntu Pro
Ubuntu Pro is a premium operating system developed and supported by Canonical .
Ubuntu Pro images running on Compute Engine receive bug fixes and security updates for 10 years after their release date, along with access to Ubuntu ESM . For Ubuntu 16.04, security updates and ESM are available for 8 years.
Ubuntu Pro images are premium resources that incur additional fees to use. For information about Ubuntu Pro license cost, see the Ubuntu Pro pricing page. An Ubuntu Pro image running on Compute Engine has an on-demand license and does not require an additional Ubuntu Pro subscription.
To view a list of frequently asked questions when running Ubuntu Pro on Compute Engine, see Ubuntu Pro FAQ .
Automatic updates
By default, this operating system is configured to install security updates by using the Ubuntu AutomaticSecurityUpdates
tool. The updates have the following behaviors:
- The
AutomaticSecurityUpdatestool does not upgrade VMs between major versions of the operating system. - The
AutomaticSecurityUpdatestool is configured to only automatically apply updates obtained from the Ubuntu security repository. - Some updates require reboots to take effect. These reboots do not happen automatically.
Image configuration
Ubuntu Pro images are built and maintained by Canonical. Ubuntu Pro images are always built with the latest Ubuntu packages which reflect the most recent Ubuntu point release.
The Ubuntu Pro images that are provided by Compute Engine, have the following differences in configuration from standard Ubuntu images:
Account configuration
- There are no local users configured with passwords.
Bootloader configuration
- Ubuntu uses
cloud-initto do some boot time initialization. Thecloud.cfgfile is configured for Compute Engine and enables only thecloud-initmodules that are used. - To force faster boot times, the boot timeout in the grub configuration is set to
0. - To allow SCSI block multi-queue usage,
scsi_mod.use_blk_mqis enabled.
Network configuration
- IPv6 is enabled.
- The SSH server configuration is set to disable password authentication.
- To prevent MAC addresses from persisting,
/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rulesis removed.
Package system and repository configuration
- The guest environment for Compute Engine packages are installed from the Ubuntu supplied packages .
- The Google Cloud CLI is installed and maintained as a snap package.
- The APT sources are set to use the Ubuntu Compute Engine mirrors via
cloud-init. - The
Unattended-upgradespackage is installed and configured to download and install Debian security updates daily. This can be configured or disabled by changing the values in/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgradesand/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/02periodic. - The
linux-image-gcpkernel is used instead of the generic Ubuntu kernel. The Google Cloud kernel reflects the latest rolling HWE kernel for Ubuntu LTS.
Storage configuration
- Images are 10 GB by default.
- The partition table is
GPT, and there is anEFIpartition to support booting onUEFI. There is also an MBR boot block to support BIOS. - Ubuntu uses
cloud-initto do some boot time initialization. Thecloud.cfgfile is configured for Compute Engine and enables only thecloud-initmodules that are used. - There are no local users configured with passwords.
- The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.
- The floppy module is disabled because there is no floppy disk controller on Compute Engine.
Time configuration
- The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.
GA Ubuntu Pro versions
The following section summarizes feature support for versions of this OS that are in General Availability (GA).
General information
For information about upgrading from Ubuntu LTS to Ubuntu Pro, see Upgrade from Ubuntu to Ubuntu Pro .
| OS version | Image project | x86 image family | Arm image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ubuntu-os-pro-cloud
|
ubuntu-pro-2404-lts-amd64
|
ubuntu-pro-2404-lts-arm64
|
All except A4X Max, A4X, A4 | GA | April 2034 | |
ubuntu-os-pro-cloud
|
ubuntu-pro-2204-lts
|
ubuntu-pro-2204-lts-arm64
|
All except A4X Max, A4X, A4 | GA | April 2032 | |
ubuntu-os-pro-cloud
|
ubuntu-pro-2004-lts
|
ubuntu-pro-2004-lts-arm64
|
All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4 | GA | April 2030 | |
ubuntu-os-pro-cloud
|
ubuntu-pro-1804-lts
|
ubuntu-pro-1804-lts-arm64
|
All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4, C4-metal, C4A, C4A-metal, C3-metal, C4D-metal, X4, Z3-metal | GA | April 2028 | |
ubuntu-os-pro-cloud
|
ubuntu-pro-1604-lts
|
N/A | All except A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4, T2A, C4A, C3-metal, C4-metal, C4A-metal, C4D-metal, X4, Z3-metal | GA | April 2026 |
Interfaces
| OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IRDMA | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes * | Yes | No | No | Yes |
* This OS image supports NVMe but doesn't support the hot-plugging of NVMe drives. Hot-plugging is the process of adding or removing a device while the system is running.
Security features
| OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM SEV | Confidential VM SEV-SNP | Confidential VM Intel TDX |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes † | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes † | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Yes | Yes | No | No | |
| Yes | No | No | No |
* Intel TDX isn't supported on ARM64 for this OS image.
User space features
| OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes * | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes * | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes * | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes * | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes * | Yes | Yes | Yes |
* This OS image doesn't support custom hostnames. For more information, see Custom Hostnames .
Networking features
| OS version | Tier_1 networking * | 200 Gbps network bandwidth * | Jumbo frames/MTU |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | No * | Yes † |
*
You can update the gVNIC driver
to the latest version to enable network egress bandwidths of 200 Gbps.
For more information, see the Requirements and limitations
section of "Configure per VM Tier_1 networking performance".
†
Fully supported with VirtIO, but requires an updated driver to
use with gVNIC. For more information, see Jumbo frames
.
#
Only available with certain machine series.
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
For more information about GPU requirements and recommended OSes, see choosing an OS for instances with attached GPUs .
| OS version | A4X Max (GB300) | A4X (GB200) | A4 (B200) | A3 (H200) | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G4 (RTX PRO 6000) | G2 (L4) | N1+GPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
VM Manager
| OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, see supported operating systems .
| OS version | Import disk | Import virtual appliance | Import machine image |
|---|---|---|---|
| No | No | No | |
| No | No | No | |
| No | No | No | |
| No | No | No | |
| No | No | No |
License
For version tracking, Rocky Linux accelerated images include three licenses:
- A license for the base Rocky Linux optimized OS.
- A license to designate the image as an accelerated image.
- A license for the NVIDIA driver.
| OS version | License type | License URL |
|---|---|---|
| On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-pro-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-pro-2404-lts
|
|
| On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-pro-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-pro-2204-lts
|
|
| On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-pro-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-pro-2004-lts
|
|
| On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-pro-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-pro-1804-lts
|
|
| On-demand | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-pro-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-pro-1604-lts
|
Windows client
Google doesn't provide Windows client images. You must bring your own Windows client images.
Windows client images can't be used with bare metal instances. Also, Windows client images aren't supported for N4A machine series , C4A machine series , and T2A machine series VMs.
Automatic updates
The Windows client update settings determine how versions of Windows client use Windows Updates. To configure Windows automatic updates, see Configure Automatic Updates .
Storage
Google doesn't test the VSS agent on any client images.
GA Windows client versions
The following section summarizes feature support for versions of this OS that are in General Availability (GA).
General information
| OS version | Lifecycle stage | EOS date |
|---|---|---|
|
Windows 11 25h2 x64
|
GA | Oct 2028 |
|
Windows 11 24h2 x64
|
GA | Oct 2027 |
|
Windows 11 23h2 x64 **
|
GA | Nov 2026 |
* Lifecycle stage : Google Cloud Support typically coincides with Extended Support End Date. For information about the end of support (EOS) date for each of the operating systems in the table below, see the Microsoft Lifecycle Policy .
** Windows 11 : vTPM and Secure Boot must be enabled. Due to CPU requirements, N1 and M1 sole-tenant node types are not recommended.
Interfaces
| OS version | SCSI | NVMe | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IRDMA | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Windows 11 25h2 x64
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
|
Windows 11 24h2 x64
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
|
Windows 11 23h2 x64
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
Security features
| OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM support |
|---|---|---|
|
Windows 11 25h2 x64
|
Yes ** | No |
|
Windows 11 24h2 x64
|
Yes ** | No |
|
Windows 11 23h2 x64
|
Yes ** | No |
** Windows 11 : vTPM and Secure Boot must be enabled. Due to CPU requirements, N1 and M1 sole-tenant node types are not recommended.
User space features
| OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Windows 11 25h2 x64
|
No * | No † | No | No ^ |
|
Windows 11 24h2 x64
|
No * | No † | No | No ^ |
|
Windows 11 23h2 x64
|
No * | No † | No | Yes ‡ |
* Guest environment : For this OS, the guest environment can be manually installed. To install the guest environment, see Install the guest environment .
† gcloud CLI : For this OS, the gcloud CLI can be manually installed. To install the gcloud CLI, see Install the gcloud CLI .
‡ Suspend and resume : For this OS, some power policy configurations are incompatible with suspend and resume. For more information, see troubleshooting VM suspension .
^ Suspend and resume : Suspend and resume for Windows 11 24h2 x64 & Windows 11 25h2 x64 isn't supported. This is a known issue and a fix is in progress.
Networking features
| OS version | Tier_1 networking * | 200 Gbps network bandwidth * | Jumbo frames/MTU |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Windows 11 25h2 x64
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Windows 11 24h2 x64
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Windows 11 23h2 x64
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
* Only available with supported machine series .
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
For more information about GPU requirements and recommended OSes, see choosing an OS for instances with attached GPUs .
| OS version | A4X (GB200) | A4 (B200) | A3 (H200) | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G4 (RTX PRO 6000) | G2 (L4) | N1+GPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Windows 11 25h2 x64
|
No | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
Windows 11 24h2 x64
|
No | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
Windows 11 23h2 x64
|
No | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
* For this Windows client version, NVIDIA V100 GPUs are not supported.
VM Manager
| OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Windows 11 25h2 x64
|
No | No | No | No | No |
|
Windows 11 24h2 x64
|
No | No | No | No | No |
|
Windows 11 23h2 x64
|
No | No | No | No | No |
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, see supported operating systems .
| OS version | Import disk | Import virtual appliance |
|---|---|---|
|
Windows 11 25h2 x64
|
Yes | Yes |
|
Windows 11 24h2 x64
|
Yes | Yes |
|
Windows 11 23h2 x64
|
Yes | Yes |
License
For version tracking, Rocky Linux accelerated images include three licenses:
- A license for the base Rocky Linux optimized OS.
- A license to designate the image as an accelerated image.
- A license for the NVIDIA driver.
| OS version | License type | License URL |
|---|---|---|
|
Windows 11 25h2 x64
|
BYOL | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-11-x64-byol
|
|
Windows 11 24h2 x64
|
BYOL | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-11-x64-byol
|
|
Windows 11 23h2 x64
|
BYOL | https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-11-x64-byol
|
End of support Windows client versions
The following section summarizes feature support for versions of this OS that are in end of support.
Windows Server
Windows Server images are premium resources that incur additional fees to use. Google Cloud builds and supports the Windows Server images available for Compute Engine.
Windows server images can't be used with bare metal instances.
To bring your own Windows license (BYOL), you must either import an existing image, or you must build a custom image .
Automatic updates
By default, this operating system is configured to "Auto download and schedule the install" for Microsoft updates. To configure Windows Server automatic updates, see Configure Automatic Updates .
Image configuration
Windows Server images are built with the latest updates, but have the following differences in configuration from standard Windows Server images:
Account configuration
- The Administrator account is disabled.
- User passwords must be at least eight characters long.
- The
LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicyproperty is enabled to grant access to administrative file shares.
Activation configuration
- Windows Server images can't activate without a network connection to
kms.windows.googlecloud.com, and stop functioning if they don't authenticate within 30 days. Make sure to [allow access in your VPC network](/compute/docs/instances/windows/creating-managing-windows-instances#kms-server). - A KMS client key is installed and the KMS client is set to activate by using the Compute Engine KMS servers.
Bootloader configuration
- BootStatusPolicy
is set to
IgnoreAllFailures. - Emergency Management Services (EMS) redirection is enabled on the COM2 port. For more information, see bootcfg ems .
Network configuration
- The Compute Engine metadata server is added to the
hostsfile, which is typically in the%WinDir%\System32\drivers\etcdirectory. - The Windows firewall is open to allow communication with the Compute Engine metadata server.
- TCP KeepAliveTime is set to 5 minutes.
- Web Proxy Auto Discovery (WPAD) is disabled.
- The NetKVM adapter is set to use DHCP.
- Remote Desktop (RDP) is enabled and the associated Windows firewall ports opened.
- WinRM over HTTPS is configured using a self signed certificate and the associated Windows firewall ports are open.
- Windows images provided by Google have a hardcoded MTU. For more information about network and interface MTU, see the maximum transmission unit overview .
Package system and Windows Update
- Windows Server images update automatically according to the default update schedule for Windows Server.
- To install packages for the guest environment , Google Cloud repositories are enabled.
- To manage Compute Engine component packages for Windows, GooGet is installed, which you can configure to update packages automatically.
- The Google Cloud CLI is installed with its own Python 2.7 environment. Google Cloud CLI works with project service accounts, instance scopes, and works in PowerShell and the standard command-line environment.
- To boot Windows on Compute Engine, Compute Engine drivers are installed.
- PowerShell v5 and v7 are installed.
Power configuration
- Power settings are changed to never turn off the monitor.
Storage configuration
- The partition table is GPT, and there is an EFI partition to support booting on UEFI.
- The paging file is set to a static size of 1 GB.
- The
EnableQueryAccessAlignmentproperty is enabled for the VioSCSI driver.
Time configuration
- The
RealTimeIsUniversalregistry key is set. The BIOS is a UTC clock, and is not set to the local time. - The time zone is set to UTC (Coordinated Universal Time).
- NTP is set to sync to the Compute Engine metadata server.
GA Windows Server versions
The following section summarizes feature support for versions of this OS that are in General Availability (GA).
General information
| OS version | Image project | Image family | Machine series | Lifecycle stage | EOS and image deprecation date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Windows Server 2025
|
windows-cloud
|
windows-2025
windows-2025-core
|
All except T2A, N4A, C4A, C4A-metal, C4D-metal, C4-metal, C3-metal, Z3, A4X Max, A4X, A4, A3, X4 | GA | Oct 10, 2034 |
|
Windows Server 2022
|
windows-cloud
|
windows-2022
windows-2022-core
|
All except T2A, N4A, C4A, C4-metal, C4A-metal, C4D-metal, C3-metal, Z3, A4X Max, A4X, A4, A3, X4 | GA | Oct 14, 2031 |
|
Windows Server 2019
|
windows-cloud
|
windows-2019
windows-2019-core
|
All except T2A, N4A, C4A, C4-metal, C4A-metal, C4D-metal, C3-metal, Z3, A4X Max, A4X, A4, G4, A3, X4 | GA | Jan 9, 2029 |
|
Windows Server 2016
|
windows-cloud
|
windows-2016
windows-2016-core
|
All except T2A, N4A, C4A, C4-metal, C4A-metal, C4D-metal, C3-metal, Z3, A4X Max, A4X, A4, A3, G4, G2, X4 | GA | Jan 12, 2027 |
* Lifecycle stage : Google Cloud Support typically coincides with Extended Support End Date. For information about the end of support (EOS) date for each of the operating systems in the previous table, see the Microsoft Lifecycle Policy .
Interfaces
| OS version | SCSI | NVMe | VSS agent | Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC) | IRDMA | IDPF | Multiple network interfaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Windows Server 2025
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
|
Windows Server 2022
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
|
Windows Server 2019
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
|
Windows Server 2016
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
Security features
| OS version | Shielded VM | Confidential VM support |
|---|---|---|
|
Windows Server 2025
|
Yes | No |
|
Windows Server 2022
|
Yes | No |
|
Windows Server 2019
|
Yes | No |
|
Windows Server 2016
|
Yes | No |
User space features
| OS version | Guest environment installed | gcloud CLI installed | OS Login supported | Suspend and resume supported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Windows Server 2025
|
Yes | Yes | No | No † |
|
Windows Server 2022
|
Yes | Yes | No | Yes * |
|
Windows Server 2019
|
Yes | Yes | No | Yes * |
|
Windows Server 2016
|
Yes | Yes | No | Yes * |
* For this OS, some power policy configurations are incompatible with suspend and resume. For more information, see troubleshooting VM suspension .
† Not currently supported due to a known issue .
Networking features
| OS version | Tier_1 networking * | 200 Gbps network bandwidth * | Jumbo frames/MTU |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Windows Server 2025
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Windows Server 2022
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Windows Server 2019
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Windows Server 2016
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
* Only available with supported machine series .
GPU support
N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.
Limitations
- You can't use Windows operating systems with the
a2-megagpu-16gmachine type. When using A100 GPUs with a Windows operating system, choose a different A2 machine type. - You can't use Windows operating systems on
g4-standard-384machine types.
For more information about GPU requirements and recommended OSes, see choosing an OS for instances with attached GPUs .
| OS version | A4X Max (GB300) | A4X (GB200) | A4 (B200) | A3 (H200) | A3 (H100) | A2 (A100) | G4 (RTX PRO 6000) | G2 (L4) | N1+GPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Windows Server 2025
|
No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Windows Server 2022
|
No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Windows Server 2019
|
No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
|
Windows Server 2016
|
No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes |
* For this Windows client version, NVIDIA V100 GPUs are not supported.
VM Manager
| OS version | OS Config agent preinstalled | OS inventory | OS policies | Patch | Vulnerability reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Windows Server 2025
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Windows Server 2022
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Windows Server 2019
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Windows Server 2016
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Import
For operating system support information on migrating VMs using Migrate to Virtual Machines, see supported operating systems .
| OS version | Import disk | Import virtual appliance |
|---|---|---|
|
Windows Server 2025
|
Yes | Yes |
|
Windows Server 2022
|
Yes | Yes |
|
Windows Server 2019
|
Yes | Yes |
|
Windows Server 2016
|
Yes | Yes |
* Self-import is available.
License
For version tracking, Rocky Linux accelerated images include three licenses:
- A license for the base Rocky Linux optimized OS.
- A license to designate the image as an accelerated image.
- A license for the NVIDIA driver.
- On-demand (Default)
- BYOL 1
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-server-2025-dc -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-server-2025-byol
- On-demand (Default)
- BYOL 1
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-server-2022-dc -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-server-2022-byol
- On-demand (Default)
- BYOL 1
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-server-2019-dc -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-server-2019-byol
- On-demand (Default)
- BYOL 1
-
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-server-2016-dc -
https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-server-2016-byol
1 See the notes on Bring Your Own License (BYOL) for Microsoft Licensing.
End of support Windows Server versions
The following section summarizes feature support for versions of this OS that are in end of support.
