Configure disks to meet performance requirements

This page discusses the many factors that determine the performance of the block storage volumes that you attach to your virtual machines (VMs). Before you begin, consider the following:

  • Persistent Disk are networked storage and generally have higher latency compared to physical disks or Local SSDs. To reach the maximum performance limits of the Persistent Disk, you must issue enough I/O requests in parallel. To check if you're using a high enough queue depth to reach your required performance levels, see I/O queue depth.

  • Make sure that your application is issuing enough I/O requests to saturate the disk. Disk saturation occurs when the CPU time during I/O requests issued to the device is very high.

  • For workloads that primarily involve small (from 4 KB to 16 KB) random I/O requests, the limiting performance factor is random I/O requests per second (IOPS).

  • For workloads that primarily involve sequential or large (256 KB to 1 MB) random I/O requests, the limiting performance factor is throughput.

Choose a storage option

You can provide several different types of block storage for your VMs to use.

When you configure a persistent disk, you can select one of the following disk types:

  • Balanced persistent disks (pd-balanced)
    • An alternative to performance (pd-ssd) persistent disks
    • Balance of performance and cost. For most VM shapes, except very large ones, these disks have the same maximum IOPS as SSD persistent disks and lower IOPS per GiB. This disk type offers performance levels suitable for most general-purpose applications at a price point between that of standard and performance (pd-ssd) persistent disks.
    • Backed by solid-state drives (SSD).
  • Performance (SSD) persistent disks (pd-ssd)
    • Suitable for enterprise applications and high-performance databases that require lower latency and more IOPS than standard persistent disks provide.
    • Backed by solid-state drives (SSD).
  • Standard persistent disks (pd-standard)
    • Suitable for large data processing workloads that primarily use sequential I/Os.
    • Backed by standard hard disk drives (HDD).
  • Extreme persistent disks (pd-extreme)
    • Offer consistently high performance for both random access workloads and bulk throughput.
    • Designed for high-end database workloads.
    • Allow you to provision the target IOPS.
    • Backed by solid-state drives (SSD).
    • Available with a limited number of machine types.

If you create a disk in the Google Cloud console, the default disk type is pd-balanced. If you create a disk using the gcloud CLI or the Compute Engine API, the default disk type is pd-standard.

Each storage option has unique performance limits that depend on the machine type and number of vCPUs in use.

Performance limits for Persistent Disk

Persistent Disk have limits for the maximum IOPS and throughput that they can sustain. There are throughput and IOPS limits per GiB and per VM. Balanced Persistent Disk and performance (SSD) Persistent Disk also offer baseline performance for sustained IOPS and throughput. Balanced Persistent Disk, performance (SSD) Persistent Disk and extreme Persistent Disk are designed for sub-millisecond latencies. Factors that affect performance include machine type, disk size, VM vCPU count, and I/O block size.

This page details the performance limits for zonal Persistent Disk and regional Persistent Disk.

For information about Google Cloud Hyperdisk performance, see Hyperdisk performance limits.

Zonal Persistent Disk

This section shows IOPS and throughput limits for zonal Persistent Disk.

IOPS limits for zonal Persistent Disk

Zonal
standard
PD		 Zonal
balanced
PD		 Zonal
SSD PD		 Zonal
extreme PD		 Zonal
SSD PD
multi-writer mode
Read IOPS per GiB 0.75 6 30 – 30
Write IOPS per GiB 1.5 6 30 – 30
Read IOPS per VM* 7,500 80,000 100,000 120,000 100,000
Write IOPS per VM* 15,000 80,000 100,000 120,000 100,000

* Requires an N2 VM with at least 64 vCPUs to achieve the stated performance limit. For maximum limits for all other machine types, see Performance by machine type and vCPU count.

Throughput limits for zonal Persistent Disk

The following table shows throughput limits for zonal Persistent Disk.

Persistent Disk can achieve greater performance on VMs with more vCPUs. Read Network egress caps on write throughput for more information.

Zonal
standard
PD		 Zonal
balanced
PD		 Zonal
SSD PD		 Zonal
extreme PD		 Zonal
SSD PD
multi-writer mode
Throughput per GiB (MiBps) 0.12 0.28 0.48 – 0.48
Read throughput per VM (MiBps) 1,200 1,200 1,200 4,000* 1,200
Write throughput per VM (MiBps) 400 1,200 1,200 3,000* 1,200

* Requires an N2 VM with at least 64 vCPUs to achieve the stated performance limit. For maximum limits for all other machine types, see Performance by machine type and vCPU count.

Regional Persistent Disk

Like zonal Persistent Disk, regional Persistent Disk can achieve greater performance when you modify factors that can affect performance, like disk size and number of vCPUs.

This section lists IOPS and throughput limits for regional Persistent Disk. These conditions apply to the stated limits:

  • Achieving the stated limits requires a VM with at least 64 vCPUs and an N2 machine type or an N1 machine type running Intel Skylake or newer. VMs using other machine types, such as N2D, will have lower performance limits.
  • VMs using E2 machine types will have lower performance limits because E2 machine types support a maximum of 32 vCPUs.
  • Read IOPS per VM and read throughput per VM may be lower when the disk is in unreplicated mode.

IOPS limits for regional Persistent Disk

Regional
standard
PD		 Regional
balanced
PD		 Regional
SSD PD
Read IOPS per GiB 0.75 6 30
Write IOPS per GiB 1.5 6 30
Read IOPS per VM 7,500 80,000* 100,000#
Write IOPS per VM 15,000 60,000† 80,000^

* For N2D, the maximum read IOPS per VM for balanced Persistent Disk is 60,000.
# For N2D, the maximum read IOPS per VM for SSD Persistent Disk is 70,000.
† For N2D, the maximum write IOPS per VM for balanced Persistent Disk is 50,000.
^ For N2D, the maximum write IOPS per VM for SSD Persistent Disk is 60,000.

Throughput limits for regional Persistent Disk

Regional
standard
PD		 Regional
balanced
PD		 Regional
SSD PD
Read throughput per VM (MB/s) 1,200 1,200 1,200
Write throughput per VM (MB/s) 200 600 1000‡

‡ For N2D, the maximum write throughput per VM for SSD Persistent Disk is 600 MiBps.

Sharing disks between VMs

Attaching a disk to multiple VMs in read-only mode mode or in multi-writer mode does not affect aggregate performance or cost. Each machine gets a share of the per-disk performance limit. Persistent Disk created in multi-writer mode have specific IOPS and throughput limits. To learn how to share Persistent Disk between multiple VMs, see Sharing Persistent Disk between VMs.

Persistent Disk I/O operations share a common path with network traffic within your VM's hypervisor. Therefore, if your VM has significant network traffic, the actual read bandwidth and IOPS consistency might be less than the listed maximum limits. Some variability in the performance limits is to be expected, especially when operating near the maximum IOPS limits with an I/O size of 16 KB. For a summary of bandwidth expectations, see Bandwidth summary table.

Baseline performance

Balanced Persistent Disk and SSD Persistent Disk offer baseline IOPS and throughput performance in addition to sustained per GiB performance limits. Baseline performance is the same for all disk sizes and doesn't scale based on the number of disks of the same type that are attached to a VM. For example, if you have two zonal balanced Persistent Disk attached to a VM, they share a baseline performance of 3,000 IOPS.

To calculate the maximum expected performance of a Persistent Disk type, add the disk type's baseline performance to the per GiB performance limit for the disk type, multiplied by the combined size (in GiB) of all disks of the same type:

Maximum expected performance = Baseline performance + (Per GiB performance limit * Combined disk size in GiB).

For example, the maximum IOPS of two 1000 GiB zonal balanced Persistent Disk attached to the same VM is 15,000:

3,000 baseline performance + (6 IOPS performance limit per GiB * 2000 GiB combined disk size) = 15,000 IOPS

The following table shows the baseline performance for balanced and SSD Persistent Disk.

Zonal Persistent Disk

The following table shows the baseline sustained IOPS and throughput for zonal Persistent Disk:

Zonal
balanced
PD		 Zonal
SSD PD
Baseline IOPS per VM 3,000 6,000
Baseline Throughput (MiBps) per VM 140 240

Regional Persistent Disk

Regional Persistent Disk are supported on only E2, N1, N2, and N2D machine type VMs. The following table shows the baseline sustained IOPS and throughput for regional Persistent Disk:

Regional
balanced
PD		 Regional
SSD PD
Baseline IOPS per VM 3,000 6,000
Baseline Throughput (MiBps) per VM 140 240

Configure your Persistent Disk and VMs

Persistent Disk performance scales with the size of the disk and with the number of vCPUs on your VM.

Performance scales until it reaches either the limits of the disk or the limits of the VM to which the disk is attached. The machine type and the number of vCPUs on the VM determine the VM limits.

The following tables show performance limits for zonal Persistent Disk.

Performance by machine type and vCPU count for zonal Persistent Disk

The following tables show how zonal Persistent Disk performance varies according to the machine type and number of vCPUs on the VM to which the disk is attached.

A2 Ultra VMs

pd-balanced

Machine type Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
a2-ultragpu-1g 15,000 15,000 800 800
a2-ultragpu-2g 20,000 20,000 1,200 1,200
a2-ultragpu-4g 50,000 50,000 1,200 1,200
a2-ultragpu-8g 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200

pd-ssd

Machine type Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
a2-ultragpu-1g 15,000 15,000 800 800
a2-ultragpu-2g 25,000 25,000 1,200 1,200
a2-ultragpu-4g 60,000 60,000 1,200 1,200
a2-ultragpu-8g 100,000 100,000 1,200 1,200

pd-standard

Machine type Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
a2-ultragpu-1g 15,000 5,000 400 800
a2-ultragpu-2g 15,000 7,500 400 1,200
a2-ultragpu-4g 15,000 7,500 400 1,200
a2-ultragpu-8g 15,000 7,500 400 1,200

A2 Standard VMs

pd-balanced

Machine type Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
a2-highgpu-1g 15,000 15,000 800 800
a2-highgpu-2g 20,000 20,000 1,200 1,200
a2-highgpu-4g 50,000 50,000 1,200 1,200
a2-highgpu-8g 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200
a2-megagpu-16g 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200

pd-ssd

Machine type Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
a2-highgpu-1g 15,000 15,000 800 800
a2-highgpu-2g 25,000 25,000 1,200 1,200
a2-highgpu-4g 60,000 60,000 1,200 1,200
a2-highgpu-8g 100,000 100,000 1,200 1,200
a2-megagpu-16g 100,000 100,000 1,200 1,200

pd-standard

Machine type Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
a2-highgpu-1g 15,000 5,000 400 800
a2-highgpu-2g 15,000 7,500 400 1,200
a2-highgpu-4g 15,000 7,500 400 1,200
a2-highgpu-8g 15,000 7,500 400 1,200
a2-megagpu-16g 15,000 7,500 400 1,200

A3 Mega VMs

pd-balanced

Machine type Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MB/s) Maximum read throughput (MB/s)
a3-megagpu-8g 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200

pd-ssd

Machine type Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MB/s) Maximum read throughput (MB/s)
a3-megagpu-8g 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200

A3 High VMs

pd-balanced

Machine type Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MB/s) Maximum read throughput (MB/s)
a3-highgpu-1g 15,000 15,000 1,200 1,200
a3-highgpu-2g 30,000 30,000 1,200 1,200
a3-highgpu-4g 60,000 60,000 1,200 1,200
a3-highgpu-8g 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200

pd-ssd

Machine type Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MB/s) Maximum read throughput (MB/s)
a3-highgpu-1g 15,000 15,000 1,200 1,200
a3-highgpu-2g 30,000 30,000 1,200 1,200
a3-highgpu-4g 60,000 60,000 1,200 1,200
a3-highgpu-8g 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200

A3 Edge VMs

pd-balanced

Machine type Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MB/s) Maximum read throughput (MB/s)
a3-edgegpu-8g 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200

pd-ssd

Machine type Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MB/s) Maximum read throughput (MB/s)
a3-edgegpu-8g 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200

C2 VMs

pd-balanced

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
4 4,000 4,000 240 240
8 4,000 4,000 240 240
16 4,000 8,000 480 600
30 8,000 15,000 480 600
60 15,000 15,000 800 1,200

pd-ssd

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
4 4,000 4,000 240 240
8 4,000 4,000 240 240
16 4,000 8,000 480 600
30 8,000 15,000 480 600
60 15,000 30,000 800 1,200

pd-standard

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
4 4,000 3,000 240 240
8 4,000 3,000 240 240
16 4,000 3,000 240 240
30 8,000 3,000 240 240
60 15,000 3,000 240 240

C2D VMs

pd-balanced

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
2 4,590 4,080 245 245
4 4,590 4,080 245 245
8 4,590 4,080 245 245
16 4,590 8,160 245 326
32 8,160 15,300 245 612
56 8,160 15,300 245 612
112 15,300 30,600 408 1,224

pd-ssd

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
2 4,590 4,080 245 245
4 4,590 4,080 245 245
8 4,590 4,080 245 245
16 4,590 8,160 245 326
32 8,160 15,300 245 612
56 8,160 15,300 245 612
112 15,300 30,600 408 1,224

pd-standard

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
2 4,590 3,060 245 245
4 4,590 3,060 245 245
8 4,590 3,060 245 245
16 4,590 3,060 245 245
32 8,160 3,060 245 245
56 8,160 3,060 245 245
112 15,300 3,060 245 245

C3D VMs

pd-balanced

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
4 15,000 15,000 240 240
8 25,000 25,000 800 800
16 25,000 25,000 1,200 1,200
30 50,000 50,000 1,200 1,200
60 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200
90 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200
180 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200
360 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200

pd-ssd

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
4 15,000 15,000 240 240
8 25,000 25,000 800 800
16 25,000 25,000 1,200 1,200
30 50,000 50,000 1,200 1,200
60 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200
90 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200
180 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200
360 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200

C3 VMs

pd-balanced

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
4 15,000 15,000 240 240
8 15,000 15,000 240 240
22 20,000 20,000 800 800
44 50,000 50,000 1,200 1,200
88 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200
176 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200

pd-ssd

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
4 15,000 15,000 240 240
8 15,000 15,000 240 240
22 25,000 25,000 800 800
44 60,000 60,000 1,200 1,200
88 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200
176 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200

E2 VMs

pd-balanced

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
e2-medium* 10,000 12,000 200 200
2-7 15,000 15,000 240 240
8-15 15,000 15,000 800 800
16-31 20,000 20,000 1,000 1,200
32 or more 50,000 50,000 1,000 1,200

* E2 shared-core machine types run two vCPUs simultaneously shared on one physical core for a specific fraction of time.

pd-ssd

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
e2-medium* 10,000 12,000 200 200
2-7 15,000 15,000 240 240
8-15 15,000 15,000 800 800
16-31 25,000 25,000 1,000 1,200
32 or more 60,000 60,000 1,000 1,200

* E2 shared-core machine types run two vCPUs simultaneously shared on one physical core for a specific fraction of time.

pd-standard

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
e2-medium* 10,000 1,000 200 200
2-7 15,000 3,000 240 240
8-15 15,000 5,000 400 800
16 or more 15,000 7,500 400 1,200

* E2 shared-core machine types run two vCPUs simultaneously shared on one physical core for a specific fraction of time.

G2 VMs

pd-balanced

Machine type Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
g2-standard-4 15,000 15,000 240 240
g2-standard-8 15,000 15,000 800 800
g2-standard-12 15,000 15,000 800 800
g2-standard-16 20,000 20,000 1,200 1,200
g2-standard-24 20,000 20,000 1,200 1,200
g2-standard-32 50,000 50,000 1,200 1,200
g2-standard-48 50,000 50,000 1,200 1,200
g2-standard-96 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200

pd-ssd

Machine type Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
g2-standard-4 15,000 15,000 240 240
g2-standard-8 15,000 15,000 800 800
g2-standard-12 15,000 15,000 800 800
g2-standard-16 25,000 25,000 1,200 1,200
g2-standard-24 25,000 25,000 1,200 1,200
g2-standard-32 60,000 60,000 1,200 1,200
g2-standard-48 60,000 60,000 1,200 1,200
g2-standard-96 100,000 100,000 1,200 1,200

H3 VMs

pd-balanced

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
88 15,000 15,000 240 240

N1 VMs

pd-balanced

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
1 15,000 15,000 204 240
2-7 15,000 15,000 240 240
8-15 15,000 15,000 800 800
16-31 20,000 20,000 1,200 1,200
32-63 50,000 50,000 1,200 1,200
64 or more 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200

pd-ssd

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
1 15,000 15,000 204 240
2-7 15,000 15,000 240 240
8-15 15,000 15,000 800 800
16-31 25,000 25,000 1,200 1,200
32-63 60,000 60,000 1,200 1,200
64 or more 100,000 100,000 1,200 1,200

pd-standard

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
1 15,000 Up to 3,000 204 240
2-7 15,000 3,000 240 240
8-15 15,000 5,000 400 800
16 or more 15,000 7,500 400 1,200

N2 VMs

pd-balanced

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
2-7 15,000 15,000 240 240
8-15 15,000 15,000 800 800
16-31 20,000 20,000 1,200 1,200
32-63 50,000 50,000 1,200 1,200
64 or more 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200

pd-ssd

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
2-7 15,000 15,000 240 240
8-15 15,000 15,000 800 800
16-31 25,000 25,000 1,200 1,200
32-63 60,000 60,000 1,200 1,200
64 or more 100,000 100,000 1,200 1,200

pd-standard

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
2-7 15,000 3,000 240 240
8-15 15,000 5,000 400 800
16 or more 15,000 7,500 400 1,200

pd-extreme

Machine type Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
n2-standard-64 120,000 120,000 3,000 4,000
n2-standard-80 120,000 120,000 3,000 4,000
n2-standard-96 120,000 120,000 3,000 4,000
n2-standard-128 120,000 120,000 3,000 4,000
n2-highmem-64 120,000 120,000 3,000 4,000
n2-highmem-80 120,000 120,000 3,000 4,000
n2-highmem-96 120,000 120,000 3,000 4,000
n2-highmem-128 120,000 120,000 3,000 4,000
n2-highcpu-64 120,000 120,000 3,000 4,000
n2-highcpu-80 120,000 120,000 3,000 4,000
n2-highcpu-96 120,000 120,000 3,000 4,000

N2 VMs with 96 or more vCPUs require the Intel Ice Lake CPU platform.

N2D VMs

pd-balanced

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
2-7 15,000 15,000 240 240
8-15 15,000 15,000 800 800
16-31 20,000 20,000 1,200 1,200
32-63 50,000 50,000 1,200 1,200
64 or more Up to 80,000 Up to 80,000 1,200 1,200

pd-ssd

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
2-7 15,000 15,000 240 240
8-15 15,000 15,000 800 800
16-31 25,000 25,000 1,200 1,200
32-63 60,000 60,000 1,200 1,200
64 or more Up to 100,000 Up to 100,000 1,200 1,200

pd-standard

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
2-7 15,000 3,000 240 240
8-15 15,000 5,000 400 800
16 or more 15,000 7,500 400 1,200

M1 VMs

pd-balanced

Machine type Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
m1-megamem-96 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200
m1-ultramem-40 60,000 60,000 1,200 1,200
m1-ultramem-80 70,000 70,000 1,200 1,200
m1-ultramem-160 70,000 70,000 1,200 1,200

pd-ssd

Machine type Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
m1-megamem-96 90,000 90,000 1,200 1,200
m1-ultramem-40 60,000 60,000 1,200 1,200
m1-ultramem-80 70,000 70,000 1,200 1,200
m1-ultramem-160 70,000 70,000 1,200 1,200

pd-standard

Machine type Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
m1-megamem-96 15,000 7,500 400 1,200
m1-ultramem-40 15,000 7,500 400 1,200
m1-ultramem-80 15,000 7,500 400 1,200
m1-ultramem-160 15,000 7,500 400 1,200

pd-extreme

Machine type Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
m1-megamem-96 90,000 90,000 2,200 2,200

M2 VMs

pd-balanced

Machine type Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
m2-megamem-416 40,000 40,000 1,200 1,200
m2-ultramem-208 40,000 40,000 1,200 1,200
m2-ultramem-416 40,000 40,000 1,200 1,200
m2-hypermem-416 40,000 40,000 1,200 1,200

pd-ssd

Machine type Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
m2-megamem-416 40,000 40,000 1,200 1,200
m2-ultramem-208 40,000 40,000 1,200 1,200
m2-ultramem-416 40,000 40,000 1,200 1,200
m2-hypermem-416 40,000 40,000 1,200 1,200

pd-standard

Machine type Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
m2-megamem-416 15,000 7,500 400 1,200
m2-ultramem-208 15,000 7,500 400 1,200
m2-ultramem-416 15,000 7,500 400 1,200
m2-hypermem-416 15,000 7,500 400 1,200

pd-extreme

Machine type Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
m2-megamem-416 40,000 40,000 1,200 2,200
m2-ultramem-208 40,000 40,000 1,200 2,200
m2-ultramem-416 40,000 40,000 1,200 2,200
m2-hypermem-416 40,000 40,000 1,200 2,200

M3 VMs

pd-balanced

Machine type Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
m3-megamem-64 40,000 40,000 1,200 1,200
m3-megamem-128 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200
m3-ultramem-32 40,000 40,000 1,200 1,200
m3-ultramem-64 40,000 40,000 1,200 1,200
m3-ultramem-128 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200

pd-ssd

Machine type Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
m3-megamem-64 40,000 40,000 1,200 1,200
m3-megamem-128 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200
m3-ultramem-32 40,000 40,000 1,200 1,200
m3-ultramem-64 40,000 40,000 1,200 1,200
m3-ultramem-128 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200

pd-extreme

Machine type Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
m3-megamem-64 40,000 40,000 1,200 2,200
m3-megamem-128 80,000 80,000 1,700 2,200
m3-ultramem-32 40,000 40,000 1,200 2,200
m3-ultramem-64 40,000 40,000 1,200 2,200
m3-ultramem-128 80,000 80,000 1,700 2,200

T2D VMs

pd-balanced

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
1 15,000 15,000 204 240
2-7 15,000 15,000 240 240
8-15 15,000 15,000 800 800
16-31 20,000 20,000 1,200 1,200
32-60 50,000 50,000 1,200 1,200

pd-ssd

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
1 15,000 15,000 204 240
2-7 15,000 15,000 240 240
8-15 15,000 15,000 800 800
16-31 25,000 25,000 1,200 1,200
32-60 60,000 60,000 1,200 1,200

pd-standard

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
1 15,000 3,000 204 240
2-7 15,000 3,000 240 240
8-15 15,000 5,000 400 800
16 or more 15,000 7,500 400 1,200

T2A VMs

pd-balanced

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
1 20,000 20,000 204 240
2-7 20,000 20,000 240 240
8-15 25,000 25,000 800 800
16-31 25,000 25,000 1,200 1,200
32-47 60,000 60,000 1,200 1,200
48 80,000 80,000 1,800 1,800

pd-ssd

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
1 20,000 20,000 204 240
2-7 20,000 20,000 240 240
8-15 25,000 25,000 800 800
16-31 25,000 25,000 1,200 1,200
32-47 60,000 60,000 1,200 1,200
48 80,000 80,000 1,800 1,800

pd-standard

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
1 15,000 1,000 204 240
2-3 15,000 2,400 240 240
4-7 15,000 3,000 240 240
8-15 15,000 5,000 400 800
16 or more 15,000 7,500 400 1,200

Z3 VMs

pd-balanced

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
88 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200
176 80,000 80,000 1,200 1,200

pd-ssd

VM vCPU count Maximum write IOPS Maximum read IOPS Maximum write throughput (MiBps) Maximum read throughput (MiBps)
88 100,000 100,000 1,200 1,200
176 100,000 100,000 1,200 1,200

Example

Consider a 1,000 GiB zonal SSD Persistent Disk attached to a VM with an N2 machine type and 4 vCPUs. The read limit based solely on the size of the disk is 36,000 IOPS (6,000 baseline IOPs + (30 IOPS per GiB * 1,000 GiB)). However, the VM has 4 vCPUs so the read limit is restricted to 15,000 IOPS.

Review performance

You can review Persistent Disk performance metrics in Cloud Monitoring, Google Cloud's integrated monitoring solution.

To learn more, see Reviewing Persistent Disk performance metrics.

Optimize disk performance

To increase disk performance, start with the following steps:

  • Resize your Persistent Disk to increase the per-disk IOPS and throughput limits. Persistent Disk don't have any reserved, unusable capacity, so you can use the full disk without performance degradation. However, certain file system and applications might perform worse as the disk becomes full, so you might need to consider increasing the size of your disk to avoid such situations.

  • Change the machine type and number of vCPUs on the VM to increase the per-VM IOPS and throughput limits.

After choosing the right disk size and machine type for your VM to resolve any performance bottlenecks, your application and operating system might still need additional tuning. See Optimizing Persistent Disk performance and Optimizing Local SSD performance.

What's next