Operating system details

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.

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-automatic tool 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, ServerAliveInterval and ClientAliveInterval are set to 7 minutes.
- Root login is disabled.
/etc/udev/rules.d/75-persistent-net-generator.rules is disabled.
To prevent MAC addresses from persisting, /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules is 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_cmd property is set to security.However, by default CentOS does not offer security tagged repositories.

Storage configuration

By default, images are 20 GB. This is the recommended minimum size.
The partition table is GPT, and there is an EFI partition to support booting on UEFI.
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.

General information

OS version	Image project	x86 image family	Arm image family	Machine series	Lifecycle stage	EOS and image deprecation date
CentOS Stream 9	`centos-cloud`	`centos-stream-9`	`centos-stream-9-arm64`	All	GA	May 31, 2027
CentOS Stream 8	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	EOS	May 2024
CentOS 8	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	EOS	Dec 2021
CentOS 7	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	EOS	June 30, 2024

Interfaces

OS version	Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC)	Multiple network interfaces
CentOS Stream 9
CentOS Stream 8
CentOS 8
CentOS 7	^*	^*

^* 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 (Preview)
CentOS Stream 9	^*
CentOS Stream 8
CentOS 8
CentOS 7

^* 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
CentOS Stream 9
CentOS Stream 8
CentOS 8
CentOS 7

Networking features

OS version	Tier_1 networking^#	200 Gbps network bandwidth^#	Jumbo frames/MTU
CentOS Stream 9^**
CentOS Stream 8^**
CentOS 8^**	EOS	EOS	EOS
CentOS 7^**	EOS	EOS	EOS

^# 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.

OS version	N1+GPU	A3 (H100)	A2 (A100)	G2 (L4)
CentOS Stream 9
CentOS Stream 8
CentOS 8	EOS	EOS	EOS	EOS
CentOS 7	EOS	EOS	EOS	EOS

VM Manager

OS version	OS Config agent preinstalled	OS inventory	OS policies	Patch	Vulnerability reports
CentOS Stream 9
CentOS Stream 8
CentOS 8
CentOS 7

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
CentOS Stream 9
CentOS Stream 8
CentOS 8
CentOS 7

License

OS version	License type	License URL
CentOS Stream 9	Free	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/centos-cloud/global/licenses/centos-stream-9`
CentOS Stream 8	EOS	EOS
CentOS 8	EOS	EOS
CentOS 7	EOS	EOS

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

By default, this operating system is configured to install security updates by using Automatic updates. 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.

General information

OS version	Image project	x86 image family	Arm image family	Machine series	Lifecycle stage	EOS and image deprecation date
COS 117 LTS	`cos-cloud`	`cos-117-lts`	`cos-arm64-117-lts`	All except G2	GA	September 2026
COS 113 LTS	`cos-cloud`	`cos-113-lts`	`cos-arm64-113-lts`	All except G2	GA	April 2026
COS 109 LTS	`cos-cloud`	`cos-109-lts`	`cos-arm64-109-lts`	All except G2, X4	GA	September 2025
COS 105 LTS	`cos-cloud`	`cos-105-lts`	`cos-arm64-105-lts`	All except G2, X4, C3-metal	GA	March 2025
COS 101 LTS	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	EOS	September 2024

Interfaces

OS version	SCSI	NVMe	Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC)	IDPF	Multiple network interfaces
COS 117 LTS
COS 113 LTS
COS 109 LTS
COS 105 LTS
COS 101 LTS

Security features

OS version	Shielded VM	Confidential VM SEV	Confidential VM SEV-SNP (Preview)
COS 117 LTS
COS 113 LTS
COS 109 LTS
COS 105 LTS
COS 101 LTS

User space features

OS version	Guest environment installed	gcloud CLI installed	OS Login supported	Suspend and resume supported
COS 117 LTS
COS 113 LTS
COS 109 LTS
COS 105 LTS
COS 101 LTS

Networking features

OS version	Tier_1 networking^#	200 Gbps network bandwidth^#	Jumbo frames/MTU
COS 117 LTS
COS 113 LTS
COS 109 LTS
COS 105 LTS
COS 101 LTS

^# 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.

OS version	N1+GPU	A3 (H100)	A2 (A100)	G2 (L4)
COS 117 LTS
COS 113 LTS
COS 109 LTS
COS 105 LTS
COS 101 LTS

VM Manager

OS version	OS Config agent preinstalled	OS inventory	OS policies	Patch	Vulnerability reports
COS 117 LTS
COS 113 LTS
COS 109 LTS
COS 105 LTS
COS 101 LTS

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 117 LTS
COS 113 LTS
COS 109 LTS
COS 105 LTS
COS 101 LTS

License

OS version	License type	License URL
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`
COS 109 LTS	Free	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/cos-cloud/global/licenses/cos`
COS 105 LTS	Free	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/cos-cloud/global/licenses/cos`
COS 101 LTS	Free	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/cos-cloud/global/licenses/cos`

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 UnattendedUpgrades tool does not upgrade VMs between major versions of the operating system.
The UnattendedUpgrades tool 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_mq is 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.rules is 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-upgrades package 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-upgrades and /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/02periodic.
The cloud-initramfs-growroot package is removed and replaced with the Google supported gce-disk-expand package.
The linux-image-cloud-amd64 kernel is installed instead of the generic Debian kernel.
The haveged package is installed to provide entropy.

Storage configuration

Images are 10 GB by default.
The partition table is GPT, and there is an EFI partition to support booting on UEFI. 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.

General information

OS version	Image project	x86 image family	Arm image family	Machine series	Lifecycle stage	EOS and image deprecation date
Debian 12	`debian-cloud`	`debian-12`	`debian-12-arm64`	All except X4, C3-metal	GA	TBD
Debian 11	`debian-cloud`	`debian-11`	N/A	All except X4, C3-metal	X86: GA Arm: EOS	X86: August 31, 2026 Arm: August 15, 2024
Debian 10	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	EOS	June 30, 2024
Debian 9	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	EOS	June 2022

Interfaces

OS version	SCSI	NVMe	Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC)	IDPF	Multiple network interfaces
Debian 12
Debian 11
Debian 10
Debian 9		^*

^* 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 (Preview)
Debian 12
Debian 11
Debian 10
Debian 9

User space features

OS version	Guest environment installed	gcloud CLI installed	OS Login supported	Suspend and resume supported
Debian 12
Debian 11
Debian 10
Debian 9

Networking features

OS version	Tier_1 networking^#	200 Gbps network bandwidth^#	Jumbo frames/MTU
Debian 12		^*	^†
Debian 11		^*	^†
Debian 10			^†
Debian 9	EOS	EOS	EOS

^* 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.

OS version	N1+GPU	A3 (H100)	A2 (A100)	G2 (L4)
Debian 12
Debian 11
Debian 10
Debian 9	EOS	EOS	EOS	EOS

VM Manager

OS version	OS Config agent preinstalled	OS inventory	OS policies	Patch	Vulnerability reports
Debian 12
Debian 11
Debian 10
Debian 9	EOS	EOS	EOS	EOS	EOS

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 12
Debian 11
Debian 10
Debian 9

License

OS version	License type	License URL
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`
Debian 10	EOS	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/debian-cloud/global/licenses/debian-10-buster`
Debian 9	EOS	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/debian-cloud/global/licenses/debian-9-stretch`

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.

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 C3-metal, A3, A2, G2, X4	GA	Rolling
Fedora CoreOS Testing	`fedora-coreos-cloud`	`fedora-coreos-testing`	`fedora-coreos-testing-arm64`	All except C3-metal, A3, A2, G2, X4	GA	Rolling
Fedora CoreOS Next	`fedora-coreos-cloud`	`fedora-coreos-next`	`fedora-coreos-next-arm64`	All except C3-metal, A3, A2, G2, X4	GA	Rolling

Interfaces

OS version	SCSI	NVMe	Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC)	IDPF	Multiple network interfaces
Fedora CoreOS Stable
Fedora CoreOS Testing
Fedora CoreOS Next

Security features

OS version	Shielded VM	Confidential VM SEV	Confidential VM SEV-SNP (Preview)
Fedora CoreOS Stable	^*
Fedora CoreOS Testing	^*
Fedora CoreOS Next	^*

^*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
Fedora CoreOS Testing
Fedora CoreOS Next

Networking features

OS version	Tier_1 networking^#	200 Gbps network bandwidth^#	Jumbo frames/MTU
Fedora CoreOS Stable
Fedora CoreOS Testing
Fedora CoreOS Next

GPU support

N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.

OS version	N1+GPU	A3 (H100)	A2 (A100)	G2 (L4)
Fedora CoreOS Stable
Fedora CoreOS Testing
Fedora CoreOS Next

VM Manager

OS version	OS Config agent preinstalled	OS inventory	OS policies	Patch	Vulnerability reports
Fedora CoreOS Stable
Fedora CoreOS Testing
Fedora CoreOS Next

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
Fedora CoreOS Testing
Fedora CoreOS Next

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`

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.

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.

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.

Network configuration

IPv6 is enabled.
The SSH server configuration is set up as follows:
- Password authentication is disabled.
- To prevent SSH disconnections, ServerAliveInterval and ClientAliveInterval are set to 7 minutes.
- Root login is disabled.
/etc/udev/rules.d/75-persistent-net-generator.rules is disabled.
To prevent MAC addresses from persisting, /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules is 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.
RHEL content comes from the Compute Engine Red Hat Update Infrastructure (RHUI) servers. 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 RHUI client package, which contains the configuration needed to access RHEL content, is installed.
The Red Hat subscription-manager package 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_cmd property is set to security.

Storage configuration

By default, images are 20 GB. This is the recommended minimum size.
The partition table is GPT, and there is an EFI partition to support booting on UEFI.

Time configuration

The NTP server is set to use the Compute Engine metadata server.

General information

OS version	Image project	x86 image family	Arm image family	Machine series	Lifecycle stage	EOS and image deprecation date
RHEL 9	`rhel-cloud`	`rhel-9`	`rhel-9-arm64`	All except X4	GA	May 2032
RHEL 8	`rhel-cloud`	`rhel-8`	N/A	All except T2A, C4A, X4	GA	May 2029
RHEL 7	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	EOS^*ELS^†	June 2024 (ELS ends June 2028)
RHEL 6	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	EOS^*	November 2020 (ELS ends June 30, 2024)
RHEL 9.4 for SAP	`rhel-sap-cloud`	`rhel-9-4-sap-ha`	N/A	All except T2A, X4, C4A	GA	April 2028
RHEL 9.2 for SAP	`rhel-sap-cloud`	`rhel-9-2-sap-ha`	N/A	All except T2A, X4, C3-metal, C4A	GA	May 2027
RHEL 9.0 for SAP	`rhel-sap-cloud`	`rhel-9-0-sap-ha`	N/A	All except T2A, X4, C3-metal, C4A	GA	May 2026
RHEL 8.10 for SAP	`rhel-sap-cloud`	`rhel-8-10-sap-ha`	N/A	All except T2A, X4, C4A	GA	May 2029
RHEL 8.8 for SAP	`rhel-sap-cloud`	`rhel-8-8-sap-ha`	N/A	All except T2A, X4, C3-metal, C4A	GA	May 2027
RHEL 8.6 for SAP	`rhel-sap-cloud`	`rhel-8-6-sap-ha`	N/A	All except T2A, X4, C3-metal, C4A	GA	May 2026
RHEL 8.4 for SAP	`rhel-sap-cloud`	`rhel-8-4-sap-ha`	N/A	All except T2A, X4, C3-metal, C4A	GA	May 2025
RHEL 8.2 for SAP	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	EOS^*	April 2024
RHEL 7.9 for SAP	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	EOS^*ELS^†	June 2024 (ELS ends June 2028)

^*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.

Interfaces

OS version	NVMe	Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC)	Multiple network interfaces
RHEL 9
RHEL 8
RHEL 7		^#	^#
RHEL 6	^*
RHEL 9.4 for SAP
RHEL 9.2 for SAP
RHEL 9.0 for SAP
RHEL 8.10 for SAP
RHEL 8.8 for SAP
RHEL 8.6 for SAP
RHEL 8.4 for SAP
RHEL 8.2 for SAP
RHEL 7.9 for SAP		^#	^#

^*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 (Preview)
RHEL 9	^*
RHEL 8
RHEL 7
RHEL 6
RHEL 9.4 for SAP
RHEL 9.2 for SAP
RHEL 9.0 for SAP
RHEL 8.10 for SAP
RHEL 8.8 for SAP
RHEL 8.6 for SAP
RHEL 8.4 for SAP
RHEL 8.2 for SAP
RHEL 7.9 for SAP

^*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
RHEL 9
RHEL 8
RHEL 7
RHEL 6
RHEL 9.4 for SAP
RHEL 9.2 for SAP
RHEL 9.0 for SAP
RHEL 8.10 for SAP
RHEL 8.8 for SAP
RHEL 8.6 for SAP
RHEL 8.4 for SAP
RHEL 8.2 for SAP
RHEL 7.9 for SAP

Networking features

OS version	Tier_1 networking^#	200 Gbps network bandwidth^#	Jumbo frames/MTU
RHEL 9^**
RHEL 8^**
RHEL 7^**		^*	^†
RHEL 6^**	EOS	EOS	EOS
RHEL 9.4 for SAP
RHEL 9.2 for SAP^**
RHEL 9.0 for SAP^**		^*	^†
RHEL 8.10 for SAP^**
RHEL 8.8 for SAP^**
RHEL 8.6 for SAP^**		^*
RHEL 8.4 for SAP^**		^*	^†
RHEL 8.2 for SAP^**		^*	^†
RHEL 7.9 for SAP^**		^*	^†

^†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.

OS version	N1+GPU	A3 (H100)	A2 (A100)	G2 (L4)
RHEL 9
RHEL 8
RHEL 7
RHEL 6	EOS	EOS	EOS	EOS
RHEL 9.4 for SAP
RHEL 9.2 for SAP
RHEL 9.0 for SAP
RHEL 8.10 for SAP
RHEL 8.8 for SAP
RHEL 8.6 for SAP
RHEL 8.4 for SAP
RHEL 8.2 for SAP
RHEL 7.9 for SAP

VM Manager

OS version	OS Config agent preinstalled	OS inventory	OS policies	Patch	Vulnerability reports
RHEL 9
RHEL 8
RHEL 7
RHEL 6
RHEL 9.4 for SAP
RHEL 9.2 for SAP
RHEL 9.0 for SAP
RHEL 8.10 for SAP
RHEL 8.8 for SAP
RHEL 8.6 for SAP
RHEL 8.4 for SAP
RHEL 8.2 for SAP
RHEL 7.9 for SAP

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
RHEL 9
RHEL 8
RHEL 7
RHEL 6
RHEL 9.4 for SAP
RHEL 9.2 for SAP
RHEL 9.0 for SAP
RHEL 8.10 for SAP
RHEL 8.8 for SAP
RHEL 8.6 for SAP
RHEL 8.4 for SAP
RHEL 8.2 for SAP
RHEL 7.9 for SAP

License

OS version	License type	License URL
RHEL 9	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`
RHEL 8	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`
RHEL 7	On-demand (Default) ELS^† BYOS	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-7-server` `https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-7-els` `https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-7-byos`
RHEL 6	On-demand (Default) ELS^† BYOS	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-6-server` `https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-6-els` `https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-6-byos`
RHEL 9.4 for SAP	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`
RHEL 9.2 for SAP	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`
RHEL 9.0 for SAP	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`
RHEL 8.10 for SAP	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`
RHEL 8.8 for SAP	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`
RHEL 8.6 for SAP	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`
RHEL 8.4 for SAP	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`
RHEL 8.2 for SAP	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`
RHEL 7.9 for SAP	On-demand BYOS	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rhel-sap-cloud/global/licenses/rhel-7-sap` N/A

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 two 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-gcp and is pre-configured to use the latest version of the Google virtual network interface (gVNIC).

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-automatic 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 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, ServerAliveIntervaland ClientAliveInterval are set to 7 minutes.
- Root login is disabled.
/etc/udev/rules.d/75-persistent-net-generator.rules is disabled.
To prevent MAC addresses from persisting, /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules is 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.
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_cmd property is set to security. However, by default Rocky Linux does not offer security tagged repositories.

Storage configuration

By default, images are 20 GB.
The partition table is GPT, and there is an EFI partition to support booting on UEFI.
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.

General information

OS version	Image project	x86 image family	Arm image family	Machine series	Lifecycle stage	EOS and image deprecation date
Rocky Linux 9 optimized for Google Cloud	`rocky-linux-cloud`	`rocky-linux-9-optimized-gcp`	`rocky-linux-9-optimized-gcp-arm64`	All	GA	May 2032
Rocky Linux 9	`rocky-linux-cloud`	`rocky-linux-9`	`rocky-linux-9-arm64`	All	GA	May 2032
Rocky Linux 8 optimized for Google Cloud	`rocky-linux-cloud`	`rocky-linux-8-optimized-gcp`	`rocky-linux-8-optimized-gcp-arm64`	All except X4	GA	May 2029
Rocky Linux 8	`rocky-linux-cloud`	`rocky-linux-8`	N/A	All except T2A, C4A, X4	GA	May 2029

Interfaces

OS version	SCSI	NVMe	Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC)	IDPF	Multiple network interfaces
Rocky Linux 9 optimized for Google Cloud
Rocky Linux 9
Rocky Linux 8 optimized for Google Cloud
Rocky Linux 8

Security features

OS version	Shielded VM	Confidential VM SEV	Confidential VM SEV-SNP (Preview)
Rocky Linux 9 optimized for Google Cloud
Rocky Linux 9
Rocky Linux 8 optimized for Google Cloud
Rocky Linux 8

User space features

OS version	Guest environment installed	gcloud CLI installed	OS Login supported	Suspend and resume supported
Rocky Linux 9 optimized for Google Cloud
Rocky Linux 9
Rocky Linux 8 optimized for Google Cloud
Rocky Linux 8

Networking features

OS version	Tier_1 networking^#	200 Gbps network bandwidth^#	Jumbo frames/MTU
Rocky Linux 9 optimized for Google Cloud^**
Rocky Linux 9^**
Rocky Linux 8 optimized for Google Cloud^**
Rocky Linux 8^**

^# 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.

OS version	N1+GPU	A3 (H100)	A2 (A100)	G2 (L4)
Rocky Linux 9 optimized for Google Cloud
Rocky Linux 9
Rocky Linux 8 optimized for Google Cloud
Rocky Linux 8

VM Manager

OS version	OS Config agent preinstalled	OS inventory	OS policies	Patch	Vulnerability reports
Rocky Linux 9 optimized for Google Cloud
Rocky Linux 9
Rocky Linux 8 optimized for Google Cloud
Rocky Linux 8

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
Rocky Linux 9 optimized for Google Cloud
Rocky Linux 9
Rocky Linux 8 optimized for Google Cloud
Rocky Linux 8

License

OS version	License type	License URL
Rocky Linux 9 optimized for Google Cloud	Free	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-cloud/global/licenses/rocky-linux-9-optimized-gcp`
Rocky Linux 9	Free	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-cloud/global/licenses/rocky-linux-9`
Rocky Linux 8 optimized for Google Cloud	Free	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-cloud/global/licenses/rocky-linux-8-optimized-gcp`
Rocky Linux 8	Free	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/rocky-linux-cloud/global/licenses/rocky-linux-8`

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 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-2022 sql-web-2022-win-2019 sql-std-2022-win-2022 sql-std-2022-win-2019 sql-ent-2022-win-2022 sql-ent-2022-win-2019`	GA	Jan 11, 2033
Microsoft SQL Server 2019	`windows-sql-cloud`	`sql-web-2019-win-2022 sql-web-2019-win-2019 sql-std-2019-win-2022 sql-std-2019-win-2019 sql-ent-2019-win-2022 sql-ent-2019-win-2019`	GA	Jan 8, 2030
Microsoft SQL Server 2017	`windows-sql-cloud`	`sql-web-2017-win-2022 sql-web-2017-win-2019 sql-web-2017-win-2016 sql-std-2017-win-2022 sql-std-2017-win-2019 sql-std-2017-win-2016 sql-exp-2017-win-2019 sql-exp-2017-win-2016 sql-ent-2017-win-2022 sql-ent-2017-win-2019 sql-ent-2017-win-2016`	GA	Oct 12, 2027
Microsoft SQL Server 2016	`windows-sql-cloud`	`sql-web-2016-win-2019 sql-web-2016-win-2016 sql-std-2016-win-2019 sql-std-2016-win-2016 sql-ent-2016-win-2019 sql-ent-2016-win-2016`	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
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=0 is set. Therefore, network interfaces use the traditional ethN naming, with the default interface always being eth0.
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 an EFI partition to support booting on UEFI. 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.

General information

OS version	Image project	x86 image family	Arm image family	Machine series	Lifecycle stage	EOS and image deprecation date
SLES 15 SP6	`suse-cloud`	`sles-15`	`sles-15-arm64`	All	GA	TBD
SLES 15 SP5	`suse-byos-cloud`	N/A	N/A	All	BYOS w/ LTSS	Dec 2027
SLES 15 SP4	`suse-byos-cloud`	N/A	N/A	All	BYOS w/ LTSS	Dec 2026
SLES 15 SP3	`suse-byos-cloud`	N/A	N/A	All except T2A, C3-metal, C4A, X4	BYOS w/ LTSS	Dec 2025
SLES 15 SP2	`suse-byos-cloud`	N/A	N/A	All except T2A, C3-metal, C4A, X4	BYOS w/ LTSS	Dec 2024
SLES 15 SP1	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	EOS	Jan 2024
SLES 12 SP5	`suse-cloud`	`sles-12`	N/A	All except T2A, C3-metal, C4A, G2, X4	GA	Oct 2027
SLES 12 SP4	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	EOS	June 2023
SLES 15 SP6 for SAP	`suse-sap-cloud`	`sles-15-sp6-sap`	N/A	All except T2A, C4A	GA	TBD
SLES 15 SP5 for SAP	`suse-sap-cloud`	`sles-15-sp5-sap`	N/A	All except T2A, C4A	GA	Dec 2027
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP	`suse-sap-cloud`	`sles-15-sp4-sap`	N/A	All except T2A, C4A	GA	Dec 2026
SLES 15 SP3 for SAP	`suse-sap-cloud`	`sles-15-sp3-sap`	N/A	All except T2A, C4A, C3-metal, X4	GA	Dec 2025
SLES 15 SP2 for SAP	`suse-sap-cloud`	`sles-15-sp2-sap`	N/A	All except T2A, C4A, C3-metal, X4	GA	Dec 2024
SLES 15 SP1 for SAP	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	EOS	Jan 2024
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP	`suse-sap-cloud`	`sles-12-sp5-sap`	N/A	All except T2A, C4A, C3-metal, G2, X4	GA	Oct 2027
SLES 12 SP4 for SAP	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	EOS	June 2023

^*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)	IDPF	Multiple network interfaces
SLES 15 SP6
SLES 15 SP5
SLES 15 SP4
SLES 15 SP3
SLES 15 SP2
SLES 15 SP1
SLES 12 SP5
SLES 12 SP4
SLES 15 SP6 for SAP
SLES 15 SP5 for SAP
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP
SLES 15 SP3 for SAP
SLES 15 SP2 for SAP
SLES 15 SP1 for SAP
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP
SLES 12 SP4 for SAP

Security features

OS version	Shielded VM	Confidential VM SEV	Confidential VM SEV-SNP (Preview)
SLES 15 SP6	^*
SLES 15 SP5	^*
SLES 15 SP4	^*
SLES 15 SP3
SLES 15 SP2
SLES 15 SP1
SLES 12 SP5
SLES 12 SP4
SLES 15 SP6 for SAP
SLES 15 SP5 for SAP
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP
SLES 15 SP3 for SAP
SLES 15 SP2 for SAP
SLES 15 SP1 for SAP
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP
SLES 12 SP4 for SAP

^*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
SLES 15 SP6	^*
SLES 15 SP5	^*
SLES 15 SP4	^*
SLES 15 SP3	^*
SLES 15 SP2	^*
SLES 15 SP1	^*
SLES 12 SP5	^*
SLES 12 SP4	^*
SLES 15 SP6 for SAP	^*
SLES 15 SP5 for SAP	^*
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP	^*
SLES 15 SP3 for SAP	^*
SLES 15 SP2 for SAP	^*
SLES 15 SP1 for SAP	^*
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP	^*
SLES 12 SP4 for SAP	^*

^*This OS image doesn't support custom hostnames. For more information see Custom Hostnames.

Networking features

OS version	200 Gbps network bandwidth^#	Jumbo frames/MTU
SLES 15 SP6
SLES 15 SP5
SLES 15 SP4
SLES 15 SP3
SLES 15 SP2	^*	^†
SLES 15 SP1		^†
SLES 12 SP5
SLES 12 SP4		^†
SLES 15 SP6 for SAP
SLES 15 SP5 for SAP
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP
SLES 15 SP3 for SAP
SLES 15 SP2 for SAP	^*	^†
SLES 15 SP1 for SAP		^†
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP
SLES 12 SP4 for SAP		^†

^†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.

OS version	N1+GPU	A3 (H100)	A2 (A100)	G2 (L4)
SLES 15 SP6
SLES 15 SP5
SLES 15 SP4
SLES 15 SP3
SLES 15 SP2
SLES 15 SP1
SLES 12 SP5
SLES 12 SP4
SLES 15 SP6 for SAP
SLES 15 SP5 for SAP
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP
SLES 15 SP3 for SAP
SLES 15 SP2 for SAP
SLES 15 SP1 for SAP
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP
SLES 12 SP4 for SAP

VM Manager

OS version	OS Config agent preinstalled	OS inventory	OS policies	Patch^*	Vulnerability reports
SLES 15 SP6
SLES 15 SP5
SLES 15 SP4
SLES 15 SP3
SLES 15 SP2
SLES 15 SP1
SLES 12 SP5
SLES 12 SP4
SLES 15 SP6 for SAP
SLES 15 SP5 for SAP
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP
SLES 15 SP3 for SAP
SLES 15 SP2 for SAP
SLES 15 SP1 for SAP
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP
SLES 12 SP4 for SAP

^*Patch compliance reporting: For all SUSE Enterprise Linux Server (SLES) operating systems, including SLES for SAP and openSuse, you can run patch jobs and create patch deployments. However, patch compliance reporting is not supported and these VMs are displayed in the No data category on the Patch dashboard.

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 15 SP6
SLES 15 SP5
SLES 15 SP4
SLES 15 SP3
SLES 15 SP2
SLES 15 SP1
SLES 12 SP5
SLES 12 SP4
SLES 15 SP6 for SAP
SLES 15 SP5 for SAP
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP
SLES 15 SP3 for SAP
SLES 15 SP2 for SAP
SLES 15 SP1 for SAP
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP
SLES 12 SP4 for SAP

License

OS version	License type	License URL
SLES 15 SP6	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`
SLES 15 SP5	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`
SLES 15 SP4	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`
SLES 15 SP3	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`
SLES 15 SP2	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`
SLES 15 SP1	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`
SLES 12 SP5	On-demand (Default) BYOS	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-cloud/global/licenses/sles-12` `https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/suse-byos-cloud/global/licenses/sles-12-byos`
SLES 12 SP4	EOS	N/A
SLES 15 SP6 for SAP	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`
SLES 15 SP5 for SAP	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`
SLES 15 SP4 for SAP	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`
SLES 15 SP3 for SAP	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`
SLES 15 SP2 for SAP	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`
SLES 15 SP1 for SAP	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`
SLES 12 SP5 for SAP	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`
SLES 12 SP4 for SAP	EOS	N/A

^*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.

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 AutomaticSecurityUpdates tool does not upgrade VMs between major versions of the operating system.
The AutomaticSecurityUpdates tool 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-init to do some boot time initialization. The cloud.cfg file is configured for Compute Engine and enables only the cloud-init modules 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_mq is 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.rules is 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-upgrades package 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-upgrades and /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/02periodic.
The linux-image-gcp kernel 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 an EFI partition to support booting on UEFI. 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.

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 24.04 LTS	`ubuntu-os-cloud`	`ubuntu-2404-lts-amd64`	`ubuntu-2404-lts-arm64`	All	GA	June 2029 (ESM April 2034)
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS	`ubuntu-os-cloud`	`ubuntu-2204-lts`	`ubuntu-2204-lts-arm64`	All	GA	April 2027 (ESM April 2032)
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS	`ubuntu-os-cloud`	`ubuntu-2004-lts`	`ubuntu-2004-lts-arm64`	All	GA	April 2025 (ESM April 2030)
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS	EOS	EOS	EOS	All except C3-metal, C4A, X4	Ubuntu ESM^* / Ubuntu Pro^†	May 2023 (ESM April 2028)
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS	EOS	EOS	EOS	All except T2A, C4A, M3, H3, C3-metal, Z3, X4	Ubuntu ESM^* / Ubuntu Pro^†	April 2021 (ESM April 2026)
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS	EOS	EOS	EOS	EOS	EOS	April 2024

^* 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)	IDPF	Multiple network interfaces
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Security features

OS version	Shielded VM	Confidential VM SEV	Confidential VM SEV-SNP (Preview)
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

User space features

OS version	Guest environment installed	gcloud CLI installed	OS Login supported	Suspend and resume supported
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS	^*
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS	^*
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS	^*
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS	^*
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS	^*
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS	^*

^* This OS image doesn't support custom hostnames. For more information, see Custom Hostnames.

Networking features

OS version	200 Gbps network bandwidth^#	Jumbo frames/MTU
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS	^*	^†
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS		^†

GPU support

N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.

OS version	N1+GPU	A3 (H100)	A2 (A100)	G2 (L4)
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS	EOS	EOS	EOS	EOS
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS	EOS	EOS	EOS	EOS

VM Manager

OS version	OS Config agent preinstalled	OS inventory	OS policies	Patch	Vulnerability reports
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

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
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

License

OS version	License type	License URL
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS	Free	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-2404-lts`
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS	Free	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-2204-lts`
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS	Free	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-2004-lts`
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS	Ubuntu ESM^* / Ubuntu Pro^†	EOS
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS	Ubuntu ESM^* / Ubuntu Pro^†	EOS
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS	Ubuntu ESM^*	EOS

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 AutomaticSecurityUpdates tool does not upgrade VMs between major versions of the operating system.
The AutomaticSecurityUpdates tool 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-init to do some boot time initialization. The cloud.cfg file is configured for Compute Engine and enables only the cloud-init modules 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_mq is 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.rules is 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-upgrades package 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-upgrades and /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/02periodic.
The linux-image-gcp kernel 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 an EFI partition to support booting on UEFI. There is also an MBR boot block to support BIOS.
Ubuntu uses cloud-init to do some boot time initialization. The cloud.cfg file is configured for Compute Engine and enables only the cloud-init modules 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.

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 Pro 24.04 LTS	`ubuntu-os-pro-cloud`	`ubuntu-pro-2404-lts-amd64`	`ubuntu-pro-2404-lts-arm64`	All	GA	April 2034
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS	`ubuntu-os-pro-cloud`	`ubuntu-pro-2204-lts`	`ubuntu-pro-2204-lts-arm64`	All	GA	April 2032
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS	`ubuntu-os-pro-cloud`	`ubuntu-pro-2004-lts`	`ubuntu-pro-2004-lts-arm64`	All	GA	April 2030
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS	`ubuntu-os-pro-cloud`	`ubuntu-pro-1804-lts`	`ubuntu-pro-1804-lts-arm64`	All except C4A, X4, C3-metal	GA	April 2028
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS	`ubuntu-os-pro-cloud`	`ubuntu-pro-1604-lts`	N/A	All except T2A, C4A, X4, C3-metal	GA	April 2026

Interfaces

OS version	SCSI	NVMe	Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC)	IDPF	Multiple network interfaces
Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS		^*

^*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 (Preview)
Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS

User space features

OS version	Guest environment installed	gcloud CLI installed	OS Login supported	Suspend and resume supported
Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS	^*
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS	^*
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS	^*
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS	^*
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS	^*

^* This OS image doesn't support custom hostnames. For more information, see Custom Hostnames.

Networking features

OS version	200 Gbps network bandwidth^#	Jumbo frames/MTU
Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS	^*	^†

GPU support

N1+GPU denotes support for NVIDIA T4, V100, P100, or P4 GPUs running on a general-purpose N1 machine family.

OS version	N1+GPU	A3 (H100)	A2 (A100)	G2 (L4)
Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS

VM Manager

OS version	OS Config agent preinstalled	OS inventory	OS policies	Patch	Vulnerability reports
Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS

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
Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS

License

OS version	License type	License URL
Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS	On-demand	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-pro-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-pro-2404-lts`
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS	On-demand	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-pro-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-pro-2204-lts`
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS	On-demand	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-pro-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-pro-2004-lts`
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS	On-demand	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ubuntu-os-pro-cloud/global/licenses/ubuntu-pro-1804-lts`
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 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 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.

General information

OS version	Lifecycle stage^*	EOS date
Windows 11 23h2 x64^**	GA	Nov 2026
Windows 11 22h2 x64^**	GA	Oct 2025
Windows 11 21h2 x64^**	EOS	Oct 2024
Windows 10 22h2 x64	GA	Oct 2025
Windows 10 22h2 x86	GA	Oct 2025
Windows 10 21h2 x64	EOS	June 2024
Windows 10 21h2 x86	EOS	June 2024
Windows 8.1 x64	EOS	Jan 2023
Windows 8.1 x86	EOS	Jan 2023
Windows 7 x64	EOS^†	Jan 2020
Windows 7 x86	EOS^†	Jan 2020

^*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 7 EOS: For information about Extended Security Updates (ESU) for Windows 7, see Microsoft's Extended Security Updates Lifecycle FAQ.

^**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)	IDPF	Multiple network interfaces
Windows 11 23h2 x64
Windows 11 22h2 x64
Windows 11 21h2 x64
Windows 10 22h2 x64
Windows 10 22h2 x86
Windows 10 21h2 x64
Windows 10 21h2 x86
Windows 8.1 x64
Windows 8.1 x86
Windows 7 x64
Windows 7 x86

Security features

OS version	Shielded VM	Confidential VM support
Windows 11 23h2 x64	^**
Windows 11 22h2 x64	^**
Windows 11 21h2 x64	^**
Windows 10 22h2 x64
Windows 10 22h2 x86
Windows 10 21h2 x64
Windows 10 21h2 x86
Windows 8.1 x64
Windows 8.1 x86
Windows 7 x64
Windows 7 x86

^**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	Suspend and resume supported
Windows 11 23h2 x64	^*	^†	^‡
Windows 11 22h2 x64	^*	^†	^‡
Windows 11 21h2 x64	^*	^†	^‡
Windows 10 22h2 x64	^*	^†	^‡
Windows 10 22h2 x86	^*	^†
Windows 10 21h2 x64	^*	^†	^‡
Windows 10 21h2 x86	^*	^†
Windows 8.1 x64		^†
Windows 8.1 x86		^†
Windows 7 x64
Windows 7 x86

^*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.

Networking features

OS version	Tier_1 networking^#	200 Gbps network bandwidth^#	Jumbo frames/MTU
Windows 11 23h2 x64	^*	^*	^†
Windows 11 22h2 x64	^*	^*	^†
Windows 11 21h2 x64	^*	^*	^†
Windows 10 22h2 x64	^*	^*	^†
Windows 10 22h2 x86		^*	^†
Windows 10 21h2 x64	^*	^*	^†
Windows 10 21h2 x86		^*	^†
Windows 8.1 x64			^†
Windows 8.1 x86			^†
Windows 7 x64	EOS	EOS	EOS
Windows 7 x86	EOS	EOS	EOS

^*The gVNIC driver available in this OS image provides up to 50 Gbps of network bandwidth. To get up to 200 Gbps of network bandwidth, you must use an updated version of the gVNIC driver. For more information, see Update to the latest gVNIC driver for Windows.

^† To use Jumbo Frames with gVNIC on Windows, you can use an updated version of the gVNIC driver. For more information, see Update to the latest gVNIC driver for Windows.

^#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.

Note: a2-megagpu-16g machine types are not supported on Windows. When using A100 GPUs with Windows operating systems, choose a different A2 machine type.

OS version	N1+GPU	A3 (H100)	A2 (A100)	G2 (L4)
Windows 11 23h2 x64
Windows 11 22h2 x64
Windows 11 21h2 x64
Windows 10 22h2 x64
Windows 10 22h2 x86
Windows 10 21h2 x64
Windows 10 21h2 x86
Windows 8.1 x64
Windows 8.1 x86
Windows 7 x64	^*
Windows 7 x86	^*

^*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 23h2 x64
Windows 11 22h2 x64
Windows 11 21h2 x64
Windows 10 22h2 x64
Windows 10 22h2 x86
Windows 10 21h2 x64
Windows 10 21h2 x86
Windows 8.1 x64
Windows 8.1 x86
Windows 7 x64
Windows 7 x86

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 23h2 x64
Windows 11 22h2 x64
Windows 11 21h2 x64
Windows 10 22h2 x64
Windows 10 22h2 x86
Windows 10 21h2 x64
Windows 10 21h2 x86
Windows 8.1 x64
Windows 8.1 x86
Windows 7 x64
Windows 7 x86

License

OS version	License type	License URL
Windows 11 23h2 x64	BYOL	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-11-x64-byol`
Windows 11 22h2 x64	BYOL	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-11-x64-byol`
Windows 11 21h2 x64	BYOL	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-11-x64-byol`
Windows 10 22h2 x64	BYOL	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-10-x64-byol`
Windows 10 22h2 x86	BYOL	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-10-x86-byol`
Windows 10 21h2 x64	BYOL	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-10-x64-byol`
Windows 10 21h2 x86	BYOL	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-10-x86-byol`
Windows 8.1 x64	BYOL	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-8-x64-byol`
Windows 8.1 x86	BYOL	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-8-x86-byol`
Windows 7 x64	BYOL	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-7-x64-byol`
Windows 7 x86	BYOL	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-7-x86-byol`

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.

Except for Windows Server 2012, 2008, and 2003, the Windows Server images in Compute Engine have an on-demand license and do not require a separate Windows license.

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 LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy property 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 hosts file, which is typically in the %WinDir%\System32\drivers\etc directory.
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 EnableQueryAccessAlignment property is enabled for the VioSCSI driver.

Time configuration

The RealTimeIsUniversal registry 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.

General information

OS version	Image project	Image family	Machine series	Lifecycle stage^*	EOS and image deprecation date
Windows Server 2022	`windows-cloud`	`windows-2022` `windows-2022-core`	All except T2A, C4A, C3-metal, Z3, A3, X4	GA	Oct 14, 2031
Windows Server 2019	`windows-cloud`	`windows-2019` `windows-2019-core`	All except T2A, C4A, C3-metal, Z3, A3, X4	GA	Jan 9, 2029
Windows Server 2016	`windows-cloud`	`windows-2016` `windows-2016-core`	All except T2A, C4A, C3-metal, Z3, A3, G2, X4	GA	Jan 12, 2027
Windows Server 2012 R2	N/A	N/A	Only C2, C2D, E2, M1, M2, N1, N2, N2D	EOS	Oct 10, 2023
Windows Server 2012	N/A	N/A	Only C2, C2D, E2, M1, M2, N1, N2, N2D	EOS	Oct 10, 2023
Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1 required)	N/A	N/A	Only C2, C2D, E2, M1, M2, N1, N2, N2D	EOS^‡	Jan 14, 2020
Windows Server 2008	N/A	N/A	Only C2, C2D, E2, M1, M2, N1, N2, N2D	EOS	N/A
Windows Server 2003 (R2 optional, SP2 required)	N/A	N/A	Only C2, C2D, E2, M1, M2, N1, N2, N2D	EOS	N/A

^‡Windows 2008 R2: For information about Extended Security Updates (ESU), see Microsoft's Extended Security Updates Lifecycle FAQ.

Interfaces

OS version	SCSI	NVMe	VSS agent	Google Virtual NIC (gVNIC)	IDPF	Multiple network interfaces
Windows Server 2022
Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows Server 2012
Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1 required)
Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2003 (R2 optional, SP2 required)

Security features

OS version	Shielded VM	Confidential VM support
Windows Server 2022
Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows Server 2012
Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1 required)
Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2003 (R2 optional, SP2 required)

User space features

OS version	Guest environment installed	Suspend and resume supported
Windows Server 2022		^*
Windows Server 2019		^*
Windows Server 2016		^*
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows Server 2012
Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1 required)
Windows Server 2008	EOS
Windows Server 2003 (R2 optional, SP2 required)	EOS

^*For this OS, some power policy configurations are incompatible with suspend and resume. For more information, see troubleshooting VM suspension.

Networking features

OS version	Tier_1 networking^#	200 Gbps network bandwidth^#	Jumbo frames/MTU
Windows Server 2022	^*	^*	^†
Windows Server 2019	^*	^*	^†
Windows Server 2016	^*	^*	^†
Windows Server 2012 R2	^*	^*	^†
Windows Server 2012
Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1 required)	EOS	EOS	EOS
Windows Server 2008	EOS	EOS	EOS
Windows Server 2003 (R2 optional, SP2 required)	EOS	EOS	EOS

^† To use Jumbo Frames with gVNIC on Windows, you can use an updated version of the gVNIC driver. For more information, see Update to the latest gVNIC driver for Windows.

^#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.

Note: a2-megagpu-16g machine types are not supported on Windows. When using A100 GPUs with Windows operating systems, choose a different A2 machine type.

OS version	N1+GPU	A3 (H100)	A2 (A100)	G2 (L4)
Windows Server 2022
Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows Server 2012
Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1 required)	^*
Windows Server 2008	^*
Windows Server 2003 (R2 optional, SP2 required)	^*

^*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 2022
Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows Server 2012
Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1 required)
Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2003 (R2 optional, SP2 required)

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 2022
Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows Server 2012
Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1 required)
Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2003 (R2 optional, SP2 required)	^*	^*

^*Self-import is available.

License

OS version	License type	License URL
Windows Server 2022	On-demand (Default) BYOL	`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`
Windows Server 2019	On-demand (Default) BYOL	`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`
Windows Server 2016	On-demand (Default) BYOL	`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`
Windows Server 2012 R2	On-demand (Default) BYOL	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-server-2012-r2-dc` `https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-server-2012-r2-byol`
Windows Server 2012	BYOL	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-server-2012-byol`
Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1 required)	On-demand (Default) BYOL	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-server-2008-r2-dc` `https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-server-2008-r2-byol`
Windows Server 2008	On-demand	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-server-2008-dc`
Windows Server 2003 (R2 optional, SP2 required)	On-demand	`https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/windows-cloud/global/licenses/windows-server-2003`