Compute Engine concurrent operation quotas

This document describes the concurrent operation quotas for Compute Engine.

Concurrent operation quotas

Concurrent operation quotas define the number of in-flight or concurrent operations that can occur at any point of time. Any API request that creates, modifies, or deletes a Compute Engine resource is subject to a concurrent operation limit check to ensure that the total number of in-flight operations at any point of time does not exceed the limit specified for that operation.

Concurrent operation limit exceeded error

If your project exceeds the concurrent operation limit for any in-flight operation, you receive a 403 error with the reason rateLimitExceeded.

The API response of the error looks similar to the following:

    "error": {
      "code": 403,
      "message": "Rate Limit Exceeded",
      "errors": [
        {
          "message": "Rate Limit Exceeded",
          "domain": "usageLimits",
          "reason": "rateLimitExceeded",
        ...
        ...
        }
      ],
      "details": [
        {
          "@type": "type.googleapis.com/google.rpc.ErrorInfo",
          "reason": "CONCURRENT_OPERATIONS_QUOTA_EXCEEDED",
          "domain": "compute.googleapis.com",
          "metadatas": {
            "containerType": "PROJECT",
            "containerId": "PROJECT_ID",
            "quotaMetric": "QUOTA_METRIC",
            "quotaLimit": "QUOTA_LIMIT",
            "operationType": "OPERATION_TYPE",
            "location": "global | REGION"
          }
        },
        {
          "@type": "type.googleapis.com/google.rpc.Help",
          "links": [
            {
              "description": "Concurrent operations quota documentation.",
              "url": "https://cloud.google.com/compute/operations-quota#concurrent_operation_limits"
            }
          ]
        },
      ...
      ... 

The error details contain the following values:

• PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project in which the quota exceeds the limit.

• QUOTA_METRIC: the metric for the concurrent quota that exceeds the limit. It can be one of the following:

  • compute.googleapis.com/global_concurrent_operations
  • compute.googleapis.com/regional_concurrent_operations

• QUOTA_LIMIT: the limit name of the concurrent quota. It can be one of the following:

  • GlobalConcurrentOperationsPerProject
  • GlobalConcurrentOperationsPerProjectOperationType
  • RegionalConcurrentOperationsPerProject
  • RegionalConcurrentOperationsPerProjectOperationType

• OPERATION_TYPE: the global or regional operation for which the quota exceeds the limit. For a list of operations, see Concurrent operation quota groups.

• The location can be one of the following:

  • global: specifies that the limit exceeded for global operation quota
  • REGION: specifies the region where the limit exceeded for the operation quota

The detailed error logs are returned only through API response. Error in Logs Explorer is similar to the following:

   "protoPayload":{
    "@type": "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.AuditLog",
    "status": {
      "message": "Rate Limit Exceeded"
    }
    "serviceName": "compute.googleapis.com",
    "methodName": "METHOD_NAME",
    ...
    ...
    "response": {
      "error": {
        "message": "Rate Limit Exceeded",
        "code": 403,
        "errors": [
          {
            "message": "Rate Limit Exceeded",
            "reason": "rateLimitExceeded",
            "domain": "usageLimits"
          }
        ]
      },
      "@type": "type.googleapis.com/error"
    },
    ...
    ... 

The METHOD_NAME in the error represents the API method for which the rate limit exceeded. For example, v1.compute.instances.stop.

Concurrent operation quota groups

This section describes the limits for various Compute Engine in-flight or concurrent operations.

Global operation quotas

Concurrent global operations consume a global limit that is specified for operation types per project. The following table lists the global quotas for in-flight operations and the corresponding metrics.

You can view the quota for global operations by using the Google Cloud console, Google Cloud CLI, and Service Usage API. For more information, see View concurrent operation quotas and limits.

Regional operation quotas

Concurrent regional operations consume a regional limit that is specified for operation types per project in a given region.

The following table lists the regional quotas for in-flight operations and the corresponding metrics.

You can view the quota for regional operations by using the Google Cloud console, Google Cloud CLI, and Service Usage API. For more information, see View concurrent operation quotas and limits.

View concurrent operation quotas and limits

To view the quota usage and limits in a project, do the following:

gcloud alpha services quota list \
    --service=compute.googleapis.com \
    --consumer=projects/PROJECT_ID

Best practices

The following checklist summarizes the best practices for reducing insufficient concurrent operation limit errors:

• Wait for operations to be done
• Rely on error codes, not error messages
• Minimize client-side retries to preserve API rate limits
  • Avoid short polling
  • Use bursting sparingly and selectively
  • Always make your calls in a retry loop with exponential backoff
  • Use a client-side rate limiter
  • Split up your applications across multiple projects

What's next

• Read about Google Cloud quotas.