Version 1.7. This version is no longer supported. For information about how to upgrade to version 1.8, see Upgrading Anthos on bare metal in the 1.8 documentation. For more information about supported and unsupported versions, see the Version history page in the latest documentation.
Ensure you have all the necessary credentials before attempting to install Google Distributed Cloud.
Logging into gcloud
Login to gcloud as a user using gcloud auth application-default login:
gcloud auth application-default login
You need to have a Project Owner/Editor role to use the automatic API
enablement and Service Account creation features, described below.
You can also add the following IAM roles to the user:
Service Account Admin
Service Account Key Admin
Project IAM Admin
Compute Viewer
Service Usage Admin
Alternatively, if you already have a service account with those roles, run:
Layer 3 connectivity to all cluster node machines.
Access to all cluster node machines through SSH via private keys with passwordless root access. Access can be either direct or through sudo.
Access the control plane VIP.
Node machine prerequisites
The node machines have the following prerequisites:
Their operating system is one of the supported Linux distributions.
Meet the minimum hardware requirements.
Internet access.
Layer 3 connectivity to all other node machines.
Access the control plane VIP.
Properly configured DNS nameservers.
No duplicate host names.
One of the following NTP services is enabled and working:
chrony
ntp
ntpdate
systemd-timesyncd
A working package manager: apt, dnf, etc.
On Ubuntu, AppArmor and Uncomplicated Firewall (UFW) are inactive.
Run systemctl stop apparmor ufw to disable them.
If you choose Docker as your container runtime, you may use Docker
version 19.03 or later installed. If you don't have Docker installed on your node machines or have an older
version installed, Anthos on bare metal installs Docker 19.03.13 or later
when you create clusters.
If you use containerd as your runtime you don't need Docker, and installing
Docker can cause issues. For more information, see the
known issues.
Ensure the file systems backing the following directories have the required capacity and meet both of the following requirements whenever you
install or re-install Google Distributed Cloud:
The overall disk space is under 90% utilization.
The directories need to have at minimum 128 GiB of free storage capacity.
The installation creates the following directories if necessary:
/var/lib/docker: 30 GiB
/var/lib/kubelet: 10 GiB
/mnt/anthos-system: 25 GiB
/: 20 GiB
/var/lib/etcd: 20 GiB (applicable to control plane nodes only)
/var/lib/etcd and /etc/kubernetes directories are either non-existent or
empty.
In addition to the prerequisites for installing and running Google Distributed Cloud,
customers are expected to comply with relevant standards governing their industry
or business segment, such as PCI DSS requirements for businesses that process
credit cards or Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs) for businesses
in the defense industry.
Load balancer machines prerequisites
When your deployment doesn't have a specialized load balancer node pool, you can have worker nodes or control plane nodes build a load balancer node pool. In that case, they have additional prerequisites:
Machines are in the same Layer 2 subnet.
All VIPs are in the load balancer nodes subnet and routable from the gateway of the subnet.
The gateway of the load balancer subnet should listen to gratuitous ARPs to forward packets to the master load balancer.
Google Cloud project prerequisites
Before you install Google Distributed Cloud, enable the following services for your associated GCP project:
anthos.googleapis.com
anthosgke.googleapis.com
cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com
container.googleapis.com
gkeconnect.googleapis.com
gkehub.googleapis.com
serviceusage.googleapis.com
stackdriver.googleapis.com
monitoring.googleapis.com
logging.googleapis.com
You can also use the bmctl tool to enable these services.
Service accounts prerequisites
In production environments, you should create separate service accounts for
different purposes. Google Distributed Cloud needs the following different types
of Google Cloud service accounts depending on their purpose:
To access Container Registry (gcr.io), no special role is required.
To register a cluster in a fleet, grant the roles/gkehub.admin IAM role to
the service account on your Google Cloud project.
To connect to fleets, grant the roles/gkehub.connect IAM role to the
service account on your Google Cloud project.
To send logs and metrics to Google Cloud Observability, grant the following IAM
roles to the service account on your Google Cloud project:
roles/logging.logWriter
roles/monitoring.metricWriter
roles/stackdriver.resourceMetadata.writer
roles/monitoring.dashboardEditor
You can also use the bmctl tool to create these service accounts.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-29 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eGoogle Distributed Cloud requires specific prerequisites for the workstation running \u003ccode\u003ebmctl\u003c/code\u003e, the node machines, load balancer machines, the Google Cloud project, and service accounts.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eBefore installation, gather necessary credentials, including private SSH keys for node access, the node machine login name (if not using \u003ccode\u003eroot\u003c/code\u003e), and Google Cloud service account keys.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ccode\u003ebmctl\u003c/code\u003e workstation needs to be on a supported Linux distribution, have Docker 19.03 or later, gcloud installed, over 50 GB of free disk space, and Layer 3 connectivity to all node machines.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eNode machines must run on a supported Linux distribution, meet minimum hardware requirements, have internet access, Layer 3 connectivity, configured DNS, and either Docker 19.03 or later or containerd as a container runtime.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe Google Cloud project used with Google Distributed Cloud needs to have several services enabled, including \u003ccode\u003eanthos.googleapis.com\u003c/code\u003e, \u003ccode\u003econtainer.googleapis.com\u003c/code\u003e, \u003ccode\u003egkeconnect.googleapis.com\u003c/code\u003e, and services for logging, monitoring, and more.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["# Installation prerequisites overview\n\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\nGoogle Distributed Cloud has the following sets of installation prerequisites:\n\n- [The prerequisites for the workstation machine running the `bmctl` tool.](#workstation_prerequisites)\n- [The prerequisites for the node machines that are part of the Google Distributed Cloud deployment.](#node_machine_prerequisites)\n- [The prerequisites for the load balancer machines.](#load_balancer_machines_prerequisites)\n- [The prerequisites for the Google Cloud project.](#project_prerequisites)\n- [The prerequisites for your service accounts.](#service_accounts_prerequisites)\n\nIf you use the workstation machine as a cluster node machine, it must meet the prerequisites for both.\n\nBefore you begin\n----------------\n\nDuring installation, you must provide the following credentials:\n\n- The private SSH keys needed to access cluster node machines.\n- If you are not using `root`, the cluster node machine login name.\n- The Google Cloud service account keys. Go to [Creating and managing service account keys](/iam/docs/creating-managing-service-account-keys) to learn more.\n\nEnsure you have all the necessary credentials before attempting to install Google Distributed Cloud.\n\nLogging into gcloud\n-------------------\n\n1. Login to gcloud as a user using `gcloud auth application-default` login: \n\n```\ngcloud auth application-default login\n```\nYou need to have a Project Owner/Editor role to use the automatic API enablement and Service Account creation features, described below. You can also add the following IAM roles to the user:\n - Service Account Admin\n - Service Account Key Admin\n - Project IAM Admin\n - Compute Viewer\n - Service Usage Admin\nAlternatively, if you already have a service account with those roles, run: \n\n```\nexport GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=JSON_KEY_FILE\n```\n\u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eJSON_KEY_FILE\u003c/var\u003e specifies the path to your service account JSON key file.\n2. Get your Google Cloud project ID to use with cluster creation: \n\n```\nexport CLOUD_PROJECT_ID=$(gcloud config get-value project)\n```\n\nWorkstation prerequisites\n-------------------------\n\nThe `bmctl` workstation must meet the following prerequisites:\n\n- Operating system is the same supported Linux distribution running on the cluster node machines.\n- Docker version 19.03 or later installed.\n- Non-root user is member of`docker` group (for instructions, go to [Manage Docker as a non-root user](https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/linux-postinstall/#manage-docker-as-a-non-root-user)).\n- gcloud installed.\n- More than 50 GB of free disk space.\n- Layer 3 connectivity to all cluster node machines.\n- Access to all cluster node machines through SSH via private keys with passwordless root access. Access can be either direct or through sudo.\n- Access the control plane VIP.\n\nNode machine prerequisites\n--------------------------\n\nThe node machines have the following prerequisites:\n\n- Their operating system is one of the supported Linux distributions.\n- Meet the minimum hardware requirements.\n- Internet access.\n- Layer 3 connectivity to all other node machines.\n- Access the control plane VIP.\n- Properly configured DNS nameservers.\n- No duplicate host names.\n- One of the following NTP services is enabled and working:\n - chrony\n - ntp\n - ntpdate\n - systemd-timesyncd\n- A working package manager: apt, dnf, etc.\n- On Ubuntu, `AppArmor` and Uncomplicated Firewall (UFW) are inactive. Run `systemctl stop apparmor ufw` to disable them.\n- If you choose Docker as your container runtime, you may use Docker version 19.03 or later installed. If you don't have Docker installed on your node machines or have an older version installed, Anthos on bare metal installs Docker 19.03.13 or later when you create clusters.\n- If you use containerd as your runtime you don't need Docker, and installing Docker can cause issues. For more information, see the [known issues](/anthos/clusters/docs/bare-metal/1.7/troubleshooting/known-issues#upgrading_to_from_170_to_17x).\n- Ensure the file systems backing the following directories have the required capacity and meet both of the following requirements whenever you install or re-install Google Distributed Cloud:\n - The overall disk space is under 90% utilization.\n - The directories need to have at minimum 128 GiB of free storage capacity. The installation creates the following directories if necessary:\n - `/var/lib/docker`: 30 GiB\n - `/var/lib/kubelet`: 10 GiB\n - `/mnt/anthos-system`: 25 GiB\n - `/`: 20 GiB\n - `/var/lib/etcd`: 20 GiB (applicable to control plane nodes only)\n- `/var/lib/etcd` and `/etc/kubernetes` directories are either non-existent or empty.\n\nIn addition to the prerequisites for installing and running Google Distributed Cloud,\ncustomers are expected to comply with relevant standards governing their industry\nor business segment, such as PCI DSS requirements for businesses that process\ncredit cards or Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs) for businesses\nin the defense industry.\n\nLoad balancer machines prerequisites\n------------------------------------\n\nWhen your deployment doesn't have a specialized load balancer node pool, you can have worker nodes or control plane nodes build a load balancer node pool. In that case, they have additional prerequisites:\n\n- Machines are in the same Layer 2 subnet.\n- All VIPs are in the load balancer nodes subnet and routable from the gateway of the subnet.\n- The gateway of the load balancer subnet should listen to gratuitous ARPs to forward packets to the master load balancer.\n\nGoogle Cloud project prerequisites\n----------------------------------\n\nBefore you install Google Distributed Cloud, enable the following services for your associated GCP project:\n\n- `anthos.googleapis.com`\n- `anthosgke.googleapis.com`\n- `cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com`\n- `container.googleapis.com`\n- `gkeconnect.googleapis.com`\n- `gkehub.googleapis.com`\n- `serviceusage.googleapis.com`\n- `stackdriver.googleapis.com`\n- `monitoring.googleapis.com`\n- `logging.googleapis.com`\n\nYou can also use the `bmctl` tool to enable these services.\n\nService accounts prerequisites\n------------------------------\n\nIn production environments, you should create separate service accounts for\ndifferent purposes. Google Distributed Cloud needs the following different types\nof Google Cloud service accounts depending on their purpose:\n\n- To access Container Registry (`gcr.io`), no special role is required.\n- To register a cluster in a fleet, grant the `roles/gkehub.admin` IAM role to the service account on your Google Cloud project.\n- To connect to fleets, grant the `roles/gkehub.connect` IAM role to the service account on your Google Cloud project.\n- To send logs and metrics to Google Cloud Observability, grant the following IAM\n roles to the service account on your Google Cloud project:\n\n - `roles/logging.logWriter`\n - `roles/monitoring.metricWriter`\n - `roles/stackdriver.resourceMetadata.writer`\n - `roles/monitoring.dashboardEditor`\n\nYou can also use the `bmctl` tool to create these service accounts."]]
