The container startup agent in Compute Engine was deprecated on July 21, 2025. This agent was used to deploy containers on Compute Engine instances when you create VMs or VMs in a managed instance group (MIG). To create and to run containers on VMs and MIGs, use one of the following solutions instead:
- Run Docker container on VMs using a startup script or
cloud-init: to run a container on a single VM or on each VM in a MIG, use one of the Container-optimized VM images and configure container using a startup script orcloud-init. - Google Kubernetes Engine: to deploy and manage containerized applications at scale.
- Cloud Run: to run stateless container applications and small or medium jobs.
- Batch: to run a batch job that has a definite end state and requires additional computing resources.
For more information, see Migrate containers that were deployed on VMs during VM creation.
Shutdown schedule
The following table lists the shutdown schedule for Compute Engine container startup agent.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| July 21, 2025 | Compute Engine container startup agent was deprecated. |
| July 31, 2026 | Compute Engine container startup agent shutdown. |