Memory-optimized machine family for Compute Engine

The memory-optimized machine family provides the most compute and memory resources of any Compute Engine machine family offering. They are ideal for workloads that require higher memory-to-vCPU ratios than the high-memory machine types in the general-purpose machine series.

  • The X4 machine series offers bare metal instances with 16 to 32 TB of memory.
  • The M3 machine series offers VM instances with 1 to 4 TB of memory.
  • The M2 machine series offers VM instances with up to 12 TB of memory.
  • The M1 machine series offers VM instances with up to 4 TB of memory.

These machine series are well-suited for large in-memory databases such as SAP HANA, as well as online analytical processing (OLAP) and in-memory data analytics workloads.

The X4, M3, M2, and M1 machine series offer the lowest cost per GB of memory on Compute Engine, making them a great choice for workloads that utilize higher memory configurations with low compute resources requirements. Additionally, M2 and M1 offer savings of up to 30% with sustained use discounts. X4, M3, M2, and M1 are also eligible for committed use discounts (CUDs), that bring savings of greater than 60% in exchange for 3-year commitments.

Machine series Workloads
X4 machine series
  • Extra large SAP HANA systems
  • On-demand, enterprise grade, ultra memory-equipped IaaS
  • High performance computing
M3 machine series
  • OLAP and OLTP SAP workloads
  • Memory intensive applications, such as genomic modeling and electronic design automation
  • High performance computing
M2 machine series
  • Large in-memory databases such as SAP HANA
  • In-memory databases and in-memory analytics, business warehousing (BW) workloads, genomics analysis, SQL analysis services
M1 machine series
  • Medium in-memory databases such as SAP HANA
  • Tasks that require intensive use of memory with higher memory-to-vCPU ratios than the general-purpose high-memory machine types.
  • In-memory databases and in-memory analytics, business warehousing (BW) workloads, genomics analysis, SQL analysis services.
  • Microsoft SQL Server and similar databases.

X4 machine series [Available for ordering]

The X4 machine series offers more storage and networking options to support your most demanding workloads. The X4 machine series offers three predefined machine types. These machine types provide you with the capability to provision bare metal instances with up to 1920 vCPUs and up to 32 TB of RAM.

X4 instances are powered by the 4th generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors (code-named Sapphire Rapids) and Titanium. X4 instances use only the NVMe disk interface for storage, and can be used with only Google Cloud Hyperdisk storage. X4 instances use a version of the Intel Infrastructure Data Plane Function (IDPF) driver that has been optimized for use with Google Cloud. VirtIO-net, gVNIC, and SCSI interfaces are not supported.

X4 instances give you access to the raw compute resources of the server. Bare metal instances also provide access to several on board, function-specific accelerators and offloads:

  • Intel-QAT: 1
  • Intel-DLB: 1
  • Intel DSA: 4
  • Intel IAA: 4

To move your workload from a VM instance to an X4 bare metal instance, see Move your workload to a new compute instance.

Contact your Google Cloud account manager for pricing and ordering information for X4, or to discuss on-demand pricing for testing X4 instances.

X4 machine types

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Default egress bandwidth (Gbps)† Tier_1 egress bandwidth (Gbps)
x4-megamem-960-metal 960 16,384 Up to 100 Not available
x4-megamem-1440-metal 1,440 24,576 Up to 100 Not available
x4-megamem-1920-metal 1,920 32,768 Up to 100 Not available

* A vCPU represents a single hardware thread, or logical core. The number of available hardware threads is equivalent to the number of hardware threads on the host server.
† Maximum egress bandwidth cannot exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.

Supported disk types for X4

X4 machine types support the following block storage options:

  • Hyperdisk Balanced (hyperdisk-balanced)
  • Hyperdisk Extreme (hyperdisk-extreme)

For disks attached to an X4 instance:

  • The number of Google Cloud Hyperdisk volumes can't exceed 8 Hyperdisk Extreme or 32 Hyperdisk Balanced per instance.
  • The maximum total disk capacity (in TiB) across all disk types can't exceed 512 TiB.

For details about the capacity limits, see Hyperdisk capacity limits per VM.

X4 storage limits are described in the following table:

Maximum number of disks
Machine types Google Cloud Hyperdisk
per VM		 Hyperdisk Balanced Hyperdisk Throughput Hyperdisk Extreme
x4-megamem-960-metal 40 32 Not supported 8
x4-megamem-1440-metal 40 32 Not supported 8
x4-megamem-1920-metal 40 32 Not supported 8

Network support for X4 VMs

X4 bare metal instances require the Intel IDPF LAN PF device driver. X4 supports up to 100 Gbps network bandwidth for standard networking. The gVNIC network interface isn't supported with bare metal instances.

Before migrating to X4 or creating X4 instances, make sure that the operating system image that you use is fully supported for X4. Fully supported images include the IDPF network driver. If you create an X4 instance with an operating system that doesn't support the IDPF driver, then you might not be able to connect to the instance.

X4 Limitations

The X4 machine series is only available as predefined machine types. Custom machine shapes are not available. The following additional restrictions apply:

  • You can't attach Persistent Disk volumes to an X4 instance, only Hyperdisk volumes.
  • The X4 machine series is available in only select zones and regions.
  • X4 instances aren't supported with all operating system images. The operating system details page shows which operating system versions can be used with X4 instances.
  • You can't use GPUs with X4 instances.
  • Shielded VM isn't supported with bare metal instances.
  • Live migration is not supported with X4 instances.
  • There's no hypervisor provided with X4 bare metal instances and nested virtualization isn't enabled.
  • X4 machine series instances can take up to 30 mins to boot due to large hardware and the Power-On Self-Test (POST).
  • The interactive serial console is not available for the X4 machine series. For more information, see Troubleshooting using the serial console.

M3 machine series

The M3 machine series introduces two new OLAP shapes for 2 TiB and 1 TiB SAP HANA systems. These machine types allow you to provision up to 128 vCPUs and up to 4 TB of RAM. M3 VMs use only NVMe for storage, and support Hyperdisk Balanced storage. M3 machines use only gVNIC for networking. VirtIO-net and SCSI interfaces are not supported.

Pricing for these VMs per vCPU hour and per GB of memory is similar to the pricing for M1 VMs. Disk usage and network usage is charged separately from machine type pricing. For details, see Disk and image pricing and Network pricing.

M3 VMs support on-demand pricing, 1-year and 3-year CUDs. The commitment type that you must use to purchase M3 VMs is separate from the one for M1 or M2 VMs. You can purchase a single commitment to cover both M1 and M2 VMs, but you can't group M3 VMs in that commitment. For more information, see the Commitment types section for resource-based commitments.

To update a current VM to use the M3 machine series, see Move your workload to a new compute instance.

M3 machine types

Machine types vCPUs Memory (GB) Default egress bandwidth (Gbps)* Tier_1 egress bandwidth (Gbps)†
m3-ultramem-32 32 976 Up to 32 N/A
m3-ultramem-64 64 1,952 Up to 32 Up to 50
m3-ultramem-128 128 3,904 Up to 32 Up to 100
m3-megamem-64 64 976 Up to 32 Up to 50
m3-megamem-128 128 1,952 Up to 32 Up to 100

* Maximum egress bandwidth cannot exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.
† Available with high-bandwidth networking on larger machine shapes.

Supported disk types for M3

M3 machine types support the following block storage options:

  • Zonal balanced Persistent Disk (pd-balanced)
  • Zonal SSD (performance) Persistent Disk (pd-ssd)
  • Extreme Persistent Disk (pd-extreme)
  • Hyperdisk Balanced (hyperdisk-balanced)
  • Hyperdisk Balanced High Availability (hyperdisk-balanced-high-availability)
  • Hyperdisk Extreme (hyperdisk-extreme)
  • Hyperdisk Throughput (hyperdisk-throughput)
  • Local SSD

M3 machine types support only the NVMe disk interface.

Disk and capacity limits

You can use a mixture of Persistent Disk and Hyperdisk volumes with a VM, but the following restrictions apply:

  • The combined number of both Hyperdisk and Persistent Disk volumes can't exceed 128 per VM.

  • The maximum total disk capacity (in TiB) across all disk types can't exceed:

    • For machine types with less than 32 vCPUs:

      • 257 TiB for all Hyperdisk or all Persistent Disk
      • 257 TiB for a mixture of Hyperdisk and Persistent Disk

    • For machine types with 32 or more vCPUs:

      • 512 TiB for all Hyperdisk
      • 512 TiB for a mixture of Hyperdisk and Persistent Disk
      • 257 TiB for all Persistent Disk

For details about the capacity limits, see Hyperdisk capacity limits per VM and Persistent Disk maximum capacity.

M3 storage limits are described in the following table:

Maximum number of disks
Machine types Per VM* Hyperdisk
per VM		 Hyperdisk Balanced Hyperdisk Throughput Hyperdisk Extreme Local SSD
m3-ultramem-32 128 64 32 64 0 4 or 8
m3-ultramem-64 128 64 32 64 8 4 or 8
m3-ultramem-128 128 64 32 64 8 8
m3-megamem-64 128 64 32 64 8 4 or 8
m3-megamem-128 128 64 32 64 8 8

* This limit applies to Persistent Disk and Hyperdisk, but doesn't include Local SSD disks.

M3 Limitations

The M3 machine series is only available as predefined machine types. Custom machine shapes are not available. The following additional restrictions apply:

M2 machine series

With 6 TiB, 9 TiB, and 12 TiB machine types in the M2 machine series, SAP customers can run their largest SAP HANA databases on Google Cloud.

The M2 series is available with on-demand pricing for an evaluation period only. Long running usage requires purchasing a committed use discount. For more information, see the VM pricing page. Disk usage and network usage is charged separately from machine type pricing. For details, see Disk and image pricing and Network pricing.

M2 machine types

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Default egress bandwidth (Gbps)‡
m2-ultramem-208 208 5,888 Up to 32#
m2-ultramem-416 416 11,776 Up to 32#
m2-megamem-416 416 5,888 Up to 32#
m2-hypermem-416 416 8,832 Up to 32#

* A vCPU is implemented as a single hardware Hyper-thread on one of the available CPU platforms.
‡ Maximum egress bandwidth cannot exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.
# 32 Gbps for Cascade Lake or later CPU platforms. 16 Gbps for all other platforms.

Supported disk types for M2

M2 machine types can use the following block storage options:

  • Zonal balanced Persistent Disk (pd-balanced)
  • Zonal SSD (Performance) Persistent Disk (pd-ssd)
  • Extreme Persistent Disk (pd-extreme)
  • Hyperdisk Balanced (hyperdisk-balanced)
  • Hyperdisk Extreme (hyperdisk-extreme)

You can use a mixture of Persistent Disk and Hyperdisk volumes with a VM, but the following restrictions apply:

  • The combined number of both Hyperdisk and Persistent Disk volumes can't exceed 128 per VM.

  • The maximum total disk capacity (in TiB) across all disk types can't exceed:

    • For machine types with less than 32 vCPUs:

      • 257 TiB for all Hyperdisk or all Persistent Disk
      • 257 TiB for a mixture of Hyperdisk and Persistent Disk

    • For machine types with 32 or more vCPUs:

      • 512 TiB for all Hyperdisk
      • 512 TiB for a mixture of Hyperdisk and Persistent Disk
      • 257 TiB for all Persistent Disk

For details about the capacity limits, see Hyperdisk capacity limits per VM and Persistent Disk maximum capacity.

M2 storage limits are described in the following table:

Maximum number of disks
Machine types Per VM* Hyperdisk
per VM		 Hyperdisk Balanced Hyperdisk Throughput Hyperdisk Extreme Local SSD
m2-ultramem-208 128 64 32 0 8 Not supported
m2-ultramem-416 128 64 32 0 8 Not supported
m2-megamem-416 128 64 32 0 8 Not supported
m2-hypermem-416 128 64 32 0 8 Not supported

* This limit applies to Persistent Disk and Hyperdisk, but doesn't include Local SSD disks.

M2 Limitations

The M2 machine series is available only as predefined machine types. This series offers from 14 GB to 28 GB memory per vCPU. The following restrictions apply:

M1 machine series

The M1 machine series is the older generation memory-optimized machine series that offers 14.9 to 24 GB of memory per vCPU. This series offers the m1-ultramem and m1-megamem machine types and are only available in specific regions and zones.

For details on pricing, see the VM pricing page. Disk usage and network usage is charged separately from machine type pricing. For more information, see Disk and image pricing and Network pricing.

M1 machine types

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Default egress bandwidth (Gbps)‡
m1-ultramem-40 40 961 Up to 32
m1-ultramem-80 80 1922 Up to 32
m1-ultramem-160 160 3844 Up to 32
m1-megamem-96 96 1433.6 Up to 32

* A vCPU is implemented as a single hardware thread on one of the available CPU platforms.
‡ Maximum egress bandwidth cannot exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.

Supported disk types for M1

M1 machine types can use the following block storage options:

  • Zonal balanced Persistent Disk (pd-balanced)
  • Zonal SSD (Performance) Persistent Disk (pd-ssd)
  • Extreme Persistent Disk (pd-extreme)
  • Hyperdisk Balanced (hyperdisk-balanced)
  • Hyperdisk Extreme (hyperdisk-extreme)
  • Local SSD

You can use a mixture of Persistent Disk and Hyperdisk volumes with a VM, but the following restrictions apply:

  • The combined number of both Hyperdisk and Persistent Disk volumes can't exceed 128 per VM.

  • The maximum total disk capacity (in TiB) across all disk types can't exceed:

    • For machine types with less than 32 vCPUs:

      • 257 TiB for all Hyperdisk or all Persistent Disk
      • 257 TiB for a mixture of Hyperdisk and Persistent Disk

    • For machine types with 32 or more vCPUs:

      • 512 TiB for all Hyperdisk
      • 512 TiB for a mixture of Hyperdisk and Persistent Disk
      • 257 TiB for all Persistent Disk

For details about the capacity limits, see Hyperdisk capacity limits per VM and Persistent Disk maximum capacity.

M1 storage limits are described in the following table:

Maximum number of disks
Machine types Per VM* Hyperdisk
per VM		 Hyperdisk Balanced Hyperdisk Throughput Hyperdisk Extreme Local SSD
m1-ultramem-40 128 64 32 0 0 Not supported
m1-ultramem-80 128 64 32 0 8 Not supported
m1-ultramem-160 128 64 32 0 8 Not supported
m1-megamem-96 128 64 32 0 8 8

M1 Limitations

The M1 machine series is only available as predefined machine types. This series offers 14 GB to 28 GB of memory per vCPU. The following restrictions apply:

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