About instance settings

This page provides information about the settings available for Cloud SQL instances.

Settings for Cloud SQL for SQL Server

Console string                         API enum string
SQL Server 2019 Enterprise (default)   SQLSERVER_2019_ENTERPRISE
SQL Server 2022 Enterprise             SQLSERVER_2022_ENTERPRISE

Console string                      API enum string
SQL Server 2017 Standard            SQLSERVER_2017_STANDARD
SQL Server 2017 Enterprise          SQLSERVER_2017_ENTERPRISE
SQL Server 2017 Express             SQLSERVER_2017_EXPRESS
SQL Server 2017 Web                 SQLSERVER_2017_WEB
SQL Server 2019 Standard (default)  SQLSERVER_2019_STANDARD
SQL Server 2019 Enterprise          SQLSERVER_2019_ENTERPRISE
SQL Server 2019 Express             SQLSERVER_2019_EXPRESS
SQL Server 2019 Web                 SQLSERVER_2019_WEB
SQL Server 2022 Standard            SQLSERVER_2022_STANDARD
SQL Server 2022 Enterprise          SQLSERVER_2022_ENTERPRISE
SQL Server 2022 Express             SQLSERVER_2022_EXPRESS
SQL Server 2022 Web                 SQLSERVER_2022_WEB

Instance ID

The instance ID is the name of the instance. It is used to uniquely identify your instance within the project. Choose an instance name that is aligned with the purpose of the instance when possible.

The total length of project-ID:instance-ID must be 98 characters or less.

You do not need to include the project ID in the instance name. This is done automatically where appropriate (for example, in the log files). ...see naming guidelines

Region

The Google Cloud region where your instance is located. Regions are independent geographic areas that consist of zones. Zones and regions are logical abstractions of underlying physical resources. A region consists of three or more zones housed in three or more physical data centers. The regions Mexico, Osaka, and Montreal have three zones housed in one or two physical data centers. These regions are in the process of expanding to at least three physical data centers. When you architect your solutions in Google Cloud, consider the guidance in Cloud locations, Google Cloud Platform SLAs, and the appropriate Google Cloud product documentation. You can only set the region during instance creation. To improve performance, keep your data close to the services that need it. For more information, see Instance Locations.

Zone

The Google Cloud zone where your instance is located. If you are connecting from a Compute Engine instance, select the zone where the Compute Engine instance is located. Otherwise, accept the default zone. You can edit the instance later to change the zone, if needed. For more information, see Instance Locations.

Cores

The number of CPUs for your instance.

Memory

The amount of memory available for your instance. For performance-sensitive workloads such as online transaction processing (OLTP), make sure that your instance has enough memory to contain the entire working set. However, there are other factors that can impact memory requirements, such as number of active connections. Perform load testing to avoid performance issues in production.

Database version

Unless you need a capability provided only by a specific version, accept the default database version. For gcloud command and REST API usage, see the reference documentation.

Storage type

Choosing SSD, the default and only available value, provides your instance with SSD storage. SSDs provide lower latency and higher data throughput.

Active Directory domain

You can integrate with Managed Microsoft AD, enabling Windows Authentication for the instance. To integrate, you choose a domain for the instance to join. For more information, see the Overview of Managed Microsoft AD in Cloud SQL.

Server CA mode

(Optional) When you create an instance, you can select the server CA mode for the instance.

• GOOGLE_MANAGED_INTERNAL_CA: this is the default value. Cloud SQL creates a new self-signed server CA for each instance.
• GOOGLE_MANAGED_CAS_CA: the instance uses a server CA hierarchy hosted by Certificate Authority Service and the issuing CAs are shared across all instances in the same region.

For more information about these options, see Certificate authority (CA) hierarchies. Server CA mode is in Preview.

Storage capacity

Choose a capacity to fit your database size. After you have created your instance, you can manually increase the storage capacity by editing your instance configuration, but you cannot decrease it. Increasing the storage capacity does not cause downtime.

The amount of storage capacity allocated for your instance affects the cost of your instance. For more information, see Storage and Networking Pricing.

For read replicas, the storage capacity must always be at least as high as the storage capacity of the primary instance. When a primary instance is resized, all read replicas are resized, if needed, so that they have at least as much storage capacity as the updated primary instance.

Enable automatic storage increases

If you enable this setting, Cloud SQL checks your available storage every 30 seconds. If the available storage falls below a threshold size, Cloud SQL automatically adds additional storage capacity. If the available storage repeatedly falls below the threshold size, Cloud SQL continues to add storage until it reaches the maximum of 64 TB.

The automatic storage increase setting of a primary instance automatically applies to any read replicas of that instance. The automatic storage increase setting cannot be independently set for read replicas.

Threshold

The threshold size depends on the amount of storage currently provisioned for your instance; it cannot be larger than 25 GB.

For instances provisioned with 500 GB of storage (or more), the threshold is always 25 GB.

For instances provisioned with less than 500 GB of storage, this formula is used to calculate the threshold:

  5 + (provisioned storage)/25

The result of the division is rounded down to the nearest whole number.

Threshold calculation for an instance with 66 GB storage capacity:

5 + (1/25th of 66 GB) = 5 + (66/25) = 5 + 2.6 -> 5 + 2 = 7 GB

Threshold calculation for an instance with 1000 GB storage capacity:

5 + (1/25th of 1000 GB) = 5 + (1000/25) = 5 + 40 = 45 -> rounded down to the
maximum value of 25 GB

Amount of storage added

The amount of storage added to the instance is equal to the threshold size, which cannot be larger than 25 GB.

Considerations for large disks

For instances provisioned with storage of 500 GB or more, the threshold size is always 25 GB and the amount of storage added is always 25 GB. As a result, the maximum possible empty space is 50 GB. If you do not manually resize the instance with disk greater than 5 TB, the disk can remain at 99% capacity all the time even though the instance has empty space.

Before an operation that rapidly grows disk space usage, such as a large import or a query that requires a large temp table, manually resize the disk, rather than depend on autogrow to keep up.

Data encryption method

By default, your Cloud SQL instance is encrypted with a Google-owned and managed key. If you want to control this key, then use a customer-managed encryption key (CMEK) in Cloud Key Management Service (KMS). Cloud KMS integrates with Cloud SQL.

Using Cloud KMS keys gives you control over their protection level, location, rotation schedule, usage and access permissions. In addition, you can use various encryption keys across resources. Using Cloud KMS also lets you track key usage, view audit logs, and control key life cycles.

Instead of Google owning and managing the keys that protect your data, you control and manage these keys in Cloud KMS.

For more information about CMEKs, see About customer-managed encryption keys (CMEKs).

Automatic storage increase limit

If you enable the automatic storage increase setting, you can provide a specific limit on how large the storage for your instance can automatically grow. Keep in mind that the bigger the size of the instance, the greater the operational latency.

You can't decrease storage size, so this limit can prevent your instance size from growing too large (due to a temporary increase in traffic). Keep in mind that when an instance becomes unable to add storage that it needs, the instance likely stops accepting incoming connections and could go offline.

Setting this limit to zero, the default value, means that there is no limit (other than the maximum available storage for the instance tier).

To set the limit when you create the instance, use the --storage-auto-increase-limit=INTEGER_VALUE_OF_GB parameter, as described on the create instance page. To set the limit on an existing instance, use the same parameter with the gcloud beta sql instances patch command.

The automatic storage increase limit setting of a primary instance automatically applies to any read replicas of that instance. The automatic storage increase limit setting cannot be independently set for read replicas.

Automated backups and point-in-time recovery

These options determine if automated backups are performed and if transaction log backups are enabled. Both options add a small performance cost and use additional storage, but are required for the creation of replicas and clones, and for point-in-time recovery. When you select this option, you can also select a timeframe when automated backups occur.

Automated backups happen daily, during the time window you choose. At the end of seven days, the oldest backup is deleted.

For information about point-in-time recovery, see Overview of point-in-time recovery.

For information about replication, see Replication Options. For information about cloning instances, see Cloning Instances.

Retention settings for automated backups

The default value for the number of retained backups is 7 but you can change it to any value in the range of 1 to 365.

See Automated backup and transaction log retention for more information.

Location options

You can choose to store backups in multiple or single regions. Multi-region is the default, and the recommended choice because it provides protection against downtime when a region becomes unavailable. Backups are stored in regions that are closest to the instance.

You also have the option of selecting a custom location for your backup. Only use this option if required by regulation or if an organization policy requires your backups to be in specific multiple or single regions. See Custom locations for more information.

Instance deletion protection

Protects an instance against accidental deletion. If this setting is enabled, you must deactivate it before deleting the instance. See Prevent deletion of an instance.

Enable point-in-time recovery

Point-in-time recovery lets you recover from a backup, starting from a specific point in time.

For information about point-in-time recovery, see Overview of point-in-time recovery.

Availability: Zonal

Puts your instance and backups in a single zone. When you select this option, there is no failover in the event of an outage. Recommended only for test and development purposes.

High availability (regional)

When you select High availability (regional), if there is an outage, your instance fails over to another zone in the region where your instance is located, as long as the failover zone is not having an outage. It is recommended that you select High availability (regional) for instances in your production environment.

See the Overview of the high availability configuration.

Maintenance window

The day and hour that your maintenance events for the Cloud SQL instance are scheduled.

Read replicas do not support maintenance window settings at this time.

For more information about maintenance, see About maintenance on Cloud SQL instances.

Maintenance timing

Your preference about the relative timing of maintenance updates. You can receive your updates one or two weeks after the notification and test your maintenance updates in a test environment before your production instances get the update. You can also choose to receive the maintenance update five weeks ("week5") after the notification is sent out. The maintenance timing setting doesn't affect the maintenance version that Cloud SQL applies to your instance.

If you don't set the maintenance timing setting, Cloud SQL chooses the timing of updates to your instance (within its maintenance window, if applicable).

For more information about maintenance, see About maintenance on Cloud SQL instances.

Private IP

Configures your instance to use private IP. Learn more.

Public IP

If enabled, your instance is allocated a public IPv4 address. When you deactivate Public IP, that address is released; you can reenable Public IP later, but you receive a different IPv4 address. By default, the public IP address is blocked for all addresses. Use Authorized networks to enable access.

Authorized networks

You can add specific IP addresses or ranges of addresses to open your instance to those addresses.

For information about configuring IP addresses, see Configuring IP connectivity.

Data cache

Data cache is optional for Cloud SQL Enterprise Plus edition instances. Data cache utilizes local SSDs to extend the OS page cache from memory to the SSD tier. Cloud SQL manages this setting. Caching your entire working set provides maximum performance when using data cache. You can use the Google Cloud console, gcloud CLI, or Cloud SQL Admin API to turn this setting on or off for your Cloud SQL Enterprise Plus edition instances.

The following table shows the Data cache size for the various vCPU configurations. The Data cache size is fixed and is not configurable.

Performance-optimized machine family

Enterprise plus machine type	vCPUs	Memory (GB)	Data cache (GB)
db-perf-optimized-N-2	2	16	375
db-perf-optimized-N-4	4	32	375
db-perf-optimized-N-8	8	64	375
db-perf-optimized-N-16	16	128	750
db-perf-optimized-N-32	32	256	1500
db-perf-optimized-N-48	48	384	3000
db-perf-optimized-N-64	64	512	6000
db-perf-optimized-N-80	80	640	6000
db-perf-optimized-N-96	96	768	6000
db-perf-optimized-N-128	128	864	9000

Memory-optimized machine family

Machine type	vCPUs	Memory (GB)	Data cache (GB)
db-memory-optimized-N-4	4	128	750
db-memory-optimized-N-8	8	256	1500
db-memory-optimized-N-16	16	512	3000

Activation policy

You change the activation policy by starting and stopping the instance. Stopping the instance prevents further instance charges.

Database flags

You can set specific database flags on the Cloud SQL instance.

For a complete list of the database flags you can set, see Configure Database Flags.

Default collation

You can set a default collation value for the instance, as described on the Creating instances page. This collation setting is an instance-level default for sorting rules, case, and accent sensitivity in the instance databases.

This collation setting becomes the default for the system databases, too.

A collation setting of an instance or database is indicated in the Google Cloud console. You can verify an instance's default collation on the Instance Overview page (available through the Cloud SQL Instances page). Additionally, from the Instance Overview page, in the Navigation menu, you can click Databases to verify a specific database's collation setting.

This collation default is permanent at the instance level but not at the database level. You can change this default with a database administration tool, but only for a specific database that you are creating or updating. You cannot change the collation default for an instance after creating the instance (unless you recreate the instance).

If you clone an instance, the default collation carries over to the clone.

For a complete list of the supported collation settings, see Server-level collations.

SQL Server Audit

This setting determines if database auditing is enabled. For more information, see SQL Server database auditing.

Time zone

When you create an instance, you can set a time zone for the instance by using the --time-zone=WINDOWS_TIME_ZONE parameter. The time zone for the instance can also be set or changed later by updating the settings of the instance using the --time-zone=WINDOWS_TIME_ZONE parameter. If a time zone is not specified for the instance, the instance's time zone is UTC.

A read replica has the same time zone as its primary instance.

A clone has the same time zone as its source instance.

When restoring an instance from a backup, the timezone of the restored instance will have the same time zone as the source instance at the time of restoration. The time zone at the time of the backup will not be used.

For the available time zone values, see the Windows time zone column, under Time zone mapping.

Alternatively, you can get the available values by using this query:

  SELECT * FROM sys.timeZone_info;
  

An example of a function for retrieving an instance's time zone is the following: SYSDATETIMEOFFSET. The AT TIME ZONE function can be helpful for time conversions and more. For information about this function, see AT TIME ZONE (Transact-SQL).

The following time zones are unsupported for SQL Server 2017:

• AUS Eastern Standard Time
• Central Standard Time (Mexico)
• Jordan Standard Time

The following time zones are unsupported for all major versions:

• Ekaterinburg Standard Time
• Kaliningrad Standard Time
• Kamchatka Standard Time
• Magallanes Standard Time
• Mid-Atlantic Standard Time
• North Asia East Standard Time
• North Asia Standard Time
• Pakistan Standard Time
• Qyzylorda Standard Time
• Russian Standard Time
• Sudan Standard Time
• Vladivostok Standard Time
• Volgograd Standard Time
• Yakutsk Standard Time

Impact of changing instance settings

For most instance settings, Cloud SQL applies the change immediately and connectivity to the instance is unaffected.

Changing the number of CPUs or the memory size results in the instance going offline for less than 60 seconds. Changing an instance's zone, configuring the private IP, changing its network, and enabling high availability results in the instance going offline for several minutes. Plan to make these kinds of changes when your service can handle an outage of this duration.

What's next

• Learn how to edit your instance.
• Learn more about database flags.
• Learn how to authorize IP access for your instance.
• Learn more about replication options.
• See pricing for your instance.