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Configuring persistent disks to be stateful lets you benefit from VM instance autohealing and automated updates while preserving the state of the disks.
You can configure any disk defined in the instance template to be stateful for all instances in a managed instance group (MIG) by adding that disk's device name to the MIG's stateful policy.
You can also configure stateful persistent disks individually for instances in a MIG by setting per-instance configurations; these disks don't need to be defined in the instance template.
Before you beginSelect the tab for how you plan to use the samples on this page:
ConsoleWhen you use the Google Cloud console to access Google Cloud services and APIs, you don't need to set up authentication.
gcloudInstall the Google Cloud CLI. After installation, initialize the Google Cloud CLI by running the following command:
gcloud init
If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.
Note: If you installed the gcloud CLI previously, make sure you have the latest version by runninggcloud components update
.To use the Terraform samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.
Install the Google Cloud CLI.
If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.
Note: If you installed the gcloud CLI previously, make sure you have the latest version by runninggcloud components update
.
If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:
gcloud auth application-default login
You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.
If an authentication error is returned, and you are using an external identity provider (IdP), confirm that you have signed in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.
For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.
RESTTo use the REST API samples on this page in a local development environment, you use the credentials you provide to the gcloud CLI.
Install the Google Cloud CLI.
If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.
For more information, see Authenticate for using REST in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.
A MIG with stateful configuration—a stateful MIG—has the following limitations:
RECREATE
.NONE
) to prevent deletion of stateful instances by automatic cross-zone redistribution.If you use an all-instances configuration to override instance template properties, you cannot specify those properties in any per-instance configuration and at the same time in the group's all-instances configuration.
A stateful regional MIG does not automatically orchestrate cross-zone failover. When using a regional MIG, you can make your stateful application resilient to zonal failure by deploying redundant replicas to multiple zones and relying on your application's data replication functionality.
Use stateful persistent disks to take advantage of VM autohealing and automated updates while still preserving the data on the disks. For more information, see use cases for stateful MIGs.
When you configure stateful disks, these disks are preserved through VM instance autohealing, updates, and recreation. But that also means that stateful disks cannot be recreated from the original image or updated to a new image.
As a best practice, we recommend keeping your boot disks stateless.
Keeping the boot disk stateless has the following benefits:
For more information, see how autohealing and updating handle preserved state.
Configuring stateful persistent disks for all VMs in a MIGConfigure any disk defined in an instance template to be stateful by adding that disk's device name to the MIG's stateful policy. The MIG treats disks with that device name as stateful for all existing and future VM instances.
Note: If an instance template attaches an existing disk in read-only mode, you don't need to configure it as stateful. The MIG already preserves this disk. It attaches the disk to all its VMs in read-only mode and detaches the disk when a VM is deleted. Configuring stateful disks on MIG creation Permissions required for this taskTo perform this task, you must have the following permissions:
instanceGroupManagers.insert
method (for zonal MIGs)regionInstanceGroupManagers.insert
method (for regional MIGs)In the Google Cloud console, go to the Instance groups page.
Select your project and click Continue.
Click Create instance group.
Select New managed instance group (stateful).
Specify a Name for the instance group.
Select an Instance template. If no templates are available, create an instance template.
In the Number of instances field, specify the number of instances for the instance group.
The Stateful configuration section displays the disks specified in the instance template. Click a disk to edit its stateful configuration.
From the On permanent instance deletion drop-down, select the action to perform on the stateful disk when the VM instance is deleted. The available options are:
After you finish the stateful configuration, click Done.
Click Create.
To specify which disks from an instance template should be stateful on MIG creation, use the --stateful-disk
flag with the gcloud compute instance-groups managed create
command:
gcloud compute instance-groups managed create INSTANCE_GROUP_NAME \ --template INSTANCE_TEMPLATE \ --size SIZE \ --stateful-disk device-name=DEVICE_NAME[,auto-delete=DELETE_RULE]
Replace the following:
INSTANCE_GROUP_NAME
: The name of the managed instance group to create.INSTANCE_TEMPLATE
: The name of the instance template to use when creating instances.SIZE
: The initial number of VMs you need in this group.DEVICE_NAME
: The device name of a disk specified in the instance template.DELETE_RULE
: A value that prescribes what should happen to a stateful disk when a VM is deleted. Available options are:
never
: (Default.) Never delete the disk; instead, detach the disk when its VM is deleted.on-permanent-instance-deletion
: Delete the disk when its VM instance is permanently deleted from the instance group, for example, when the managed instance is deleted manually or when the group size is decreased.Regardless of the value of the delete rule, stateful disks are always preserved on VM autohealing, update, and recreation operations.
gcloud compute instance-templates describe
command.
Example
You want to deploy a database with 12 shards, each with a stateless boot disk that contains the operating system and database binaries, and each with a stateful data disk. Use the following steps:
Create an instance template with a stateless boot disk based on the image img-example-db-v01
, which has a pre-installed OS and database, and with a stateful data disk:
gcloud compute instance-templates create example-database-template-v01 \ --image img-example-db-v01 \ --create-disk device-name=data-disk,mode=rw,image=empty10GBext4
The --create-disk
flag instructs the MIG to:
data-disk
.Create a MIG from the instance template and define the data disk as stateful:
gcloud compute instance-groups managed create example-database-group \ --template example-database-template-v01 \ --base-instance-name shard \ --size 12 \ --stateful-disk device-name=data-disk,auto-delete=on-permanent-instance-deletion
The device name data-disk
is taken from the instance template. The data disk is configured to be deleted together with the VM instance when the VM is permanently deleted (either due to manual instance deletion or due to manual decrease of the group size). The data disk is preserved on autohealing, updates, and VM recreation.
Verify that the data disk is configured in the stateful policy:
gcloud compute instance-groups managed describe example-database-group baseInstanceName: shard ... name: example-database-group ... statefulPolicy: preservedState: disks: data-disk: autoDelete: ON_PERMANENT_INSTANCE_DELETION ...
You can see that the stateful policy declares disks with device name data-disk
as stateful, with a rule to delete such disks on permanent VM deletion.
If you haven't already created an instance template, which specifies the machine type, boot disk image, network, and other VM properties that you want for each VM in your MIG, create an instance template.
The following sample creates a zonal MIG with a stateful disk. To specify which disk from the instance template should be stateful on MIG creation, include the stateful_disk
block. For more information about the resource used in the sample, see google_compute_instance_group_manager
resource. To create a regional MIG, use the google_compute_region_instance_group_manager
resource.
To learn how to apply or remove a Terraform configuration, see Basic Terraform commands.
RESTTo specify which disks from the instance template should be stateful on MIG creation, include them in the statefulPolicy
field in the request body of the instanceGroupManagers.insert
method:
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT/zones/ZONE/instanceGroupManagers { "name": "NAME", "versions": [ { "instanceTemplate": "global/instanceTemplates/TEMPLATE" } ], "targetSize": SIZE, "statefulPolicy": { "preservedState": { "disks": { "DEVICE_NAME": {"autoDelete": "DELETE_RULE" }, "DEVICE_NAME": {"autoDelete": "DELETE_RULE" } } } } }
Replace the following:
PROJECT
: The project ID for the request.ZONE
: The zone where the MIG is located (applies to a zonal MIG).
zones/ZONE
with regions/REGION
and specify the region of the MIG.NAME
: The name of the MIG to create.TEMPLATE
: The name of the instance template to use when creating instances.SIZE
: The initial number of instances you need in this group.DEVICE_NAME
: The device name of a disk specified in the instance template.DELETE_RULE
: A value that prescribes what should happen to the stateful disk when the VM instance is deleted. The available options are:
never
: (Default.) Never delete the disk; detach the disk when the VM is deleted.on_permanent_instance_deletion
: Delete the stateful disk when its VM is permanently deleted from the instance group, for example, when the managed instance is deleted manually or when the group size is decreased.instanceTemplates.get
method and reading the instanceTemplates.disks[].deviceName
field in the response.
Example
You want to deploy a database with 12 shards, each with a stateless boot disk that contains the operating system and database binaries, and each with a stateful data disk. Use the following steps.
Create an instance template with a stateless boot disk based on the image img-example-db-v01
, with pre-installed OS and database, and with a stateful data disk, using the instanceTemplates.insert
method:
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/global/instanceTemplates { "name": "example-database-template-v01", "properties": { "machineType":"e2-standard-2", "disks": [ { "boot": true, "deviceName": "boot-disk", "initializeParams": { "sourceImage": "projects/example-project/global/images/mg-example-db-v01" } }, { "deviceName": "data-disk", "mode": "READ_WRITE", "initializeParams": { "sourceImage": "projects/example-project/global/images/empty10GBext4" } } ], "networkInterfaces": [ { "network": "global/networks/default" } ] } }
The data disk in the instance template has device name data-disk
and is configured to be created from an empty ext4 image, prepared beforehand, and to be attached in read/write mode.
Create a MIG from the instance template and define the data disk as stateful by using the instanceGroupManagers.insert
method:
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/zones/us-east1-c/instanceGroupManagers { "name": "example-database-group", "baseInstanceName": "shard", "versions": [ { "instanceTemplate": "global/instanceTemplates/example-database-template-v01" } ], "targetSize": 12, "statefulPolicy": { "preservedState": { "disks": { "data-disk": {"autoDelete": "ON_PERMANENT_INSTANCE_DELETION" } } } } }
The MIG creates 12 instances, each with a disk with the following properties:
data-disk
, taken from the instance template.preservedStateFromPolicy
) of each managed instance so that the data disk is preserved on autohealing, updates, and instance recreation.Use the instanceGroupManagers.get
method to verify that the data disk is configured in the stateful policy of the new instanceGroupManagers
resource:
GET https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/zones/us-east1-c/instanceGroupManagers/example-database-group
{ "name": "example-database-group", "baseInstanceName": "shard", ... "statefulPolicy": { "preservedState": { "disks": { "data-disk": {"autoDelete": "ON_PERMANENT_INSTANCE_DELETION" } } } } ... }
You can see that stateful policy declares disks with device name data-disk
as stateful with the rule to delete such disks on permanent instance deletion.
If you run a stateful application on a stateless MIG (a MIG without any stateful configuration), you can configure existing disks that are defined in the instance template to be stateful for all instances in this MIG. This lets you preserve the disks on instance recreation, autohealing, and update operations, and optionally on deletion operations.
You can do the following operations:
The MIG applies the updated configuration in the stateful policy automatically and asynchronously to all instances. Updates to disk configurations in a stateful policy don't disrupt running VMs. For more information, see applying stateful policy updates.
For a regional MIG, you must disable proactive cross zone instance redistribution before you can configure stateful disks. For more information, see how regional groups handle preserved state.
Note: If a MIG has a read-only disk attached to all of its VMs, you don't need to configure this disk as stateful. The MIG already preserves this disk. It attaches the disk to all its instances in read-only mode and detaches the disk when a VM is deleted. Permissions required for this taskTo perform this task, you must have the following permissions:
instanceGroupManagers.patch
method (for zonal MIGs)regionInstanceGroupManagers.patch
method (for regional MIGs)In the Google Cloud console, go to the Instance groups page.
Click the name of the instance group in which you want to specify stateful configuration for disk.
Click Edit to modify the managed instance group.
Click Stateful & per-instance configuration to expand the section.
In the Group config section, click the disk that you want to make stateful. In the expanded section, do the following:
In the On permanent instance deletion list, select the action to perform on the stateful disk when the VM instance is deleted.
Delete disk: Delete the stateful disk when its VM is permanently deleted from the instance group, for example, when the managed instance is deleted manually or when the group size is decreased.
Note: Regardless of the value of the delete rule, stateful disks are always preserved on instance autohealing, update, and recreation operations.After you update the stateful configuration, click Done.
Click Save to complete the update.
To specify which disks from the instance template should be stateful or to update the stateful disk configuration for an existing MIG, use one or multiple --stateful-disk
flags with the gcloud compute instance-groups managed update
command:
gcloud compute instance-groups managed update NAME \ --stateful-disk device-name=DEVICE_NAME[,auto-delete=DELETE_RULE]
Replace the following:
NAME
: The name of the managed instance group to update.DEVICE_NAME
: The device name of a disk that is specified in the instance template.DELETE_RULE
: A value that prescribes what should happen to the stateful disk when a VM instance is deleted. The available options are:
never
: (Default.) Never delete the disk, detach the disk when its instance is deleted.on-permanent-instance-deletion
: Delete the stateful disk when its instance is permanently deleted from the instance group, for example, when the managed instance is deleted manually or when the group size is decreased.If a specified device name is already configured in the stateful policy, the command updates the configuration.
Note: You can see the device names of disks that are defined in an instance template by running thegcloud compute instance-templates describe
command.
Example
You run a database with multiple shards on a MIG named example-database- group
. Each VM in the MIG stores a shard on an additional disk with device name data-disk
, which is defined by the instance template. The MIG has no stateful configuration, and you want to preserve the data disks on instance recreation, autohealing, and updates. You also want to protect the data disks from deletion when a VM is deleted.
Update the MIG to define the data disk as stateful by using the following command:
gcloud compute instance-groups managed update example-database-group \ --stateful-disk device-name=data-disk,auto-delete=never
As a result, the MIG applies the stateful policy configuration updates automatically and asynchronously to the data disks for all instances. The data disks are now preserved on autohealing, updates, and instance recreation, and the data disks are detached on instance deletion because the auto-delete
rule is set to never
.
Verify that the data disk is configured in the stateful policy by running the gcloud compute instance-groups managed describe example-database-group
command.
To specify which disks from the instance template should be stateful or to update the stateful disk configuration for an existing MIG, configure the disks in the MIG's stateful policy using the instanceGroupManagers.patch
method:
PATCH https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT/zones/ZONE/instanceGroupManagers/NAME { "statefulPolicy": { "preservedState": { "disks": { "DEVICE_NAME": {"autoDelete": "DELETE_RULE" }, "DEVICE_NAME": {"autoDelete": "DELETE_RULE" } } } } }
Replace the following:
PROJECT
: The project ID for the request.ZONE
: The zone where the MIG is located (applies to a zonal MIG).
zones/ZONE
with regions/REGION
and specify the region of the MIG.NAME
: The name of the MIG to update.DEVICE_NAME
: The device name of a disk, specified in the instance template, for which you would like to update stateful configuration.DELETE_RULE
: A value that prescribes what should happen to the stateful disk when a VM instance is deleted. The available options are:
never
: (Default.) Never delete the disk, detach the disk when its instance is deleted.on-permanent-instance-deletion
: Delete the stateful disk when its instance is permanently deleted from the instance group, for example, when the instance is deleted manually or when the group size is decreased.If the specified device name is already configured in the stateful policy, the patch
method updates its configuration.
instanceTemplates.get
method and reading the instanceTemplates.disks[].deviceName
field in the response.
Example
You run a database with multiple shards on a MIG named example-database- group
. Each VM in the MIG stores a shard on an additional disk with device name data-disk
, which is defined by the instance template. The MIG has no stateful configuration, and you want to preserve the data disks on instance recreation, autohealing, and updates. You also want to protect the data disks from deletion when a VM is deleted.
Patch the MIG to define the data disk as stateful:
PATCH https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/zones/us-east1-c/instanceGroupManagers/example-database-group { "statefulPolicy": { "preservedState": { "disks": { "data-disk": {"autoDelete": "NEVER" } } } } }
The MIG applies this stateful configuration automatically and asynchronously to the data disks for all instances. The data disks will be preserved on autohealing, updates, and instance recreation. The data disks will be detached on instance deletion because the autoDelete
rule is set to NEVER
.
Verify that the data disk is configured in the stateful policy by viewing the instanceGroupManagers
resource, returned by the instanceGroupManagers.get
method.
You might need to configure a stateful disk to be treated as stateless. For example:
To declare all disks with a given device name as stateless, remove the disk's configuration from the stateful policy.
Note: If disk configuration for the same device name is present in a per-instance configuration, the disk remains stateful for the associated instance even if you remove its configuration from the stateful policy. In this case, you must also remove the disk's configuration from the per-instance configuration to make the disk stateless.The MIG applies the change to the stateful policy automatically and asynchronously to all instances. Updates to disk configuration in a stateful policy don't disrupt running VM instances.
For more information, see Applying stateful policy updates.
Permissions required for this taskTo perform this task, you must have the following permissions:
instanceGroupManagers.patch
method (for zonal MIGs)regionInstanceGroupManagers.patch
method (for regional MIGs)In the Google Cloud console, go to the Instance groups page.
Click the name of the instance group from which you want to remove stateful configuration for disks.
Click Edit to modify the managed instance group.
Click Stateful & per-instance configuration to expand the section.
In the Group config section, click the stateful disks that you want to make stateless. In the expanded section, do the following:
After you make the changes, click Save.
To specify which disks from a MIG's stateful policy to make stateless, use the --remove-stateful-disks
flag with the gcloud compute instance-groups managed update
command:
gcloud compute instance-groups managed update NAME \ --remove-stateful-disks DEVICE_NAME[,DEVICE_NAME,...]
Replace the following:
NAME
: The name of the MIG to update.DEVICE_NAME
: The device name of a disk to remove from the stateful policy and to treat as stateless. You can provide one or multiple device names in the list.gcloud compute instance-groups managed describe
command.
Example
You run a legacy application with multiple nodes on a MIG named example-legacy-group
. Each VM in the MIG stores application data on a boot disk with device name boot-disk
, which you configured as stateful in the MIG's stateful policy. You have moved application data to an additional disk and now want to make the boot disk stateless to make it easy to update to new images.
To remove the stateful configuration of the boot disk, update the managed instance group:
gcloud compute instance-groups managed update example-legacy-group \ --remove-stateful-disks boot-disk
The MIG removes the stateful configuration for the device name boot-disk
automatically and asynchronously for the boot disks of all instances in the group. The boot disks remain attached to the instances but are no longer stateful. When you recreate or update the instances, or when instances are autohealed, the MIG recreates the boot disks from the image specified in the instance template.
To specify which disks from a MIG's stateful policy to make stateless, remove each disk's configuration from the MIG's stateful policy using the instanceGroupManagers.patch
method:
PATCH https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT/zones/ZONE/instanceGroupManagers/NAME { "statefulPolicy": { "preservedState": { "disks": { "DEVICE_NAME": null, ... } } } }
Replace the following:
PROJECT
: The project ID for the request.ZONE
: The zone where the MIG is located (applies to a zonal MIG).
zones/ZONE
with regions/REGION
and specify the region of the MIG.NAME
: The name of the MIG to update.DEVICE_NAME
: The device name of a disk that you want to remove from the stateful policy. Providing a null
value leads to removal of the stateful configuration for that disk. You can provide one or multiple device names to remove.instanceGroupManagers.get
method.
Example
You run a legacy application with multiple nodes on a MIG named example-legacy-group
. Each VM in the MIG stores application data on a boot disk with device name boot-disk
, which you configured as stateful in the MIG's stateful policy. You have moved application data to an additional disk and now want to make the boot disk stateless to make it easy to update to new images.
To remove the stateful configuration of the boot disk, patch the managed instance group:
PATCH https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/zones/us-east1-c/instanceGroupManagers/example-legacy-group { "statefulPolicy": { "preservedState": { "disks": { "boot-disk": null } } } }
The MIG removes the stateful configuration for the device name boot-disk
automatically and asynchronously for the boot disks of all instances in the group. The boot disks remain attached to the instances but are no longer stateful. When you recreate or update the instances, or when instances are autohealed, the MIG recreates the boot disks from the image specified in the instance template.
You might need to completely remove a stateful disk from instances in a MIG, for example, if you re-architected your application and moved the state out of that disk.
MIGs don't allow removing stateful disks, so you must do the following steps:
Configure stateful persistent disks for a specific VM in a MIG by adding the disk's device name to that VM's per-instance configuration. Update the VM to apply the per-instance configuration and make it effective.
Configuring stateful persistent disks individually for specific VMs in a MIG is useful if you need to:
Pro Tip: Where feasible, consider configuring stateful disks for all VMs in a MIG, instead of configuring stateful disks individually for each VM instance.
Adding existing stateful disks to new VMs in a MIGYou can add existing stateful disks to new instances that you manually create in a MIG. This is useful for migrating a stateful application from existing standalone VMs to a stateful MIG, for example:
Create instances in the MIG with the appropriate names and associated disks from the previous step. The MIG responds to your request with the following actions:
Add existing stateful disks when manually creating specific instances in a MIG using the gcloud CLI or REST. The MIG applies the configuration immediately on VM creation.
gcloudTo create a VM with a custom name and attach one or more existing stateful disks to that VM, use the gcloud compute instance-groups managed create-instance
command with one or multiple --stateful-disk
flags.
gcloud compute instance-groups managed create-instance NAME \ --instance VM_NAME \ [--zone ZONE | --region REGION] \ --stateful-disk device-name=DEVICE_NAME,source=DISK[,mode=MODE][,auto-delete=DELETE_RULE]
Replace the following:
NAME
: The name of the MIG in which you need to create an instance.VM_NAME
: The name of the new instance to create.ZONE
: The zone where the MIG is located (applies to a zonal MIG).REGION
: The region where the MIG is located (applies to a regional MIG).DEVICE_NAME
: The device name to use when attaching the disk.DISK
: The URI of an existing persistent disk to attach under the specified DEVICE_NAME
in the format projects/project-id/zones/zone/disks/disk-name
for a zonal disk and projects/project-id/regions/region/disks/disk-name
for a regional disk.MODE
: Specifies the mode of the disk. Supported options are:
ro
: Read-only.rw
: (Default.) Read/write.DELETE_RULE
: A value that prescribes what should happen to a stateful disk when a VM instance is deleted. The available options are:
never
: (Default.) Never delete the disk; instead, detach the disk when its instance is deleted.on-permanent-instance-deletion
: Delete the stateful disk when its instance is permanently deleted from the instance group, for example, when the instance is deleted manually or when the group size is decreased.Regardless of the value of the delete rule, stateful disks are always preserved on instance autohealing, update, and recreation operations.
Example
You want to have autohealing for a database server that is currently running on a standalone VM named db-instance
and that currently stores data on a disk named db-data-disk-1
.
Create a stateful MIG with autohealing, create a similar VM inside the MIG, and attach the existing data disk db-data-disk-1
to the new instance as a stateful disk:
db-instance
, during a maintenance window.db-template
using the db-instance
configuration.db-data-disk-1
from db-instance
and delete db-instance
.example-database-mig
, from db-template
, and configure autohealing.Create a managed instance with the original db-instance
name and attach the db-data-disk-1
as a stateful disk:
gcloud compute instance-groups managed create-instance example-database-mig \ --instance db-instance \ --zone us-east1-c \ --stateful-disk device-name=data-disk,source=projects/example-project/zones/us-east1-c/disks/db-data-disk-1,auto-delete=never
The command creates an instance, db-instance
, in the MIG, creates a corresponding per-instance configuration with db-data-disk-1
stateful disk, and attaches the disk to the new VM, using data-disk
as the device name.
To create one or multiple instances in a MIG, set custom VM names, and attach one or multiple existing stateful disks to these instances, use the instanceGroupManagers.createInstances
method.
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instanceGroupManagers/NAME/createInstances { "instances": [ { "name": "VM_NAME", "preservedState" : { "disks": { "DEVICE_NAME" : { "source": "DISK", "mode": "MODE", "autoDelete": "DELETE_RULE" }, ... } } }, ... ] }
Replace the following:
PROJECT_ID
: Project ID for the request.ZONE
: The zone where the MIG is located (applies to a zonal MIG).
zones/ZONE
with regions/REGION
and specify the region of the MIG.NAME
: The name of the MIG in which to create an instance.VM_NAME
: The name of the instance to create.DEVICE_NAME
: The device name to use when attaching the disk.DISK
: The URI of an existing persistent disk to attach under the specified DEVICE_NAME
in the format projects/project-id/zones/zone/disks/disk-name
for a zonal disk or projects/project-id/regions/region/disks/disk-name
for a regional disk.MODE
: Specifies the mode of the disk. Supported options are:
READ_ONLY
: Read-only.READ_WRITE
: (Default.) Read/write.DELETE_RULE
: A value that prescribes what should happen to a stateful disk when a VM is deleted. The available options are as follows:
never
: (Default.) Never delete the disk; instead, detach the disk when its VM is deleted.on-permanent-instance-deletion
: Delete the stateful disk when its instance is permanently deleted from the instance group, for example, when the instance is deleted manually or when the group size is decreased.Regardless of the value of the delete rule, stateful disks are always preserved on instance autohealing, update, and recreation operations.
Example
You want to have autohealing for a database server that is currently running on a standalone VM named db-instance
and that currently stores data on a disk named db-data-disk-1
.
Create a stateful MIG with autohealing, create a similar instance inside the MIG, and attach the existing data disk db-data-disk-1
to the new VM as a stateful disk:
db-instance
, during a maintenance window.db-template
using the db-instance
configuration.db-data-disk-1
from db-instance
, and delete db-instance
.example-database-mig
, from db-template
, and configure autohealing.Create an instance with the original db-instance
name, and attach the db-data-disk-1
as a stateful disk:
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/zones/us-east1-c/instanceGroupManagers/example-database-mig/createInstances { "instances": [ { "name": "db-instance", "preservedState" : { "disks": { "data-disk" : { "source": "projects/example-project/zones/us-east1-c/disks/db-data-disk-1", "mode": "READ_WRITE", "autoDelete": "never" } } } } ] }
The method creates an instance, db-instance
, in the MIG, creates a corresponding per-instance configuration with the db-data-disk-1
stateful disk, and attaches the disk to the new instance, using data-disk
as the device name.
Configure stateful disks individually for a managed instance by adding or updating a stateful disk configuration in the associated per-instance config. Then update the instance to apply the per-instance configuration to the VM.
Configuring stateful disks individually is useful for the following tasks:
Adding a stateful disk from outside of a MIG to a VM in that MIG. You can attach any disk from outside of a MIG to a managed instance by adding stateful configuration for the disk to the associated per-instance configuration. After you apply the config, the MIG automatically attaches the disk to the instance and treats it as stateful.
Declaring a previously stateless persistent disk as stateful. You can declare a previously stateless disk, currently attached to a VM, as stateful by adding stateful configuration for this disk, including its device name and URI, to the associated per-instance configuration. After you apply the config, the MIG starts preserving the disk as stateful.
Replacing a stateful disk with a different disk. Replacing one stateful disk with another stateful disk can be useful, for example, if you need access to a recovered backup. You can swap one stateful disk for another by updating the disk's URI while keeping the same device name in the per-instance configuration. After you apply the updated per-instance configuration, the MIG detaches the old disk and attaches the new one using the same device name. When applying the update, choose whether to keep the instance running, restart, or recreate it. Swapping a boot disk requires at least a VM restart.
gcloudTo configure stateful disks individually for a VM in a MIG, add or update stateful disk configuration in the associated per-instance configuration. Then, update the instance to apply the configuration.
If a per-instance configuration doesn't exist for the instance, use the gcloud compute instance-groups managed instance-configs create
command with one or multiple --stateful-disk
flags:
gcloud compute instance-groups managed instance-configs create NAME \ --instance VM_NAME \ --stateful-disk device-name=DEVICE_NAME[,source=DISK][,mode=MODE][,auto-delete=DELETE_RULE] \ [--no-update-instance | --update-instance] \ [--instance-update-minimal-action MINIMAL_ACTION]
If a per-instance configuration already exists for the instance, use the gcloud compute instance-groups managed instance-configs update
command with one or multiple --stateful-disk
flags.
The --update-instance
flag (default) applies the changes immediately to the instance. If you use --no-update-instance
, the changes remain unapplied and are applied when you next recreate or update the instance.
gcloud compute instance-groups managed instance-configs update NAME \ --instance VM_NAME \ --stateful-disk device-name=DEVICE_NAME[,source=DISK][,mode=MODE][,auto-delete=DELETE_RULE] \ [--no-update-instance | --update-instance] \ [--instance-update-minimal-action MINIMAL_ACTION]
Replace the following:
NAME
: The name of the managed instance group.VM_NAME
: The name of the VM instance for which to configure stateful disks.DEVICE_NAME
: The device name used for attaching the disk.DISK
: The URI of an existing persistent disk to attach under the specified DEVICE_NAME
, in the format projects/project-id/zones/zone/disks/disk-name
for a zonal disk and projects/project-id/regions/region/disks/disk-name
for a regional disk.
The source=DISK
subflag is optional if the device is already defined in the instance's per-instance configuration. Otherwise it is required.
If omitted, the currently configured disk URI remains unchanged.
MODE
: Specifies the mode of the disk. You can only specify mode
if you also specify source
. Supported options are:
ro
: Read-only.rw
: (Default.) Read/write.If omitted, the default value is set for a new stateful disk configuration; the value remains unchanged in an existing configuration.
DELETE_RULE
: A value that prescribes what should happen to a stateful disk when a VM is deleted. The available options are as follows:
never
: (Default.) Never delete the disk; instead, detach the disk when its instance is deleted.on-permanent-instance-deletion
: Delete the stateful disk when its instance is permanently deleted from the instance group, for example, when the instance is deleted manually or when the group size is decreased.If omitted, the default value is set for a new stateful disk configuration; the value remains unchanged in an existing configuration.
Regardless of the value of the delete rule, stateful disks are always preserved on instance autohealing, update, and recreation operations.
MINIMAL_ACTION
: Perform at least the specified action when applying the per-instance configuration update to the instance. Must be used together with the --update-instance
flag. The value must be one of:
none
: No action.refresh
: Apply updates that are possible to apply without stopping the VM.restart
: Stop the VM and then start it again.replace
: Recreate the VM.If omitted, the least disruptive action required by the update is used.
Example
The data on a currently attached stateful disk, data-disk-1
, got corrupted, and you want to restore it from the latest backup. You created a disk, data-disk-2
, from a snapshot to replace the corrupted disk in instance, db-instance-1
, managed by a stateful MIG, example-database-mig
. The original disk data-disk-1
, is attached under the data-disk
device name with an auto-delete rule to never delete the disk.
To replace data-disk-1
with data-disk-2
, run the following command:
gcloud compute instance-groups managed instance-configs update example-database-mig \ --instance db-instance-1 \ --stateful-disk device-name=data-disk,source=projects/example-project/zones/us-east1-c/disks/data-disk-2 \ --update-instance \ --instance-update-minimal-action restart
The command does the following:
db-instance-1
:
data-disk
from data-disk-1
(last configuration) to data-disk-2
(new configuration).auto-delete
parameter is omitted in the --stateful-disk
flag and, by default, the delete rule is never
.db-instance-1
VM immediately because the --update-instance
flag is included. The MIG detaches data-disk-1
and attaches data-disk-2
under the same device name, data-disk
.restart
, the MIG restarts the db-instance-1
instance to update the VM, which helps the database application to start using the new disk.To configure stateful disks individually for a VM in a MIG, add the stateful disk configuration in the associated per-instance configuration. Then, update the instance to apply the configuration.
To add per-instance configuration for a VM, use the google_compute_per_instance_config
resource and include the preserved_state
block as shown in the following sample.
To learn how to apply or remove a Terraform configuration, see Basic Terraform commands.
RESTTo configure stateful disks individually for VMs in a MIG, add or update the stateful disk configuration in the associated per-instance configurations. Then, update the instances to apply the configuration.
If per-instance configurations don't yet exist for the given VMs, use the instanceGroupManagers.updatePerInstanceConfigs
method or regionInstanceGroupManagers.updatePerInstanceConfigs
method with stateful configuration for one or multiple disks:
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instanceGroupManagers/NAME/updatePerInstanceConfigs { "perInstanceConfigs": [ { "name": "VM_NAME", "preservedState" : { "disks": { "DEVICE_NAME" : { "source": "DISK", "mode": "MODE", "autoDelete": "DELETE_RULE" }, ... } }, "fingerprint: "FINGERPRINT" }, ... ] }Note: While you can use
updatePerInstanceConfigs
for updating existing per-instance configurations, it fully replaces the specified per-instance configurations with new values. Instead, we recommend that you use the patchPerInstanceConfigs
method to update existing per-instance configurations because patching keeps the omitted configuration unchanged and prevents the risk of accidental deletion of stateful items or reset of the values to defaults.
If per-instance configurations already exist for the given VMs, use the instanceGroupManagers.patchPerInstanceConfigs
method or regionInstanceGroupManagers.patchPerInstanceConfigs
method with stateful configuration for one or multiple disks:
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instanceGroupManagers/NAME/patchPerInstanceConfigs { "perInstanceConfigs": [ { "name": "VM_NAME", "preservedState" : { "disks": { "DEVICE_NAME" : { "source": "DISK", "mode": "MODE", "autoDelete": "DELETE_RULE" }, ... } }, "fingerprint: "FINGERPRINT" }, ... ] }
Replace the following:
PROJECT_ID
: The project ID for the request.ZONE
: The zone where the MIG is located (applies to a zonal MIG).
zones/ZONE
with regions/REGION
and specify the region of the MIG.NAME
: The name of the MIG.VM_NAME
: The name of the VM, for which to configure stateful disks.DEVICE_NAME
: The device name used for attaching the disk.DISK
: The URI of an existing persistent disk to attach under the specified DEVICE_NAME
, in the format projects/project-id/zones/zone/disks/disk-name
for a zonal disk and projects/project-id/regions/region/disks/disk-name
for a regional disk.
The "source": "DISK"
field is optional if the device is already defined in the instance's per-instance configuration. Otherwise it is required.
If the source
field is omitted, the currently configured disk URI remains unchanged.
MODE
: (Optional.) Specifies the mode of the disk. mode
can only be specified if source
is given. Supported options are:
READ_ONLY
: Read-only.READ_WRITE
: (Default.) Read/write.If omitted, the default value is set for a new stateful disk configuration; the value remains unchanged in an existing configuration.
DELETE_RULE
: (Optional.) A value that prescribes what should happen to a stateful disk when a VM is deleted. The available options are as follows:
on-permanent-instance-deletion
: Delete the stateful disk when its instance is permanently deleted from the instance group, for example, when the instance is deleted manually or when the group size is decreased.If the autoDelete
field is omitted, the default value is set for a new stateful disk configuration; the value remains unchanged in an existing configuration.
Regardless of the value of the delete rule, stateful disks are always preserved on instance autohealing, update, and recreation operations.
FINGERPRINT
: (Optional). The fingerprint for the given config if it already exists. Used for optimistic locking. To see the latest fingerprint, make a get()
request to retrieve the resource.
The updatePerInstanceConfigs
and patchPerInstanceConfigs
methods update the specified per-instance configurations but don't apply the configuration updates to the associated managed VMs. The changes are applied to an instance when the MIG is instructed to recreate or update the instance. You can also selectively update the instance to apply the changes.
Example
The data on a currently attached stateful disk, data-disk-1
, got corrupted, and you want to restore it from the latest backup. You created a disk, data-disk-2
, from a snapshot to replace the corrupted disk in instance, db-instance-1
, managed by a stateful MIG, example-database-mig
. The original disk data-disk-1
, is attached under the data-disk
device name with an auto-delete rule to never delete the disk.
To update the per-instance configuration for db-instance-1
with the new disk, call the patchPerInstanceConfigs
method:
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/zones/us-east1-c/instanceGroupManagers/example-database-mig/patchPerInstanceConfigs { "perInstanceConfigs": [ { "name": "db-instance-1", "preservedState" : { "disks": { "data-disk" : { "source": "projects/example-project/zones/us-east1-c/disks/data-disk-2" } } } } ] }
The method patches the per-instance configuration for db-instance-1
:
source
for a disk with device name data-disk
from data-disk-1
(last configuration) to data-disk-2
(new configuration).mode
and autoDelete
parameters unchanged because the parameters are omitted in the request.The config update is not yet applied to the db-instance-1
VM. The MIG applies the config update when you recreate or update the instance.
To apply the per-instance configuration update to the db-instance-1
VM, call the instanceGroupManagers.applyUpdatesToInstances
method for the instance:
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/zones/us-east1-c/instanceGroupManagers/example-database-mig/applyUpdatesToInstances { "instances": ["/zones/us-east1-c/instances/db-instance-1"], "minimalAction": "RESTART" }
The method updates the managed instance's preserved state, detaching data-disk-1
and attaching data-disk-2
under the same device name data-disk
. Because the minimalAction
is set to RESTART
, the method restarts the db-instance-1
VM, which lets the database application start using the new disk.
You might need to detach a stateful disk or configure it to be treated as stateless for an individual VM. For example:
Detach a stateful disk or make it stateless for an individual VM by removing the disk's stateful configuration from the associated per-instance config or deleting the entire per-instance configuration. When you apply the change:
Removing a disk configuration from a per-instance configuration does not restart a running VM instance, unless you explicitly choose to do so.
For more information, see Applying per-instance configurations updates.
gcloudTo detach stateful disks or declare them stateless individually for a VM in a MIG, remove the stateful disk configuration from the associated per-instance configuration or delete the whole per-instance configuration if it doesn't contain any other state. Update the instance to apply the configuration.
To remove a stateful disk configuration from the associated per-instance config, use the gcloud compute instance-groups managed instance-configs update
command with the --remove-stateful-disks
flag. The --update-instance
flag (default) applies the changes immediately to the instance. If you use --no-update-instance
, the changes remain unapplied and are applied when you next recreate or update the instance.
gcloud compute instance-groups managed instance-configs update NAME \ --instance VM_NAME \ --remove-stateful-disks DEVICE_NAME[,DEVICE_NAME,...] \ [--no-update-instance | --update-instance] \ [--instance-update-minimal-action MINIMAL_ACTION]
Replace the following:
NAME
: The name of the MIG.VM_NAME
: Name of the VM from which to remove stateful configuration.DEVICE_NAME
: The device name used for attaching the disk.MINIMAL_ACTION
: Perform at least the specified action when updating the VM with its per-instance configuration. Can only be used together with --update-instance
. The value must be one the following:
none
: No action.refresh
: Apply updates that are possible to apply without stopping the VM.restart
: Stop the VM and then start it again.replace
: Recreate the VM.If omitted, the least disruptive action required by the update is used.
Example
You run a legacy application on a MIG named example-legacy-group
. Each VM in the MIG stores application data on a boot disk with device name, boot-disk
. Using per-instance configurations, you configured each boot disk to be stateful. Now you have moved application data to an additional disk, and you want to make the boot disk stateless for each VM to facilitate updating to new images.
For each instance, for example, for node-1
, run the command:
gcloud compute instance-groups managed instance-configs update example-legacy-group \ --instance node-1 \ --remove-stateful-disks boot-disk \ --update-instance
The command does the following:
boot-disk
from the per-instance configuration for node-1
.node-1
VM immediately because the --update-instance
flag is included. The MIG removes the boot disk from the managed instance's preservedStateFromConfig
and treats the boot disk as stateless, which means that the MIG recreates the disk from its boot image in the instance template on subsequent instance recreation, update, or autohealing events.To detach stateful disks or declare them stateless individually for a VM in a MIG, remove the stateful disk configuration from the associated per-instance configuration or delete the whole per-instance configuration if it doesn't contain any other state. Then update the instance to apply the configuration.
To remove a stateful disk configuration from the associated per-instance config, use the instanceGroupManagers.patchPerInstanceConfigs
method or regionInstanceGroupManagers.patchPerInstanceConfigs
method:
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instanceGroupManagers/NAME/patchPerInstanceConfigs { "perInstanceConfigs": [ { "name": "VM_NAME", "preservedState" : { "disks": { "DEVICE_NAME" : null }, ... }, "fingerprint: "FINGERPRINT" ... } ] }
Replace the following:
PROJECT_ID
: The project ID for the request.ZONE
: The zone where the MIG is located (applies to a zonal MIG).
zones/ZONE
with regions/REGION
and specify the region of the MIG.NAME
: The name of the MIG.VM_NAME
: The name of the VM from which to remove stateful configuration.DEVICE_NAME
: The device name used for attaching the disk.FINGERPRINT
: The fingerprint for the given config if it already exists. Used for optimistic locking. To see the latest fingerprint, make a get()
request to retrieve the resource.The patchPerInstanceConfigs
method patches the specified per-instance configurations but does not apply the changes to the associated VMs. The changes are applied to a VM when you recreate or update the instance. You can apply the changes manually or use automated rolling updates.
Example
You run a legacy application on a MIG named example-legacy-group
. Each VM in the MIG stores application data on a boot disk with device name boot-disk
. You configured the boot disk as stateful in the MIG's per-instance configurations when migrating the standalone VMs into the MIG. You have moved application data to an additional disk and now want to make the boot disk stateless for each VM to make it easy to update to new images.
Call the patchPerInstanceConfigs
method for the instances, for example, for node-1
with a null
value for the boot disk:
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/zones/us-east1-c/instanceGroupManagers/example-legacy-group/patchPerInstanceConfigs { "perInstanceConfigs": [ { "name": "node-1", "preservedState" : { "disks": { "boot-disk" : null } } } ] }
The method removes configuration for the disk with device name boot- disk
from the per-instance configuration for node-1
. The config update is not yet applied to the node-1
VM instance. The config update will be applied on the next instance recreation or update.
To apply the per-instance configuration update to the node-1
VM instance, call the instanceGroupManagers.applyUpdatesToInstances
method for the instance:
POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/example-project/zones/us-east1-c/instanceGroupManagers/example-legacy-group/applyUpdatesToInstances { "instances": ["/zones/us-east1-c/instances/node-1"] }
The MIG removes the boot disk from the preservedStateFromConfig
for the node-1
instance and treats the disk as stateless. That is, the MIG recreates the disk from its boot image in the instance template on subsequent instance recreation, update, or autohealing events.
We want to learn about your use cases, challenges, and feedback about stateful MIGs. You can share your feedback with our team at mig-discuss@google.com.
What's nextExcept as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. For details, see the Google Developers Site Policies. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Last updated 2025-08-07 UTC.
[[["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 2025-08-07 UTC."],[[["Stateful persistent disks in managed instance groups (MIGs) allow for VM autohealing and automated updates while preserving disk data."],["Disks can be configured as stateful for all VMs in a MIG through the stateful policy in the instance template, or individually through per-instance configurations."],["Stateful disks are preserved during VM autohealing, updates, and recreation, but they cannot be recreated from or updated to a new image."],["Boot disks are recommended to remain stateless so that they can be repaired or updated, while stateful disks should be used to preserve data."],["MIGs with stateful configurations have limitations, including not being able to use autoscaling and needing the `RECREATE` method for automated rolling updates."]]],[]]
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