Stay organized with collections Save and categorize content based on your preferences.
As a cloud architect or IT administrator, when you plan to run an application in Compute Engine, you need to design a VM topology that you can provision and operate efficiently.
Compute Engine offers a range of deployment options: for example, you could deploy a group of VMs that you manage as a single entity, or you could provision and manage the VMs as individual resources. Each approach has distinct merits and limitations. How do you choose an optimal deployment strategy?
Use the following questions to analyze the key requirements of the workload that you want to deploy. Your answers will help you map the capabilities of each deployment option (listed in the next section) to the requirements of your workload.
Important: When migrating an on-premises workload to the cloud, consider any special requirements for the cloud version of the application. For example, the on-premises deployment might run in a single data center, whereas you might need the cloud topology to span more than one Google Cloud zone for higher availability.Application state
Is the application stateful?
To learn more about stateful and stateless applications, see How stateful workloads are different from stateless workloads.
Should any instance-specific metadata be preserved when your VMs reboot or when Compute Engine recreates (autoheals) the VMs?
Provisioning
Operations
Resilience
Now that you've assessed your requirements, learn about the deployment options that Compute Engine offers.
Review the available deployment optionsReview and understand the features and relative advantages of the options that you can consider for deploying your workloads to Compute Engine.
A MIG is a group of identical or similarly configured instances that you provision by using an instance template.
You can make a MIG stateful, so that specific disks or metadata are preserved.
For a stateless MIG, you can enable autoscaling and configure a scaling policy.
While creating a MIG, you can choose to deploy the VMs within a single zone, or distribute them across more than one zone in a region for high availability.
The following table summarizes the key features of each deployment option.
The following diagrams show sample deployments side-by-side to help you understand the key differences.
You've now assessed your workload, reviewed the deployment options that Compute Engine offers, and are ready to choose a deployment approach.
Select a deployment strategyThe recommendations discussed here are based on a mapping of specific workload characteristics to the capabilities of each Compute Engine deployment option.
Use the following decision-making flow. If you prefer a visual guide, see the decision tree later in this document.
Choose between standalone VMs and instance groups.
Requirements Recommended deployment strategy At least one of the following requirements is essential for your workload.Choose standalone VMs.
If all the standalone VMs can run in a single zone, VPC network, and subnet, consider adding the VMs to an unmanaged instance group. You can then use the unmanaged instance group as a backend to a load balancer.
Skip the remainder of this decision-making flow.
None of the above requirements is essential for your use case.Use a MIG to set up a Compute Engine topology that is easy to manage, highly available, and scalable.
Proceed to the next step.
Choose between a stateful and stateless MIG.
Requirements Recommended MIG type The application requires disk and metadata preservation; that is, the application is stateful.Choose a stateful MIG, and configure the disks that Compute Engine should preserve during disruptive events like VM recreation, autohealing, and updates.
Proceed to the next step.
The application is not stateful.Choose a stateless MIG, and take advantage of the autoscaling capability. During disruptive operations, Compute Engine recreates disks according to the instance template.
Proceed to the next step.
Choose between a zonal and regional MIG.
Requirements Recommended MIG type The application must run in a single zone, or protection against zonal failures is not essential. Choose a zonal MIG. The application must continue to run even when a zonal failure occurs. Choose a regional MIG.The following diagram guides you through the factors to consider when deciding your Compute Engine deployment strategy:
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."],[[["Compute Engine offers various VM deployment options, including standalone VMs, unmanaged instance groups, and managed instance groups (MIGs), each with unique advantages and limitations."],["Choosing the optimal deployment strategy involves assessing your application's key requirements, such as whether it is stateful or stateless, needs specific provisioning, requires certain operations control, and has resilience needs."],["Standalone VMs are recommended if your application requires a mix of machine types or images, fixed IP addresses, or custom VM management, while MIGs are preferable for easier management, high availability, and scalability."],["Stateful MIGs should be chosen for applications that need disk and metadata preservation, whereas stateless MIGs are suitable for applications where disks can be recreated during disruptive operations."],["Selecting between a zonal and regional MIG depends on whether the application can run in a single zone or if it needs protection against zonal failures by distributing VMs across multiple zones in a region."]]],[]]
RetroSearch is an open source project built by @garambo | Open a GitHub Issue
Search and Browse the WWW like it's 1997 | Search results from DuckDuckGo
HTML:
3.2
| Encoding:
UTF-8
| Version:
0.7.4