Network-optimized machine family for Compute Engine
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The network-optimized machine family delivers the highest network and block
storage performance within Compute Engine. They offer best-in-class
price-performance optimized for demanding I/O bound applications such as network
and security appliances, high-performance databases, Telco 5G UPF, high-scale
data analytics, and distributed file systems. Compared to the general-purpose
machine family, the machine series in the network-optimized machine family offer
significantly higher:
Network bandwidth
Packet processing performance (PPS)
Storage throughput and IOPS per vCPU
By eliminating the need to over-provision compute resources just to scale I/O
capabilities, the network-optimized family delivers significant Total Cost of
Ownership (TCO) benefits.
C4N instances are powered by 5th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors
(code named Emerald Rapids) running high-frequency DDR5 memory and dual-NIC
Titanium
offloaded architecture. The C4N machine series is engineered to maximize both
networking throughput and extreme block storage performance without requiring
premium infrastructure add-ons (such as per VM Tier_1 networking performance).
For databases: When compared to similarly sized C4 instances, C4N
delivers 45% better queries per second for MySQL when the data resides
primarily on disk.
For web-serving workloads: C4N significantly boosts performance for
network-bound web applications. C4N delivers up to 55% additional Nginx
requests per second for typical web request sizes (100-300kb) when compared
to C4.
C4N instances are available in 8 predefined machine types across standard,
high CPU, and high memory configurations, scaling from 2 to 192 vCPUs and up to
1.5 TB of memory.
C4N offers the following features:
Superior VM-to-VM network bandwidth: Achieves up to 400 Gbps of
VM-to-VM network bandwidth and supports up to 50 Gbps single-flow
bandwidth between C4N instances routed within the same VPC network.
Enhanced VM to Internet performance: Internet egress network bandwidth
can reach up to 200 Gbps. Internet egress packet processing performance
can scale up to 48 million packets per second (MPPS).
Industry-leading packet processing: Up to 95 MPPS of sustained packet
processing performance (measured using DPDK Pktgen).
Optimized I/O for smaller shapes: Up to 25 to 50 Gbps of network
bandwidth specifically for machine types with 2 to 16 vCPUs. Additionally,
these smaller machine types introduce predictable, steady-state baseline
bandwidth limits to provide consistent performance at a lower cost.
Enhanced out-of-the-box networking: gVNIC-type network interfaces on C4N
now start with more Tx/Rx queues by default, and scale with the number of
vCPUs up to a maximum of 64 per vNIC.
Titanium-powered efficiency with Dual-NIC Titanium architecture:
Features two 200G Titanium network adapters (2 x 200G) to fully
offload network and storage management, ensuring your applications run with
maximum performance and predictability.
Leading Block Storage performance and options: Supports the complete
Hyperdisk portfolio, including Hyperdisk Balanced, Hyperdisk Balanced High Availability, Hyperdisk Extreme,
Hyperdisk Throughput, and Hyperdisk ML block storage options. C4N with Hyperdisk Extreme provides the
low-latency, high-speed data access that modern databases and enterprise AI
applications need, with up to 25 GiB/s of block storage throughput and
nearly 1M IOPS. C4N offers a 2.5x increase in storage performance over C4.
C4N supports the following discount and consumption options:
Resource-based committed use discounts (CUDs)
Flexible CUDs
Spot VMs
Reservations
Sole-tenancy
Spread and compact placement policies
C4N Limitations
The C4N machine series has the following restrictions:
C4N machine types are only available as predefined machine types.
Custom machine types aren't available.
1 Each virtual CPU (vCPU) is implemented as a single hardware
multithread. By default, two vCPUs share each physical CPU core. 2 For instances with 192 vCPUs, you must configure at least 2 network
interfaces (vNIC), with each network interface attached to a different physical
NIC, to achieve the full network throughput. Compute Engine automatically
maps the vNIC to a physical NIC in a round-robin fashion.
Supported disk types for C4N
C4N instances support only the NVMe disk interface and can use the following
block storage types:
Hyperdisk Balanced (hyperdisk-balanced)
Hyperdisk Balanced High Availability (hyperdisk-balanced-high-availability)
C4N instances deliver up to 400 Gbps standard network bandwidth
for VM-to-VM networking, a 4x increase in network bandwidth per vCPU when
compared to standard C4 instances. C4N instances don't use
per VM Tier_1 networking performance.
For the largest C4N machine types (192 vCPUs), during instance
creation you must configure at least 2 network interfaces (vNICs) that use
Jumbo frames (8896B) to
achieve the full network throughput. Compute Engine maps the vNICs
automatically to physical NICs (pNICs) in a round-robin way. The guest OS or
your application can then divide the network load across at least two vNICs
(mapped to separate pNICs) to achieve the full network throughput and ensure
optimal performance.
C4N instances require
gVNIC network interfaces.
The maximum number of network interfaces that you can attach to an instance
scales with the number of vCPUs, up to a maximum of 10 network interfaces. For
more information about using multiple network interfaces with
Compute Engine, see
Multiple network interfaces.
Before migrating to C4N or creating C4N instances,
make sure that the
operating system image
that you use fully supports C4N and higher network bandwidths.
Google recommends using the latest gVNIC driver version to benefit
from additional features and bug fixes.
Maintenance experience for C4N instances
During the lifecycle of a
Compute Engine instance, the host machine that your instance runs on undergoes multiple
host events.
A host event can include the regular maintenance of
Compute Engine infrastructure, or in rare cases, a host error. Compute Engine also
applies some non-disruptive lightweight upgrades for the hypervisor and network
in the background.
The C4N machine series offers the following features related to host
maintenance:
The maintenance frequencies shown in the previous table are approximations, not guarantees.
Compute Engine might occasionally perform maintenance more frequently.
M4N machine series
M4N is engineered to deliver the highest I/O performance available, reaching up
to 12,500 MiB/s of combined host storage performance and up to
200 Gbps network bandwidth. This new level of performance opens up new
possibilities for I/O-intensive workloads that require extreme bandwidth for
data access and processing.
M4N instances are powered by the Intel Emerald Rapids processors and
Titanium
offload processors.
This machine series is 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 M4N machine series offers a lower cost per transaction
for Oracle Database workloads and the best TCO when compared to any other
compute instance for databases that require licensing per core.
M4N machine types allow you to provision up to
112 vCPUs and up to 2.9 TB of RAM.
M4N instances use only NVMe for storage, and support
Hyperdisk Balanced and
Hyperdisk Extreme. M4N instances use
only gVNIC for networking.
VirtIO-net and SCSI interfaces are not supported.
M4N Limitations
The M4N machine series has the following restrictions:
M4N machine types are only available as predefined machine types.
Custom machine types aren't available.
1 Each virtual CPU (vCPU) is implemented as a single hardware
multithread, and two vCPUs share each physical CPU core by default. 2 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 M4N
M4N instances can use the following block storage types:
Hyperdisk Balanced (hyperdisk-balanced)
Hyperdisk Extreme (hyperdisk-extreme)
Disk and capacity limits
The following restrictions apply:
The number of Hyperdisk volumes can't exceed
64 per VM.
The maximum total disk capacity across all disks can't
exceed 512 TiB.
M4N storage limits are described in the following table:
Maximum number of disks
Machine types
Hyperdisk per VM
Hyperdisk Balanced
Hyperdisk Throughput
Hyperdisk Extreme
m4n-hypermem-16
16
16
0
8
m4n-hypermem-32
32
32
0
8
m4n-hypermem-64
32
32
0
8
m4n-megamem-28
32
32
0
8
m4n-megamem-56
32
32
0
8
m4n-megamem-112
64
64
0
8
m4n-ultramem-56
32
32
0
8
m4n-ultramem-112
64
64
0
8
Network support for M4N instances
M4N instances require
gVNIC network interfaces.
M4N supports up to 200 Gbps network bandwidth for
standard networking and doesn't support per VM Tier_1 networking performance.
Before migrating to M4N or creating M4N VM
instances, make sure that the
operating system image
that you use supports the gVNIC driver for VM instances.
These images include an
updated gVNIC driver, even if the guest OS shows the gve driver version as
1.0.0. If your M4N VM is
using an operating system with an older version of gVNIC driver, this is still
supported but the VM might experience suboptimal performance such as less
network bandwidth or higher latency.
If you use a custom OS image to create a M4N VM, you can
manually install the most recent gVNIC driver.
The gVNIC driver version v1.4.2 or later is recommended for use with M4N
VMs. Google recommends using the latest gVNIC driver version to benefit from
additional features and bug fixes.
Maintenance experience for M4N instances
During the lifecycle of a
Compute Engine instance, the host machine that your instance runs on undergoes multiple
host events.
A host event can include the regular maintenance of
Compute Engine infrastructure, or in rare cases, a host error. Compute Engine also
applies some non-disruptive lightweight upgrades for the hypervisor and network
in the background.
The M4N machine series offers the following features related to host
maintenance:
The maintenance frequencies shown in the previous table are approximations, not guarantees.
Compute Engine might occasionally perform maintenance more frequently.
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