About VM tenancy
The tenancy of a virtual machine (VM) instance indicates whether the VM shares
its Compute Engine server with VMs from other Trusted Cloud projects. If a VM
shares its Compute Engine server with VMs from other
Trusted Cloud projects, it is a multi-tenant VM. If a VM doesn't share its
Compute Engine server with VMs from other projects, it is a
sole-tenant VM.
VMs are multi-tenant by default. After you create a VM, Compute Engine
places it on a multi-tenant server. Compute Engine allows users in
other
Trusted Cloud projects
to create VMs on that server.
Sole-tenancy is suited for workloads
that require exclusive access to a Compute Engine server. Sole-tenancy
lets you have exclusive access to a sole-tenant node, which is a
Compute Engine server that is dedicated to hosting VMs from only your
Trusted Cloud projects.
Workload considerations
For typical workloads, create multi-tenant
VMs. However, if you have
workloads with any of the following characteristics, consider using sole-tenant
nodes:
- Gaming workloads with specific computing performance requirements.
- Finance or healthcare workloads with security and compliance requirements.
- Windows workloads with licensing requirements.
- Machine learning, data processing, or image rendering workloads. For these
workloads, consider reserving GPUs.
- Workloads requiring increased input/output operations per second (IOPS) and
decreased latency, or workloads that use temporary storage in the form of
caches, processing space, or low-value data. For these workloads, consider
reserving Local SSDs.
For more information about workloads that might benefit from using sole-tenancy,
see Workload considerations for sole-tenant
nodes.
Maintenance event considerations
For maintenance events on multi-tenant servers, Compute Engine live
migrates VMs to another server in the
same zone.
For maintenance events on sole-tenant nodes, Compute Engine migrates
VMs according to how you configure the maintenance
policy on the
sole-tenant node
group.
Except 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 2025-08-26 UTC.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-26 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eVirtual machines (VMs) can be either multi-tenant, sharing a server with other Google Cloud projects' VMs, or sole-tenant, having exclusive use of a server.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eMulti-tenant VMs are the default, suitable for typical workloads, and their pricing is based on the machine type, while sole-tenant VMs are more expensive as the entire physical server is reserved.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eSole-tenancy is recommended for workloads with specific performance, security, compliance, or licensing needs, such as gaming, finance, healthcare, Windows, machine learning, and workloads requiring increased input/output operations per second (IOPS).\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eMaintenance events on multi-tenant servers result in live migration of VMs, while sole-tenant server maintenance depends on the configured maintenance policy.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eUsers pay based on machine type for Multi-tenant VMs, and for sole-tenant nodes it is based on the node type, which includes a premium because you are reserving the entire physical server.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["# About VM tenancy\n\nLinux Windows\n\n*** ** * ** ***\n\nThe *tenancy* of a virtual machine (VM) instance indicates whether the VM shares\nits Compute Engine server with VMs from other Google Cloud projects. If a VM\nshares its Compute Engine server with VMs from other\nGoogle Cloud projects, it is a *multi-tenant* VM. If a VM doesn't share its\nCompute Engine server with VMs from other projects, it is a\n*sole-tenant* VM.\n\nVMs are multi-tenant by default. After you create a VM, Compute Engine\nplaces it on a multi-tenant server. Compute Engine allows users in\nother\n[Google Cloud projects](/resource-manager/docs/creating-managing-projects)\nto create VMs on that server.\n\n[Sole-tenancy](/compute/docs/nodes/sole-tenant-nodes) is suited for workloads\nthat require exclusive access to a Compute Engine server. Sole-tenancy\nlets you have exclusive access to a *sole-tenant node*, which is a\nCompute Engine server that is dedicated to hosting VMs from only your\nGoogle Cloud projects.\n\nPricing considerations\n----------------------\n\nFor multi-tenant VMs, you pay for the type of machine that you create the VM on,\nso [pricing for multi-tenant VMs](/compute/vm-instance-pricing) is based on that\nVM's [machine family](/compute/docs/machine-resource).\n\nFor sole-tenant VMs, you pay for all of the hardware resources on the server\nbecause you are reserving an entire physical server. [Pricing for a sole-tenant\nnode](/compute/sole-tenant-pricing) is based on the price of the [sole-tenant\nnode type](/compute/docs/nodes/sole-tenant-nodes#node_types) that you specify\nwhen you create a [sole-tenant node\ntemplate](/compute/docs/nodes/sole-tenant-nodes#node_templates). This price\nincludes a premium because you are reserving the entire physical server.\n\nWorkload considerations\n-----------------------\n\nFor typical workloads, [create multi-tenant\nVMs](/compute/docs/instances/create-start-instance). However, if you have\nworkloads with any of the following characteristics, consider [using sole-tenant\nnodes](/compute/docs/nodes/provisioning-sole-tenant-vms):\n\n- Gaming workloads with specific computing performance requirements.\n- Finance or healthcare workloads with security and compliance requirements.\n- Windows workloads with licensing requirements.\n- Machine learning, data processing, or image rendering workloads. For these workloads, consider [reserving GPUs](/compute/docs/nodes/provisioning-sole-tenant-vms).\n- Workloads requiring increased input/output operations per second (IOPS) and decreased latency, or workloads that use temporary storage in the form of caches, processing space, or low-value data. For these workloads, consider [reserving Local SSDs](/compute/docs/nodes/provisioning-sole-tenant-vms).\n\nFor more information about workloads that might benefit from using sole-tenancy,\nsee [Workload considerations for sole-tenant\nnodes](/compute/docs/nodes/sole-tenant-nodes#workload_considerations).\n\nMaintenance event considerations\n--------------------------------\n\nFor maintenance events on multi-tenant servers, Compute Engine [live\nmigrates](/compute/docs/instances/live-migration-process) VMs to another server in the\nsame zone.\n\nFor maintenance events on sole-tenant nodes, Compute Engine migrates\nVMs according to how you configure the [maintenance\npolicy](/compute/docs/nodes/sole-tenant-nodes#maintenance_policies) on the\n[sole-tenant node\ngroup](/compute/docs/nodes/sole-tenant-nodes#node_groups_and_vm_provisioning)."]]
