Storage-optimized machine family for Compute Engine

The storage-optimized machine family is suitable for workloads that are low in core usage and high in storage density. For example, the Z3 machine series is useful for scale-out analytics workloads, flash-optimized databases, and other database workloads.

Machine series Workloads
Z3
  • SQL, NoSQL, and vector databases
  • Data analytics and data warehouses
  • Search
  • Media streaming
  • Large distributed parallel file systems

Z3 machine series

Z3 VMs are powered by the fourth generation Intel Xeon Scalable processor (code-named Sapphire Rapids), DDR5 memory, and Titanium offload processors. Z3 machine types are optimized for the underlying NUMA architecture to deliver optimal, reliable, and consistent performance. Z3 offers two machine types: the 88 vCPU machine type is a single socket; the 176 vCPU machine type is an entire machine. These shapes offer the maximum isolation for performance consistency.

The Z3 machine series offers up to 36,000 GiB of Local SSD storage using Titanium SSD. Titanium SSD is custom-designed Local SSD based on Titanium I/O offload processing. It offers enhanced Local SSD security, performance, and management.

The Z3 machine series offers the latest compute, networking, and storage innovations in one platform with a particular focus on high density, high performing Titanium SSD.

Z3 offers the following features:

  • Uses Titanium to offload networking and storage processing from the host CPU onto silicon devices deployed throughout the data center
  • Delivers high performance block-storage with Google Cloud Hyperdisk
  • Offers the largest amount of Local SSD storage capacity of any Compute Engine machine series with Titanium SSD

Z3 VMs use Titanium to enable higher levels of networking performance, isolation, and security. The Z3 machine series supports a default network bandwidth of up to 100 Gbps and up to 200 Gbps with per VM Tier_1 networking performance.

For details on pricing, see the VM pricing page. Disk usage and network usage is charged separately from machine type pricing. For more information, see Disk and image pricing and Network pricing.

Z3 Limitations

The Z3 machine series is available in two predefined machine types. This series offers 8 GB memory per vCPU. The following restrictions apply:

  • You can't use regional disks with the Z3 series.
  • Z3 VMs are only available in select zones and regions.
  • You can't use GPUs with Z3 VMs.
  • Z3 doesn't support sole tenancy.
  • You can't suspend a Z3 VM.
  • You can't create custom machine types for Z3 VMs.
  • Live migration isn't supported for Z3 VMs.
  • Z3 isn't supported on Windows images.

Z3 machine types

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Titanium SSD Default egress bandwidth (Gbps)† Tier_1 egress bandwidth (Gbps)†
z3-highmem-88 88 704 (12 x 3000 GiB) 36,000 GiB Up to 62 Up to 100
z3-highmem-176 176 1,408 (12 x 3000 GiB) 36,000 GiB Up to 100 Up to 200

*A vCPU is implemented as a single hardware thread on the available CPU platform.
† 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 Z3

Z3 VMs support only the NVMe disk interface and can use the following block storage types:

  • Hyperdisk Extreme (hyperdisk-extreme)
  • Hyperdisk Throughput (hyperdisk-throughput)
  • Balanced Persistent Disk (pd-balanced)
  • SSD (performance) Persistent Disk (pd-ssd)
  • Titanium SSD

Every machine type in the Z3 machine series comes with locally attached Titanium SSD disks. The disks are added automatically when you create an instance. The capacity and performance for Titanium SSD disks for Z3 are listed in the following table:

IOPS Throughput
(MiBps)
Machine type # of attached
Titanium disks		 Disk size (GiB) Total size (GiB) Read Write Read Write
z3-highmem-88 12 3,000 36,000 6,000,000 6,000,000 36,000 30,000
z3-highmem-176 12 3,000 36,000 6,000,000 6,000,000 36,000 30,000

Disk and capacity limits

For details about the capacity limits, see Hyperdisk capacity limits per VM and Persistent Disk maximum capacity.

Z3 storage limits are described in the following table:

Maximum number of disks
Machine types Per VM* Hyperdisk
per VM		 Hyperdisk Balanced Hyperdisk Throughput Hyperdisk Extreme Maximum capacity per VM
z3-highmem-88 128 32 0 32 8 512 TiB
z3-highmem-176 128 32 0 32 8 512 TiB

* The maximum size per Hyperdisk volume is 64 TB.

For performance limits, see the following:

Network support for Z3 VMs

Z3 VM instances require gVNIC network interfaces. Z3 supports up to 100 Gbps network bandwidth for standard networking and up to 200 Gbps with per VM Tier_1 networking performance.

Before migrating to Z3 or creating Z3 VMs, make sure that the operating system image that you use is fully supported for Z3. Fully supported images include the updated gVNIC driver, even if the guest OS shows the gve driver version as 1.0.0. If your Z3 VM is using an operating system with limited support, which includes an older version of the gVNIC driver, the VM might not be able to achieve the maximum network bandwidth for Z3 VMs.

If you use a custom OS image with the Z3 machine series, you can manually install the most recent gVNIC driver. The gVNIC driver version v1.3.0 or later is recommended for use with Z3 VMs. Google recommends using the latest gVNIC driver version to benefit from additional features and bug fixes.

Maintenance experience for Z3 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 Z3 machine series offers the following features related to host maintenance:

Machine type Typical scheduled maintenance event frequency Maintenance behavior Advanced notification On-demand maintenance Simulate maintenance
z3-highmem-88 Minimum of 30 days Terminate and restart 7 days Yes Yes
z3-highmem-176 Minimum of 30 days Terminate and restart 7 days Yes Yes

The maintenance frequencies shown in the previous table are approximations, not guarantees. Compute Engine might occasionally perform maintenance more frequently.

Compute Engine preserves data on the local Titanium SSD disks for Z3 instances during maintenance events.

If a host event occurs, Compute Engine tries to recover any Titanium SSD disks attached to the instance. By default, Compute Engine spends up to 1 hour recovering the data. For Z3 instances, Compute Engine spends up to 6 hours trying to recover the Titanium SSD data before reaching the timeout limit. This timeout limit is customizable. For more information about Local SSD and Titanium SSD recovery options, see Disk persistence following instance termination.

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