Latest service announcements

Learn about Google Cloud VMware Engine changes such as upgrades, backward-incompatible API changes, product or feature deprecations, mandatory migrations, or potentially disruptive maintenance.

For previous service announcements, see Archived service announcements.

June 24, 2026

The VMware Engine operations team is initiating updates of the HCX Manager Appliance to version 4.11.4. You will receive an email with the planned maintenance windows of the upgrade for your private cloud.

Reasons for the upgrade

Broadcom has identified an issue in HCX 4.11.3 that affects private clouds with Mobility Optimized Networking (MON) enabled. This issue causes a "RestartZMQ" service panic, which leads to a crash and restart of the Network Extension (NE) appliance services.

Upgrading to HCX 4.11.4 provides a permanent resolution for this issue, stabilizing MAC learning and traffic steering for MON-enabled segments. For more details, see the Broadcom article HCX Extended VLANs with MON Enabled Fail to Pass Traffic After CGW Service Restart.

Upgrade contents

The upgrade contents are detailed in the VMware release notes:

Action required

This maintenance covers only the HCX Manager Appliance upgrade. You're responsible for performing the upgrade operations for the following components:

HCX On-Prem/Connectors
HCX Service Mesh Appliances

For more information, see the Broadcom article Upgrade procedure to HCX 4.11.4.

Upgrade procedure and impact

Review the upgrade procedure and expected impacts:

Ongoing migrations: Make sure that there are no ongoing migrations during the upgrade.
Downtime: The HCX Manager is unavailable for approximately 5 minutes during the upgrade process.
Scheduled maintenance window: To minimize disruption, the upgrade is performed during your scheduled maintenance window. You can view or change the schedule using the VMware Engine Update center. If you're not using HCX in your private cloud, this upgrade doesn't impact your environment.

June 1, 2026

All 3-year (36-month) post-paid ve2 committed use discounts (CUDs) for Google Cloud VMware Engine purchased after May 31, 2026, will terminate on October 15, 2028. 3-year CUD pricing will apply, regardless of the actual term of the CUD. Additionally, 3-year pre-paid CUDs are no longer available; only 1-year pre-paid CUDs are available.

May 20, 2026

All 1-year committed use discounts (CUDs) for Google Cloud VMware Engine ve1 SKUs are now End-of-Sale across the europe-west2 (London, UK) region. You can continue to use ve1 nodes with on-demand pricing. This change doesn't affect existing CUDs. You can also use ve2 nodes, including ve2 CUDs.

This change affects the following 1-year commitments:

Node type	Commitment type	SKU ID
Google Cloud VMware Engine VE1 Standard 72 Node	Commitment - 1 year - dollar based Unlicensed - BYOL	`D13D-E972-9357`
Google Cloud VMware Engine VE1 Standard 72 Node	Prepay Commitment - 1 year - dollar based Unlicensed - BYOL	`85C5-6A47-5974`
Google Cloud VMware Engine VE1 Standard Storage Only Node	Commitment - 1 year - dollar based Unlicensed - BYOL	`0219-A3C9-5C9A`
Google Cloud VMware Engine VE1 Standard Storage Only Node	Prepay Commitment - 1 year - dollar based Unlicensed - BYOL	`4CEE-C7F0-5FCB`

For the regional availability of ve1 SKUs, see Google Cloud VMware Engine node types. For ve2 node pricing in the region, see VMware Engine pricing.

March 24, 2026

Beginning April 15, 2026, Google Cloud VMware Engine uses Essential Contacts exclusively for email notifications. To avoid missing important notifications about service events, you must set up Essential Contacts in your Google Cloud VMware Engine projects. For more information, see Overview of Google Cloud VMware Engine monitoring.

February 16, 2026

The Google Cloud VMware Engine operations team is initiating essential maintenance of the network infrastructure. This maintenance involves upgrading the network switch fabric software to improve equipment robustness, redundancy, and to apply the latest security patches.

The planned network maintenance is limited to the Google Cloud VMware Engine network fabric. No updates or upgrades are performed on VMware components (vCenter, NSX, HCX, or ESXi hosts) of your private cloud as part of this maintenance.

This maintenance is carried out on the common network infrastructure that supports all private clouds in a given region. Consequently, the maintenance schedule isn't customized on a private cloud basis.

Maintenance Schedule & Communication

The maintenance is carried out across all zones and regions with a specific schedule for each VMware Engine placement group.

The maintenance is scheduled in specific windows (typically 4 hours). You can view the specific start and end times for your private cloud in the notifications sent to your team.

Notifications

VMware Engine sends the following notifications about this maintenance to all users of VMware Engine using Essential Contacts:

Announcement Notification: Sent at least 14 days in advance for each of your private clouds, identifying the schedule.
24-Hour Notice: Sent one day prior to the start of the maintenance event.
1-Hour Notice: Sent one hour prior to the start of the maintenance event.
Completion Notification: Sent immediately upon the successful completion of the maintenance.

Maintenance Scope and Impact

You can expect this maintenance to have the following scope and impact:

Scope: Google Cloud VMware Engine network fabric directly attached to your private cloud's nodes.
Impact: This maintenance is performed using In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU).
- Non-Disruptive: We don't expect any disruption to network traffic or workload VMs.
- No Packet Loss: The upgrade is designed to be hitless.
- No Hardware Resets: Switches don't require a reload or a physical maintenance mode entry or exit that affects links.
Required actions: No action is required from you. Google Cloud VMware Engine monitors and ensures the stability of the service throughout the window.
Suggested actions: Ensure your team is aware of the maintenance schedule. While no impact is expected, it is always best practice to be aware of active maintenance windows affecting your environment.

Maintenance FAQs

Why are you doing the upgrade?: Our technology partners have delivered newer software versions that provide higher robustness, security, and redundancy for critical infrastructure components.
How does this maintenance improve my Google Cloud VMware Engine experience?: Keeping the network fabric up to date ensures that your production applications are always available and that Google engineers can continue to deliver new features securely.
Does this cause a service impact to my production applications?: No. Unlike previous maintenance cycles, this maintenance uses ISSU (In-Service Software Upgrade) designed to upgrade the network fabric without impacting the data path.
Are any software changes made to VMware components?: No, this network infrastructure maintenance doesn't have any impact on software versions of VMware components in your private cloud.
How do I know when the maintenance has been completed?: The VMware Engine operations team sends notifications using Essential Contacts at the start of maintenance and again upon its completion.
How can I get help?: If you have any questions about the upgrade or need any help after the maintenance, contact Cloud Customer Care.

October 31, 2025

Due to Broadcom's recent licensing changes, Google Cloud VMware Engine nodes must use VCF Portable licenses starting November 1, 2025. Therefore, we are restricting on-demand usage of Google Cloud VMware Engine to your current usage. To enforce this, we adjusted the quota for each project across all Google Cloud regions to your current usage in each region. This change applies to both ve1 and ve2, and covers all node types. If a region has no usage, we set the quota for that region for any specific hardware SKU to zero. If you have CUDs for new nodes purchased on or before October 15, 2025 and need to expand your Google Cloud VMware Engine using these CUDs, submit a Quota Increase Request. Google takes three days to review and approve this quota request.

October 3, 2025

This is to notify you about upcoming changes in licensing model with Google Cloud VMware Engine following Broadcom's recent announcement to move to a "bring your own" subscription model for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF).

You can renew or add additional capacity of VMware Engine nodes with VCF-license included until October 15, 2025. After that, Google Cloud isn't able to sell new VMware Engine VCF license-included nodes. You can buy new VMware Engine BYOL nodes and use them with "bring your own" VCF subscriptions (purchased by you from Broadcom) for new capacity after October 15, 2025.

For any questions, please reach out to your Google Cloud sales team, who can help review your specific scenarios, discuss the implications of these changes for your organization, and help you manage this transition.

July 15, 2025

The VMware Engine operations team updates VMware components to newer versions in July 2025. You receive an email with the planned maintenance windows for the update.

Update contents

VMware Engine provides access to the most up-to-date features and functions of vSphere. The VMware stack updates from version 7.0 Update 3 to the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 5.2.1 stack. The update lets you use new features of vSphere, vSAN, and NSX.

The following VMware release notes provide more information about the update contents:

VMware component versions post-update

VMware Component	Version	Build
vCenter Server	8.0 Update 3e	24674346
ESXi	8.0 Update 3f	24784735
NSX	4.2.2.1	24765084
HCX	4.10.3	24447633

Update schedule

This update is scheduled to start in July 2025. You receive an email notification with the planned maintenance windows of the update for your private cloud. The VMware Engine operations team sends another email notification an hour before the update starts. The system sends notifications to all VMware Engine users and any additional configured email addresses.

Pre-update required actions

VMware Engine enables Secure Boot on your ESXi nodes, which introduces additional security constraints. This security setting prevents the Zerto Non-VAIO solution from functioning.

If you use Zerto for disaster recovery in your VMware Engine private clouds, you must update your existing Zerto vCenter Plugin to version 10.0_U7 and convert to a VAIO-based solution. This conversion must be completed before VMware Engine can perform updates on your private clouds. Specific changes required for Zerto to support VMware Engine can be found in the Configure a Zerto VAIO-based solution in VMware Engine private clouds guide.

For additional information, refer to the VMware Engine Zerto configuration requirements and VAIO with Zerto: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). Contact Zerto directly with any concerns regarding the update and conversion process.

Update actions

VMware Engine performs the update in a rolling fashion to ensure that your private clouds and virtual machines are not affected. vCenter isn't accessible for up to 60 minutes (takes less than 30 minutes on average) during the update. NSX Edge VMs vMotion during the maintenance period, and there is a one to two seconds network disconnect when the NSX Edge VM fails over or BGP sessions are reestablished.

Private cloud upgrade impact

Network impact: NSX Edge VM update is performed during non-business hours Monday - Friday 8 PM to 8 AM local time of the private cloud. During this operation, there will be a brief period of VM failover and BGP sessions getting reestablished, which can take seconds.

VM impact: ESXi nodes are placed into maintenance mode, which migrates all VMs on the node to other nodes in the cluster. This process allows each ESXi node to be updated during the update window.

Prepare the upgrade

Review (or change) proposed timeframe: Gain control over your update schedule with the new VMware Engine Update center. You can manage and schedule your updates directly.

Integrate with VMware third-party solutions: Prior to the update, make sure any add-on solutions deployed on your private cloud vCenter are compatible with the new versions. Examples include backup, monitoring, disaster recovery orchestrator, and other tools. Check with the solution vendor and update third-party tools ahead of time to avoid any incompatibility after the update.

Custom configurations: Review and take the steps required for the preparation of private clouds for update. VMware Engine disables any configuration that impacts the host entering maintenance mode.

Upgrade FAQs

Does the upgrade cost anything?

No, your organization is not charged for the upgrade. All new capabilities of vSphere are covered by the service.

How long will the upgrade take?

Upgrades can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days, depending on the complexity of your deployment, the number of clusters, and the amount of data present on your private cloud.

Does the upgrade cause any issues?

We don't expect downtime during the upgrade process. However, we recommend that you check with solution vendors of any deployed solutions on your private cloud for compatibility with the VCF 5.2.1 stack and make sure you have enough free storage capacity—over 30%—for the upgrade to be performed.

How will I be notified?

VMware Engine sends the following notifications about this update to all users of the VMware Engine portal, and to any email addresses that are configured to receive email alerts:

Initial notification email about the upcoming maintenance.
Notification banners on the Update Center page.
Notification banners on vCenter and NSX-T manager about the upcoming maintenance.
1 week advance notification before the start of the update.
24-hour advance notification before the start of the update.
1 hour notification before the start of the update.
A final notification email upon completion of the maintenance.

Do I need to do anything after the upgrade?

No action is required from you after the upgrade. You can check the versions of VMware components and use all the new features available with this upgrade.

How will I know when the upgrade has completed?

You receive notifications of the upgrade progress and completion directly within the VMware Engine Update center. Additionally, the VMware Engine operations team sends an email upon completion. Make sure you have email alerts enabled to receive these notifications. You can configure additional email alerts to notify other relevant users.

How can I get help?

If you have any questions about the upgrade or need any help after the upgrade, contact Cloud Customer Care.

May 19, 2025

The VMware Engine operations team updates VMware components to newer versions in May 2025. You receive an email with the planned maintenance windows for the update.

Update contents

The following VMware release notes provide more information about the update contents:

VMware component versions post-update

VMware Component	Version	Build
vCenter Server	8.0 Update 3e	24674346
ESXi	8.0 Update 3e	24674464
NSX	4.2.1.2	24476729
HCX