Available operating system images

Operating system availability varies by data center. However, all system disks come with a pre-installed cloud-ready blank operating system image. Windows Server is generally only available for G1 instances due to licensing limitations. Major distributions of GNU/Linux are available in all data centers. FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and similar systems are available in limited regions.

Here's a list showing a limited selection of available images as of 2024. There are more images available, including pre-installed apps, in many regions. You can, of course, also install your custom ISO if you prefer.

GNU+Linux

CentOS 7, 8, 9, Stream, SELinux
Debian 10, 11, 12
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, 22.04 LTS, 23.04, 24.04 LTS
Arch Linux (latest)
Fedora CoreOS stable, next, testing
Fedora 38, 39, 40
Alpine (latest)
Rocky Linux 8, 9
Alma Linux 8, 9
FreeBSD (latest)
OpenBSD (latest)
OpenSUSE (latest)
Slackware (latest)

Windows server

Windows server 2016 standard
Windows server 2019 standard
Windows server 2022 standard
Windows core 2016 standard
Windows core 2019 standard
Windows core 2022 standard

Container distributions

Kubernetes cluster
Flatcar Container Linux LTS, Stable