VMware Engine release notes

VMware component updates: The VMware Engine operations team is updating vCenter Server and ESXi to version 8.0 Update 3k to address security vulnerabilities described in Broadcom Security Advisory VMSA-2026-0006. For details about the update and schedule, see the Latest service announcements.

Preview: Google Cloud VMware Engine capacity allocations are available in preview. A capacity allocation is a global reservation of physical nodes for your Cloud Billing account. Your reserved nodes are organized into placement groups (PGs), which represent the specific physical hardware and location of your reserved capacity.

Google Cloud VMware Engine capacity allocations let you do the following: * Use a capacity allocation during private cloud creation by selecting a PG. * Use a capacity allocation when adding a cluster. * Configure a hybrid private cloud across multiple PGs.

For more information, see Manage capacity allocations.

Preview: You can configure disaster recovery for Google Cloud VMware Engine by using JetStream. Disaster recovery options include the following:

• Set up a Google Cloud VMware Engine private cloud as a recovery site for your on-premises VMware applications.
• Protect workloads on a primary private cloud by using a recovery site in another Google Cloud location or on-premises environment.

For more information, see Configure disaster recovery using JetStream.

Generally available: Google Cloud VMware Engine offers self-service management for customer-managed encryption keys (CMEK) using the Google Cloud console and the VMware Engine API. You can enable CMEK for your private clouds, using Cloud Key Management Service (Cloud KMS) to manage encryption keys for vSAN and vTPM. Key features and considerations include:

• You can transition between CMEK and Google-owned and Google-managed encryption keys (GMEK) as needed.
• The "Auto-Rekey" feature integrates with Cloud KMS key rotation to perform automated key rotation for the key encryption key (KEK), maintaining security without manual intervention or service downtime.

Limitations: This self-service functionality is unavailable for private clouds that use CMEK through service tickets.

Custom organization policy constraints are generally available (GA) for Google Cloud VMware Engine. You can use custom constraints to enforce security policies and restrict configuration of your VMware Engine resources.

For more information, see Use custom organization policies.

HCX upgrade to 4.11.4: The VMware Engine operations team is initiating updates of the HCX Manager Appliance to version 4.11.4. This upgrade resolves an issue with MON-enabled segments. You are responsible for upgrading the HCX On-Prem/Connectors and Service Mesh Appliances. For more details, see the Latest service announcements.

The VMware Engine ve2 node type is now available in the following additional region:

• Mexico City (northamerica-south1)

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.

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.

ve1 hardware End-of-Life (EoL) migration guide: You can now refer to the public documentation to migrate workloads from retiring ve1 hardware. First-generation ve1 bare metal nodes are reaching the end of their useful life on a rolling basis. When your hardware is scheduled for retirement, you receive an EoL notification containing timelines and instructions to migrate your clusters.

You can now use Privileged Access Manager (PAM) to delete clusters in the private clouds.

The VMware Engine ve2 node type is now available in the following additional region:

• Eemshaven, Netherlands (europe-west4-a)

Generally available (GA) with an allowlist: You can now migrate VMware management VMs from their host cluster to a different cluster within the same private cloud. This feature is available to select customers through an allowlist. To migrate management VMs, you must have at least two clusters in your private cloud, and the destination cluster must be a workload cluster. This operation transitions the target workload cluster to a management cluster, and the source management cluster becomes a workload cluster.

Public Preview: You can now migrate VMware management VMs from their host cluster to a different cluster within the same private cloud. To migrate management VMs, you must have at least two clusters in your private cloud, and the destination cluster must be a workload cluster. This operation transitions the target workload cluster to a management cluster, and the source management cluster becomes a workload cluster.

The VMware Engine ve2 node type is now available in the following additional region:

• Los Angeles, USA, North America (us-west2-b)

The VMware Engine ve2 node type is now available in the following additional region:

• Paris, France, Europe (europe-west9-b)

The VMware Engine ve2 node type is now available in the following additional region:

• Osaka, Japan, Asia Pacific (asia-northeast2)

Stretched private clouds capable of hosting both ve1 and ve2 node-family clusters are now available in the following regions:

• Sydney, Australia, Asia Pacific (australia-southeast1-a, australia-southeast1-b)
• Frankfurt, Germany, Europe (europe-west3-a, europe-west3-b)

While a stretched private cloud can contain mixed node families, each individual stretched cluster must be comprised of nodes from the same family type.

Private clouds capable of hosting both ve1 and ve2 node-family clusters are available in the following additional regions:

• London, England, Europe (europe-west2-a, europe-west2-b)
• São Paulo, Brazil, South America (southamerica-east1-a)
• Dallas, Texas, North America (us-south1-b)

While a private cloud can contain mixed node families, each individual cluster must be comprised of nodes from the same family type.

VMware Engine introduces enhancements to simplify using external NFS datastores. External NFS datastores let you scale storage independently of compute resources for your VMware workloads. You can use Filestore or Google Cloud NetApp Volumes as external NFS datastores for ESXi hosts in Google Cloud VMware Engine. For more information, see NFS datastores overview.

VMware Engine ve2 nodes are now available in the Milan, Italy (europe-west8-b) zone in the Milan, Italy, Europe region (europe-west8).

VMware Engine now supports private clouds with mixed node families (ve1 and ve2). While a private cloud can contain mixed node families, each cluster within that private cloud must contain nodes of the same type. This feature is available in the following regions and zones:

• Ashburn, North America (us-east4-a, us-east4-b)
• Iowa, North America (us-central1-a)
• Montreal, North America (northamerica-northeast1-a)
• Sydney, Australia (australia-southeast1-a, australia-southeast1-b)
• Frankfurt, Europe (europe-west3-a, europe-west3-b)
• Santiago, South America (southamerica-west1-b)

VMware Engine ve2 nodes are now available in the Dallas, Texas, North America region (us-south1-b).

VMware Engine ve2 nodes are now available in the Tokyo, Japan region (asia-northeast1-a).

VMware Engine ve2 nodes are now available in the London, England, Europe (europe-west2-b) zone in the London, England, Europe region (europe-west2).

VMware Engine ve1 nodes are now available in the Mumbai, India (asia-south1-b) zone in the Mumbai region (asia-south1).

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 will not be 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.

For more details, see the October 3, 2025 service announcement.

VMware Engine ve2 nodes are now available in the following additional region:

• Doha, Qatar (me-central1, v-zone-a)

All 3-year Committed Use Discounts (CUDs) for VMware Engine ve1 SKUs are now End-of-Sale across all regions where the service is available.

The following specific 3-year commitments are impacted by this change:

• 3-year commitment (monthly payments), Fully Licensed Pricing - "postpaid"
• 3-year commitment (upfront payments), Fully Licensed Pricing - "prepay"
• 3-year commitment (monthly payments), Fully Licensed convertible commitment - "postpaid"
• 3-year commitment (upfront payments), Fully Licensed convertible commitment - "prepay"
• 3-year commitment (monthly payments), Portable License Pricing - "postpaid"
• 3-year commitment (upfront payments), Portable License Pricing - "prepay"
• 3-year commitment (monthly payments), Protected License Pricing - "postpaid"
• 3-year commitment (upfront payments), Protected License Pricing - "prepay"

Refer to VMware Engine node types for the regional availability of ve1 SKUs.

VMware Engine ve2 nodes are now available in the following additional region and zone:

• The Milan, Italy, Europe region (europe-west8-a).
• The Melbourne, Australia (australia-southeast2-b) zone in the Melbourne, Australia region (australia-southeast2).

You can now use Privileged Access Manager (PAM) to accelerate the deletion of "soft deleted" private clouds. For more information, see the documentation on how to delete a private cloud.

VMware Engine ve2 nodes are now available in the London, England, Europe region (europe-west2-a).

VMware Engine v2 nodes are now available in the Santiago, Chile (southamerica-west1-b) zone in the Santiago region (southamerica-west1) region.

VMware Engine ve2 nodes are now available in the Dammam, KSA (me-central2) region.

VMware Engine ve2 nodes are now available in the São Paulo, Brazil (southamerica-east1-c) zone in the São Paulo region (southamerica-east1).

When upgrading to Windows Server 2022 or newer images on your GCVE private clouds, you can use a combination of Windows Server BYOL for Windows Server 2019 and earlier images and on-demand licensing for Google-provided Windows Server 2022. For more information, see Use a combination of BYOL and on-demand Windows Server licenses from Google.

VMware Engine single-node private clouds, created after June 4th 2025, will no longer delete after 60 days. All single-node private clouds will have no time limit. Single-node private clouds have limitations to SLA, patching, and upgrades.

VMware Engine ve2 nodes are now available in Toronto, Canada (northamerica-northeast2).

VMware Engine ve2 nodes are now available in the following additional region:

• Melbourne, Australia (australia-southeast2-a)

All new VMware Engine private clouds now deploy with the following versions:

• VMware vSphere version 8.0 update 3
• NSX-T 4.2.1.2