This document describes the features of Hyperdisk Balanced, the general-purpose Hyperdisk type. Hyperdisk Balanced is the best fit for most workloads and offers the best combination of price and performance for total cost of ownership. For more information about Hyperdisk and the other Hyperdisk types, see About Hyperdisk.
You can specify up to 160,000 IOPS and 2,400 MiB/s of throughput for a single Hyperdisk Balanced volume. Hyperdisk Balanced is designed for sub-millisecond latencies.
To create a new Hyperdisk Balanced volume, see Create a Hyperdisk volume.
Use cases
Hyperdisk Balanced is a good fit for most workloads, including the following use cases:
- Databases, like MySQL and PostgresQL
- Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
- Line of Business (LOB) applications
- Boot disks for compute instances: Hyperdisk Balanced and Hyperdisk Balanced High Availability are the only supported Hyperdisk types for all instances, including for TPU VMs
Machine series support
You can use Hyperdisk Balanced with the following machine series:
Baseline performance
Hyperdisk Balanced volumes include, at no extra charge, up to 3,000 IOPS and 140 MiB/s of throughput. You're billed for provisioned throughput that exceeds 140 MiB/s and provisioned IOPS that exceeds 3,000 IOPS.
About provisioned performance for Hyperdisk Balanced
You don't have to provision performance when you create Hyperdisk volumes. If you don't provision performance, Compute Engine creates the volume with default values that you can modify later. For details about default values, see Default IOPS and throughput values.
If you know your performance needs, you can specify IOPS and throughput limits for a Hyperdisk Balanced volume when you create the volume, and you can change the provisioned values after you create the volume. You can't specify an IOPS or throughput level if you don't specify a size.
Size and performance limits
The following limits apply to the size, IOPS, and throughput values you can specify for a Hyperdisk Balanced volume.
- Size: between 4 GiB and 64 TiB. The default size is 100 GiB.
- IOPS: between 3,000 and 160,000 IOPS. For volumes less than 320 GiB, the range of IOPS values you can specify varies by size. For details, see Limits for provisioned IOPS.
- Throughput: between 140 and 2,400 MiB/s of throughput, but the throughput value depends on how much IOPS you provision. For details, see Limits for provisioned throughput.
Limits for provisioned IOPS
You can choose the IOPS limit for a Hyperdisk Balanced volume according to the following limits. The minimum and maximum limits vary by size.
- Minimum configurable IOPS:
- 4 or 5 GiB volumes: IOPS is fixed at 2,000 and 2,500 IOPS, respectively.
- 6 GiB-64 TiB: at least 3,000 IOPS.
- Maximum configurable IOPS:
- 6-319 GiB volumes: the maximum IOPS limit depends on the volume's size. See the following table for more information.
- 320 GiB-64 TiB volumes: at most 160,000 IOPS.
To calculate the range of configurable IOPS values for a specific volume size, use these formulas:
- Minimum IOPS: 3,000 IOPS
- Maximum IOPS:
MIN (500x, 160,000)MiB/s, wherexis the volume's size.
The following table lists the limits for configurable IOPS for common volume sizes.
| Size (GiB) | Configurable IOPS values |
|---|---|
| 4 | 2,000 |
| 5 | 2,500 |
| 10 | 3,000-5,000 |
| 50 | 3,000-25,000 |
| 150 | 3,000-75,000 |
| 319 | 3,000-159,500 |
| 320 or more | 3,000-160,000 |
Limits for provisioned throughput
Volumes with 4-5 GiB of capacity have a fixed throughput value of 140 MiB/s.
For larger volumes, you can provision additional throughput.
The range of supported throughput values depends on the provisioned IOPS and
is calculated with the following formulas, where P is the provisioned IOPS.
- Minimum throughput:
MAX (140, P/256)MiB/s - Maximum throughput:
MIN (160,000, P/4)MiB/s
The following table lists the limits for some provisioned IOPS values and the corresponding throughput ranges. If a size isn't listed, use the preceding formula to calculate the allowable values.
| Provisioned IOPS | Configurable throughput (MiB/s) |
|---|---|
| 2,000 | 140-500 |
| 2,500 | 140-625 |
| 3,000 | 140-750 |
| 4,000 | 140-1000 |
| 8,000 | 140-2000 |
| 32,000 | 140-2,400 |
| 50,000 | 156-2,400 |
| 64,000 | 250-2,400 |
| 150,000 | 585-2,400 |
| 160,000 | 625-2,400 |
Default IOPS and throughput values
If you don't specify an IOPS or throughput limit when you create a Hyperdisk Balanced
volume, Compute Engine assigns default values. The assigned value is
based on the following formulas, where x is the volume's size.
- Default IOPS:
- Volumes 6 GiB or less:
500xIOPS - Volumes 6 GiB and 26.666667 TiB:
6x + 3,000IOPS - Volumes larger than 26.666667 TiB: 160,000 IOPS
- Volumes 6 GiB or less:
- Default throughput
- Volumes 6 GiB or less:
140MiB/s - Volumes larger than 6 GiB:
1.5x + 140 MiB/s
- Volumes 6 GiB or less:
- Default size: 100 GiB
Performance limits when attached to an instance
This section lists the performance limits for each machine type that supports Hyperdisk Balanced. You can specify up to 160,000 IOPS and 2,400 MiB/s of throughput for a single Hyperdisk Balanced volume.
The following table lists the maximum performance that Hyperdisk Balanced volumes can achieve for each supported instance. A Hyperdisk Balanced volume's performance when it's attached to an instance can't exceed the limits for the instance's machine type. The performance limits are also shared across all Hyperdisk Balanced volumes attached to the same instance, regardless of each volume's provisioned performance.
Achieve higher performance with multiple Hyperdisk Balanced volumes
Certain instances can exceed the maximum performance for a single Hyperdisk Balanced volume— 160,000 IOPS or 2,400 MiB/s. An instance can only achieve these higher limits if you attach multiple Hyperdisk Balanced volumes to the instance.
If an instance's performance limit in the following table exceeds 160,000 IOPS or
2,400 MiB/s, then the instance can only achieve that limit
if you attach multiple Hyperdisk Balanced volumes.
For example, the performance limit for a c4a-*-72 instance using Hyperdisk Balanced
is 240,000 IOPS and 5,000 MiB/s. To achieve this maximum performance
you must attach at least two Hyperdisk Balanced volumes to the instance.
The performance limits also apply to custom machine types.
| Instance machine type | Maximum IOPS | Maximum throughput (MiB/s) |
|---|---|---|
a3-*-8g |
160,000 | 4,800 |
a3-ultragpu-8g |
320,000 | 10,000 |
c3-*-4 |
25,000 | 400 |
c3-*-8 |
50,000 | 800 |
c3-*-22 |
120,000 | 1,800 |
c3-*-44 |
160,000 | 2,400 |
c3-*-88 |
160,000 | 4,800 |
c3-*-1761 |
160,000 | 10,000 |
c3-*-1921 |
160,000 | 10,000 |
c3d-*-4 |
25,000 | 400 |
c3d-*-8 |
50,000 | 800 |
c3d-*-16 |
75,000 | 1,200 |
c3d-*-30 |
75,000 | 1,200 |
c3d-*-60 |
160,000 | 2,400 |
c3d-*-90 |
160,000 | 2,400 |
c3d-*-180 |
160,000 | 2,400 |
c3d-*-360 |
160,000 | 2,400 |
| C4 | See steady state performance limits for Hyperdisk Balanced | |
c4a-*-1 |
25,000 | 400 |
c4a-*-2 |
50,000 | 800 |
c4a-*-4 |
50,000 | 800 |
c4a-*-8 |
50,000 | 1,000 |
c4a-*-16 |
60,000 | 1,600 |
c4a-*-32 |
120,000 | 2,400 |
c4a-*-48 |
160,000 | 3,300 |
c4a-*-64 |
240,000 | 4,400 |
c4a-*-72 |
240,000 | 5,000 |
| C4D | See steady state performance limits for Hyperdisk Balanced | |
ct6e-standard-1t |
75,000 | 1,200 |
ct6e-standard-4t |
160,000 | 2,400 |
ct6e-standard-8t |
160,000 | 2,400 |
h3-standard-88 |
15,000 | 240 |
m1-ultramem-40 |
60,000 | 1,200 |
m1-ultramem-80 |
100,000 | 2,400 |
m1-megamem-96 |
100,000 | 4,000 |
m1-ultramem-160 |
100,000 | 4,000 |
m2-*-208 |
100,000 | 2,400 |
m2-*-416 |
100,000 | 4,000 |
m3-*-32 |
160,000 | 2,400 |
m3-*-64 |
160,000 | 4,800 |
m3-*-128 |
160,000 | 4,800 |
| M4 | See Steady state performance limits for Hyperdisk Balanced | |
n4-*-2 |
15,000 | 240 |
n4-*-4 |
15,000 | 240 |
n4-*-8 |
15,000 | 480 |
n4-*-16 |
80,000 | 1,200 |
n4-*-8 |
80,000 | 1,200 |
n4-*-32 |
100,000 | 1,600 |
n4-*-64 |
160,000 | 2,400 |
n4-*-80 |
160,000 | 2,400 |
x4-*-960 |
160,000 | 4,800 |
x4-*-1440 |
160,000 | 4,800 |
x4-*-1920 |
160,000 | 4,800 |
Steady state performance limits for Hyperdisk Balanced
| Instance machine type | Steady state IOPS | Maximum IOPS | Steady state throughput (MiB/s) | Maximum throughput (MiB/s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
c4-*-2 |
6,200 | 50,000 | 120 | 400 |
c4-*-4 |
12,500 | 50,000 | 240 | 400 |
c4-*-8 |
25,000 | 50,000 | 480 | 800 |
c4-*-16 |
50,000 | 100,000 | 1,000 | 1,600 |
c4-*-32 |
100,000 | 100,000 | 1,600 | 1,600 |
c4-*-48 |
160,000 | 160,000 | 2,400 | 2,400 |
c4-*-96 |
240,000 | 240,000 | 4,800 | 4,800 |
c4-*-192 |
320,000 | 320,000 | 10,000 | 10,000 |
c4d-*-2 (Preview) |
2,800 | 22,500 | 65 | 400 |
c4d-*-4 (Preview) |
6,200 | 50,000 | 120 | 400 |
c4d-*-8 (Preview) |
12,500 | 50,000 | 240 | 800 |
c4d-*-16 (Preview) |
25,000 | 75,000 | 480 | 1,200 |
c4d-*-32 (Preview) |
50,000 | 75,000 | 1,000 | 1,600 |
c4d-*-48 (Preview) |
75,000 | 75,000 | 1,400 | 1,600 |
c4d-*-64 (Preview) |
350,000 | 350,000 | 5,000 | 5,000 |
c4d-*-96 (Preview) |
350,000 | 350,000 | 5,000 | 5,000 |
c4d-*-192 (Preview) |
350,000 | 350,000 | 5,000 | 5,000 |
c4d-*-384 (Preview) |
400,000 | 400,000 | 10,000 | 10,000 |
m4-*-56 |
160,000 | 160,000 | 2,400 | 2,400 |
m4-*-112 |
240,000 | 240,000 | 4,800 | 4,800 |
m4-*-224 |
320,000 | 320,000 | 10,000 | 10,000 |
Change the provisioned performance or size
You can change the provisioned performance and size of a Hyperdisk Balanced volume at most once every 4 hours. For instructions on modifying size or performance, see Modify a Hyperdisk volume.
Disaster recovery protection for Hyperdisk Balanced volumes
You can back up a Hyperdisk Balanced volume with instant snapshots and standard snapshots. Snapshots back up the data on a Hyperdisk Balanced volume at a specific point in time.
Replication across multiple regions
You can protect your data in the unlikely event of a regional outage by enabling
Asynchronous Replication. Asynchronous Replication maintains a copy of the data on your
volume in another region. For example, to protect a
Hyperdisk Balanced volume in us-west1,
you can use Asynchronous Replication to replicate the volume to a secondary volume in
the us-east4 region. If the volume in us-west1
became unavailable, then you could use the secondary volume in us-east4.
Cross-zonal replication
You can't replicate Hyperdisk Balanced volumes to another zone. To replicate data to another zone within the same region, you must use Hyperdisk Balanced High Availability volumes.
Regional availability for Hyperdisk Balanced
Hyperdisk Balanced is available in the following regions and zones:
| Region | Available zones |
|---|---|
Changhua County, Taiwan—asia-east1 |
asia-east1-a |
asia-east1-b |
|
asia-east1-c |
|
Tokyo, Japan—asia-northeast1 |
asia-northeast1-a |
asia-northeast1-b |
|
asia-northeast1-c |
|
Osaka, Japan—asia-northeast2 |
asia-northeast2-a |
asia-northeast2-b |
|
asia-northeast2-c |
|
Seoul, South Korea—asia-northeast3 |
asia-northeast3-a |
asia-northeast3-b |
|
asia-northeast3-c |
|
Jurong West, Singapore—asia-southeast1 |
asia-southeast1-a |
asia-southeast1-b |
|
asia-southeast1-c |
|
Jakarta, Indonesia—asia-southeast2 |
asia-southeast2-a |
asia-southeast2-c |
|
Mumbai, India—asia-south1 |
asia-south1-a |
asia-south1-b |
|
asia-south1-c |
|
Delhi, India—asia-south2 |
asia-south2-a |
asia-south2-b |
|
Sydney, Australia—australia-southeast1 |
australia-southeast1-a |
australia-southeast1-b |
|
australia-southeast1-c |
|
Melbourne, Australia—australia-southeast2 |
australia-southeast2-b |
australia-southeast2-c |
|
Warsaw, Poland—europe-central2 |
europe-central2-a |
europe-central2-b |
|
Madrid, Spain—europe-southwest1 |
europe-southwest1-a |
europe-southwest1-c |
|
St. Ghislain, Belgium—europe-west1 |
europe-west1-b |
europe-west1-c |
|
europe-west1-d |
|
London, England—europe-west2 |
europe-west2-a |
europe-west2-b |
|
europe-west2-c |
|
Frankfurt, Germany—europe-west3 |
europe-west3-a |
europe-west3-b |
|
europe-west3-c |
|
Eemshaven, Netherlands—europe-west4 |
europe-west4-a |
europe-west4-b |
|
europe-west4-c |
|
Zurich, Switzerland—europe-west6 |
europe-west6-b |
europe-west6-c |
|
Milan, Italy—europe-west8 |
europe-west8-a |
europe-west8-c |
|
Paris, France—europe-west9 |
europe-west9-a |
europe-west9-b |
|
europe-west9-c |
|
Turin, Italy—europe-west12 |
europe-west12-a |
europe-west12-b |
|
europe-west12-c |
|
Montréal, Québec—northamerica-northeast1 |
northamerica-northeast1-b |
northamerica-northeast1-c |
|
Toronto, Ontario—northamerica-northeast2 |
northamerica-northeast2-a |
northamerica-northeast2-b |
|
northamerica-northeast2-c |
|
Council Bluffs, Iowa—us-central1 |
us-central1-a |
us-central1-b |
|
us-central1-c |
|
us-central1-f |
|
Moncks Corner, South Carolina—us-east1 |
us-east1-b |
us-east1-c |
|
us-east1-d |
|
Ashburn, Virginia—us-east4 |
us-east4-a |
us-east4-b |
|
us-east4-c |
|
Columbus, Ohio—us-east5 |
us-east5-a |
us-east5-b |
|
Dallas, Texas—us-south1 |
us-south1-b |
The Dalles, Oregon—us-west1 |
us-west1-a |
us-west1-b |
|
Los Angeles, California—us-west2 |
us-west2-b |
us-west2-c |
|
Las Vegas, Nevada—us-west4 |
us-west4-a |
us-west4-b |
|
us-west4-c |
|
Osasco, São Paulo, Brazil—southamerica-east1 |
southamerica-east1-b |
southamerica-east1-c |
|
Santiago, Chile—southamerica-west1 |
southamerica-west1-b |
southamerica-west1-c |
|
Doha, Qatar—me-central1 |
me-central1-b |
me-central1-c |
|
Dammam, Saudi Arabia—me-central2 |
me-central2-a |
me-central2-c |
|
Tel Aviv, Israel—me-west1 |
me-west1-a |
me-west1-c |
Hyperdisk Balanced Storage Pools
To simplify planning, avoid overprovisioning storage, and reduce costs, consider using Hyperdisk Balanced Storage Pools. Hyperdisk Balanced Storage Pools let you purchase Hyperdisk Balanced storage and performance in bulk. To learn more, see About Hyperdisk Storage Pools.
Share a Hyperdisk Balanced volume between VMs
You can use multi-writer mode to attach a Hyperdisk Balanced volume to multiple instances, while each instance maintains write access. This feature enables high availability for workloads like Microsoft SQL Server Failover Cluster Infrastructure.
To learn more, see Share a disk between VMs.
Pricing
You are billed for the total provisioned size, IOPS, and throughput of your Hyperdisk Balanced volumes until you delete them. Charges incur even if the volume isn't attached to any instances or if the instance is suspended or stopped. For more information see Disk pricing.
Limitations for Hyperdisk Balanced
- Hyperdisk Balanced volumes are zonal and can only be accessed from the zone where the volume was created. If you need to access a Hyperdisk volume from more than one zone, create a Hyperdisk Balanced High Availability volume.
- You can't create a machine image from a Hyperdisk volume.
- You can't back up a disk in multi-writer mode with snapshots or images. You must first disable multi-writer mode.
- Hyperdisk Balanced volumes in Confidential mode have additional limitations.
- You can change a Hyperdisk Balanced volume's size and performance every 4 hours.