Sole-Tenant Nodes provide dedicated physical servers for workloads with compliance, licensing, or isolation requirements.
What are Sole-Tenant Nodes?
Sole-Tenant Nodes are dedicated physical servers in Google Cloud used exclusively by a single customer. Unlike regular Compute Engine VMs running on multi-tenant hardware, Sole-Tenant Nodes provide physical isolation at the server level. This meets requirements for compliance, licensing, and workload isolation that are not possible with shared hardware.
Each Sole-Tenant Node is a physical server with dedicated CPU, memory, and storage. Multiple VMs of different sizes can be placed on a node as long as total resources are not exceeded. Affinity labels control VM placement on specific nodes or node groups. Anti-affinity rules prevent certain VMs from running on the same physical server.
Google Cloud offers Sole-Tenant Nodes across several processor families: general-purpose, compute-optimized, memory-optimized, and GPU-optimized nodes. Available configurations and pricing should be checked against the current documentation and pricing page before planning, as the range of node types evolves regularly.
A key use case is Bring Your Own License (BYOL). Many software licenses, especially Microsoft Windows Server and SQL Server, require dedicated hardware or license by physical cores. Sole-Tenant Nodes enable using your own licenses and can reduce licensing costs. Google charges for compute capacity, and existing license agreements can continue to be used.
Common Use Cases
Windows Server BYOL
A company with existing Windows Server licenses migrates to Google Cloud. Sole-Tenant Nodes enable using existing licenses instead of new cloud licenses, which can lower overall costs.
Regulatory Compliance
A financial services company must demonstrate physical isolation for certain workloads. Sole-Tenant Nodes provide documented hardware separation for audits. Compliance reports show that no other customer workloads run on the same hardware.
Noisy Neighbor Avoidance
A trading platform requires consistent, predictable performance. Sole-Tenant Nodes reduce noisy neighbor effects from shared hardware. Latency-sensitive workloads benefit from guaranteed resources.
Oracle Database Licensing
A company with Oracle licenses uses Sole-Tenant Nodes for license optimization. Oracle often licenses by physical cores, and Sole-Tenant Nodes provide transparent core counts for this purpose.
Healthcare Compliance
A healthcare company requires physical isolation for data with high compliance requirements (e.g. HIPAA, GDPR). Sole-Tenant Nodes combined with VPC Service Controls and encryption support corresponding evidence requirements. Audit trails document the hardware isolation.
Integration with innFactory
As a certified Google Cloud Partner, innFactory supports you with Sole-Tenant Nodes: sizing, BYOL optimization, compliance documentation, and cost analysis.
Contact us for a consultation on Sole-Tenant Nodes and Google Cloud Compute.
Available Tiers & Options
Sole-Tenant Nodes
- Physical isolation
- BYOL support
- Compliance-ready
- Consistent performance
- Higher cost than shared VMs
- Minimum node size required
Typical Use Cases
Technical Specifications
Frequently Asked Questions
What are Sole-Tenant Nodes?
Sole-Tenant Nodes are dedicated physical servers in Google Cloud used exclusively by a single customer. Unlike regular VMs running on shared hardware, Sole-Tenant Nodes provide physical isolation for workloads with special requirements.
When should I use Sole-Tenant Nodes?
Sole-Tenant Nodes are useful for BYOL scenarios (e.g. Windows Server, Oracle), regulatory requirements for physical isolation, workloads with noisy neighbor problems, or when license agreements require dedicated hardware.
How does BYOL work with Sole-Tenant Nodes?
You can use your own Windows Server or other licenses on Sole-Tenant Nodes, which can reduce licensing costs. Google charges for compute capacity, and existing license agreements can continue to be used. This is particularly relevant for Windows Server and SQL Server.
Can I run multiple VMs on one node?
Yes, a Sole-Tenant Node can host multiple VMs of different sizes as long as total node resources are not exceeded. VMs are placed on specific nodes via affinity labels.
How are Sole-Tenant Nodes billed?
Sole-Tenant Nodes are billed per node, regardless of actual VM utilization on that node. Committed use discounts can reduce costs for longer-term usage. Details are available on the official pricing page.
What node types are available?
Google Cloud offers Sole-Tenant Nodes across several processor families, including general-purpose (e.g. n2, n4), compute-optimized (c2, c3, c4), memory-optimized (m1 through m4), and GPU-optimized A-series nodes. The specific selection and configuration depend on workload requirements.
Note: All product information on this page has been compiled with care, but is provided without guarantee and may be outdated or incomplete. Cloud services evolve rapidly — features, pricing, SLAs, and availability change frequently. Authoritative and up-to-date information can only be found on the official product page of Google Cloud (official documentation). This page does not represent an offer by Google Cloud.
