Guest environment release notes

This page documents updates to the guest environment, which is a set of scripts, daemons, and binaries that read metadata server content to ensure instances function correctly on Compute Engine. The central component of the guest environment is the guest agent, which handles tasks like account management, OS Login integration, and network interface management. For more information about the guest environment, see Guest environment.

Check this page for announcements about new or updated features, bug fixes, known issues, and deprecated functionality.

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November 20, 2025

Feature

Version 20251120.01 of the guest agent is now available for Windows only. This version includes the following fix:

  • Changes the start mode guest agent from auto to delayed-auto on Windows Service Manager.

November 17, 2025

Fixed

Version 20251115.00 of the guest agent is now available and includes the following fixes: * Fixes an issue in the dynamic vLAN subsystem where the dhclient backend attempted to remove netplan's vLAN NICs. * Fixes a crash loop in the plugin manager caused by its handling of plugin logs.

Feature

Version 20251115.00 of the guest agent is now available.

November 13, 2025

Fixed

Version 20251107.01 includes a fix for the Startup script runner component that prevented it from writing status logs and script output to Cloud Logging.

Feature

Version 20251107.01 of the guest agent is now available.

October 31, 2025

Fixed

Version 20251030.02 includes fixes for the plugin-based architecture that is used by guest agent. For more information about the plugin-based architecture, see Guest agent.

  • The Clock Skew module no longer causes time inconsistencies on VMs. The agent no longer attempts to synchronize the hardware clock (hwclock) when the VM's Real-time Clock (RTC) isn't set to Coordinated Universal Time 0(UTC). For more information about how the guest agent handles clock synchronization, see Clock Synchronization.
  • The vlan_setup_enabled option now correctly sets up Dynamic Network Interfaces (NICs). Dynamic NICs now initialize reliably.
  • The agent now prevents a race condition in network interface and route setup. Previously, routes were temporarily flushed if they were added before a DHCP lease was acquired. The agent now ensures routes persist correctly, preventing a brief period of missing routes. These routes were previously auto-corrected after approximately one minute.

October 21, 2025

Fixed

Version 20251009.01 of the guest agent, announced in the October 20, 2025 release notes, has been rolled back. This version introduced the plugin-based architecture to Windows but contained a bug in the WSFC module. To resolve this issue, guest agent version 20251011.00 is now available for Windows, which excludes the new plugin-based architecture.

October 20, 2025

Feature

Version 20251009.01 of the guest agent, which introduces the plugin-based architecture to Windows, is now available.

For more information about the plugin-based architecture, see Guest agent.