Google, Canonical team up to certify Ubuntu images for TPU VMs

Certified Ubuntu images for TPU virtual machines are now available by default in Google Compute Engine, covering TPU7x, v6e, v5p, and v5e starting from 2023’s v5e. Previously, TPU v5 and v6 customers used a custom Ubuntu 22.04 build modified and managed by Google. The change moves those instances to Canonical-certified and supported Ubuntu 22.04 LTS versions compatible with existing production environments. TPU7x instances run on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. Both Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and 24.04 LTS have been tested across multiple TPU generations to support deployment flexibility. Canonical security maintenance and support are positioned as enabling stable, secure production AI workloads.

"Canonical and Google announced the release of certified Ubuntu images for TPU VMs in a press release penned by Canonical's public cloud alliance director Hugo Huang today. Huang noted in the statement that certified Ubuntu images for TPU7x, v6e, v5p, and v5e are now the default whenever a TPU VM is created in Google Compute Engine."

"If you're wondering what the big change is here, it's basically about how Ubuntu in TPU VMs is supported. Huang told The Register that, prior to today, customers using TPU v5 and v6 were running a custom version of Ubuntu 22.04, but it was one that Google itself modified and managed. As of this announcement, those v5 and v6 instances are now running on Canonical-certified and supported versions of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS that are compatible with existing production environments."

"While this was not specifically mentioned in the announcement, Huang told us that TPU7x instances will be running on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, and noted that both 22.04 LTS and 24.04 LTS have been tested across all three generations of TPUs to give Google Cloud customers some flexibility in their deployment choices based on workloads."

""Ubuntu LTS gives enterprises the stable, secure foundation they need to move AI workloads from experimentation into production on Google's most advanced accelerator hardware," Huang told us in an email. "This launch makes Cloud TPU as accessible as any other VM on Google Cloud - same console, same experience, backed by up to 15 years of Canonical security maintenance and support""

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