A compute engine virtual machine instance can live migrate when a host system event occurs such as a software or a hardware update. This feature prevents unnecessary reboots of a virtual machine and can live migrate the virtual machine in the same zone. It is important to remember that live migration does not change the virtual machine configuration, but rather moves it to another host without any interruption.
It is important to remember that instances with GPUs cannot be live migrated. These virtual machines will need to be terminated. The compute engine provides a 60-minute notice before the virtual machine with the GPU is terminated. Preemptible instances cannot be live migrated either.
