GKE deprecates vulkan-tools on Ubuntu nodes
Google Kubernetes Engine is deprecating the pre-installation of vulkan-tools on Ubuntu node images starting with GKE version 1.37. This change aims to improve security by reducing the attack surface on host nodes. Users running Vulkan diagnostic tools directly on GKE Ubuntu hosts will need to manually install this package, but containerized GPU/Vulkan workloads are unaffected.
Deprecations (1) ›
- Google Kubernetes Engine
To improve security, Ubuntu node images in GKE version 1.37 and later don't pre-install the vulkan-tools package. If you run Vulkan diagnostic tools (such as vulkaninfo ) directly on GKE Ubuntu hosts, then you must manually install the vulkan-tools package. This change doesn't affect containerized GPU/Vulkan workloads.
https://docs.cloud.google.com/release-notes#July_20_2026
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