Google Distributed Cloud (software only) for VMware 1.36.100-gke.144 is now available

## Announcement Announcement Google Distributed Cloud (software only) for VMware 1.36.100-gke.144 is now available for download. To upgrade, see [Upgrade a cluster](https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/distributed-cloud/vmware/docs/how-to/upgrading). Google Distributed Cloud 1.36.100-gke.144 runs on Kubernetes v1.36.4-gke.100. If you use a third-party storage vendor, check the listing of our previously-qualified [storage partners](https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/enterprise/docs/resources/partner-storage). After a release, it takes approximately 7 to 14 days for the version to become available for use with GKE On-Prem API clients: the Google Cloud console, the gcloud CLI, and Terraform. ## Fix Fixed The following issues were fixed in 1.36.100-gke.144: * Link to [Vulnerability fixes](https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/distributed-cloud/vmware/docs/vulnerabilities)for the list of security vulnerabilities addressed in this release. * Fixed an issue where user clusters repeatedly alternated between `reconciling`and `running` states if the management cluster had a different pod density configuration than the user cluster. * Updated `etcd` to `v3.5.33-0-gke.3` to address security vulnerabilities CVE-2026-46595 and CVE-2026-39821. * Fixed an issue where cluster diagnostics (`gkectl diagnose`) and pre-upgrade validations failed with false-positive `datastore '<name>' not found` errors. After the fix, validation correctly resolves datastores across all configured vSphere data centers in split-data center architectures where control plane nodes reside in the admin datacenter. * Fixed an issue where deleting a cluster could stall indefinitely in the`terminating` state due to orphaned machine resources.