Azure Virtual Machine (VM) sizes are designed to provide a wide range of options for hosting your servers and their workloads in the cloud. Sizes are categorized into different families and types, each optimized for specific purposes. Users can choose the most suitable VM size based on their requirements, such as CPU, memory, storage, and network bandwidth.
Azure VM sizes follow specific naming conventions to denote varying features and specifications. Each character in the name represents different aspects of the VM. These include the VM family, number of vCPUs, and extra features like premium storage or included accelerators.
1 Most families are represented using one letter, but others such as GPU sizes (ND-series, NV-series, etc.) use two.
2 Most subfamilies are represented with a single upper case letter, but others (such as Ebsv5-series) are still considered subfamilies of their parent family due to feature differences.
3 If no feature letter for a CPU is listed, the series uses Intel x86-64 CPUs. If the CPU is AMD, it's listed as a. If the CPU is ARM based (Microsoft Cobalt or Ampere Altra), it's listed as p.
4 There can be any number of extra features in a size name. There could be none (Dv5-series) or there could be three (Dplds_v6-series).
5 Version numbers only appear in the size name if there are multiple versions of the same series. If you're using the first version of a series (HB-series, B-series, etc.) it's often not included in the size name.
1 Most families are represented using one letter, but others such as GPU sizes (ND-series, NV-series, etc.) use two.
2 Most subfamilies are represented with a single upper case letter, but others (such as Ebsv5-series) are still considered subfamilies of their parent family due to feature differences.
3 If no feature letter for a CPU is listed, the series uses Intel x86-64 CPUs. If the CPU is AMD, it will be listed as a. If the CPU is ARM based (Microsoft Cobalt or Ampere Altra), it will be listed as p.
4 There can be any number of extra features in a size name. There could be none (Dv5-series) or there could be three (Dplds_v6-series).
5 Spacers can show up multiple times in a size name such as in the ND_H100_v5-series. In this case they separate the GPU ID from the rest of the size name.
6 Version numbers only appear in the size name if there are multiple versions of the same series. If you're using the first version of a series (HB-series, B-series, etc.) it's often not included in the size name.
This section contains a list of all current generation size series with tabs dedicated to each size family. Each group has a 'Series List' column with a linked list of all available size series, These links will bring you to the family page for that series, where you can find detailed information on each size in that series or go to the series' page for a list of sizes in that series.
To learn more about a size family, click the 'family' tab under each type section. There you can read a summary on the family, see the workloads it's recommended for, and view the full family page with specifications for all series in that family.
The 'A' family of VM size series are one of Azure's general purpose VM instances. They're designed for entry-level workloads, such as development and test environments, small to medium databases, and low-traffic web servers.
Cost Efficiency: A-series VMs are some of the most budget-friendly options available on Azure, making them a good choice for projects with limited financial resources or those that do not require high-performance compute capabilities.
Entry-Level Applications: A-series VMs can serve as a good starting point for deploying applications that are not expected to scale significantly. They provide a platform for applications and services that require less processing power.
The 'B' family of VM size series are one of Azure's general purpose VM instances. While traditional Azure virtual machines provide fixed CPU performance, B-series virtual machines are the only VM type that use credits for CPU performance provisioning. B-series VMs utilize a CPU credit model to track how much CPU is consumed - the virtual machine accumulates CPU credits when a workload is operating below the base CPU performance threshold and, uses credits when running above the base CPU performance threshold until all of its credits are consumed. Upon consuming all the CPU credits, a B-series virtual machine is throttled back to its base CPU performance until it accumulates the credits to CPU burst again.
The 'D' family of VM sizes are one of Azure's general purpose VM sizes. They're designed for a variety of demanding workloads, such as enterprise applications, web and application servers, development and test environments, and batch processing tasks. Equipped with faster processors and more memory per core than the A-series, D-series VMs offer a strong performance balance, making them suitable for applications that require both high computational power and substantial memory resources. They are particularly favored for running enterprise-grade applications, supporting moderate to high-traffic web servers, and performing data-intensive batch processing.
Balanced Performance: D-series VMs provide a solid balance between CPU capabilities and memory size, which makes them suitable for most production workloads. They are equipped with faster processors compared to the A-series and provide more memory per core.
Enterprise Applications: They are well-suited for running enterprise applications like SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, or large relational databases that require both high computational power and substantial memory.
Development and Test Environments: With their balanced resources, D-series VMs are ideal for development and testing environments where developers need to simulate production conditions closely.
Web and Application Servers: They provide the necessary resources to host web servers and application servers that experience moderate to heavy traffic, ensuring smooth and responsive user experiences.
Batch Processing: D-series VMs are efficient for handling batch processing tasks that require processing large amounts of data quickly, thanks to their fast processors and ample memory.
The 'DC' sub-family of VM size series are one of Azure's security focused general purpose VM instances. They're designed for confidential computing with enhanced data protection and code confidentiality, featuring hardware-based Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) with Intel's Software Guard Extensions (SGX). These VMs are ideal for handling highly sensitive data that demands isolation from the host environment, such as in scenarios involving secure enclaves for processing private data, financial transactions, and personally identifiable information (PII), ensuring a higher level of security for critical applications.
Confidential Computing: They support secure enclave technology using Intel SGX, which allows parts of the VM memory to be isolated from the main operating system. This enclave securely processes sensitive data, ensuring that it is protected even from privileged users and underlying system software.
Data Protection: DC-series VMs are ideal for applications that manage, store, and process sensitive data, such as personal identifiable information (PII), financial data, health records, and other types of confidential information. The hardware-based encryption ensures that data is protected at rest and during processing.
Regulatory Compliance: For businesses that need to comply with stringent regulatory requirements for data privacy and security (like GDPR, HIPAA, or financial industry regulations), DC-series VMs provide a hardware-assured environment that can help meet these compliance demands.
The 'F' family of VM size series are one of Azure's compute-optimized VM instances. They're designed for workloads that require high CPU performance, such as batch processing, web servers, analytics, and gaming. Featuring a high CPU-to-memory ratio, F-series VMs are equipped with powerful processors to handle applications that demand more CPU capacity relative to memory. This makes them particularly effective for scenarios where fast and efficient processing is critical, allowing businesses to run their compute-bound applications efficiently and cost-effectively.
Web Servers: F-series VMs are excellent for hosting web servers and applications that require significant compute capability to handle web traffic efficiently without necessarily needing large amounts of memory.
Batch Processing: F-series VMs are ideal for batch jobs and other processing tasks that involve handling large volumes of data or tasks in a queue but are more CPU-intensive than memory-intensive.
Application Servers: Applications that require quick processing and do not have high memory demands can benefit from F-series VMs. These can include medium traffic application servers, back-end servers for enterprise applications, and other similar tasks.Gaming Servers: Due to their high CPU performance, F-series VMs are also suitable for gaming servers where fast processing is critical for a good gaming experience.
Analytics: F-series VMs can be used for data analytics applications that require processing speed to crunch numbers and perform calculations more than they require a large amount of memory.
The 'FX' family of VM size series are one of Azure's specialized compute-optimized VM instances, designed primarily workloads that require significant CPU capabilities. These VMs use the latest Intel Ice Lake processors and are optimized for compute-intensive tasks such as financial modeling, scientific simulations, and heavy calculations. With a high frequency and a large cache per core, FX-series VMs provide exceptional computational power, making them ideal for scenarios demanding extensive processing resources and rapid execution of complex operations.
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