Virtual Machine Types
This article provides a simplified overview of Virtual Machine types available in Microsoft Azure. For a full overview, please have a look at https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/pricing/details/virtual-machines/series/. Make sure to select Region: West Europe when searching for your ideal VM type.
The myDRE by default offers a small subset of machine types that should cover most needs of our users. If you wish to create a machine type that is not in the list, please submit a change request ticket through our support website.
When selecting a virtual machine type, please keep in mind that currently, anDREa is not supporting virtual machine types using generation 2 images. Please check Azure website to see which imagetype is supported by the selected virtual machine type.
Virtual machine series at Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure offers a large variety of virtual machine (VM) types that are optimised for different purposes. Apart from this broad distinction, VM types are divided into families, each with a specific balance between CPU, RAM and storage configuration. Machines within a family can have different hardware (e.g., AMD vs Intel processors).
In this overview, we list the different VM families and the purpose(s) they are optimised for. Each machine type has a number indicating its size (for example A4m_v2, B2s, F72s_v2), we've simplified this in the overview by grouping over sizes and substituting the number with a hashtag (#). The full list can be found here (under region, select West Europe).
Family | Subtypes | Purpose | Description |
A-series | A#_v2, A#m_v2 | General | Best suited for entry level workloads (development or test). |
B-series | B#s, B1ls, B#ms | General | Ideal for workloads that do not need continuous full CPU performance (burst). |
D-series | D#, DC#s, DS#, D#_v2, DC#s_v2, DS#_v2, D#_v3 D#s_v3, D#_v4,, D#a_v4, D#as_v4, D#d_v4, D#ds_v4, D#s_v4 | General / Memory optimized | Recommended for general purpose computing, balanced CPU-to-memory ratio. The D#_v2 and DS#_v2 are memory-optimized. Note: Ds_v4 machines do not have temporary storage, resizing to and from these machines is not possible (see warning under Resizing a VM) |
E-series | E#_v3, E#s_v3, E#_v4, E#a_v4, E#as_v4, E#d_v4, E#ds_v4, E#s_v4, E80ids_v4, E80is_v4 | Memory optimized | High memory-to-CPU ratio. Run on processors in multi- or hyper-threaded configurations. Note: E_v4 and Es_v4 machines do not have temporary storage, resizing to and from these machines is not possible (see warning under Resizing a VM) |
F-series | F#, F#s, F#s_v2, FX#mds | Compute optimized | Optimized for compute intensive workloads. Machines are hyper-threaded. Ideal for batch processing and analytics. |
G-series | G#, Gs# | Memory optimized | Provide high RAM and temporary storage, ideal for large database workloads. |
M-series | M#, M#ls, M#m, M#ms, M#s, M#ts, M#ds_v2, M#dms_v2, M#ids_v2, M#idms_2, M#is_v2, M#ims_v2, M#s_v2, M#ms_v2 | Memory optimized | Provides unparallelled computational performance to support large in-memory workloads. Note: M#s_v2 and M#ms_v2 machines do not have temporary storage, resizing to and from these machines is not possible (see warning under Resizing a VM. |
N-series | NC#, ND#s, ND#rs, NV#, NC#s_v2, NC#rs_v2, ND#rs_v2, NC#s_v3, NC#rs_v3, NC#as_T4_v3, NV#s_v3, ND#asr_A100_v4, NV#as_v4 | GPU | Ideal for compute and graphics-intensive workloads, such as high-end visualization, deep learning and predictive analytics. |
Machine types available in DRE portal (last updated: 2024-02-29)
Please visit Azure pricing for most actual pricing. Be aware that this pricing is excl. VAT or any discounts that you might have.
VM type | vCPU(s) | RAM (GiB) | Price per hour (estimated) |
| B1ms | 1 | 2 | € 0.0222 |
B2s | 2 | 4 | € 0.0445 |
B2ms | 2 | 8 | € 0.0889 |
B4ms | 4 | 16 | € 0.1778 |
B8ms | 8 | 32 | € 0.3556 |
D2_v4 | 2 | 8 | € 0.1065 (no temp) |
D2s_v3 | 2 | 8 | € 0.1111 |
D4s_v3 | 4 | 16 | € 0.2223 |
D8_v4 | 8 | 32 | € 0.4260 (no temp) |
D16s_v3 | 16 | 64 | € 0.8890 |
| D32_v4 | 32 | 128 | € 1.7039 (no temp) |
D48s_v4 | 46 | 192 | € 2.5460 (no temp) |
D64_v4 | 64 | 256 | € 3.4079 (no temp) |
F8 | 8 | 16 | € 0.4204 |
F16s_v2 | 16 | 32 | € 0.7186 |
F48s_v2 | 48 | 96 | € 2.1559 |
M128m | 128 | 3800 | € 34.4663 |
NC8as_T4_v3 | 8 | 56 | € 0.8705 (GPU: 1X T4) |
N.B.: This list may differ slightly between workspaces and organisations.
Resizing a VM
Important! It is not possible to resize machine types with temporary storage to machine types without temporary storage, and vice versa. Check the tables in this article or the Microsoft Azure website to see whether your desired VM type has temporary storage.
For instructions on resizing your VM, check out the article Resizing VMs.
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