Setting the file. One moment.
Subchapter 12.2
references/vm-families.mdMarkdown6 KBView on GitHub
Select a VM family by matching the user’s workload to the right category. Families describe hardware intent — not individual SKUs.
Source: Azure VM sizes overview
Note: This reference may become stale. Before making final recommendations, verify critical specifications (especially Spot VM support, newer series availability, and specific family capabilities) by fetching the relevant learn.microsoft.com documentation.
| Workload | Family | Series | Quota Resource Name | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Web servers, dev/test, microservices | General Purpose | D-series (Dsv5, Ddsv5, Dasv5) | standardDSv5Family / standardDDSv5Family | Balanced CPU:memory ratio |
| Burstable / intermittent loads | General Purpose | B-series (Bsv2, Basv2) | standardBsv2Family / standardBasv2Family | Low baseline CPU, credits for bursts; cheapest option |
| CI/CD, batch, gaming servers | Compute Optimized | F-series (Fsv2, Fasv6) | standardFSv2Family | High CPU:memory ratio |
| Relational DBs, in-memory caches | Memory Optimized | E-series (Esv5, Edsv5, Easv5) | standardESv5Family / standardEDSv5Family | High memory:CPU ratio |
| SAP HANA, very large DBs | Memory Optimized | M-series (Msv3, Mdsv3) | standardMSMediumMemoryv3Family | Extreme memory (up to 4 TB) |
| Big Data, NoSQL, data warehousing | Storage Optimized | L-series (Lsv3, Lasv3) | standardLSv3Family | High disk throughput and IOPS |
| ML training, inference, rendering | GPU | NC-series (NCadsH100v5, NCasT4v3) | StandardNCadsH100v5Family | NVIDIA GPU compute |
| Large-scale AI/ML training | GPU | ND-series (ND_MI300X_v5, NDH100v5) | standardNDSH100v5Family | Multi-GPU, high memory |
| Virtual desktop, cloud gaming | GPU | NV-series (NVadsA10v5) | StandardNVADSA10v5Family | GPU graphics/visualization |
| Cloud gaming, VDI (AMD GPU) | GPU | NG-series (NGadsV620v1) | StandardNGADSV620v1Family | AMD Radeon GPU; cost-effective graphics |
| Confidential workloads | Confidential | DC-series (DCasv5, DCadsv5) | standardDCASv5Family | Hardware-based TEE isolation |
| Confidential + encrypted memory | Confidential | EC-series (ECasv5, ECadsv5) | standardECASv5Family | TEE isolation with memory encryption |
| CFD, weather simulation, FEA | HPC | HB/HC-series (HBv4, HBv5) | standardHBv4Family / standardHBv5Family | InfiniBand, high memory bandwidth |
| EDA, large memory HPC | HPC | HX-series | standardHXFamily | Very large memory capacity |
⚠️ Do not normalize quota name casing. The mixed casing (e.g.,
standardvsStandard) matches the exact values returned byaz vm list-usage. Changing them will break quota lookups.
Workload needs GPU?
├─ Yes → training/inference? → NC/ND-series
│ visualization/VDI? → NV/NG-series
├─ No
│ ├─ Confidential computing? → DC/EC-series
│ ├─ HPC (MPI, InfiniBand)? → HB/HC/HX-series
│ ├─ High disk I/O (NoSQL, warehousing)? → L-series
│ ├─ Memory-heavy (DB, cache, SAP)?
│ │ ├─ Extreme (>1 TB RAM) → M-series
│ │ └─ Standard → E-series
│ ├─ CPU-heavy (batch, CI/CD)? → F-series
│ ├─ Burstable / dev-test? → B-series
│ └─ Balanced / general web → D-series| Choice | Pro | Con |
|---|---|---|
| B-series (burstable) | Lowest cost | Throttled when credits exhausted |
AMD (a suffix) vs Intel | ~5–15% cheaper | Some workloads assume Intel extensions |
ARM (p suffix, Cobalt) | Best price-performance for Linux | Windows not supported; check app compatibility |
| Previous-gen (v4, v3) | Sometimes cheaper | Not recommended for new deployments |
| Spot VMs | Up to 90% discount | Can be evicted with 30s notice |
Standard_<Family><Subfamily?><vCPUs><Features>_<Version>
| Letter | Meaning |
|---|---|
a | AMD CPU |
p | ARM (Cobalt/Ampere) CPU |
d | Local temp disk |
s | Premium SSD capable |
l | Low memory per core |
i | Isolated (dedicated host) |
b | Block storage perf |
Example: Standard_D4as_v5 → D-family, AMD, 4 vCPUs, premium SSD, version 5.