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SQL Server Enterprise Ubuntu Linux Virtual Machines Scale Sets Pricing

Manage and scale up to thousands of Linux and Windows VMs

Virtual Machine scale sets make it easy to build highly scalable applications by allowing you to effortlessly deploy and manage a set of VMs as a group. Built on the Azure Resource Manager deployment model, VM scale sets are fully integrated with Azure load balancing and auto-scale and support Windows, Linux, customised images, and extensions. VM scale sets offer two modes of operation:

  1. Scale Set VMs – this provides easy creation and management of identical VMs
  2. Single VMs – this provide easy way to add your VMs to VMSS during the creation process (e.g., to obtain high availability)

Virtual Machine scale sets are currently available on all Azure Windows or Linux VM sizes. You are only charged for the Azure VMs you deploy, as well as any additional underlying infrastructure resources consumed such as storage and networking. There are no incremental charges for the Virtual Machine scale sets service itself. Standard egress charges apply.

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Additional resources

Virtual Machine Scale Sets

Learn more about Virtual Machine Scale Sets features and capabilities.

Pricing calculator

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SLA

Review the Service Level Agreement for Virtual Machine Scale Sets.

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Review technical tutorials, videos, and more Virtual Machine Scale Sets resources.

General

  • No. All new virtual machines have an operating system disk and a local disk (or “resource disk”). We don’t charge for local disk storage. The operating system disk is charged at the standard rate for disks. See all virtual machine configurations.

  • You can find more information about spot virtual machines on our website.
  • A temporary disk is storage that’s attached directly to the deployed VM. Data on a temporary disk is lost once the VM is shut down. If you need persistent storage, there are a number of types and sizes of persistent data disks available, which are charged for separately. Please see storage pricing for information. For persistent VM storage, we recommend that you use Managed Disks to take advantage of better management features, scalability, availability and security.

  • Maybe. If the status says “Stopped (Deallocated)”, you aren’t being billed. If it says “Stopped Allocated”, you’re still being billed for allocated virtual cores (not the software licence itself). Full details on virtual machine states are available on the documentation page.

    State Billed Details
    Starting Yes The initial starting state of virtual machines as they’re going through the boot cycle. This period is billed as the virtual machines are running.
    Running (Started) Yes The running state of the virtual machine.
    Stopped Yes You are billed for allocated cores, but not software licences.
    Note: To put a virtual machine in “Stopped” status, use the power option within the virtual machine, not from the Microsoft Azure classic portal.
    Deleted (Deallocated) No Cores are no longer allocated to the virtual machine, and are no longer billed.
    Note: The only way to stop all virtual machines in a cloud service is to delete both the staging and production deployments.
  • Virtual machine prices include local disk storage only. You can see the cost to attach Premium (SSD based) and Standard (HDD based) disks to your virtual machines on the Managed Disks pricing page.

  • Previously, all usage for A0, A2, A3 and A4 Standard and Basic virtual machines was emitted as fractions (for A0) or multiples (for A2, A3 and A4) of A1 virtual machines meter minutes. We heard this caused some confusion for our customers, so we’ve implemented a change to assign per-second usage to dedicated A0, A2, A3 and A4 meters. Because of this transition, the resource GUIDs for A0, A2, A3 and A4 virtual machines will change. If any of your billing routines rely on the resource GUIDs, they’ll need to be modified to take these new billing meters into consideration.

    Deployment size Usage emitted as multiple of A1 until 10 January 2016 Usage emitted on dedicated meter as of 11 January 2016
    A0 .25 of A1 hour 1 of A0 hour
    A2 2 of A1 hour 1 of A2 hour
    A3 4 of A1 hour 1 of A3 hour
    A4 8 of A1 hour 1 of A4 hour
  • We charge for the number of whole minutes your virtual machine is running, so you are not billed for any extra seconds. In this example, you would be billed for 6 minutes.

  • It’s a new preview feature for Azure Virtual Machines with private IP addresses. The internally load-balanced endpoint is only accessible within a virtual network (for virtual machines within a virtual network) or cloud service (for virtual machines outside a virtual network). Internal load balancing is useful for multi-tier applications where some of the application tiers aren’t public-facing, yet require load balancing functionality.

  • You can check the status of your virtual machines in the Virtual Machines tab and also in the virtual machine Dashboard. If virtual machine status says “Stopped”, you’re still being billed. Only “Stopped (Deallocated)” indicates that you’re not being billed.

    To ensure you aren’t being billed, always stop virtual machines from the management portal. You can also stop the virtual machine via Powershell by calling ShutdownRoleOperation with “PostShutdownAction” equal to “StoppedDeallocated”.

  • Each instance is charged for its data egress across regions.

  • No. Tax will be added separately.

  • As you transition your workloads to Azure, take advantage of Azure Hybrid Benefit to reuse your existing Windows Server licences with Software Assurance or Windows Server subscriptions for significant savings. For each licence, Azure covers the cost of the OS, while you pay for just the VM compute costs. Additionally, through Azure Hybrid Benefit for Linux, you can use your pre-existing on-premises Red Hat and SUSE software subscriptions on Azure. Learn more.

  • No. The virtual machines offered under the two promos are only available for on-demand usage.
  • Currently, the NC and H series promos will be available for on-demand deployment until 31 October 2021. The promo virtual machines deployed before that will continue to run. These virtual machines will be available for new deployments after the promo end date, but the promo pricing will no longer be in place.
  • No. Reserved instances bought for regular virtual machines do not apply to the promo virtual machines.

Spot VMs

  • Workloads are evicted when Azure no longer has available compute capacity and must reallocate its resources.

    Workloads will also be evicted when the current price exceeds the maximum price that you agreed to pay before the VMs were allocated.

  • For pricing transparency across all Azure regions and to ensure fairness when allocating available compute capacity, all of our customers will enter maximum prices in US dollars. Spot pricing in local currency figures displayed on this page are provided for your information only. These figures only represent an estimate of the actual costs you will incur and will vary based on currency exchange rates.
  • Spot pricing in local currency displayed on this page is provided for your information only. You may pay your Azure bill in one of the supported local currencies below. However, spot pricing in local currency figures displayed on this page are provided for your convenience and only represent an estimate of the actual costs you will incur and will vary based on currency exchange rates.

    AUD Australia – Dollar ($) AUD JPY Japan – Yen (¥) JPY
    TWD Taiwan – Dollar (NT$) TWD KRW Korea – Won (₩) KRW
    GBP United Kingdom – Pound (£) GBP NZD New Zealand – Dollar ($) NZD
    CAD Canada – Dollar ($) CAD NOK Norway – Krone (kr) NOK
    CNY China – Yuan (CN¥) CNY RUB Russia – Ruble (руб) RUB
    DKK Denmark – Krone (kr) DKK SEK Sweden – Krona (kr) SEK
    EUR Euro Zone – Euro (€) EUR CHF Switzerland – Franc (chf) CHF
    INR India – Rupee (₹) INR

    For all other currencies not listed above, you will have to transact Spot VMs in US dollars and pay your bill in US dollars.

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