Generation 2 virtual machines in Azure - Public Preview
Published date: 20 May, 2019
We are excited to announce the Public Preview of Generation 2 virtual machines on Azure. Generation 2 virtual machines use the new UEFI-based boot architecture vs the BIOS-based architecture used by Generation 1 virtual machines. The new architecture enables customers to:
- Build large virtual machines (up to 12 TB)
- Provision OS disks sizes that exceed 2 TB.
Microsoft introduced Generation 2 virtual machines for on-premises Hyper-V users with Windows Server 2012 R2. An increasing number of customers are moving their on-premises workloads to Azure and they want native support for Generation 2 virtual machines, on the Microsoft Azure platform. Therefore, we are taking the first step and we are enhancing the Azure infrastructure to support the creation of Generation 2 virtual machines natively.
If you want to take advantage of these features, you can now create Generation 2 virtual machines in Azure. Please note that we will be evolving generation 2 capabilities over time and based on our customers feedback. For a complete list of capabilities, limitations and details associated with the deployment of Generation 2 virtual machines on Azure, please refer to our documentation.
For your review, please find enclosed a table that summarises some of the differences between Generation 1 and Generation 2 virtual machines
|
Generation 1 Virtual Machine |
Generation 2 Virtual Machine |
Boot |
PCAT |
UEFI |
Disk controllers |
IDE |
SCSI |
VM sizes supported |
All |
Premium Storage VMs |
OS Disk > 2 TB |
No |
Yes |
Azure Site Recovery/Backup |
Yes |
No |
Azure Disk Encryption |
Yes |
No |
Shared Image Gallery |
Yes |
No |
You can now
- Create standalone generation 2 virtual machines using the Azure Marketplace images from the Azure Portal or via command line.
- Create standalone generation 2 virtual machines using Managed Image/Disk from Azure Portal/command line.
- Create generation 2 virtual machines via Virtual Machine Scale Set from Azure Portal/command line.
- Deploy Virtual Machines with OS Disks larger than 2 TB.
If you have any comments, questions or any general feedback, we would like to hear from you!