Support has ended for Gen 4 hardware on Azure SQL Database
Published date: April 21, 2023
The Intel E5-2673 v3 (Haswell)-based CPU used in Gen 4 hardware reached its end of life in 2020 and was retired. We’ve decommissioned the Gen 4 Intel E5-2673 v3 (Haswell)-based CPUs and transitioned to Intel E5-2673 v4 (Broadwell) 2.3 GHz, Intel SP8160 (Skylake), Intel Xeon Platinum 8272CL 2.5 GHz (Cascade Lake) and Intel(R) Xeon Scalable 2.8 GHz processor (Ice Lake) processors for all new deployments.
Previously, we had communicated an end of support date of March 31, 2023 for Gen 4 hardware. For databases remaining on Gen 4 configurations after March 31, 2023, we have decided to allow them to remain on Gen 4 configurations, albeit under the following conditions:
- If you are not on a 1 or 3-year reserved capacity commitment:
- New databases cannot be created on Gen 4 hardware.
- Existing databases on Gen 4 hardware cannot be scaled up or down while on Gen 4 hardware. You can, however, scale to vCore-based standard-series hardware configurations or DTU-based options, though you cannot return to a Gen 4 hardware configuration.
- If you are on 1 or 3-year reserved capacity commitment, you may complete your term. During the balance of your term, you will retain full performance and functionality for your databases on Gen 4 hardware. Upon completion of your term, you may remain on Gen 4 hardware indefinitely, but will be limited to the following conditions:
- New databases cannot be created on Gen 4 hardware.
- Existing databases on Gen 4 hardware cannot be scaled up or down while on Gen 4 hardware. You can, however, scale to vCore-based standard-series hardware configurations or DTU-based options, though you cannot return to a Gen 4 hardware configuration.
Review our documentation for Azure SQL Database single databases and elastic pools resource limits when considering migrating to supported hardware types.