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Windows virtual machines

Get on-demand, highly scalable, and protected virtualized infrastructure with Windows virtual machines (VMs) in Azure.
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Overview

Get the most cost-effective VMs for Windows Server workloads

Capitalize on your existing investments and migrate your Microsoft technologies, such as Windows Server, SQL Server, .NET applications, Microsoft Entra ID (previously Azure Active Directory), and System Center, to Azure. Easily automate Windows Server management with Azure Automanage and use premier Windows Server capabilities like hotpatching. Take advantage of savings with reservation pricing and the Azure Hybrid Benefit when you move to Azure. Get free extended security updates for Windows Server and SQL Server versions 2008, 2012, 2008 R2, and 2012 R2. By combining Azure Hybrid Benefit with Extended Security Updates, Windows Server customers can save up to 50%, and SQL Server customers can save up to 76% compared to the leading cloud provider.
  • Host and run your applications on VMs in Azure. Run SQL Server, SharePoint Server, Project Server, and additional Microsoft server software in Azure VMs. Or transition to fully managed Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics 365, SharePoint Online, or Azure SQL Database and get hybrid identity services with Microsoft Entra ID.
  • Improve scalability and agility by migrating your existing .NET applications to the cloud—lift and shift using VMs and containers or rewrite them as cloud-native apps. Get intelligent insights, analytics, and machine learning capabilities. Access familiar open-source and Microsoft tools including PowerShell, Visual Studio, and Microsoft Entra ID. Modernize applications at scale on Azure, on-premises, and at the edge with Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and AKS on Azure Stack HCI.
  • Get operational consistency across on-premises and Azure deployments. Manage all your servers and VMs with Windows Admin Center, also available in Azure. Use Azure Backup, Azure Site Recovery, and Azure Storage for Windows Server workloads running on-premises or on Azure. Take advantage of bottomless storage in Azure by replicating files from your on-premises Windows Servers to Azure using Azure File Sync. Use Azure Stack to build and deploy in the same way for both cloud and on-premises environments.
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  • Help prevent attacks with the built-in security features of Windows Server 2019 and 2022. Improve your security posture while retaining high availability by applying security patches automatically with hotpatching in Azure Automanage. Continuously monitor threats and respond quickly to attacks with Microsoft Defender for Cloud and get three more years of security updates for Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2. Implement extra security for development, testing, customer training, and demo environments by using nested VMs on Azure.
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Security

Embedded security and compliance

34,000
Full-time equivalent engineers dedicated to security initiatives at Microsoft.
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15,000
Partners with specialized security expertise.
 
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>100
Compliance certifications, including over 50 specific to global regions and countries.
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Learn more about security on Azure
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Pricing

Get the power, control, and customization you need at competitive prices

Identify the best Windows VM for your workloads with the virtual machines selector. Configure and estimate the costs of your Azure VMs using the pricing calculator or learn more about Windows VM pricing.
See Windows Server on Azure pricing Try the pricing calculator Try the virtual machines selector
Resources

Documentation, training, and migration resources

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Create a Windows virtual machine with the Azure CLI

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Create a Windows virtual machine in the Azure portal

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Create a Windows virtual machine in Azure with PowerShell

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Frequently asked questions

  • Azure supports most Windows Server versions. Refer to the Azure Guest OS releases and SDK compatibility matrix for more details.
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  • A range of guest operating systems can be migrated to Azure. This includes all the supported Windows Server versions and VMs from these VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V environments with Azure Site Recovery. VMs migrated from these on-premises virtualization platforms run as native Azure infrastructure as a service (IaaS) VMs and aren't dependent on the on-premises hypervisor.
  • A broad range of Microsoft applications run in Azure VMs, including BizTalk Server 2013 and later versions, Dynamics AX 2012 R3 and later, and Exchange Server 2013 and later versions. For a complete list of supported Microsoft server software, refer to the documentation.
  • Azure offers a broad range of virtual machines—there’s a VM for every workload. View the entire set of Azure Virtual Machine Series or read the documentation Windows VMs to learn more.
  • The Azure VM Series pages and the Azure VM pricing calculator are great resources for helping you determine your VM needs.
  • As you transition your workloads to Azure, take advantage of Azure Hybrid Benefit, to use your existing Windows Server licenses with Software Assurance or Windows Server Subscriptions for significant savings on Azure. You can use the benefit with Windows Server Datacenter and Standard edition licenses covered with Software Assurance or Windows Server Subscriptions. Depending on the edition, you can convert or reuse your licenses to run Windows Server virtual machines in Azure and pay a lower base compute rate. For each license, Azure will cover the cost of the OS for up to two virtual machines while you pay just for the base compute VM costs.
  • Yes. On January 14, 2020, support for Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 ended, which means the end of regular security updates. Rehost your Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 workloads to Azure and get three years of extended security updates at no additional charge and upgrade to a current version when you’re ready. Get the details.
  • With no upfront cost, you only pay for what you use. Azure provides flexible purchasing and pricing options for all your cloud scenarios, such as Azure Hybrid Benefit and Azure Reserved Virtual Machine Instances, and offers a comprehensive set of tools, such as Microsoft Cost Management to help you manage your cloud spend. Model your total cost of ownership (TCO) in Azure with this calculator.
    Learn more
  • Yes. With Azure dev/test you can obtain pricing discounts on a variety of other Azure services. Learn more about Azure dev/test pricing.
  • Create VMs in Azure through the Azure portal, Azure PowerShell, or Azure CLI:
    • The Azure portal provides a browser-based user interface to create VMs and their associated resources.
    • The Azure PowerShell module is used to create and manage Azure resources from the PowerShell command line or in scripts.
    • The Azure CLI is used to create and manage Azure resources from the command line or in scripts.
    Refer to the documentation for more details.
  • Nested virtualization is supported in Azure. This feature allows you to run Microsoft Hyper-V inside a Hyper-V virtual machine. This is useful, for example, when running a Visual Studio phone emulator in a virtual machine or testing configurations that ordinarily require several hosts.

    Learn how to enable nested virtualization by reading the documentation.
  • Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets help you create and manage a group of load-balanced and autoscaling VMs. Deploy Virtual Machine Scale
    Sets using Azure Resource Manager templates, which support Windows and Linux platform images and custom images and extensions.
  • Yes. Create an Azure free account to learn how Azure works, try products and cloud services, and view tutorials on how to deploy your first solution in 10 minutes or less.
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  • More than 95% of Fortune 500 companies use Azure. Azure has more global regions than any cloud provider and offers the most comprehensive set of compliance offerings. Azure offers built-in support for the most popular integrated development environments trusted by more than 20 million developers—Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code. Compare Azure vs. AWS
  • Explore our comprehensive approach. There are several Microsoft and partner tools and a large ecosystem of partners to help migrate on-premises VMs to Azure. Visit the Azure migration center to learn more.
  • Microsoft offers a range of OS-independent Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for Azure VMs. Read the SLA for Azure Virtual Machines.
  • Most Azure VMs come with temporary non-persistent local storage. Additionally, Azure offers HDD and SSD storage for data. Learn more about Azure Disk Storage. Refer to the Azure VM technical documentation (Linux VMs and Windows VMs) to learn about the Azure disks that are available for each VM series.
  • On-premises licenses for Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 Extended Security Updates ended on January 14, 2023. On-premises licenses SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 Extended Security Updates ended July 12, 2022. Read the complete details.
  • Yes, Extended Security Updates for SQL Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 are offered. Free Extended Security Updates will be available for customers on Azure, which includes Azure Virtual Machines, SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines, Azure Dedicated Host, Azure VMWare Solutions, Azure Nutanix Solution, and Azure Stack HCI. Learn more.
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