Azure Reserved Virtual Machine Instances

Reserved Virtual Machine Instances

• How can I purchase Azure Reserved Virtual Machine Instances?

  Purchase one-year or three-year term Azure Reserved VM Instances directly in the Azure portal, and pay with a single, upfront payment or on a monthly basis. The monthly payment option is available at no extra cost. However, if you’re in a non-US-dollar market, your monthly payment amount may vary depending on the current month’s market exchange rate for your local currency.

• Are Azure Reserved VM Instances available everywhere to existing Azure customers?
  Azure Reserved VM Instances for pay-as-you-go subscriptions are not available in Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Indonesia, Korea (North), Liechtenstein, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan.
• How do I know which VM size to buy for a reserved instance?

  Go to the VM section in the Azure management portal, click on a VM and get the VM size information. Provide this size in the reserved instance purchase. The reserved instance discount is automatically applied to VMs matching the attributes and quantity of the Azure Reserved VM Instance.

  Alternately, if you are an Enterprise Agreement (EA) or web direct customer, you can download your usage file and refer to Service Type value in the "Additional info" section of the usage file to get the VM size information.

• Does Microsoft make recommendations regarding which VM sizes should be purchased for your Azure Reserved VM Instances?

  Yes. In the reserved instance purchase experience Microsoft will make recommendations based on your last 30 days of usage and your savings potential.

• After making an Azure Reserved VM Instances purchase, how do I know which VM got the Azure Reserved VM Instance discount?

  Please refer to your usage file to get details regarding your reserved instance discount. The VMs that get the reserved instance benefit will have the Azure Reserved VM Instance details in the "Additional information" section of the usage file. You can also get the same information from the usage APIs.

  See more information for EA customers.

  See more information for web direct customers.

  To view all purchases, go to the reservation blade in the Azure portal.

• How will I be billed for Azure Reserved VM Instances?

  For Enterprise Agreement (EA) customers, Azure Prepayment will be used first to purchase Azure Reserved VM Instances. In scenarios where EA customers have used all their Azure Prepayment, Azure Reserved VM Instances can still be purchased, and those purchases will be invoiced for the single, upfront payment on their next overage bill.

  For customers purchasing via Azure.com, at the time of purchase, the credit card on file will be charged for the full upfront payment of the Azure Reserved Instances.

• Load more FAQs
• How do I assign an Azure Reserved Instance to a subscription or enrollment/account level?

  You can assign Azure Reserved VM Instances benefits at the enrollment or subscription levels, and easily change assignments post purchase, as necessary. Assignment allows you to decide whether the reserved instance is applied at the Azure account/enrollment or subscription level. This gives you flexibility for savings. For example, if you want to buy reserved instances to save money for your organization, you can assign all Azure Reserved VM Instances at the account level. Conversely, if a business unit, such as finance, wants to buy an Azure Reserved VM Instance for its own use only, it can be assigned to a subscription where only that group can take advantage of the savings.

• When does the purchased Azure Reserved VM Instances term begin?

  The Azure Reserved VM Instances term starts immediately after purchase; currently you can't purchase Azure Reserved VM Instances that start at a future date. The Reserved VM Instances pricing benefit will apply immediately to any existing running VMs that match the datacenter location and VM instance, depending on how you scope your Reserved VM Instances to a specific subscription or at the enrollment/account level.

• Do I need to select the operating system (Linux or Windows) when purchasing a Reserved VM Instance, and does the price differ?

  Azure Reserved VM Instances provide a single price for each VM size in a region. There's no requirement to choose an operating system when purchasing a Reserved VM Instance. If Windows Server is deployed on the VM, you can either use the Azure Hybrid Benefit or pay the Windows Server licensing rate. For more information, visit the Azure pricing page.

• How do I pay for Windows Server on an Azure Reserved VM Instance?

  There are two options for adding Windows Server to an Azure Reserved VM Instance. The first option is to use the Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server. If you have Windows Server with Software Assurance on-premises, you can assign these licenses to the Azure RI. There will be no charge within Azure for Windows Server. You’ll be responsible for continuing to pay for the Windows Server license plus Software Assurance (called L/SA), Software Assurance (SA), or on-premises subscription as long as the Azure Hybrid Benefit is used. The second option is to add Windows Server using the Windows Server hourly meter. If you can't take advantage of the Azure Hybrid Benefit, Windows Server licensing costs will be charged when the VM is active, based on the number of cores the VM is using.

• Where can I view the details associated with my Azure Reserved VM Instances?

  Select the ‘Reservations’ menu on the left side of the Azure portal to view all the Azure Reserved VM Instances associated with your account. All the details associated with the Azure Reserved VM Instances that you have purchased will be displayed on the right.

• What's the difference between an exchange and a cancellation?

  An exchange allows you to receive a prorated refund based on the unused amount, which applies fully to the purchase price of a new Azure Reserved VM Instance. A cancellation terminates your Azure Reserved VM Instance and you'll receive a prorated refund based on the remaining term of the Azure Reserved VM Instance minus a 12 percent early termination fee.

• Are there any restrictions on exchanges?

  There's no limit on the number of exchanges you can make. Additionally, there's no fee associated with an exchange. The main restriction is the following: the new Azure Reserved VM Instances purchased must be of equal or greater value than the prorated credit from the original Azure Reserved VM Instances. Additionally, Azure Reserved VM Instances can only be exchanged within the same Azure service, such as a VM for a VM.

• Are there any restrictions on cancellations?
  You can cancel an Azure Reserved VM Instance at any time (up to $50000 per year). Cancelling allows you to return the remaining months of an Azure Reserved VM Instance back to Microsoft. Currently, we are not charging an early termination fee, but in the future there will be a 12 percent early termination fee for cancellations.
• How do I exchange or cancel my Azure Reserved VM Instances?

  Within the management portal, view the inventory of Azure Reserved VM Instances. Click on an instance and two buttons will appear in the command bar stating “refund” or “exchange”. Once selected, a support ticket, prepopulated with all of the Azure Reserved VM Instance details, will open. Once submitted, the request will be processed, and an email will be sent to you to confirm completion of the request.

• Outside of Azure VMs, what else can Azure Reserved VM Instances be applied to?
  • Azure Reserved VM Instances can be applied to VM Scale Sets.
  • Azure Reserved VM Instances can be applied to Azure Batch user subscriptions mode.
• Are there VM series, VM versions, or other restrictions that are not applicable to Azure Reserved VM Instances?
  • Azure Reserved VM Instances aren't available for A-series, Av2-series, or G-series.
  • Azure Reserved VM Instances don't apply to promo VMs.
• What happens when my Azure Reserved VM Instance expires?

  You will receive email notifications 30 days prior to expiration, and again on the expiration date. Once the reserved instance expires, deployed VMs will continue to run and will be billed at the then current pay-as-you-go rate.

• Do Azure Reserved VM Instances offer a capacity guarantee?

  While Azure Reserved VM Instances offer prioritized capacity, they don't guarantee that capacity will be available for your VMs. The prioritized capacity will be for a VM SKU in the region, but it doesn't prioritize capacity for a specific availability set or VM Scale Set. In the event you need to deploy in a different region or change the size or family of your RI, Azure Reserved VM Instances offer industry-leading flexibility with the ability to exchange your purchase for any other Azure Reserved VM Instance that we offer.

• What is instance size flexibility?

  Instance size flexibility is a feature associated with Azure Reserved VM Instances. Instance size flexibility automatically applies the Reserved Instance savings to any VM that you use within the same region and within the same Azure RI ‘VM group’. Instance size flexibility can apply your RI purchases for the VMs that are not currently being used. For example, if you’ve purchased a D8s_v3 RI in the East US region, instance size flexibility will look to apply the 8-cores RI benefit to any other Ds_v3 VMs running in the same East US region. That could be a combination of four 2-core VMs (D2s_v3) or two 4-core VMs (D4s_v3) or covering half the cost of a single 16-core VM (D16s_v3). The reserved instance discount is applied on first come – first served basis. Therefore, if usage for D2s_v3 comes to the billing system before D8s_v3 then the RI benefit will apply to D2s_v3.

  As a result, if you need to resize a VM or change the selection of a VM already part of a pre-paid RI, Azure can automatically apply your RI benefit across your existing VMs within the same ‘VM group’ and region. And you do not have to first return the RI to Microsoft or reset the RI period. Please refer to the documentation for a comprehensive overview.

• What is an Azure RI ‘VM Group’?
  An Azure RI ‘VM group’ is simply a list of VMs to which instance size flexibility can be applied. A VM group is not aligned with the existing Azure VM series. Please refer to the documentation for a list of RI VM groups and additional details.