Hi there

Today I’m talking about Azure RI (Reserved Instances) and before we get into that have in mind that Microsoft Azure Advisor will show you 5 items to look into such as Cost, Security, High Availability, Operational Excellence and Performance.

You should consider the following before you Buy virtual machine reserved instances to save money over pay-as-you-go costs

 

  • RI (reserved instances) can be purchased based on azure vms history usage
  • Those recommendations are based on VMS running 24×7
  • There’s no rollback or shrink option after we purchase a RI (reserved instance) they can only grow , however we can repurchase whatever vm type / size we need within the same region.
  • Scale up and out rules can be applied to vms RI (reserved instances) e.g. when during a period we need to scale a server cpu, ram we can do it and the next invoice will charge this period usage as hourly (you continue to save on monthly or year upfront) but they charge what exceeded for this scale rule
  • The day you purchase the vm – that day will be they day of next invoice
    • Invoice will have all other vms listed then all RI (reserved instances) VMs listed separately

For this exercise we have Azure advisor recommending us to “Buy virtual machine reserved instances to save money over pay-as-you-go costs”

Go to your Azure Portal \ Advisor (search under All services if needed)

At the Advisor blade you have on the main screen all items I mentioned before: Cost, Security, High Availability, Operational Excellence and Performance.

Click on Cost

Now you have all information you need to take a decision on saving or not if you would follow Microsoft Azure recommendation. 

Click on “Buy virtual machine reserved instances to save money over pay-as-you-go costs”

On the next screen “Buy reserved instances” you have the Recommendation details and Impacted resources listed. You can also filter the view by subscription.

At the Virtual Machine column select / click on on the VM_type_size virtual machines in region option to see each recommendation.

Standard_DS2_v2 virtual machines in canadaeast : that means which VMs with the following type I have under this recommendation 

You’ll figure that you have 2 VMs with Standard DS2 v2 (2 vcpus, 7 GiB memory) size that fits that recommendation of saving money monthly or upfront (1 or 3 years) 

The Standard_DS2_v2 vm size tells you the vm size you need to purchase

The recommendation says:

Recommended quantity: 2
Currently deployed virtual machines: 2
 
Which means buy 2 x Standard DS2 v2 (2 vcpus, 7 GiB memory) your currently vm size to fit 2 vms you have deployed with that size.
 
I think on RI (reserved instances) as cpu and ram that I can use from a physical host with limited growth.
 
If I need 2 x Standard DS2 v2 (2 vcpus, 7 GiB memory) I’d buy 1 physical server (a bucket) with 4 cpus and 14 memory to my 2 vms on it.  However, Azure is smarter then how I’m thinking through here you buy it but you can repurchase or increase your resources using auto-scale rules.
 
3 years – reserved instances cost
 
 
1 year – reserved instances cost
 

Thanks,

Thiago Beier
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