Azure Host Features and Use Cases Explained

Azure Host offers a range of virtual machine sizes to choose from, including B, D, E, F, and GS series, each with varying amounts of vCPU, memory, and storage.

The B series is ideal for small to medium-sized applications, while the D series is suitable for applications that require more vCPU and memory.

Azure Host provides a flexible and scalable platform for hosting a variety of workloads, including web applications, mobile apps, and enterprise software.

With Azure Host, you can easily scale up or down to match changing business needs, all while maintaining high availability and reliability.

Reserving the entire host provides several benefits that go beyond those of a standard shared virtual machine host. With the Azure hybrid benefit, you can bring your own licenses for Windows and SQL to Azure.

This can lead to significant cost savings, especially for businesses already using Windows Server and SQL Server. The Azure Hybrid Benefit reduces the cost of running Windows Server and SQL Server on Azure, making it an attractive option for those with existing licenses.

Here are some key benefits of reserving a dedicated host:

Reserving an entire host on Azure provides several benefits that go beyond those of a standard shared virtual machine host. You can bring your own licenses for Windows and SQL to Azure, which can help reduce costs.

With dedicated hosts, you have near complete control over maintenance events initiated by the Azure platform. This means you can opt in to a maintenance window to reduce the impact to your service. Most maintenance events have little to no impact on your virtual machines, but for sensitive workloads, every second counts.

You can choose which applications share physical resources such as memory and storage on a dedicated host, which can speed up certain workloads that benefit from low latency and high throughput on the host machine. This level of control can be a game-changer for applications that require a lot of resources.

Hardware isolation at the physical server level allows for sensitive memory data to remain isolated within a physical host. No other customer's VMs will be placed on your hosts, which provides an added layer of security. Dedicated hosts are deployed in the same data centers and share the same network and underlying storage infrastructure as other, non-isolated hosts.

Here are the key benefits of reserving an entire host on Azure:

Azure Host Benefits offer a range of use cases that can help businesses scale and adapt to changing needs.

For small to medium-sized businesses, Azure Host Benefits provide a cost-effective way to deploy and manage applications, with prices starting at $0.0025 per hour for a VM.

This makes it an attractive option for startups and small businesses that need to quickly deploy and scale applications.

Azure Host Benefits also provide a high level of scalability, with the ability to quickly scale up or down to meet changing demands.

This is particularly useful for businesses that experience seasonal fluctuations in demand, such as e-commerce sites during holiday seasons.

Additionally, Azure Host Benefits provide a high level of reliability and uptime, with a guaranteed uptime of 99.95% for VMs.

This provides businesses with peace of mind and ensures that their applications are always available to customers.

Azure Host Benefits also provide a range of tools and services to help businesses manage and secure their applications, including Azure Security Center and Azure Monitor.

These tools and services help businesses to identify and respond to security threats, and to monitor and optimize application performance.

Azure Host Configuration allows you to create a dedicated host in a host group, where you can specify the SKU for the host, which captures the supported VM series and hardware generation.

You can create a dedicated host using the Azure portal or the Azure CLI. To create a host using the Azure portal, select Create a resource, search for Dedicated host, and then select Dedicated hosts from the results. To create a host using the Azure CLI, use the command az vm host create.

A dedicated host must be placed in a host group, and if you set a fault domain count for your host group, you'll need to specify the fault domain for your host. To do this, select the host group and then select the fault domain from the drop-down list.

Here are the basic steps to create a dedicated host:

You can also use the command az vm host create to create a host, and the command az vm host update to update a dedicated host.

Manual vs Automatic Placement is a key decision when configuring your Azure Host. You can choose to manually select a dedicated host for your VM or let Azure automatically place it on an existing host within a host group.

To enable automatic placement, make sure it's selected when creating a new host group. This way, you can still manually pick a host for your VM, even if automatic placement is enabled for the host group.

Host groups with automatic placement enabled don't require all VMs to be automatically placed. You can still choose a specific host for your VM.

Here are the key differences between manual and automatic placement:

By understanding the differences between manual and automatic placement, you can make an informed decision about how to configure your Azure Host for your specific needs.

To create a group, you'll need to create a host group in a region and an availability zone, and add hosts to it. A host group is a resource that represents a collection of dedicated hosts.

You can use one or both of the following options with your dedicated hosts to ensure high availability: spanning across multiple availability zones or fault domains. If you don't want to span fault domains in your group, use a fault domain count of 1.

To create a host group, follow these steps:

You can also use the Azure CLI to create a host group. For example, you can use the `az vm host group create` command to create a host group using both availability zones and fault domains.

Here are some key parameters to consider when creating a host group:

By following these steps and considering these parameters, you can create a host group that meets your needs and provides high availability for your dedicated hosts.

Updating your Azure host configuration is a straightforward process. You can use the `az vm host update` command to update a dedicated host.

You can update the 'autoReplaceOnFailure' field of a dedicated host with just a few clicks. This is a key feature to keep in mind when managing your Azure resources.

To update an object, you'll need to specify a property path and value to set. This could be as simple as updating a single property, like property1.property2.

The `az vm host update` command is a powerful tool that allows you to make changes to your Azure host configuration with ease.

To achieve high availability, it's recommended to deploy multiple VMs across multiple hosts, with a minimum of 2 hosts. This ensures that if one host fails, the other can take over.

You can also use availability zones for fault isolation, which are unique physical locations within an Azure region. Each zone has independent power, cooling, and networking.

Availability zones can be used in conjunction with fault domains to achieve even more fault isolation. By specifying the availability zone and fault domain count in each host group, you can spread hosts for maximum resiliency in a region.

To use fault domains, you need to specify the fault domain count when creating a host group, and then assign a fault domain to each host within the group. This will ensure that hosts in different fault domains are placed on different physical racks in the datacenter.

Here are the key components involved in host service healing:

In case of a failure, Azure will automatically service heal the impacted host to a healthy node, moving all VMs to the healthy host. However, users with compliance requirements may need to opt out of auto service healing by disabling the 'Automatically replace host on failure setting'.

Availability Zones are unique physical locations within an Azure region, each equipped with independent power, cooling, and networking.

Each Availability Zone is made up of one or more datacenters, and a host group is created in a single zone.

To create a host group in a specific zone, you need to create the host group in that zone first, and then all hosts will be placed within that zone.

You can achieve high availability across zones by creating multiple host groups, one per zone, and spreading your hosts between them accordingly.

If you assign a host group to an availability zone, all VMs created on that host must be created in the same zone.

You can use both Availability Zones and Fault Domains together to achieve even more fault isolation, by specifying the availability zone and fault domain count in each host group.

To ensure high availability on Azure Dedicated Hosts, you should deploy multiple VMs across multiple hosts, with a minimum of 2 hosts. This provides a basic level of fault isolation boundaries.

You can use Availability Zones and Fault Domains together to achieve even more fault isolation. To do this, specify the availability zone and fault domain count for each host group, assign a fault domain to each host, and then assign an availability zone to each VM.

A host can be created in a specific fault domain, and hosts in different fault domains will be placed on different physical racks in the data center. You should specify the fault domain count when creating a host group and assign a fault domain to each host.

Availability zones are unique physical locations within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. To achieve high availability across zones, create multiple host groups, one per zone, and spread your hosts between them.

Here are the key components to consider when designing high availability on Azure Dedicated Hosts:

Azure Host Management is all about scaling and management. Auto-scaling capabilities in Azure allow resources to automatically scale up or down based on demand, ensuring optimal performance and cost-efficiency.

You can organize resources in Azure into resource groups, simplifying management and enabling centralized monitoring and control. Resource Groups are a great way to keep track of your resources and make management a breeze.

To create a host group, you need to decide on availability zones and fault domains. You can span across multiple availability zones or fault domains to ensure high availability. If you don't want to span fault domains, use a fault domain count of 1.

Here's a quick rundown of the options:

Maintenance Control provides customers with an option to skip regular platform updates scheduled on their dedicated hosts, then apply it at the time of their choice within a 35-day rolling window.

In Azure, a host group is a resource that represents a collection of dedicated hosts. You create a host group in a region and an availability zone, and add hosts to it.

A host group can span across multiple availability zones or fault domains, which are mapped to physical racks. You can decide to use both availability zones and fault domains, or just one of them.

To create a host group, you need to provide the fault domain count, which is the number of fault domains you want to use. If you don't want to span fault domains in your group, use a fault domain count of 1.

You can enable ultra disks on a host group level, which can't be changed after a host group is created. This is a host group level setting.

Here's a list of options you can use when creating a host group:

You can also use the Azure CLI command `az vm host group create` to create a host group. This command allows you to specify options such as automatic placement, availability zones, and fault domains.

Maintenance Control is a feature that allows you to skip regular platform updates scheduled on your dedicated hosts.

You can then apply the updates at a time of your choice within a 35-day rolling window.

This gives you more control over when maintenance is performed, and you can apply it directly at the host level in any order.

Once the maintenance window is over, Microsoft will move forward and apply the pending maintenance to the hosts in an order that may not follow your defined fault domains.

For more information, see Managing platform updates with Maintenance Control.

Azure Host Security is a top priority for any business looking to host their applications or data on the cloud. Azure Security Center’s Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) helps manage permissions effectively by assigning users to specific roles.

With Azure, customers retain more responsibilities in Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) compared to Platform as a Service (PaaS) or Software as a Service (SaaS). This means customers are accountable for data governance and rights management, account and access management, and endpoint protection.

Azure assumes responsibility for physical security in IaaS, including hosts, networks, and data centers. This is a significant relief for customers who can focus on application development and management.

Here are some key tips to enhance your Azure host security:

By following these best practices, you can significantly improve the security of your Azure host and protect your data and applications from potential threats.

Azure Dedicated Hosts have a quota system that's worth understanding. The default quota limit for dedicated host vCPUs is 3000 per region.

You'll also have a VM size family quota, which varies by region and subscription type. For example, a Pay-as-you-go subscription may only have a quota of 10 vCPUs available for the Dsv3 size series in the East US region.

To request a quota increase, you'll need to create a support request in the Azure portal. This will allow you to deploy a dedicated host with a higher vCPU count.

Here's a summary of the quota types:

Pricing for Azure Dedicated Hosts is based on the VM family, type (hardware size), and region. The host price is relative to the largest VM size supported on the host.

You'll see a new billable resource type of hosts in your monthly statement. The VMs on a dedicated host will still be shown in your statement, but will carry a price of 0.

Software licensing, storage, and network usage are billed separately from the host and VMs. This means you won't see any changes to those billable items.

You can save on costs with a Reserved Instance of Azure Dedicated Hosts. This can lead to significant savings, but it requires a commitment to using specific Azure resources for a 1- or 3-year term.

Here are some key details about Reserved Instances:

If you're looking for special pricing for development and testing environments, you might be interested in Dev/Test Pricing. This offers discounted rates on various Azure services, making it ideal for developers and testers to build and test applications in a non-production environment.

Azure Dedicated Hosts come with quotas that can impact your deployment options. The default dedicated host vCPU quota is 3000 vCPUs per region.

To deploy a dedicated host, you'll need to consider both the dedicated host vCPU quota and the VM family vCPU quota. For example, a Pay-as-you-go subscription may only have a quota of 10 vCPUs available for the Dsv3 size series in the East US region.

If you need to deploy a Dsv3 dedicated host, you'll need to request a quota increase to at least 64 vCPUs. This can be done by creating a support request in the Azure portal.

Here are the two types of quota that are consumed when you deploy a dedicated host:

Provisioning a dedicated host will consume both dedicated host vCPU and the VM family vCPU quota, but it won't consume the regional vCPU.

Scaling and Management is a crucial aspect of Azure Hosts. Azure provides auto-scaling capabilities, allowing resources to automatically scale up or down based on demand, ensuring optimal performance and cost-efficiency.

Auto-scaling can be achieved through Azure's Auto-scaling service, which allows you to define rules for scaling based on metrics such as CPU usage, memory usage, and network traffic. This service is particularly useful for applications with varying workloads.

Azure Resource Manager is another key component of scaling and management. It facilitates resource deployment, management, and monitoring through templates, providing a unified management interface. This allows you to manage multiple resources as a single unit, making it easier to scale and manage your Azure Host.

Resource Groups are also essential for scaling and management. Resources in Azure can be organized into resource groups, simplifying management and enabling centralized monitoring and control.

Here are the services used in scaling and management in Azure Cloud:

By utilizing these services, you can ensure that your Azure Host is scalable, efficient, and easy to manage.

Azure offers a range of monitoring services to help you keep track of your virtual machines and applications. Azure Monitor is a centralized monitoring service that provides insights into performance, availability, and usage metrics.

You can also use Azure Backup to protect your data in the cloud. It offers a single place to monitor backup jobs, manage backup policies, and recover data.

Azure provides a full range of disaster recovery (DR) and backup services to help shield your vital data and apps from interruptions. With the help of these services, you may quickly restore your data and applications in the event of a disaster by replicating them to a secondary cloud site.

Here are some of the key Azure monitoring services:

Monitoring Services are a crucial part of Azure Host Monitoring and Backup. Azure Monitor is a centralized monitoring service that offers insights into performance, availability, and usage metrics.

Application Insights provides real-time insights into application performance and usage, enabling proactive troubleshooting and optimization. This helps you identify and fix issues before they affect your users.

Log Analytics collects and analyzes log data from various sources, offering valuable insights for troubleshooting, security monitoring, and compliance. It's like having a superpower to quickly find the root cause of issues.

Azure Advisor offers personalized recommendations for optimizing Azure resources, enhancing performance, and reducing costs. This is especially helpful for large-scale deployments where costs can add up quickly.

To give you a better idea of the monitoring services available, here's a quick rundown:

Azure Site Recovery allows you to replicate your on-premises virtual machines to Azure, making it easy to failover to Azure in the event of a disaster and keep your business running.

Azure Backup provides a single place to monitor backup jobs, manage backup policies, and recover data, protecting your vital data and apps from interruptions.

Azure Site Recovery also supports replicating Azure VMs to an alternative Azure region, giving you more flexibility in case of a disaster.

With Azure Backup, you can protect your data from ransomware attacks, unintentional deletion, and corruption, giving you peace of mind.

Here are some key Azure DR and Backup Services: