Azure Instances Management and Deployment

Managing Azure instances is a breeze with the right tools and strategies.

You can create and manage Azure instances using the Azure portal, which provides a user-friendly interface for deploying and configuring resources.

To deploy Azure instances, you can use the Azure CLI, which offers a command-line interface for automating deployments and managing resources.

Azure instances can be deployed in various regions and availability zones, ensuring high availability and disaster recovery for your applications.

With Azure, you can deploy instances with different sizes and configurations to meet the needs of your applications.

Azure instance types are a crucial aspect of running applications and workloads on the cloud. Azure instance types are categorized into several families, including A-series, B-series, D-series, DC-series, E-series, G-series, H-series, L-series, and F-series.

The A-series and B-series are suitable for entry-level and burstable workloads, respectively. The D-series is ideal for enterprise-grade applications, relational databases, and in-memory caching. The DC-series is specifically designed for D-series with confidential computing.

For compute-intensive workloads, Azure offers the F-series, which features a high CPU-to-memory ratio. These instances are perfect for medium traffic web servers, network appliances, batch processes, and application servers. The F-series is also suitable for gaming servers and data analytics applications.

For memory-intensive workloads, the E-series and G-series are excellent choices. The E-series is designed for applications that require a high memory-to-processor ratio, while the G-series offers both memory and SSD storage.

High-performance compute (HPC) workloads can be handled by the H-series instances, which are optimized for processor and memory bandwidth. These instances are ideal for HPC workloads such as fluid dynamics, finite element analysis, and weather modeling.

Here's a summary of the different Azure instance types:

Instance management is a crucial aspect of maintaining your Azure instances. You can temporarily remove a Conferencing Node instance from your Pexip Infinity platform if you don't need all your current conferencing capacity.

To do this, put the Conferencing Node into maintenance mode via the Pexip Infinity Administrator interface on the Management Node, and then stop the Conferencing Node instance on Azure.

If you need to reinstate a stopped Conferencing Node instance, restart it on Azure, take it out of maintenance mode via the Pexip Infinity Administrator interface, and update its static NAT address if necessary. This process takes approximately 5 minutes for the node to reboot and be available for conference hosting.

You can also permanently remove a Conferencing Node instance if you no longer need it. To do this, put the Conferencing Node into maintenance mode, delete it from the Management Node, and then terminate the Conferencing Node instance on Azure.

Deployments in production require more than a single instance. A single instance is not suitable for mission-critical production workloads.

In Azure, you need to arrange multiple VMs in an availability set, known as a cluster. This is the recommended approach for production workload deployments.

Azure does not support a service-level agreement for single VMs, so you should plan accordingly. This means considering the trade-offs between cost, performance, and reliability.

Provisioning and managing resources together is a good practice. Use Azure resource groups to simplify and organize billing, and then monitor and manage those resources as a collected set.

Azure diagnostics, such as basic health metrics, boot diagnostics, and infrastructure diagnostic logs, can be vital to troubleshoot workload problems and improve deployments.

If you're dealing with a downed Azure VM, don't worry, there are options to restore it. You have five methods to choose from.

Azure Spot VMs are a great way to save costs, but you should know what they are and how they work before using them.

If you're looking to compare the performance of different Azure SKUs, Azure compute units (ACU) can help you do just that. It's a useful tool for making informed decisions.

For a more personalized and secure experience, consider using Azure Dedicated Hosts, which allow you to host one or more virtual machines on a physical server.

Monitoring your Azure virtual machines is crucial to ensuring they're running smoothly. You can learn how to do this by following some simple steps.

You can temporarily remove a Conferencing Node instance from your Pexip Infinity platform by putting it into maintenance mode via the Pexip Infinity Administrator interface on the Management Node and then stopping the instance on Azure.

To reinstate a stopped Conferencing Node instance, you'll need to restart the instance on Azure and then take it out of maintenance mode via the Pexip Infinity Administrator interface. This will take approximately 5 minutes, after which the node will be available for conference hosting and its last contacted status will be updated on the Management Node.

If you no longer need a Conferencing Node instance, you can permanently delete it by putting it into maintenance mode, deleting it from the Management Node, and then terminating the instance on Azure.

You can use Azure Monitor to locate long-running instances. Azure Monitor allows you to analyze resource performance and run log queries to get information about long-running virtual machines and the types of operations they are running.

A query like "TimeGenerated > ago(90d)" can be used to focus on long-running instances. You can adjust the "TimeGenerated" parameter to suit your needs.

Long-running instances can be identified using Blink, an automation tool that regularly checks your Azure account for virtual machines running longer than a certain number of days.

Blink's automation can send the results to a designated email and can also be customized to add a removal step for old snapshots if approved via Slack.

Long-running Azure virtual machines are typically active for long periods of time and perform tasks like background website scripts or complex computing calculations.

A common benchmark for defining long-running instances is 90 days since the instances started running.

Scheduled maintenance events in Azure can be a bit of a concern for Pexip Infinity VMs. Pexip Infinity VMs poll for maintenance events automatically, so no administrative configuration or action is required.

The types of maintenance events that are detected include Freeze, Reboot, Redeploy, Preempt, and Terminate. The minimum notice period before each event varies, ranging from 10 minutes for Redeploy to 30 seconds for Preempt.

A Freeze event, for example, requires 15 minutes of notice and will put the Conferencing Node into maintenance mode. This helps mitigate the impact of the event, but it won't protect existing calls on that node.

Here's a breakdown of the maintenance events:

The Terminate event, for example, allows for user configuration of the minimum notice period, which can range from 5 to 15 minutes.

Stopping a Conferencing Node Instance is a straightforward process that can be done at any time. You can temporarily remove a Conferencing Node instance from your Pexip Infinity platform if you don't need all of your current conferencing capacity.

To temporarily remove a Conferencing Node instance, you'll need to put it into maintenance mode via the Pexip Infinity Administrator interface on the Management Node.

This is a crucial step, as it prevents any further interactions with the Conferencing Node instance. Once you've done this, you can stop the Conferencing Node instance on Azure.

Here's a summary of the steps:

Remember, stopping a Conferencing Node instance doesn't delete it, it just temporarily removes it from your Pexip Infinity platform.

If you no longer need a Conferencing Node instance, you can permanently delete it from your Pexip Infinity platform.

To remove a Conferencing Node instance, put it into maintenance mode via the Pexip Infinity Administrator interface on the Management Node.

Delete the Conferencing Node from the Management Node. This step is crucial before proceeding with termination.

Terminate the Conferencing Node instance on Azure. This will completely remove the instance from your platform.

Here's a summary of the steps:

Provisioning Virtual Machines is a breeze with Azure, taking mere seconds to get started.

Azure Virtual Machines supports a wide range of computing solutions, including Linux and Windows Server, as well as popular databases like SQL Server and Oracle.

With Azure Virtual Machines, you can pair your Virtual Machines with Managed Disks for optimal performance.

Standard egress charges apply, so be sure to factor that into your budget.

All current generation Virtual Machines come with load balancing and auto-scaling at no cost, which can be a huge cost savings.

To map the right Azure instance types to workloads, start with the native computing requirements and translate those to cloud capacity demands.

You should think in terms of processor cores, memory, disk storage, disk I/O, and network bandwidth. If possible, evaluate the application in a local environment, such as the on-premises data center, and monitor workload performance to detect possible bottlenecks.

A good starting point is to select an Azure instance that meets and slightly exceeds the workload's estimated requirements. Consider any special requirements, such as cache oversizing, GPU needs, or high memory or storage bandwidth.

Use a tool like Azure Diagnostics to measure the application's performance within the instance and verify that key metrics are acceptable. If not, try the workload in another instance size or type.

GPU-Optimized VMs are a game-changer for graphics-intensive workloads.

Azure's N-series instance types feature several GPUs, including the Nvidia Tesla P40, M60, and V100 GPUs.

These GPUs offload much of the processing work related to underlying math and rendering tasks, making them ideal for visualization, heavy analytics, and gaming or graphics workloads.

GPU-optimized instances also offer high-bandwidth InfiniBand interconnections to further enhance performance.

If your workload will significantly benefit from the investment, consider using an instance like the NCsv3, which is designed for visualization using Nvidia Tesla V100 GPUs.

You can reduce your costs by applying a reserved instance to your long-running Azure virtual machines. This can discount your subscription by 72% with a one-time up-front payment.

To buy reserved instances, navigate to the Azure portal, select "Reservations", and click "Add" to purchase the new reservation. You can then select "Virtual Machine" and enter the required fields to define a scope.

The RI discount will be applied at the subscription level, and your number of qualifying VMs depends on the scope you select. It's a good idea to move qualifying VMs to the discounted subscription to take advantage of the savings.

To move a VM to a reserved instance, manage the resource group containing your VM in the Azure portal, select the resource group, and click "Move" to open the "Move resources" page. Select the related resources you wish to move, and then select the subscription with the reserved-instances discount.

The process of moving a VM to a reserved instance is relatively straightforward, and it can help you save money on your Azure subscription.

The NP-family of VM size series are one of Azure's storage-optimized VM instances, designed for workloads that require high disk throughput and I/O.

These VMs are ideal for tasks like large-scale log processing, real-time big data analytics, and scenarios involving large databases that perform frequent disk operations.

They excel in environments where data needs to be processed in real time with minimal latency, such as in financial trading, real-time analytics, and network data processing.

Custom AI and machine learning inference tasks can also be accelerated using FPGAs, sometimes faster than typical CPU or GPU-based solutions.

NP-family VMs can significantly speed up genomic sequencing tasks and other life sciences applications that benefit from custom hardware acceleration.

Here are some examples of workloads that can be accelerated with FPGA:

FPGAs can also be used to accelerate video processing tasks such as transcoding and real-time video streaming, optimizing performance and reducing processing times.

NP-family VMs are ideal for applications in telecommunications and signal processing where rapid manipulation and analysis of signals are necessary.

Database operations can be enhanced by offloading tasks to the FPGA, especially for custom search operations and large-scale database queries.

Built-in High Availability is a game-changer for businesses that need to run 24/7. Unmatched scale and high availability for compute and storage without sacrificing performance is a fact. This means you can rely on your instance to keep running, no matter what.

When you're setting up your Azure Cloud service, you'll want to consider your IP address options. Every Azure Cloud service is automatically assigned a free dynamic virtual IP address.

This means you can access your virtual machines without worrying about the cost of an IP address. But, if you need more flexibility or reliability, you can opt for additional IP address options.

Instance-level public IP addresses are a good choice if you need direct access to a virtual machine. These dynamic public IP addresses are assigned to a virtual machine and can be used for external access.

Reserved IP addresses are another option, which can be reserved and used as a VIP address. This provides a level of predictability and control over your IP addresses.

Load-balanced IP addresses are also available, which can be assigned to an Azure Cloud Service containing one or more Azure Virtual Machines. This allows for more flexibility and scalability in your setup.

Here are some of the IP address options available:

Azure instances offer a range of pricing options to suit different needs and budgets.

You can choose from various virtual machine sizes, including B1S, B2S, and B4MS, each with its own set of features and pricing.

The cost of an Azure instance depends on the region you're in, with prices varying by up to 30% between different locations.

Azure's pricing calculator can help you estimate costs and find the best option for your needs.

Keep in mind that prices are subject to change, so it's always a good idea to check the Azure website for the latest information.

If you're looking to save on your development and testing workloads, you can take advantage of Azure Dev/Test pricing. This offers savings of up to 55% off License Included prices.

Active Visual Studio subscribers can use this pricing option to run development and testing workloads individually or as a team.

If you're currently using Promo VMs, be aware that the H series and NC series promos are no longer available. These instances will be decommissioned soon.

The promo virtual machines already deployed will continue to run until the associated decommission dates. Be sure to read the H series migration guide and NC series migration guide for additional information and next steps.

You can also get a head start on exploring Azure with a $200 credit to use within 30 days.

Spot VMs are a flexible pricing option for Azure users, allowing you to pay a lower price for VMs when demand is low. This is a great way to save money on compute resources.

Workloads are evicted from Spot VMs when Azure no longer has available compute capacity and must reallocate its resources, or when the current price exceeds the maximum price agreed to before allocation. This ensures that resources are allocated fairly across all customers.

You'll need to set a maximum price for Spot VMs in US dollars (USD), as this is the standard pricing currency across all Azure regions. This ensures transparency and fairness in resource allocation.

Spot pricing in local currency is displayed for convenience, but it's only an estimate and will vary based on currency exchange rates. This means you may not pay the exact amount displayed in your local currency.

Azure supports payment in multiple local currencies, including AUD, JPY, TWD, KRW, GBP, NZD, CAD, NOK, CNY, RUB, DKK, SEK, EUR, CHF, and INR. However, if your currency isn't listed, you'll need to transact in US dollars and pay your bill in US dollars.

Here's a list of supported local currencies: