Azure Spot Instances Benefits and Features

Azure Spot Instances are a cost-effective way to run your workloads on Azure, allowing you to take advantage of unused capacity in the cloud.

You can save up to 90% on compute costs by using Azure Spot Instances, making them an attractive option for applications that can tolerate interruptions.

Azure Spot Instances are ideal for batch processing, data analytics, and other workloads that can be scaled up or down as needed.

They're also great for applications that don't require high availability, such as development and testing environments.

Intriguing read: Azure Instances

Azure Spot Virtual Machines enable you to leverage unused Azure cloud capacity, offered at significantly low rates, with discounts varying but can get to 90% off the on-demand price.

You can use Azure Spot VMs to utilize Microsoft's unused cloud capacity and save money by paying only up to the maximum price that you set in advance.

Spot VMs are suitable for workloads that can withstand interruptions, such as large compute jobs, batch processing jobs, DevTest environments, scalable stateless applications, and other non-critical workloads.

Expand your knowledge: Microsoft Azure from Zero to Hero - the Complete Guide

Azure evicts VMs when its available capacity goes down or when your usage exceeds the maximum price, so it's essential to be aware of this when using Spot instances.

Here are some key things to keep in mind when working with Spot instances:

The pricing for Spot VMs is variable, based on region and SKU, but you can set a max price to ensure you don't pay more than you're willing to pay.

The latest-generation virtual machines offer auto-scaling and load balancing at no extra cost, making them suitable for various workloads.

Here are some examples of pricing for Spot VM instances:

Azure Spot Instances are a cost-effective way to run your workloads, but what are the common questions people have about them?

Azure Spot Instances are terminated when the Azure Spot VM Service needs the underlying hardware for another customer's workload.

You can use Azure Spot Instances for batch processing, data analytics, and other workloads that can handle interruptions.

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Azure Spot Instances can be terminated at any time, so make sure your workload can handle this.

The maximum amount of time a Spot VM can run is 24 hours.

You can choose the maximum price you're willing to pay per hour for a Spot VM.

Azure Spot Instances can be used with Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets.

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Azure Spot Instances offer a lot of flexibility in managing workloads.

You can create a VM manually by heading to the Virtual Machines blade and clicking +Add a Virtual Machine.

The Eviction type can be set to Capacity Only, which means the VM will be evicted when the capacity is needed for other workloads.

This type of eviction policy is a great way to optimize operational costs.

The Eviction Policy can also be set to Stop/Deallocate, which means the VM will be stopped or deallocated when evicted.

This feature is another great way to help manage workloads and reduce costs.

You can test your Azure Spot VM Instances and see how they perform in different scenarios.

Azure Spot Instances can help you save on costs and increase flexibility in managing your workloads.

Consider reading: Azure Vdi Cost

The Azure Portal is a web-based interface where you can manage all your Azure resources in one place. You can create, manage, and monitor your resources, including Azure Spot instances, from here.

Azure Resource Manager (ARM) is used to manage Azure resources and enforce policies across your entire organization. It helps you to organize and manage your resources in a hierarchical structure, making it easier to track and manage them.

You can use ARM to create and manage resource groups, which are the primary unit of management and deployment in Azure.

Take a look at this: Arm in Azure

You can create an instance in the Azure portal by clicking on the "Create" button in the top left corner of the screen.

An instance is a virtual machine that you can use to run your application. You can choose from a variety of instance sizes, including B1, B2, and B3.

Each instance has a unique identifier, known as an instance ID. This ID is used to distinguish your instance from others in the Azure environment.

You can also assign a name to your instance, which can be useful for identification purposes. The name should be unique and follow the Azure naming conventions.

In the Azure portal, you can view the details of your instance, including its instance ID, name, and size. You can also restart or delete your instance from this screen.

The instance size you choose will affect the amount of resources available to your application. For example, a B1 instance has 1 vCPU and 2 GB of memory, while a B3 instance has 4 vCPUs and 8 GB of memory.

In the Azure Portal, you can view historical pricing and eviction rates for a specific VM size in a region while creating the VM. This feature is particularly useful for Spot VM Instances, where eviction rates are a crucial consideration.

You can see a link titled "View pricing history and compare prices in nearby regions" after selecting the checkbox to Run with Azure Spot discount. This link will take you to a table or graph of spot pricing for the specified VM size.

Worth a look: Azure Vm Sizing

Eviction rates are quoted per hour and are based on historical eviction data of the last 7 days. For example, an eviction rate of 10% means a VM has a 10% chance of being evicted within the next hour.

In the Portal, you can also see that not all VM sizes are available for the Azure Spot discount, and the pricing may differ between regions.

The Azure Resource Graph is a powerful tool that allows you to programmatically access relevant data, including Spot VM SKU information. You can use it to get pricing history in the last 90 days and eviction rates for the last 28 trailing days.

With the Resource Graph, you can query Spot eviction rates and the last few months of Spot prices programmatically through ARM or the ARG Explorer in the Azure portal. This is a huge time-saver, especially if you need to compare data across multiple regions and SKUs.

You can create a custom query to extract the specific data relevant to your scenario, with the ability to filter across a variety of parameters, such as SKU and region. This makes it easy to find a different Spot SKU or region with a lower price and/or eviction rate.

Here are some key benefits of using the Resource Graph to access Spot VM SKU data: