How to determine the number of Intel SGX hardwares on a single Azure VM server?

Question

Hello,

I'm wondering how to find out the number of Intel SGX hardwares on a single Azure VM instance. Does each CPU have one Intel SGX hardware (such as SGX memory encryption engine)? For example, how many Intel SGX hardwares does DC8ds_v3 have for multiple enclaves to run at the same time on the single server?

Thank you very much!

Answer 1

Hello Sean

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A Platform, thanks for posting your query here.

The DC8ds_v3 instance type has 8 vCPUs, which means that it has 8 Intel SGX hardware (SGX memory encryption engines) for multiple enclaves to run at the same time on the single server. Each vCPU on an Azure VM instance has one Intel SGX hardware, which is used to encrypt and decrypt the memory that is used by SGX enclaves. Therefore, the number of Intel SGX hardware on a single Azure VM instance depends on the number of vCPUs that the instance has.

Ref: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/confidential-computing/quick-create-portal
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/confidential-computing/virtual-machine-solutions-sgx

Hope this helps.