Azure : Reserved VM Instances (RIs)
Azure reserved virtual machine instances gives the ability to purchase Azure compute resources with up to 43% or more savings for 3-year reservation.
Essentially what Microsoft did, was to listen to the customer’s needs for less cost and gave it through this service. What the customers did is to pre-purchase their VM for 1 or 3 years.
| Info: This solution is good for customers who have a consistent base usage. This is for 24/7 workloads. |
Subscription Account
To purchase reservations we must be owners for two kinds of subscriptions account :
- Pay-as-you-go150px
- Enterprise Agreement150px
Subscription Scope
There are two types of scope:
- Shared, this reservation will apply across all of the subscriptions in the EA.
- Single Subscription, this reservation will apply only to this specific subscription.
Exchange Supported
An exchange is not prohibited if for a current reservation the new purchase is equal to or greater than the prorated credit from the original Azure Reserved VM Instances.
Restrictions on Cancellations
There are two well-known cases for restrictions on a cancellation. These are:
- If someone needs to cancel it he can do it with a 12% termination fee.
- If need to cancel the purchase this can happen for a min and a max amount. Below, at the table, there is a minimum, maximum amount for Euro and Dollar currency.
| 150pxCurrency | Minimum Amount / Per Month150px | Maximum Amount / Per Year150px |
| Euro150px | € 42,82 | € 42,862.89150px |
| 150pxUS Dollars | $ 50,00150px | $ 50,000.00150px |
*Important Note: Prices in Euro are subject to Euro/Dollar exchange rate.
| Info: Operating system is not discounted by reservation, only applies to compute usage.150px |
What is Azure Hybrid Benefit?
The reserved instance covers the infrastructure costs. The Windows software costs are covered by the Azure Hybrid Benefit. Any additional software is charged separately.
How Reserved VM Instances Works
Below are the steps to create a VM instance reservation.
Search for the service
From the main blade [All services] – type “Reservation” and click the Reservation service.
Create Reserved VM Instance
Click the button [Purchase Now], to Reserve VM instance
Fill in the required fields, as the below image shows, and click the button [Purchase].
| Value | Setting |
| Name | This is a predefined Name for the purchase |
| Subscription | Select the Subscription to apply the purchase on |
| Scope | Choose the scope for the purchase, select between share & single subscription |
| Region | Select the Region for the Data Center |
| VM Size |
Choose the VM Size |
| Term |
Select the Term for the purchase, between 1 Year & 3 Years |
| Quantity |
Type the VMs quantity |
After we push the [Purchase] button a new blade opens as the below image shows.
Conclusion
In this post, we see how Microsoft gives the opportunity to customers to save amounts of money on their Azure Computer Resources by using the Azure Reserved VM Instances (RIs) service.