Announcing the public preview of the new Azure FXv2-series Virtual Machines

Today, Microsoft is announcing the public preview of new Azure FXv2 series virtual machines (VMs) based on the 5th generation Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8573C (Emerald Rapids) processors. This preview includes compute-optimized VMs, the FXmsv2 series and the FXmdsv2 series.

To request access to a preview, please complete the following: FXv2-Series-Preview-Sign-Up.

The new Azure FXv2 series VMs offer several improvements over the previous generation (FXv1 series) VMs.

• Up to 1.5x CPU performance
• 2x vCPU, max VM size is 96 vCPU
• 1.5x+ network bandwidth, up to 70Gbps
• Provides up to 2x the local storage (read) IOPS and up to 5280GiB local SSD capacity
• Up to 2x the IOPS and up to 5x the throughput at remote storage performance
• Up to 400k IOPS and up to 11GBps throughput, Premium v2/Ultra Disk support
• Up to 1800GiB memory

FXv2 series VMs offer up to 4.0GHz all core turbo frequency. In addition to the standard size, FXv2 series VMs are available in restricted core sizes, with the number of vCPUs limited to half or a quarter of the original VM size, giving you the flexibility to choose the core and memory configuration that best suits your workload. These VMs support up to 21:1 memory to vCPU ratio with the default size, and better ratios with restricted core sizes. You can also choose between FXv2 series VMs with local disks and FXv2 series VMs without local disks. These VMs support NVMe interfaces for both local and remote disks.

also, Azure Boost FXv2 series VMs feature enhanced networking, storage, and overall CPU performance and security. Finally, these VMs feature enhanced AI capabilities with Intel® Advanced Matrix Extension (AMX) for higher inference and training performance, and enhanced security with Total Memory Encryption (TME) technology.

You can learn more about the new Azure FXv2 series VMs by visiting our specifications page. FXmdsv2 series and FXmsv2 series.

Overall, the FXv2 series Azure Virtual Machines are best suited to provide a balanced solution for compute-intensive workloads that require large amounts of memory, high performance, storage, and I/O bandwidth, such as databases, data analytics, and EDA workloads.

The FXv2 series is purpose-built to address the diverse needs of SQL Server workloads, specifically those that require more compute, memory, storage, and I/O bandwidth, but do not necessarily require higher core counts. Key benefits for SQL Server workloads include:

• Enhanced Performance: FXv2 series VMs provide higher and improved performance capabilities to ensure that SQL Server workloads can efficiently process large amounts of data and transactions. These capabilities are essential for applications that require high I/O operations per second (IOPS) and low latency.
• High memory and storage: FXv2 series VMs provide specifications to meet the needs of SQL workloads that require high memory, storage, and I/O bandwidth, including 96 vCPUs with up to 1800 GiB of memory, up to 400K IOPS, and up to 11 GiB of remote storage throughput.

• Cost-effectiveness: Limited vCPU supported VM sizes help reduce SQL Server licensing costs by improving the memory-to-core ratio while maintaining the same memory, storage, and I/O bandwidth.
• Local Storage: FXmdsv2 series VMs provide local storage for tempdb-intensive workloads, significantly improving the performance of SQL Server workloads that require fast access to temporary data.

The FXv2 series VMs also provide EDA customers with an updated Intel-based option tailored to the needs of the semiconductor community. Compared to the previous generation FXv1 VMs, the combination of larger L3 cache, higher instruction clock, wider memory, and faster storage makes the FXv2 series VMs significantly improved upon the demanding needs of EDA workloads, reducing chip design turnaround times, time to market, and improving license utilization.

During the preview period, VMs are available in Azure regions such as US West 3 and Southeast Asia for all VM sizes up to 96 vCPUs. The number of regions will continue to expand beyond 2024.

The new virtual machines support all remote disk types, including Standard SSD, Standard HDD, Premium SSD (v1), Premium SSD v2, and Ultra Disk storage. For more information about the different disk types and their regional availability, see: Azure Managed Disk Types Disk storage is billed separately from virtual machines. You can deploy these new VMs using any of the existing methods, including: Azure PortalSDK, API, PowerShell, and command-line interface (CLI).

The new Azure FXv2 series VMs support a wide range of OS distributions, including Canonical Ubuntu, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Enterprise Linux, Alma Linux, Windows Client 11 Pro and Enterprise, and Windows Server, for developers who want to leverage Azure’s high availability, scalability, and security platform to run cloud-based workloads and test workflows. Customers can access the full list of images here: Azure Marketplace.

During the preview, Azure FXv2 series VMs will be billed at regular prices. To learn more about FXv2 series VM pricing, visit: Azure Virtual Machines Pricing Page. Eligible new Azure customers can sign up at: Azure Free Account Get $200 in Azure credits.

FXv2 series VMs are tuned for compute-intensive workloads, delivering outstanding performance and efficiency for high-performance data processing, complex workloads, and intensive analytics. The new FXv2 series VMs provide versatile solutions for a wide range of compute requirements. Explore the FXv2 series VMs today and learn how they can improve performance and operational efficiency.

To request access: Please write FXv2-Series-Preview-Sign-Up.

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