Use Availability zones for better resiliency and availability - Advisor Reliability Recommendation

Question

Scenario:

Azure Advisor is showing this recommendation for all my windows VMs deployed with Availability Options selected as No infrastructure redundancy required and recommending to migrate to an availability Zone. VMs existing region supports multiple AZs though I don't want to enable multi zone deployment for VMs considering the cost.

Questions:

1. Is there any difference between a VM running with Availability options selected as No infrastructure redundancy required and other one with Availability options selected as Availability zone and one zone selected in terms of availability? As if you select No infrastructure redundancy required it will be deployed to one of the AZs in the region, which is almost same as running with Availability zone and one zone selected. in second option, you just get to select the AZ.
2. Is there a cost difference for a VM running with these two configuration?
3. If the end result is same both the cases i.e. running VM in one AZ, is it worth actioning this recommendation?

Answer 1

Hi Gorav Gandhi,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A Platform! Thank you for asking your question here.

Choosing a Single Availability Zone: You know exactly which physical area (zone) in Azure your VM is in. This is good for specific needs like compliance or performance.

No Infrastructure Redundancy: Azure decides where to put your VM, possibly in any of the available zones in a region. This is like saying, I'm fine with any zone, you choose Azure.

In essence, if you need to know exactly where your VM is for specific requirements, pick a zone. If you're okay with Azure deciding and possibly saving some costs, go with No Infrastructure Redundancy.

Control: Choose the specific zone (Availability Zone option).

Simplicity: Let Azure handle zone selection (No Infrastructure Redundancy Required).

If you have any further queries, do let us know.

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