Azure Operator Nexus Kubernetes cluster VM SKUs

The Azure Operator Nexus Kubernetes cluster VMs are grouped into node pools, which are collections of VMs that have the same configuration. The VMs in a node pool are used to run your Kubernetes workloads. The Azure Operator Nexus Kubernetes cluster supports the following VM SKUs. These SKUs are available in all Azure regions where the Azure Operator Nexus Kubernetes cluster is available.

There are three types of VM SKUs:

  • General purpose
  • Performance optimized
  • Memory optimized

The primary difference between general-purpose and performance-optimized types of VMs is their approach to emulator thread isolation. VM SKUs optimized for performance have dedicated emulator threads, which allow each VM to operate at maximum efficiency. Conversely, general-purpose VM SKUs have emulator threads that run on the same processors as applications running inside the VM. For application workloads that cannot tolerate other workloads sharing their processors, we recommend using the performance-optimized SKUs. Memory-optimized SKUs allow application workloads with very large memory requirements to access resources from both NUMA cells within the physical machine. As these SKUs are highly resource intensive, it is recommended to use a smaller SKU if suitable for the application workload.

All these SKUs are having the following characteristics:

  • Dedicated host-to-VM CPU mapping
  • Reserved CPUs for Kubelet are 0 and 1, except for NC_G2_8_v1 and NC_P4_28_v1

The general purpose and performance optimized VM SKUs can be used for both worker and control plane nodes within the Azure Operator Nexus Kubernetes cluster. Memory optimized VM SKUs can only be used for worker nodes.

Note

To use these VM SKUs, hardware compatibility should be considered. Operator Nexus offers two hardware options: BOM 1.7.3 and BOM 2.0 (More details here). The larger VM SKUs, specifically NC_G56_224_v1, NC_P54_224_v1, and NC_E110_448_v1, can only be supported on hardware BOM 2.0.

Nexus Tenant Kubernetes cluster VM SKUs are compatible with BOM 2.0, enabling users to use them alongside the larger VM SKUs. However, if a user tries to use BOM 2.0-specific VM SKUs on BOM 1.7.3 compute hardware, they will encounter an "insufficient resources" error during resource creation.

General purpose VM SKUs

VM SKU Name vCPU Memory (GiB) Root Disk (GiB) Compatible Compute SKUs
NC_G56_224_v1 56 224 300 2.0
NC_G48_224_v1 48 224 300 1.7.3, 2.0
NC_G36_168_v1 36 168 300 1.7.3, 2.0
NC_G24_112_v1 24 112 300 1.7.3, 2.0
NC_G12_56_v1 12 56 300 1.7.3, 2.0
NC_G6_28_v1 6 28 300 1.7.3, 2.0
NC_G2_8_v1 2 8 300 1.7.3, 2.0

Performance optimized VM SKUs

VM SKU Name vCPU Memory (GiB) Root Disk (GiB) Compatible Compute SKUs
NC_P54_224_v1 54 224 300 2.0
NC_P46_224_v1 46 224 300 1.7.3, 2.0
NC_P34_168_v1 34 168 300 1.7.3, 2.0
NC_P22_112_v1 22 112 300 1.7.3, 2.0
NC_P10_56_v1 10 56 300 1.7.3, 2.0
NC_P4_28_v1 4 28 300 1.7.3, 2.0

Memory optimized VM SKUs

VM SKU Name vCPU Memory (GiB) Root Disk (GiB) Compatible Compute SKUs
NC_E110_448_v1 110 448 300 2.0
NC_E94_448_v1 94 448 300 1.7.3, 2.0
NC_E70_336_v1 70 336 300 1.7.3, 2.0

Next steps

Try these SKUs in the Azure Operator Nexus Kubernetes cluster. For more information, see Quickstart: Deploy an Azure Operator Nexus Kubernetes cluster.