Decode Azure Virtual Machine naming conventions and understand what all those letters and numbers actually mean. Learn how to read VM names like D16ds_v5 and E32as_v6, understand the difference between families, series, and sizes, and choose the right VM configuration for your workloads. This presentation cuts through the complexity of the Azure VM ecosystem, helping you make informed decisions about compute resources, avoid common pitfalls, and optimize both performance and cost.
This presentation provides a complete walkthrough of Azure VM sizing, including:
- Azure VM Naming Grammar – How to read VM names left to right and understand what each character means
- Families, Series, and Sizes – The hierarchy that defines workload intent, hardware generation, and capacity
- Additive Feature Flags – Decoding letters like
d,s,a,p,b, and what they mean for your workload - Series vs Size Decision Flow – Why choosing the right series matters more than just vCPU count
- Common Patterns and Cheat Sheets – Quick reference for frequently used series like Dsv5, Dasv6, Ebdsv5, and GPU-based N-series
- Best Practices – How to avoid common sizing mistakes and match VMs to real-world requirements
- Real Examples – Walking through actual VM names and what they reveal about capabilities
- Documentation Navigation – How Microsoft's docs map to the family → series → size hierarchy
For anyone deploying or managing Azure VMs who wants to move beyond guesswork and understand the underlying structure.