Azure VMware Solution Host Types

Introduction

Azure VMware Solution delivers consistent vSphere-based infrastructure that runs on bare-metal, hyper-converged, hosts within the Microsoft Azure Cloud. These hosts are dedicated to each customer and provide the compute, storage, and network infrastructure for the AVS private cloud. There are multiple host types available with varying memory and storage options allowing customers to optimize their workloads based on their specific use cases.

Regional availability for new host types is limited during the initial rollout. For pricing, and the most current region availability, refer to the Azure VMware Solution pricing page and the products available by region page.

Azure VMware Solution requires a minimum of 3 hosts, and supports up to a maximum of 16 hosts, to deploy a vSphere cluster, however multiple clusters can be deployed within a single private cloud. All hosts must be the same type within a private cloud. If different host types are required to meet use case needs, additional private clouds must be deployed.

The three common host types utilize 4x 25 Gb NICs; two for management and control plane, and two for customer traffic. The newest host type, AV64, utilizes a single 100 Gb NIC. All storage numbers are listed as total raw capacity, usable capacity will differ based on storage policy configurations.

AV36

The AV36 host type was the initial host offering, and is generally the default option in most regions for the AVS private cloud. These hosts are suitable for most workloads, and are available in all regions.

Processor
Type	Intel Xeon Gold 6140 (Skylake)
Number of sockets	2
Number of cores per socket	18
Total physical cores	36 @ 2.3 GHz
Hyper-threading	Enabled
Memory
RAM	576 GB
Storage
Boot volume	2x M.2, 240 GB, RAID-1
vSAN cache	2x 1.6 TB NVMe
vSAN capacity	8x 1.92 TB SSD
vSAN disk groups	2
Total raw vSAN cache	3.2 TB
Total raw vSAN capacity	15.4 TB

AV36P

The AV36P host type is an upgraded version of the AV36 host providing a newer, faster, processor, increased memory, and increased storage capacity and performance.This may be the default option in some regions instead of the AV36 host type.

Processor
Type	Intel Xeon Gold 6240 (Cascade Lake)
Number of sockets	2
Number of cores per socket	18
Total physical cores	36 @ 2.6 GHz (3.9 GHz Turbo)
Hyper-threading	Enabled
Memory
RAM	768 GB
Storage
Boot volume	2x M.2, 240 GB, RAID-1
vSAN cache	2x 750 GB NVMe Intel Optane
vSAN capacity	6x 3.2 TB NVMe
vSAN disk groups	2
Total raw vSAN cache	1.5 TB
Total raw vSAN capacity	19.2 TB

AV52

The AV52 host type provides the largest compute resource footprint for memory and storage dense workloads.

Processor
Type	Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 (Cascade Lake)
Number of sockets	2
Number of cores per socket	26
Total physical cores	52 @ 2.7 GHz (4.0 GHz Turbo)
Hyper-threading	Enabled
Memory
RAM	1.5 TB
Storage
Boot volume	2x M.2, 240 GB, RAID-1
vSAN cache	2x 750 GB NVMe Intel Optane
vSAN capacity	6x 6.4 TB NVMe
vSAN disk groups	2
Total raw vSAN cache	1.5 TB
Total raw vSAN capacity	38.4 TB

AV64

The AV64 host type is the newest host type. This host is used specifically to expand (not create) an AVS private cloud in select regions. This is the only type that can be used to build additional clusters with existing AV36, AV36P, and AV52 host types. For more details on prerequisites, supportability, design, and recommendations, refer to Microsoft’s AV64 documentation.

Processor
Type	Intel Xeon Platinum 8370 (Ice Lake)
Number of sockets	2
Number of cores per socket	32
Total physical cores	64 @ 2.8 GHz (3.5 GHz Turbo)
Hyper-threading	Enabled
Memory
RAM	1 TB
Storage
Boot volume	2x M.2, 240 GB, RAID-1
vSAN cache	2x 1.92 TB NVMe
vSAN capacity	8x 1.92 TB NVMe
vSAN disk groups	2
Total raw vSAN cache	3.84 TB
Total raw vSAN capacity	15.36 TB

Summary and Additional Resources

This document describes the different host types customers can choose from when deploying new clusters within their Azure VMware Solution private cloud. Multiple host types provide customers with choice and flexibility based on their use case or workload type.

Additional Resources

For more information about Azure VMware Solution, you can explore the following resources:

Author and Contributors

Jeremiah Megie, Technical Marketing Manager – Partner Solutions & VMware Cloud Foundation, Broadcom

Changelog

The following updates were made to this guide:

Date	Description of Changes
2022/11/17	Initial publication
2024/02/29	Added AV64 host type