Burstable Virtual Machines
Introducing Cost-Effective Performance
Azure burstable virtual machines (B-series) are designed for workloads that require a higher level of performance periodically but don't need that performance all the time. They provide a baseline level of CPU performance with the ability to burst to a higher level when needed, offering an excellent balance of cost and performance for development, test environments, small-to-medium databases, and web servers.
Key Benefits
- Cost Efficiency: Pay for a baseline performance and get occasional bursts of higher CPU power, optimizing your spending.
- Performance on Demand: Ideal for workloads with fluctuating CPU demands, ensuring responsiveness during peak periods.
- Versatile Use Cases: Suitable for a wide range of applications, from dev/test to low-traffic web applications and databases.
- Credit System: Earn CPU credits when your VM runs below its baseline performance, which are then consumed when bursting.
Available Burstable Instance Families
B-series (Gen1)
vCPUs: 1, 2, 4
Memory: 1 GiB, 2 GiB, 4 GiB
Max Data Disks: 2
Baseline CPU: Up to 40% of a vCPU
Ideal for dev/test, small web servers, and sample applications.
B-series (Gen2)
vCPUs: 2, 4
Memory: 2 GiB, 4 GiB
Max Data Disks: 2
Baseline CPU: Up to 40% of a vCPU
Offers improved performance over Gen1 with a similar cost-effective burstable model.
Bsv2-series
vCPUs: 2, 4, 8
Memory: 2 GiB, 4 GiB, 8 GiB
Max Data Disks: 2
Baseline CPU: Up to 10% of a vCPU
Storage: Local NVMe SSD
Designed for workloads that benefit from local fast storage, such as development/test environments, small-to-medium databases, and web servers.
Bmsv2-series
vCPUs: 2, 4, 8
Memory: 4 GiB, 8 GiB, 16 GiB
Max Data Disks: 2
Baseline CPU: Up to 20% of a vCPU
Storage: Local NVMe SSD
Combines burstable CPU with local fast storage for improved performance on memory-intensive burstable workloads.
How Burstable Performance Works
Burstable VMs accumulate CPU credits when they run below their baseline CPU performance. These credits can then be used to burst above the baseline performance when demand increases. This credit system ensures that your application receives the performance it needs, precisely when it needs it, without continuous high costs.