Understanding Virtual Machine Size Names

Understanding the naming convention used for Azure virtual machines (VMs) can help you determine which types are most suitable for your workflow:

Components of the name are described below.

Tier

Service tier. The Standard tier provides the best capacity and performance for HPC workflows.

Family

VM Family Series. Each family is geared toward a specific type of activity. See Virtual Machine series.

Subfamily

Used for specialized VM differentiations only.

vCPUs

Indicates the number of virtual CPUs (vCPUs) of the VM.

Constrained vCPUs

Used for certain VM sizes only. Indicates the number of vCPUs) for the constrained vCPU capable size.

Additive Features

Lowercase letters in the VM name represent an additional capability:

Letter	Property
a	AMD processors
b	Block Storage performance
d	Diskful (has local temp disk)
i	Isolated size
l	Low memory
m	Memory intensive (most amount of memory in a particular size)
p	ARM processors
t	Tiny memory (smallest amount in a particular size)
s	Premium Storage capable, including possible use of Ultra SSD

Accelerator Type

For specialized/GPU VMs, this indicates the VM's hardware accelerator type (for example, 'T4' denotes NVIDIA Tesla T4 graphics card).

Version

Version of the VM Family Series. In general, higher versions have newer generation hardware.

For more detailed information, see Azure virtual machine sizes naming conventions in the Microsoft Azure documentation.

For specific hardware recommendations based on the Ansys application you are using, refer to Recommended Hardware for VDI Workflows and Recommended Hardware for Cluster Workflows.