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x86-64 instance profiles

x86-64 instance profiles

When you provision IBM Cloud® Virtual Servers for Virtual Private Cloud, you can select from seven families of profiles: Balanced, Compute, Memory, Ultra High Memory, Very High Memory, Storage Optimized, and GPU.

A profile is a combination of instance attributes, such as the number of vCPUs, amount of RAM, network bandwidth, and default bandwidth allocation. The attributes define the size and capabilities of the virtual server instance that is provisioned. In the IBM Cloud console, you can select the most recently used profile or click View All Profiles to choose the profile that best fits your needs.

For more information about SAP profiles, see Intel Virtual Server certified profiles on VPC infrastructure for SAP HANA and Intel Virtual Server certified profiles on VPC infrastructure for SAP NetWeaver.

The following profile families are available when you provision a virtual server instance.

Virtual server family selections
Family Description
Balanced Balanced profiles offer a core to RAM ratio that is best for midsize databases and common cloud applications with moderate traffic.
Compute Compute profiles offer a core to RAM ratio that is best for moderate to high web traffic workloads. Compute profiles are best for workloads with intensive CPU demands, such as high web traffic workloads, production batch processing, and front-end web servers.
Memory Memory profiles offer a core to RAM ratio that is best for memory caching and real-time analytics workloads. Memory profiles are best for memory intensive workloads, such as large caching workloads, intensive database applications, or in-memory analytics workloads.
Very High Memory Very High Memory profiles offer a core to RAM ratio of 1 vCPU to 14 GiB of RAM. This family is optimized for running small to medium in-memory databases and OLAP workloads, such as SAP BW/4 HANA.
Ultra High Memory Ultra High Memory profiles offer the most memory per core with 1 vCPU to 28 GiB of RAM. These profiles are optimized to run large in-memory databases and OLTP workloads, such as SAP S/4 HANA.
GPU GPU enabled profiles provide on-demand access to NVIDIA V100 and A100 GPUs to accelerate AI, high-performance computing, data science, and graphics workloads.
Storage Optimized Storage Optimized profiles offer temporary SSD instance storage disks at a ratio of 1 vCPU to 300 GB instance storage with a smaller price point per GB. These profiles are designed for storage-dense workloads and offer virtio interface type for attached disks.
Confidential Compute Confidential Compute-supported profiles use processor reserved memory called EPC (Enclave Page Cache) to encrypt application data. Processor reserved memory EPC maintains confidentiality and integrity.

2nd generation profiles with instance storage and 2nd generation profiles with 64 or more vCPUs are deployed exclusively on the Intel®'s second-generation quad processor Xeon® Platinum 8260 Cascade Lake with 96 cores that are running at a base speed of 2.4 GHz and an all-core turbo frequency of 3.1 GHz or Intel®'s quad processor Xeon® Gold 6248 Cascade Lake with 80 cores that are running at a base speed of 2.5 GHz and an all-core turbo frequency of 3.1 GHz.

For more information about LinuxONE (s390x processor architecture) profiles, see s390x instance profiles.

Profiles with AMD-manufactured processors are available in the Toronto region.

Balanced

Balanced profiles provide a mix of performance and scalability for more common workloads. The Balanced profile family includes profiles with and without instance storage. The following table shows all Balanced profiles that are available for Intel® x86-64, and AMD x86-64 processors.

Balanced profiles with the bx2d prefix are available in the US South (Dallas), US East (Washington DC), Canada (Toronto), United Kingdom (London), Germany (Frankfurt), Spain (Madrid), Japan (Tokyo), Japan (Osaka), and Australia (Sydney) regions.

The following table shows all balance profiles that are available for x86-64.

Balanced bx3d beta profile options for Intel x86-64 instances
Balanced Beta profile options for Intel x86-64 virtual server instances.
Instance profile vCPU / Cores NUMA count GiB RAM Bandwidth cap (Gbps) Instance storage (GB)
bx3d-2x10 2 / 1 1 10 4 1x65
bx3d-4x20 4 / 2 1 20 8 1x130
bx3d-8x40 8 / 4 1 40 16 1x260
bx3d-16x80 16 / 8 1 80 32 1x520
bx3d-24x120 24 / 12 1 120 48 1x780
bx3d-32x160 32 / 16 2 160 64 2x520
bx3d-48x240 48 / 24 2 240 96 2x780
bx3d-64x320 64 / 32 2 320 128 2x1024
bx3d-96x480 96 / 48 2 480 192 2x1560
bx3d-128x640 128 / 64 2 640 200 2x2080
bx3d-176x880 176 / 88 2 880 200 2x2860
Balance profiles options for Intel x86-64 instances
Balanced bx2 profile options for Intel x86-64 virtual server instances.
Instance profile vCPU / Cores GiB RAM Bandwidth cap (Gbps) Instance storage (GB)
bx2-2x8 2 / 1 8 4
bx2d-2x8 2 / 1 8 4 1x75
bx2-4x16 4 / 2 16 8
bx2d-4x16 4 / 2 16 8 1x150
bx2-8x32 8 / 4 32 16
bx2d-8x32 8 / 4 32 16 1x300
bx2-16x64 16 / 8 64 32
bx2d-16x64 16 / 8 64 32 1x600
bx2-32x128 32 / 16 128 64
bx2d-32x128 32 / 16 128 64 2x600
bx2-48x192 48 / 24 192 80
bx2d-48x192 48 / 24 192 80 1x900
bx2-64x256 64 / 32 256 80
bx2d-64x256 64 / 32 256 80 2x1200
bx2-96x384 96 / 48 384 80
bx2d-96x384 96 / 48 384 80 2x1800
bx2-128x512 128 / 64 512 80
bx2d-128x512 128 / 64 512 80 2x2400
bx2a-2x8 2 / 1 8 2
bx2a-4x16 4 / 2 16 4
bx2a-8x32 8 / 4 32 8
bx2a-16x64 16 / 8 64 16
bx2a-32x128 32 / 16 128 32
bx2a-48x192 48 / 24 192 48
bx2a-64x256 64 / 32 256 64
bx2a-96x384 96 / 48 384 80
bx2a-128x512 128 / 64 512 80
bx2a-228x912 228 / 114 912 80

AMD-based virtual machines use AMD EPYC Milan processors. Compute capabilities are limited to AMD EPYC Rome capabilities.

Compute

Compute profiles are best for workloads with intensive CPU demands, such as high web traffic workloads, production batch processing, and front-end web servers. The Compute profile family includes profiles with and without instance storage. The following table shows all Compute profiles that are available for ® x86-64.

Compute profiles with the cx2d prefix are available in the US South (Dallas), US East (Washington DC), Canada (Toronto), United Kingdom (London), Germany (Frankfurt), Spain (Madrid), Japan (Tokyo), Japan (Osaka), and Australia (Sydney) regions.

The following table shows all compute profiles that are available for x86-64.

Compute profile options for x86-64 instances
3rd generation Compute profile options for Intel x86-64 virtual server instances.
Instance profile vCPU / Cores NUMA count GiB RAM Bandwidth cap (Gbps) Instance storage (GB)
cx3d-2x5 2 / 1 1 5 4 1x65
cx3d-4x10 4 / 2 1 10 8 1x130
cx3d-8x20 8 / 4 1 20 16 1x260
cx3d-16x40 16 / 8 1 40 32 1x520
cx3d-24x60 24 / 12 1 60 48 1x780
cx3d-32x80 32 / 16 2 80 64 2x520
cx3d-48x120 48 / 24 2 120 96 2x780
cx3d-64x160 64 / 32 2 160 128 2x1024
cx3d-96x240 96 / 48 2 240 192 2x1560
cx3d-128x320 128 / 64 2 320 200 2x2080
cx3d-176x440 176 / 88 2 440 200 2x2860
Compute profile options for x86-64 instances
Compute profile options for Intel x86-64 virtual server instances.
Instance profile vCPU / Cores GiB RAM Bandwidth cap (Gbps) Instance storage (GB)
cx2-2x4 2 / 1 4 4
cx2d-2x4 2 / 1 4 4 1x75
cx2-4x8 4 / 2 8 8
cx2d-4x8 4 / 2 8 8 1x150
cx2-8x16 8 / 4 16 16
cx2d-8x16 8 / 4 16 16 1x300
cx2-16x32 16 / 8 32 32
cx2d-16x32 16 / 8 32 32 1x600
cx2-32x64 32 / 16 64 64
cx2d-32x64 32 / 16 64 64 2x600
cx2-48x96 48 / 24 96 80
cx2d-48x96 48 / 24 96 80 1x900
cx2-64x128 64 / 32 128 80
cx2d-64x128 64 / 32 128 80 2x1200
cx2-96x192 96 / 48 192 80
cx2d-96x192 96 / 48 192 80 2x1800
cx2-128x256 128 / 64 256 80
cx2d-128x256 128 / 64 256 80 2x2400

Memory

Memory profiles are best for memory intensive workloads, such as large caching workloads, intensive database applications, or in-memory analytics workloads. The Memory profile family includes profiles with and without instance storage. The following table shows all Memory profiles that are available for Intel® x86-64.

Memory profiles with the mx2d prefix are available in the US South (Dallas), US East (Washington DC), Canada (Toronto), United Kingdom (London), Germany (Frankfurt), Spain (Madrid), Japan (Tokyo), Japan (Osaka), and Australia (Sydney) regions.

Memory mx3d Beta profile options for x86-64 instances
Memory mx3d profile options for Intel x86-64 virtual server instances.
Instance profile vCPU / Cores NUMA count GiB RAM Bandwidth cap (Gbps) Instance storage (GB)
mx3d-2x20 2 / 1 1 20 4 1x65
mx3d-4x40 4 / 2 1 40 8 1x130
mx3d-8x80 8 / 4 1 80 16 1x260
mx3d-16x160 16 / 8 1 160 32 1x520
mx3d-24x240 24 / 12 1 240 48 1x780
mx3d-32x320 32 / 16 2 320 64 2x520
mx3d-48x480 48 / 24 2 480 96 2x780
mx3d-64x640 64 / 32 2 640 128 2x1024
mx3d-96x960 96 / 48 2 960 192 2x1560
mx3d-128x1280 128 / 64 2 1280 200 2x2080
mx3d-176x1760 176 / 88 2 1760 200 2x2860
Memory mx2 profile options for x86-64 instances
Memory mx2 profile options for Intel x86-64 virtual server instances.
Instance profile vCPU / Cores GiB RAM Bandwidth cap (Gbps) Instance storage (GB)
mx2-2x16 2 / 1 16 4
mx2d-2x16 2 / 1 16 4 1x75
mx2-4x32 4 / 2 32 8
mx2d-4x32 4 / 2 32 8 1x150
mx2-8x64 8 / 4 64 16
mx2d-8x64 8 / 4 64 16 1x300
mx2-16x128 16 / 8 128 32
mx2d-16x128 16 / 8 128 32 1x600
mx2-32x256 32 / 16 256 64
mx2d-32x256 32 / 16 256 64 2x600
mx2-48x384 48 / 24 384 80
mx2d-48x384 48 / 24 384 80 2x900
mx2-64x512 64 / 32 512 80
mx2d-64x512 64 / 32 512 80 2x1200
mx2-96x768 96 / 48 768 80
mx2d-96x768 96 / 48 768 80 2x1800
mx2-128x1024 128 / 64 1024 80
mx2d-128x1024 128 / 64 1024 80 2x2400

Very High Memory

Very High Memory profiles offer 1 vCPU to 14 GiB of RAM to host small to medium-sized in-memory databases, OLAP services such as SAP NetWeaver, and other memory intensive applications. All Very High Memory profiles are provisioned with temporary SSD-backed instance storage at no additional charge. The following Very High Memory profiles are available on Intel® x86 processors.

The 3rd generation profile with the vx3d prefix is a beta feature that is available for evaluation and testing purposes. This profile is available only in the Toronto (ca-tor) region to provision virtual server instances on 4th Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors, the Intel 8474C processor (previously code named Sapphire Rapids). For more information about the capabilities of the new profiles, see Next generation instance profiles.

  • The vx2d profiles are on the Cascade Lake processors.
  • The vx3d profiles are on the Sapphire Rapids processors.
Very High Memory profiles options for x86-64 instances
Very High Memory profiles options for Intel x86-64 virtual server instances.
Instance profile vCPU Cores GiB RAM Bandwidth cap (Gbps) Instance storage (GB)
vx3d-2x32 2 1 32 4 1x65
vx3d-4x64 4 2 64 8 1x130
vx3d-8x128 8 4 128 16 1x260
vx3d-16x256 16 8 256 32 1x520
vx3d-24x384 24 12 384 48 1x780
vx3d-32x512 32 16 512 64 2x520
vx3d-48x768 48 24 768 96 2x780
vx3d-64x1024 64 32 1024 128 2x1024
vx3d-88x1408 88 44 1408 176 2x1430
vx3d-96x1536 96 48 1536 200 2x1560
vx3d-128x2048 128 64 2048 200 2x2080
vx3d-176x2816 176 88 2816 200 2x2860
Very High Memory profiles options for x86-64 instances
Very High Memory profiles options for Intel x86-64 virtual server instances.
Instance profile vCPU Cores GiB RAM Bandwidth cap (Gbps) Instance storage (GB)
vx2d-2x28 2 1 28 4 1x60
vx2d-4x56 4 2 56 8 1x120
vx2d-8x112 8 4 112 16 1x240
vx2d-16x224 16 8 224 32 1x480
vx2d-44x616 44 22 616 80 1x1320
vx2d-88x1232 88 44 1232 80 2x1320
vx2d-144x2016 144 72 2016 80 2x2160
vx2d-176x2464 176 88 2464 80 2x2640

Ultra High Memory

Ultra High Memory profiles are hosted exclusively on the latest generation Intel® Xeon® Platinum Cascade Lake server hosts. This profile family offers our highest vCPU to memory ratio with 28 GiB of memory for every 1 vCPU of compute and up to 5.7 TiB of available RAM and is optimized for running memory intensive applications and in-memory database such as SAP HANA, Memcached, or Redis. All Very High Memory profiles are provisioned with temporary SSD-backed instance storage at no additional charge.

The following Ultra High Memory profiles are available for x86-64 processors:

Ultra High Memory profiles options for x86-64 instances
Ultra High Memory profiles options for Intel x86-64 virtual server instances.
Instance profile vCPU / Cores GiB RAM Bandwidth cap (Gbps) Instance storage (GB)
ux2d-2x56 2 / 1 56 4 1x60
ux2d-4x112 4 / 2 112 8 1x120
ux2d-8x224 8 / 4 224 16 1x240
ux2d-16x448 16 / 8 448 32 1x480
ux2d-36x1008 36 / 18 1008 64 1x1080
ux2d-48x1344 48 / 24 1344 80 2x720
ux2d-72x2016 72 / 36 2016 80 2x1080
ux2d-100x2800 100 / 50 2800 80 2x1500
ux2d-200x5600 200 / 100 5600 80 2x3000

GPU

The GPU profile family includes -v100, -a100, -l4, and -l40S and -h100 profiles. The GPU profile family includes profiles with and without instance storage.

  • GPU -v100 profiles include 1 or 2 NVIDIA V100 PCIe 16 GB GPUs. All OS images are supported on these GPU profiles.
  • Select availability GPU -a100 profiles includes 8 NVIDIA A100 NVlink 80 GB GPUs. The a100 offering is available to select customers. This GPU profile supports only Linux OS images Ubuntu or RHEL.
  • GPU -l4 profiles include NVIDIA L4 24 GB GPUs.
  • GPU -l40S profiles include NVIDIA L40S 48 GB GPUs.
  • Select availability GPU -h100 profiles include NVIDIA H100 80 GB GPUs. The system is an HGX design. The H100 offering is available in the following regions and zones: London (eu-gb-2), Sydney (au-syd-2), Toronto (ca-tor-3), Madrid (eu-es-3), Washington DC (us-east-3), Tokyo (jp-tok-3), Sao Paulo (br-sao-1), Dallas (us-south-1), and Frankfurt (eu-de-2).

See Download drivers to review the most current versions that are supported. NVIDIA GPU drivers must be installed separately.

GPU gx3 24 GB profile options for Intel x86-64 instances
GPU gx3 24 GB profile options for Intel x86-64 virtual server instances.
Instance profile vCPU / Cores GiB RAM Type / Number of GPUs Bandwidth Cap (Gbps) Instance storage (GB)
gx3-16x80x1l4 16 / 8 80 l4 / 1 32
gx3-32x160x2l4 32 / 16 160 l4 / 2 64
gx3-64x320x4l4 64 / 32 320 l4 / 4 128
gx3-24x120x1l40s 24 / 12 120 l40s / 1 50
gx3-48x240x2l40s 48 / 24 240 l40s / 2 100
gx3d-160x1792x8h100 160 / 80 1792 h100 / 8 200 8x7680
GPU gx2 16 GB profile options for Intel x86-64 instances
GPU gx2 16 GB profile options for Intel x86-64 virtual server instances.
Instance profile vCPU / Cores GiB RAM Type / Number of GPUs Bandwidth Cap (Gbps) Instance storage (GB)
gx2-8x64x1v100 8 / 4 64 v100 / 1 16
gx2-16x128x1v100 16 / 8 128 v100 / 1 32
gx2-16x128x2v100 16 / 8 128 v100 / 2 32
gx2-32x256x2v100 32 / 16 256 v100 / 2 64
gx2-80x1280x8a100 80 / 40 1280 a100 / 8 200 4x3200

Considerations for GPU profiles

When you create a -v100, -a100, -h100, l4, or l40S GPU profile, keep the following recommendations in mind.

  • During IBM Cloud periodic maintenance, GPU workloads aren't secure live migrated. Instead, the virtual server instance is restarted. You are notified 30 days in advance of any maintenance where the virtual server instance restarts. For more information, see Understanding cloud maintenance operations.
  • If you are using GPU profiles, you need to install the NVIDA driver onto your virtual server instance. For more information, see Managing GPUs.
  • If you are using GPU profiles, you might need to install the CUDA toolkit onto your virtual server instance. For more information, see Managing GPUs.
  • For more information about persistent storage options, see Storage notes for profiles.

Storage Optimized

Storage Optimized profiles are hosted exclusively on Intel® Xeon® Platinum Cascade Lake servers. This profile family offers our highest vCPU to instance storage ratio with 300 GB of storage for every 1 vCPU and is optimized for running data lake and other workloads that require more intensive data capabilities. All storage optimized profiles are provisioned with temporary SSD-backed instance storage at no additional charge. For more information, see Lifecycle of instance storage.

Storage Optimized profiles use the Storage optimized (ox2) instance storage quota, for instance, storage quota tracking. Unlike other profiles, which use the Instance storage quota. For more information, see Quotas.

Storage Optimized profiles are available in the US South (Dallas), US East (Washington DC), United Kingdom (London), Germany (Frankfurt), EU Spain (Madrid), Japan (Tokyo), and Japan (Osaka) regions.

The following Storage Optimized profiles are available for x86-64 processors:

Storage Optimized profiles options for x86-64 instances
Storage Optimized profiles options for Intel x86-64 virtual server instances.
Instance profile vCPU Cores GiB RAM Bandwidth cap (Gbps) Instance storage (GB) Interface type
ox2-2x16 2 1 16 4 1x600 virtio_blk
ox2-4x32 4 2 32 8 1x1200 virtio_blk
ox2-8x64 8 4 64 16 2x1200 virtio_blk
ox2-16x128 16 8 128 32 2x2400 virtio_blk
ox2-32x256 32 16 256 64 3x3200 virtio_blk
ox2-64x512 64 32 512 80 6x3200 virtio_blk
ox2-96x768 96 48 768 80 9x3200 virtio_blk
ox2-128x1024 128 64 1024 80 12x3200 virtio_blk

Confidential computing profiles

Select availability

The following profiles support Confidential computing with Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX), Confidential computing with Intel Trusted Domain Extension (TDX), and secure boot.

For more information about confidential computing, see Confidential computing for x86 Virtual Servers for VPC.

Balanced profile options for confidential computing compatible virtual server instances
Balanced bx3 profiles for confidential compute compatible virtual server instances.
Instance profile vCPU / Cores GiB RAM EPC (SGX) capacity (GiB) Bandwidth cap (Gbps) Instance storage (GB)
bx3dc-2x10 2 / 1 10 4 4 1x65
bx3dc-4x20 4 / 2 20 8 8 1x130
bx3dc-8x40 8 / 4 40 16 16 1x260
bx3dc-16x80 16 / 8 80 32 32 1x520
bx3dc-24x120 24 / 12 120 48 48 1x780
bx3dc-32x160 32 / 16 160 64 64 2x520
bx3dc-48x240 48 / 24 240 96 96 2x780
bx3dc-64x320 64 / 32 320 128 128 2x1024
bx3dc-96x480 96 / 48 480 192 480 2x1560
Compute profile options for confidential computing compatible virtual server instances
Compute cx3 profile options for confidential compute compatible virtual server instances.
Instance profile vCPU / Cores GiB RAM EPC (SGX) capacity (GiB) Bandwidth cap (Gbps) Instance storage (GB)
cx3dc-2x5 2 / 1 5 2 4 1x65
cx3dc-4x10 4 / 2 10 4 8 1x130
cx3dc-8x20 8 / 4 20 8 16 1x260
cx3dc-16x40 16 / 8 40 16 32 1x520
cx3dc-24x60 24 / 12 60 24 48 1x780
cx3dc-32x80 32 / 16 80 32 64 2x520
cx3dc-48x120 48 / 24 120 48 96 2x780
cx3dc-64x160 64 / 32 160 64 128 2x1024
cx3dc-96x240 96 / 48 240 96 192 2x1560
cx3dc-128x320 128 / 64 320 128 200 2x2860

Bandwidth allocation

Instance bandwidth is allocated between volume bandwidth and networking bandwidth. The bandwidth capacity (Bandwidth Cap) is determined by the virtual server profile that you select during instance provisioning. For example, a bx2-2x8 balanced server profile allows a bandwidth cap of 4 Gbps.

Bandwidth allocation between storage and networking

The initial volume and network bandwidth allocation depends on the bandwidth that is set by the instance profile that you selected. You can also see the bandwidth allocations in the profile information during instance creation in the console. The bandwidth allocation between Storage and Network can be changed on the instance details page after you provision an instance.

For example, for the bx2-2x8 profile, you might have the following bandwidth configuration:

  • Storage: 1 Gbps
  • Network: 3 Gbps

You can adjust the amount of overall bandwidth that is provided to storage volumes within the overall instance limits. However, both volume and network bandwidth must be at least 500 MBps each. For example, to allow more bandwidth for volumes, you can apportion the bx2-2x8 example in equal allocations:

  • Storage: 2 Gbps
  • Network: 2 Gbps

For more information, see Bandwidth allocation for instance profiles and Adjusting bandwidth allocation by using the UI.

For more information, see Bandwidth allocation for instance profiles and Adjusting bandwidth allocation by using the CLI.

For more information, see Bandwidth allocation for instance profiles and Adjusting total storage bandwidth allocation from the API.

Bandwidth allocation with multiple data volumes

The bandwidth for volumes is divided between all the attached volumes. To help ensure reasonable boot times, a minimum of 393 MBps is allocated to the primary boot volume. The remaining bandwidth is divided between the data volumes. You can attach up to 12 data volumes to your instance. The data volumes are assigned bandwidth that is proportional to their maximum bandwidth. For example, if you have an instance with four identical data volumes, the overall volumes bandwidth is divided equally among them. If you are using only one volume at a time, then that volume still gets only the bandwidth that is assigned to it, one-fourth of the overall volumes bandwidth. For more information, see Bandwidth allocation for Block Storage volumes.

Bandwidth allocation with multiple network interfaces

You can add up to 15 network interfaces for your virtual server instance, depending on the vCPU count that is included in the instance profile.

  • 2-16 vCPUs: Up to five network interfaces
  • 17-48 vCPUs: Up to 10 network interfaces
  • 49 or more vCPUs: Up to 15 network interfaces

With multiple network interfaces, bandwidth is distributed evenly across the network interfaces that are attached to the virtual server instance.

For more information, see Managing network interfaces.

Block Storage volume notes for profiles

When you create secondary data volumes, you select a volume profile that best meets your requirements. Volume profiles are available as three predefined tiers or as a custom profile. These volume profiles relate to virtual server instance profiles:

  • A 3 IOPS general-purpose tier profile provides IOPS/GB performance that is suitable for a virtual server instance Balanced profile.
  • A 5-IOPS tier profile provides IOPS/GB performance that is suitable for a virtual server instance Compute profile.
  • A 10-IOPS tier profile provides IOPS/GB performance that is suitable for a virtual server instance Memory profile.

Next generation instance profiles

The 3rd generation of IBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC are available to provision in all regions. This new generation features virtual server profile families that are hosted exclusively on Intel 4th Generation Xeon Scalable processors to provide the most powerful and performant general-purpose profiles available. These 3rd generation profiles provide the following enhancements:

  • Improved performance with DDR 5 memory DIMMs, PCI Gen 5 interconnects, and more memory per vCPU than prior generation profiles.
  • A wide variety of profiles sizes with core to memory ratios optimized to maximize performance and economics for intensive workloads.
  • Enhanced integrated accelerators that feature AMX-512, AVX, and enhanced crypto acceleration.
  • Instances are started by default with Open Virtual Machine Format (OVMF), and run in Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) mode for enhanced security.
  • Local instance storage is included with all profiles for ease of access to temporary storage and swap space. For more information about the temporary nature of instance storage, see Lifecycle of instance storage.
  • A 3rd generation profile can be resized to a 2nd generation profile. A 2nd generation profile can be resized to a 3rd generation profile. For more information, see Resizing between Gen 2 and Gen 3 profiles.

Intel Hyper-Threading Technology

All Intel® x86-64 servers have Hyper-Threading enabled by default. Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology is a term that describes simultaneous multithreading (SMT). Hyper-Threading Technology splits each physical core into two virtual processors. Hyper-Threading Technology is like taking a wide road with a single lane and making it into two relatively narrower lanes. The two-lane highway provides better service over the single-lane road if traffic is moving slow and fast. Hyper-Threading Technology provides better application performance for File I/O, Network I/O, and other slower operations mixed with CPU-intensive operations. The performance advantage of Hyper-Threading Technology typically ranges in the range 0 - 30% over a single-thread mode. Some applications might also see a drop in performance.

If you want to disable Intel® Hyper-Threading, see Disabling Intel Hyper-Threading Technology.

Next steps

After you choose a profile, you're ready to create an instance.