Clarifications regarding VM costs on azure

Question

Hi all,

Recently I've been assigned to be technical leader of a team that uses for development purposes azure VMS.

The team has Enterprise Agreement and for the time being they are using 5VMs.

Since I'm quite new to the azure ecosystem and overwhelmed with the price info here and there I'd like some clarifications on my following questions.

1) Supposedly we need to create a new VM , is it going to be charged additionally or is there a chance the exisitng subscription to cover a maximum number of VMs and if so where can I find this info.

2) If we don't want to get charged for the time being could we use a free service VM B1S even though we are currently under Enterprise Agreement?

3) If we can have a free VM as well how can we ensure that we are not going to be charged by no means, is it something than can be done via settings ?

Thanks in advance

Accepted Answer

Thanks a lot for your help

Answer

Hi there, I will try and answer your questions for you.

You are charged for whatever you deploy and consume but as an EA is a pre-paid agreement it is possible that your deployment will just consume from your existing credit balance. This can be monitored on the EA portal - ea.azure.com but you will need to have access to this portal. https://video2.skills-academy.com/en-us/azure/cost-management-billing/manage/ea-portal-get-started
You can use any "always free" services without cost although your example of a B1s virtual machine is not a free service on an Enterprise Agreement. This is only free on an Azure trial account.
There are no free VM SKUs but for any free services that you want to deploy you just need to make sure to select the correct product and check the pricing in the portal when deploying. Ongoing cost can be tracked through Azure cost management and the EA portal. Please review the section 'Which products are always free?' on this link for always free Azure services that you can deploy for free on your EA subscription. - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/virtual-machines/

For testing purposes you may want to create a separate free Azure trial subscription, this will give you some free credit and access to more free services for a 12 month period. There is a link to sign up for this here also: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/virtual-machines/

Answer

Thanks a lot for you thorough answer.

One last question though, if we decide to choose a VM from the pricing info here

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/virtual-machines/linux/, for example a D2as v5

if I understand correctly it will either get €65.4709/month from the existing credit balance or if for some reason we have surpass it for a month it will be charged additionally ?

Are the above the only costs related with the VM usage , ex if we operate this VM 24/7 then regardless of any other factor the cost will be €65.4709/month ?

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Clarifications regarding VM costs on azure

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