Hot of the announcements at Microsoft Ignite conference is the arrival of some new Memory Optimised VM Types. For those of you configuring SQL workloads on VMs, the DSv2 series has always been the “goto” VM Type for 8 and 16 core workloads, due to the higher RAM to core and IOPS to core ratios. If there are two things SQL needs it’s ram and disk throughput!
Previous VM Types like the Ev3 and the Edv4 failed to offer the same price/performance ratios as the good old DSV2 series like the DS13_v2 and the DS14_v2.
Enter the Edsv5 Series challenger. I included an 8 core comparison, but the 16 core one will be similar.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/edv5-edsv5-series#edsv5-series
| Property | DS13v2 | E8ds_v5 |
|---|---|---|
| ACU | 210-250 | TBA |
| CPU Specs | 8 Core 2.1 to 2.3 Ghz | 8 Core Hyperthreaded Up to 3.5Ghz |
| Memory (GB) | 56 | 64 |
| Temp Storage (SSD) | 112 | 300 |
| Max Uncached Throughput | 384 | 290 |
| Max Burst Throughput | N/A | 1,200 |
| Max NIC Bandwidth | 6,000 | 12,500 |
| Price (Euro /Month) Base VM Excluding SQL with Windows 2019 | 598.37 | 620.53 |
This promises to be the “goto” VM Type for SQL and may well be worth swapping out the older DSV2 series for it if you:
- Are super tight on RAM
- Single threaded CPU performance
- Need more SSD Local space
I would have liked the price to be the same or better to make it a slam dunk case to move, but the newer hardware and more stats could make the switch worthwhile.
A potential negative is that ACU is not published yet. While the CPU is newer and potentially faster, it is hyperthreaded which can give a say 40% drop in ACU. So be careful if your CPU is running “hot” across all cores.
One final note is on the portal I see that you can save 50 or so euro a month by not selecting the Local SSD. Could be a useful saving if you don’t need/use it.
What do you think ? Join the chat on twitter @bob_duffy
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