How to resize my prod B series VM to the new gen B series VM due the retirement of t he B2ms type

To resize your Standard B2ms production VM to a new generation B series VM, follow these steps:

1. Identify the Target VM Size: The Standard B2ms VM has 2 vCPUs and 8 GB of memory. You should look for a comparable size in the new B series that meets these specifications. Check the Azure documentation for a list of available B series sizes to find the best match.
2. Check Quota: Before resizing, ensure that your Azure subscription has sufficient quota for the new VM size. You can verify your current quotas in the Azure portal. If you need more quota, you can request it through the Azure portal.
3. Resize the VM: You can resize your VM using the Azure portal, Azure CLI, or PowerShell. The general steps are:
   • Stop (deallocate) the VM.
   • Resize the VM to the selected new B series size.
   • Start the VM after resizing.
4. Migration Assistance: If you encounter any issues or need further assistance, consider creating a support request through the Azure portal. This will allow you to get technical help tailored to your specific situation.

By following these steps, you can successfully migrate your B-family Standard B2ms VM to a new generation B series VM.

References:

• Retired sizes
• General Purpose Sizes Migration Guide

Hi Carlos Alvarez,

Thanks for reaching out Q/A. At first, B2ms is part of the original B-series (v1) and will be retired on November 15, 2028.

1. Retiring: B1s, B2s, B2ms, B4ms, B8ms, etc.
2. Not Retiring: Bv2-series

Recommended Replacement VM Series-

Version numbers only appear in the size name if there are multiple versions of the same series. If you're using the first version of a series (HB-series, B-series, etc.) it's often not included in the size name- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/sizes/overview?tabs=breakdownseries%2Cgeneralsizelist%2Ccomputesizelist%2Cmemorysizelist%2Cstoragesizelist%2Cgpusizelist%2Cfpgasizelist%2Chpcsizelist#name-structure-breakdown

References for retirement details:

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/updates/?id=500682&ref=cloudhpc.news

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/sizes/retirement/retired-sizes-list

To maintain the closest possible match in terms of pricing, specifications, and performance, the recommended target sizes for your workload are Standard_B2als_v2, Standard_B2s_v2, or Standard_B2s_v3, depending on regional availability. These models are part of the new-generation B-series and provide modern hardware with improved performance characteristics. You can refer the full B-family documentation here:

'B' family general purpose VM size series

Previous generation Azure VM size series

One important point to highlight - That the B-series v2 sizes do not include a local temporary disk (also known as the resource disk or D: drive). Microsoft documents this clearly on the Bsv2 series page, where the specification states “Local Storage: None”

Reference: Bsv2 sizes series

For Example: How to find Temp disk and no Temp disk Size from CLI:

You can check availability of both VM sizes in your region (e.g., East US) with this Azure CLI command:

az vm list-sizes --location eastus --query "[?contains(name, 'B8ms') || contains(name, 'B8as_v2')]" --output table

From the output you will see that both Standard_B8ms and Standard_B8as_v2 are available in that region.

From the above screenshot

• The B8ms size includes a local temporary disk (≈ 64 GiB).
• The B8as_v2 size has no local temporary disk (TempStorage = 0).

According to the below Microsoft documentation:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/sizes/resize-vm?tabs=portal#:~:text=and%20deployment%20region.-,Limitations,-You%20can%27t%20resize

Limitations:

You can't resize a VM size that has a local temp disk to a VM size with no local temp disk and vice versa. The only combinations allowed for resizing are:

• VM (with local temp disk) -> VM (with local temp disk); and
• VM (with no local temp disk) -> VM (with no local temp disk).

For a work-around, see How do I migrate from a VM size with local temp disk to a VM size with no local temp disk? 

Workaround/Solution:

What you can do is stop the VM, create snapshot of disk, create disk from snapshot, then create VM from disk, with your preferred size. Once you verify the new VM is working okay you can delete the old VM and its disk, network interface, snapshot, etc.

Below are instructions for the process I just described:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/attach-os-disk?tabs=portal

When creating the new managed disk from the snapshot, be sure to select the correct disk size and type.

Before initiating the migration, please ensure that your subscription has sufficient vCPU quota available for that VM families. You can check and request quota increases from Azure portal.

Reference: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/quotas/view-quotas#virtual-machines

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