Premium SSD v2 (Pv2)
Premium SSD v2 is typically less expensive than Premium SSDs and provides better performance. Premium SSD v2 (Pv2) discs provide unique performance adjustments (capacity, throughput, and IOPS) that you can make at any moment to match changing performance requirements while keeping workloads economical. A gaming application might require a lot of IOPS, but only during peak hours, or a transaction-intensive database might require a lot of IOPS at a modest size. Because of this, Premium SSD v2 can offer the best price-performance for the majority of general-purpose workloads.
Premium SSD v2(Pv2) is suitable for a wide range of workloads on virtual machines or stateful containers, including big data/analytics, gaming, SQL server, Oracle, MariaDB, SAP, Cassandra, and Mongo DB.
Although 512E sector size can also be used, Premium SSD v2(Pv2) supports 4k physical sector size by default. Certain applications require 512 byte sector sizes, even if the majority of them work with 4k sector sizes. For instance, release 12.2 or later of Oracle Database is needed to support 4k native discs.
Azure Premium SSD vs Premium SSD v2
The Premium SSD v2 lacks specific sizes, in contrast to Premium SSDs. A Premium SSD v2 allows you to customise the supported size to your liking and make fine-tuned performance tweaks without experiencing any downtime. Although Premium SSD v2(Pv2) doesn’t allow host caching, it greatly benefits from lower latency, which solves some of the same fundamental issues that host caching does. The flexibility to change IOPS, throughput, and size as necessary also spares you from the maintenance burden of stripping drives to fit your requirements.
Premium SSD v2 Limitations
- The OS cannot be installed on a Premium SSD v2 disc.
- Azure Compute Gallery is not compatible with premium SSD v2 discs.
- Premium SSD v2 discs are now limited to certain areas of availability.
- At this time, only zonal virtual machines (VMs) can be connected to Premium SSD v2 discs.
- Customer-managed keys for Premium SSD v2 discs are not supported at this time by Azure Government or Azure China.
- With certain restrictions and in certain areas, Premium SSD v2 discs offer encryption at the host. See Encryption at host for additional details.
- Virtual machines (VMs) using Premium SSD v2 discs are not supported for Azure Disc Encryption (guest VM encryption via Bitlocker/DM-Crypt). We advise using platform-managed or customer-managed keys for encryption while at rest. Premium SSD v2 is compatible with this method.
- At this time, VMs in Availability Sets cannot have Premium SSD v2 discs attached to them.
- The Premium SSD v2 disc is not compatible with Azure Site Recovery on virtual machines.
- A Premium SSD v2 cannot have its size increased without removing the disc or deallocating the virtual machine.
- Host caching is not supported by Premium SSDv2.
Azure Premium SSD v2 availability
See the Premium SSD v2(Pv2) row on the Products available by Region page for a list of the regions that are currently supported.
Only a few availability zones presently offer Premium SSD v2 in the following regions:
Italy North (two zones of availability)
Central Spain (One Zone of Availability)
See What’s new for Azure Disc Storage or Azure Updates to find out when support for specific regions was implemented.
Premium SSD v2 performance
Providing sub-millisecond latencies and provided IOPS and throughput 99.9% of the time is the design goal of Pv2(premium SSD v2) discs. You may customise a disk’s capacity, throughput, and IOPS according to your workload requirements with Premium SSD v2 discs, giving you greater flexibility and lower prices. The price of your disc is determined by each of these factors. A Premium SSD v2 disk’s performance can be changed four times in a 24-hour period.
Premium SSD v2 capacity
The capacities of Pv2(Premium SSD v2) range in 1-GiB increments from 1 GiB to 64 TiBs. For specifics, refer to the pricing page. You are invoiced on a per GiB ratio.
By default, Pv2(Premium SSD v2) provides up to 100 TiB per area per subscription; however, it can accommodate larger capacities upon request. You can ask Azure Support for assistance, seek a quota increase, or request an increase in capacity.
Premium SSD v2 IOPS
There is a complimentary baseline IOPS of 3000 on all Pv2(Premium SSD v2) discs. A disk’s maximum IOPS can reach 80,000 IOPS after 6 GiB, increasing at a rate of 500 per GiB after that. Thus, the maximum IOPS for an 8 GiB disc is 4,000, and the maximum IOPS for a 10 GiB disc is 5,000. A disc needs to have at least 160 GiBs in order to support 80,000 IOPS. Your disc will cost more if you boost your IOPS over 3000.
Premium SSD v2 throughput
A free baseline throughput of 125 MB/s is available on all Premium SSD v2 discs. The maximum set throughput rises by 0.25 MB/s per set IOPS after 6 GiB. A disc with 3,000 IOPS can have a maximum throughput of 750 MB/s. This disc needs to have its IOPS raised in order to increase throughput beyond 750 MB/s. The maximum throughput that may be configured, for instance, is 1,000 if the IOPS is raised to 4,000. For discs with 5,000 IOPS or more, the maximum throughput supported is 1,200 MB/s. Your disc will cost more if you increase the throughput above 125.
Premium SSD v2 sizes
By default, the Premium SSD v2(Pv2) offers a physical sector size of 4k. Additionally supported is a 512E sector size. Certain applications require 512-byte sector sizes, even though the majority work with 4k sector sizes. For instance, release 12.2 or later of Oracle Database is needed to support 4k native discs.
Premium SSD v2 pricing
Azure Premium SSD v2 cost depends on region, disc size, and performance tier. The second-generation Premium SSD has better performance and scalability. The following things can affect pricing:
- Bigger discs cost more. In gigabytes, disc sizes are measured.
- Performance Tier: Azure offers several performance tiers with varied IOPs and throughput. Tiers with higher performance cost more.
- Location: SSD prices vary by location.
- Provisioned IOPS and Throughput: Some configurations charge by the amount you supply.
The Azure Pricing Calculator lets you enter your needs for an accurate price estimate.
These hypothetical numbers illustrate the pricing structure, however actual prices may vary:
Disk Size:
- 100 GB: $0.15 per GB/month
- 500 GB: $0.14 per GB/month
- 1 TB: $0.13 per GB/month
Performance Tier:
- P1 (500 IOPS, 100 MBps): $1 per provisioned IOPS/month
- P2 (2000 IOPS, 250 MBps): $0.75 per provisioned IOPS/month
- P3 (7500 IOPS, 1000 MBps): $0.50 per provisioned IOPS/month
Region Example:
- US East: Standard pricing
- Europe West: 10% more than US East
- Asia Pacific: 15% more than US East
For current Premium SSD v2 pricing, check Azure’s official resources or contact support.
