System requirements for Azure Local

Applies to: Hyperconverged deployments of Azure Local

This article discusses Azure, machine and storage, networking, and other requirements for hyperconvered deployments of Azure Local. If you purchased Integrated System solution hardware from the Azure Local Catalog, you can skip to the Networking requirements since the hardware already adheres to machine and storage requirements.

Azure requirements

Here are the Azure requirements for your Azure Local instance:

• Azure subscription: If you don't already have an Azure account, create one. You can use an existing subscription of any type:

  • Free account with Azure credits for students or Visual Studio subscribers.
  • Pay-as-you-go subscription with credit card.
  • Subscription obtained through an Enterprise Agreement (EA).
  • Subscription obtained through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program.

  For more information, see Microsoft Product Terms > Online Services > Azure and select your licensing program.

• Azure permissions: Verify that you have the required roles and permissions for registration and deployment. For information on how to assign permissions, see Assign Azure permissions for registration.

• Azure regions: Azure Local is supported for the following regions:

  • Azure public
  • Azure Government

  These public regions support geographic locations worldwide, for clusters deployed anywhere in the world:

  • East US
  • West Europe
  • Australia East
  • Southeast Asia
  • India Central
  • Canada Central
  • Japan East
  • South Central US

• Azure Key Vault: Make sure to enable public network access when you set up a key vault. This setting allows Azure Local instances to connect to the key vault without any access issues.

Machine and storage requirements

Microsoft Support may only be provided for Azure Local running on hardware listed in the Azure Local catalog.

Before you begin, make sure that the physical machine and storage hardware used to deploy disaggregated Azure Local meets the following requirements:

Data drive requirements

The following drive requirements apply to Azure Local and supersede the requirements for Windows Server.

• For Storage Spaces Direct, drives must be direct‑attached and physically connected to a single machine.
• Host bus adapter (HBA) cards must support simple pass‑through mode for any storage devices used with Storage Spaces Direct.
• RAID controller cards, SAN storage (Fibre Channel, iSCSI, or FCoE), shared SAS enclosures connected to multiple machines, and any form of multipath I/O (MPIO) where drives are accessible through multiple paths are not supported.

Exceptions exist for SAN configurations using Fibre Channel. For more information, see *Use of Azure Local with external SAN storage.

For more feature-specific requirements for Hyper-V, see System requirements for Hyper-V on Windows Server.

Use of Azure Local with external SAN storage

Azure Local supports the use of additional SAN storage through Fibre Channel. For certified solutions, consult your Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). For more information, see External Storage Support for Azure Local.

Storage Spaces Direct remains required, at a minimum, for the Azure Local infrastructure volume and for cluster performance history.

A minimum amount of available Storage Spaces Direct capacity is required, including at least two physical disks per node. All previously stated requirements for Storage Spaces Direct still apply, except where external SAN storage is used.

Networking requirements

Azure Local requires connectivity to public endpoints in Azure, see Firewall requirements for details. Multi-machine deployments of Azure Local require a reliable high-bandwidth, low-latency network connection between each machine in the instance.

Bandwidth requirements

For hyperconverged clusters, limited-bandwidth connections, like rural T1 lines or satellite/cellular connections, are adequate for Azure Local to sync. The minimum required connectivity is 10 Mbit. More services might require extra bandwidth, especially to replicate or back up whole VMs, download large software updates, or upload verbose logs for analysis and monitoring in the cloud.

Maximum supported hardware specifications

Azure Local disaggregated deployments that exceed the following specifications are not supported:

Support and diagnosability

To ensure adequate support and diagnosability for large memory Azure Local instances (those with more than 768 GB of physical memory per machine), we recommend that you install OS disks with a capacity of 400 GB or more. This additional disk capacity provides sufficient space to troubleshoot hardware, driver, or software issues should they require a kernel memory dump to be written to the OS volume.

Hardware requirements

In addition to Microsoft Azure Local updates, many OEMs also release regular updates for your Azure Local hardware, such as driver and firmware updates. To ensure that OEM package update notifications, reach your organization check with your OEM about their specific notification process.

Before deploying Azure Local, ensure that your hardware is up to date by:

• Determining the current version of your Solution Builder Extension (SBE) package.
• Finding the best method to download, install, and update your SBE package.

BIOS setting

Check with your OEM regarding the necessary generic BIOS settings for Azure Local. These settings may include hardware virtualization, TPM enabled, and secure core.

BIOS resets

If the BIOS, Secure Boot, or TPM is reset, consult your OEM to ensure that the required optimized settings are applied.

Suboptimal configuration can negatively affect performance, for example, networking, SR-IOV, and Azure Local security features such as Secured-core and BitLocker. Incorrect settings can also cause instance deployments to fail.

Manage drivers and firmware

It is imperative to adhere to the recommended installation steps stipulated by the OEM. For Integrated and Validated Solutions, verify the respective compatibility matrix of the SBE package matching the node, and the deployed or to be updated Azure Local solution version. A driver and firmware compatibility matrix, when provided by the OEM, should be qualified for deployed or to be updated Azure Local solution version.

Driver and firmware updates using Windows Admin Center extensions

Initial deployment

• Premier solutions and integrated systems: These solutions are delivered preinstalled and preconfigured. Firmware and driver updates are applied automatically.
• Validated nodes: These nodes may come preinstalled. A driver and firmware check, or additional sideloading of update packages, may be required based on OEM recommendations.

Instance or node redeployment

• Premier solutions and integrated systems: Some OEMs provide ready-to-use ISO images that match the preinstalled and preconfigured version.
• Validated nodes: These nodes may come preinstalled. A driver check using PowerShell or additional sideloading of update packages may be required, in accordance with OEM recommendations.

Update existing firmware and drivers

• Premier solutions: Firmware and driver updates are applied automatically through Azure Update Manager as part of the automated update process.
• Integrated systems and validated nodes: These configurations require manual updates. It is recommended to update firmware and drivers before deployment. Use OEM‑provided Solution Builder Extensions (SBE) packages appropriate for your solution type, and consult your OEM documentation for additional guidance.

Driver installation steps

You should always follow the OEM's recommended installation steps. If the OEM's guidance isn't available, see the following steps:

1. Identify the Ethernet using this command:

   Get-NetAdapter
   

   Here's a sample output:

   PS C:\Windows\system32>	get-netadapter
   
   Name	                      InterfaceDescription	                iflndex     Status	     MacAddress	            LinkSpeed
   vSMB(compute managemen…	      Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter #2	    20      Up	         00-15-5D-20-40-00	    25 Gbps
   vSMB(compute managemen…	      Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter #3	    24      Up	         00-15-5D-20-40-01	    25 Gbps
   ethernet	                  HPE Ethernet 10/25Gb 2-port 640FLR…#2	     7      Up	         B8-83-03-58-91-88	    25 Gbps
   ethernet 2	                  HPE Ethernet 10/25Gb 2-port 640FLR-S…	     5      Up	         B8 83-03-58-91-89	    25 Gbps
   vManagement(compute_ma…	      Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter	        14      Up	         B8-83-03-58-91-88	    25 Gbps
   

2. Identify the DriverFileName, DriverVersion, DriverDate, DriverDescription, and the DriverProvider using this command:

   Get-NetAdapter -name ethernet | select *driver*
   

   Here's a sample output:

   PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-NetAdapter -name ethernet | select *driver*
   
   DriverInformation		: Driver Date 2021-07-08 Version 2.70.24728.0 NDIS 6.85
   DriverFileName			: mlx5.sys
   DriverVersion			: 2.70.24728.0
   DriverDate			    : 2021-07-08
   DriverDateData			: 132701760000000000
   DriverDescription		: HPE Ethernet 10/25Gb 2-port 640FLR-SFP28 Adapter
   DriverMajorNdisVersion	: 6
   DriverMinorNdisVersion 	: 85
   DriverName			    : \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\mlx5.sys
   DriverProvider			: Mellanox Technologies Ltd.
   DriverVersionString		: 2.70.24728.0
   MajorDriverVersion		: 2
   MinorDriverVersion		: 0
   

3. Search for your driver and the recommended installation steps.

4. Download your driver.

5. Install the driver identified in Step #2 by DriverFileName on all machines of the system. For more information, see PnPUtil Examples - Windows Drivers.

   Here's an example:

   pnputil /add-driver mlx5.inf /install
   

6. Check to be sure the drivers are updated by reviewing DriverVersion and DriverDate.

   Get-NetAdapter -name ethernet | select *driver*
   

   Here's are some sample outputs:

   PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-NetAdapter -name ethernet | select *driver*
   
   DriverInformation		: Driver Date 2023-05-03 Version 23.4.26054.0 NDIS 6.85
   DriverFileName			: mlx5.sys
   DriverVersion			: 23.4.26054.0
   DriverDate			    : 2023-05-03
   DriverDateData			: 133275456000000000
   DriverDescription		: HPE Ethernet 10/25Gb 2-port 640FLR-SFP28 Adapter
   DriverMajorNdisVersion	: 6
   DriverMinorNdisVersion 	: 85
   DriverName			    : \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\mlx5.sys
   DriverProvider			: Mellanox Technologies Ltd.
   DriverVersionString		: 23.4.26054.0
   MajorDriverVersion		: 2
   MinorDriverVersion		: 0
   

   PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-NetAdapter "ethernet 2" | select *driver*
   
   DriverInformation		: Driver Date 2023-05-03 Version 23.4.26054.0 NDIS 6.85
   DriverFileName			: mlx5.sys
   DriverVersion			: 23.4.26054.0
   DriverDate			    : 2023-05-03
   DriverDateData			: 133275456000000000
   DriverDescription		: HPE Ethernet 10/25Gb 2-port 640FLR-SFP28 Adapter
   DriverMajorNdisVersion	: 6
   DriverMinorNdisVersion 	: 85
   DriverName			    : \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\mlx5.sys
   DriverProvider			: Mellanox Technologies Ltd.
   DriverVersionString		: 23.4.26054.0
   MajorDriverVersion		: 2
   MinorDriverVersion		: 0
   

OEM information

This section contains OEM contact information and links to OEM Azure Local reference material.

OEMs can provide technical training, certification, and deployment guidance that complement the Microsoft deployment documentation. This guidance may include white papers or deployment guides.

For a comprehensive list of all OEM contact information, download the Azure Local OEM Contact spreadsheet.

Next steps

Review firewall, physical network, and host network requirements:

• Firewall requirements.
• Physical network requirements.
• Host network requirements.