Know about Service Limits and Quotas in Azure

In Microsoft Azure, service limits and quotas define the boundaries for how much of a particular service or resource you can provision or consume.

These limits are essential to understand, as they help prevent overuse, optimize costs, and ensure that your applications and services remain within the allocated capacity.

Azure imposes quotas and limits at different levels, including subscription, resource group, and resource levels, depending on the type of resource being used.

Here’s a breakdown of what you need to know about service limits and quotas in Azure.

Types Of Azure Service Limits And Quotas

Azure service limits can be grouped into the following categories.

Subscription-Level Limits

Subscription-level limits apply across all resources within a given Azure subscription.

These limits govern the overall consumption of resources, like the number of resources you can deploy, the capacity of certain services, and more.

Examples

• Number of Resource Groups per subscription.

• Number of virtual networks per subscription.

• Number of VMs that can be deployed per subscription.

• Storage account limits (e.g., number of storage accounts).

Resource Group-Level Limits

Resource groups hold your resources, and certain service limits are applied at the resource group level, such as the number of resources that can exist within a group or limits on certain resource configurations within that group.

Resource-Level Limits

Resource-level limits apply to the specific resources within a subscription or resource group.

These limits can be based on the resource’s type, size, or performance characteristics.

Examples

1. Maximum number of VMs that can be deployed in a specific availability zone.

2. Max number of Azure Functions allowed within a subscription.

Common Azure Service Limits And Quotas

Here are examples of some important Azure service limits across various resource types.

Virtual Machines (VMs)

VMs per region

By default, you can deploy up to 20 Virtual Machines per subscription in a given region (this can vary based on VM size and type).

VMs per subscription

Limits depend on the subscription type (e.g., Pay-As-You-Go, Enterprise Agreement, etc.).

VM size and type

Certain VM sizes, like Standard_D16s_v3 or Standard_B1s, have different limits for CPU, memory, and disk.

Storage Accounts

Storage account limits

1. Up to 250 storage accounts per subscription.

2. Maximum size per standard storage account: 5PB.

Blob storage

1. Maximum size of a single Blob is 5TB (for block blobs).

2. The maximum number of blobs can be as high as 10 million per storage account.

Virtual Networks

Virtual Networks

A subscription can have up to 1,000 virtual networks (per region).

Subnets per Virtual Network

A virtual network can have up to 1,000 subnets.

Azure SQL Database

Max databases per server

A single Azure SQL server can host up to 500 databases.

Max storage per database

Azure SQL Database can handle up to 100TB of storage.

Azure Functions

Azure Functions execution

A subscription can have up to 500 function apps by default.

Max execution time

The maximum execution time for a function is 5 minutes for Consumption Plan (this can be increased to 60 minutes using a Premium Plan).

App Services

App Service Plan

Limits are dependent on the tier you choose (e.g., Free, Basic, Standard, Premium).

Web Apps

You can have up to 100 Web Apps within an App Service Plan.

Azure Load Balancer

Load Balancer rules

Up to 1,000 rules for a standard Azure Load Balancer.

Networking

Public IP addresses

Each subscription can have up to 1,000 public IP addresses.

Network Security Groups (NSG)

Each NSG can have up to 1,000 rules.

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Clusters per subscription

By default, a subscription can have up to 50 clusters.

Node Pools per cluster

A maximum of 100 node pools per cluster.

How To View Azure Service Limits

There are multiple ways to view the service limits and quotas for Azure resources.

Azure Portal

• In the Azure Portal, you can see the current usage and quota for specific services, such as virtual machines, storage, and networking.

• Navigate to the "Subscription" section and review the "Usage + Quotas" tab.

• The "Azure Advisor" can also give personalized recommendations about underutilized resources and potential issues related to resource limits.

Azure CLI

1. You can use the Azure CLI to check resource usage and quotas.

Example:

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az vm list-sizes --location <location>

2. To view quota details, use the following.

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az vm list-usage --location <location>

Azure PowerShell

Using PowerShell commands, you can check quotas and usage for specific resources.

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Get-AzVMSize -Location <location>
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Get-AzResourceUsage

Azure Service Limits Documentation

Microsoft provides a detailed list of service limits and quotas for various Azure services in the official documentation.

The documentation is regularly updated and includes both default and configurable limits for all major Azure services.

Here is the link to the official Microsoft documentation

Azure subscription and service limits, quotas, and constraints.

How To Increase Azure Service Limits

Many Azure services allow you to request higher quotas or limits if the default values do not meet your requirements.

Here's how to request an increase.

Requesting a Quota Increase

Azure Portal

Go to the "Help + support" section of the portal and create a new support request.

Select "Quota" as the issue type, and specify which service's quota needs to be increased (e.g., VMs, storage accounts).

Support Plan

To request quota increases, you might need an Azure support plan (basic support is free, but advanced support might incur additional charges).

Limits That Can Be Increased

Virtual Machines

The number of VMs, cores, and available regions can often be increased.

Storage Accounts

You can request more storage accounts or increase the storage capacity for a specific account.

Public IPs

You can request an increase in the number of public IP addresses in your subscription.

Limits That Cannot Be Increased

Some service limits, like the maximum number of resource groups or maximum number of subscriptions, cannot be increased and may require restructuring your environment.

Best Practices For Managing Azure Limits And Quotas

Monitor Resource Usage Regularly

Use Azure Monitor, Azure Advisor, and Cost Management to keep track of your resource usage and ensure you’re within the limits.

Set up alerts to be notified when you are approaching limits or quotas.

Plan for Scalability

Always plan for future growth by considering how your resource usage may evolve.

Scaling your resources appropriately and requesting quota increases ahead of time can help avoid service disruptions.

Use Tags for Resource Management

Organize resources with tags to help manage usage, especially when tracking specific projects or environments.

Stay Updated

Azure service limits and quotas are periodically updated.

Stay informed about changes and new services that may offer higher limits or better performance.

Summary

Understanding service limits and quotas in Azure is essential for managing your cloud resources effectively.

By knowing the limits for different services, you can plan your infrastructure accordingly, avoid resource contention, and optimize performance.

Monitoring tools like Azure Monitor, Azure CLI, and the Azure Portal can help keep track of current usage and ensure you stay within the boundaries.

If necessary, you can request increases in your service limits to accommodate growth and larger deployments.

For up-to-date information on specific limits, always refer to the official Azure limits and quotas documentation (link given above in this article).