How Microsoft Azure Deallocate VM vs. Stop VM States Differ

Do you know the difference between Azure “deallocate VM” and “stop VM” states? They are similar enough that in conversation, I’ve noticed some confusion around this distinction.

If your VM is not running, it will have one of two states — Stopped, or Stopped (deallocated). Essentially, if something is “allocated” — you’re still paying for it. So while deallocating a virtual machine sounds like a harsh action that may be permanently deleting data, it’s the way you can save money on your infrastructure costs and eliminate wasted Azure spend with no data loss.

Azure’s Stopped State

When you are logged in to the operating system of an Azure VM, you can issue a command to shut down the server. This will kick you out of the OS and stop all processes, but will maintain the allocated hardware (including the IP addresses currently assigned). If you find the VM in the Azure console, you’ll see the state listed as “Stopped”. The biggest thing you need to know about this state is that you are still being charged by the hour for this instance.

Azure’s Deallocated State

The other way to stop your virtual machine is through Azure itself, whether that’s through the console, Powershell, or the Azure CLI. When you stop a VM through Azure, rather than through the OS, it goes into a “Stopped (deallocated)” state. This means that any non-static public IPs will be released, but you’ll also stop paying for the VM’s compute costs. This is a great way to save money on your Azure costs when you don’t need those VMs running, and is the state that ParkMyCloud puts your VMs in when they are parked.

Which State to Choose?

The only scenario in which you should ever choose the stopped state instead of the deallocated state for a VM in Azure is if you are only briefly stopping the server and would like to keep the dynamic IP address for your testing. If that doesn’t perfectly describe your use case, or you don’t have an opinion one way or the other, then you’ll want to deallocate instead so you aren’t being charged for the VM.

If you’re looking to automate scheduling when you deallocate VMs in Azure, ParkMyCloud can help with that. ParkMyCloud makes it easy to identify idle resources using Azure Metrics and to automatically schedule your non-production servers to turn off when they are idle, such as overnight or on weekends. Try it for free today to save money on your Azure bill!

Further reading:

• 7 Ways to Get Azure Credits
• The Three Core Components of Microsoft Azure Cost Management
• 10 Things You Should Know Before Buying Azure Reserved Instances

Originally published at www.parkmycloud.com on March 26, 2020.