Azure-docs: Update docs to reflect the costs of running VMs in an Availability Set

[JazzyWagdaddy]

Our docs don't clearly articulate that you will be charged for every VM that you place into an availability set, which only makes sense. While there is no line item charge for the actual availability set itself, you will incur regular charges for the VMs.

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• ID: 2088898f-dda1-7334-55dc-382f99338e2c
• Version Independent ID: fcc858bb-5309-4115-5555-e3b9d5d1c414
• Content: Availability options for virtual machines in Azure | Microsoft Docs
• Content Source: articles/virtual-machines/windows/availability.md
• Service: virtual-machines-windows
• GitHub Login: @iainfoulds
• Microsoft Alias: iainfou

[BryanTrach-MSFT]

Thanks for the feedback! We are currently investigating and will update you shortly.

[mimckitt]

@JazzyWagdaddy Appreciate the feedback on this! However, the purpose of this specific document is to explain managing availability of virtual machines not regarding the cost. It is correct that more VMs will incur more cost and utilizing an availability set for a high availability environment does mean paying for two VMs.

Ideally, when a customer is considering going this route they will see this as apparent. However, if they do not we also offer a pricing calculator that can help answer pricing questions.

[JazzyWagdaddy]

I respectfully disagree. 😊

Customers are not seeing this as apparent, just do a Bing search for “availability set costs” or “costs of availability sets”. The hits you get are old and/or incorrect. We need to clearly state this once and for all. Something simple like “each VM in an availability set will incur cost” or whatever our standard language is.

The pricing calculator needs to change as well. It should ask you “will this VM be part of an availability set?”. Many customers and partners forget or do not know that they need to price duplicate VMs.

From: Micah [e-mail]
Sent: Thursday, March 8, 2018 3:40 PM
To: MicrosoftDocs/azure-docs [e-mail]
Cc: Jeff Wagner [e-mail]; Mention [e-mail]
Subject: Re: [MicrosoftDocs/azure-docs] Update docs to reflect the costs of running VMs in an Availability Set (#5459)

@JazzyWagdaddyhttps://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fjazzywagdaddy&data=04%7C01%7Cjeff.wagner%40microsoft.com%7C34b54ec594d14ce23be908d58534b752%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7C1%7C0%7C636561383867415274%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwifQ%3D%3D%7C-2&sdata=NGreIt2oZeCczHn3YuDfHGtUrlPY82R%2BEfBxDgoYPP8%3D&reserved=0 Appreciate the feedback on this! However, the purpose of this specific document is to explain managing availability of virtual machines not regarding the cost. It is correct that more VMs will incur more cost and utilizing an availability set for a high availability environment does mean paying for two VMs.

Ideally, when a customer is considering going this route they will see this as apparent. However, if they do not we also offer a pricing calculatorhttps://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fazure.microsoft.com%2Fen-us%2Fpricing%2Fcalculator%2F&data=04%7C01%7Cjeff.wagner%40microsoft.com%7C34b54ec594d14ce23be908d58534b752%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7C1%7C0%7C636561383867415274%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwifQ%3D%3D%7C-2&sdata=sqJf56%2FluHa8wHsCzQ1Dmd2WQmD0q2HmM8y4aNliVgA%3D&reserved=0 that can help answer pricing questions.

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[mimckitt]

@JazzyWagdaddy I have assigned this to the content author to take a look and consider your recommendations and update as they see fit.

@iainfoulds please take a look at the above information and the doc and update as you see fit.

[iainfoulds]

Thanks for the feedback, @JazzyWagdaddy . I get the point, but do we also then have to state that you are charged for each individual disk that is attached to a VM, for example? I can add the following sentence that defines there is no cost for the Availability Set itself:

There is no cost for the Availability Set itself, you only pay for each VM instance that you create.

Does this work as a compromise?

I believe there is on-going work to improve the functionality of the pricing calculator. I don't know if they're going to clearly define Availability Sets or Availability Zones though, as both incur no costs outside of the VMs themselves. I'm not sure to best way to surface that if you create three VMs in an Availability Set, you pay for three VMs, not one.

[JazzyWagdaddy]

I’m a Microsoft employee BTW. 😊

Yes, your verbiage is perfect, that’s all I was asking for.

I did reach out to calchelp to see if they could update the calculator to accommodate availability sets.

Many Thanks!

From: Iain Foulds [e-mail]
Sent: Thursday, March 8, 2018 4:10 PM
To: MicrosoftDocs/azure-docs [e-mail]
Cc: Jeff Wagner [e-mail]; Mention [e-mail]
Subject: Re: [MicrosoftDocs/azure-docs] Update docs to reflect the costs of running VMs in an Availability Set (#5459)

Thanks for the feedback, @JazzyWagdaddyhttps://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fjazzywagdaddy&data=04%7C01%7Cjeff.wagner%40microsoft.com%7C14c72d46ab2d4047ff6808d585390541%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7C1%7C0%7C636561402303435715%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwifQ%3D%3D%7C-2&sdata=WmiowbLJ23k9MnOWOR%2FC0kDIllUL%2F6Hi8aluHHBN%2F54%3D&reserved=0 . I get the point, but do we also then have to state that you are charged for each individual disk that is attached to a VM, for example? I can add the following sentence that defines there is no cost for the Availability Set itself:

There is no cost for the Availability Set itself, you only pay for each VM instance that you create.

Does this work as a compromise?

I believe there is on-going work to improve the functionality of the pricing calculator. I don't know if they're going to clearly define Availability Sets or Availability Zones though, as both incur no costs outside of the VMs themselves. I'm not sure to best way to surface that if you create three VMs in an Availability Set, you pay for three VMs, not one.

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[iainfoulds]

I've filed a PR to add that text. When the PR merges, this issue automatically closes. This update should publish and go live later on this afternoon. Hopefully calchelp respond to you, too!

[dcbrown16]

In case anybody finds this issue and can't find the original doc later, here's the current place to find this sentence.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/availability

[VikasPullagura-MSFT]

@dcbrown16 Thanks for the feedback on the document link. I have updated it to reflect the new link.