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Microsoft to use AMD Epyc processors for its Azure cloud platform
AMD has a big smile on its face today. Microsoft just announced that it will use AMD's Epyc server processors for its Azure cloud service, and that is big news alright.
Microsoft Azure has deployed AMD EPYC processors in its datacenters in advance of preview for its latest L-Series of Virtual Machines (VM) for storage optimized workloads. The Lv2 VM family will take advantage of the high-core count and connectivity support of the AMD EPYC processor.
"We are extremely excited to be partnering with Microsoft Azure to bring the power of AMD EPYC processors into their datacenter," said Scott Aylor, corporate vice president and general manager of Enterprise Solutions. "There is tremendous opportunity for users to tap into the capabilities we can deliver across storage and other workloads through the combination of AMD EPYC processors on Azure. We look forward to the continued close collaboration with Microsoft Azure on future instances throughout 2018."
Corey Sanders, director of compute, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Corp, said, "We're welcoming AMD's new EPYC processor to Microsoft Azure with the next generation of our L-Series Virtual Machines. The new Lv2-Series are High I/O, dense storage offerings which make EPYC perfect for Azure customers' demanding workloads. We've enjoyed a deep collaboration with AMD on our next generation open source cloud hardware design called Microsoft's Project Olympus. We think Project Olympus will be the basis for future innovation between Microsoft and AMD, and we look forward to adding more instance types in the future benefiting from the core density, memory bandwidth and I/O capabilities of AMD EPYC processors."
The Lv2-Series instances run on the AMD EPYC 7551 processor, featuring a base core frequency of 2.2 GHz and a maximum single-core turbo frequency of 3.0 GHz. With support for 128 lanes of PCIe connections per processor, AMD provides over 33 percent more connectivity than available two-socket solutions to address an unprecedented number of NVMe drives directly.
The Lv2 VMs will be available starting at eight and ranging to 64 vCPU sizes, with the largest size featuring direct access to 4TB of memory. These sizes will support Azure premium storage disks by default and will also support accelerated networking capabilities for the highest throughput of any cloud. With the unique capabilities enabled by AMD EPYC processors and Microsoft Azure, Lv2 is a perfect fit for storage-intensive workloads.
The Lv2-Series instances are based on Microsoft's Project Olympus design, first introduced just over a year ago as Microsoft's next generation hyperscale cloud hardware design. This groundbreaking design serves as a new model for open source hardware development with the Open Compute Project community.
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flashmozzg
Senior Member
Posts: 145
Joined: 2013-01-30
Senior Member
Posts: 145
Joined: 2013-01-30
#5498622 Posted on: 12/07/2017 02:38 AM
With AMD it's usually the other kinds of stability "concern" I heard. I.e. not the quality/software, but availability/support. It's really import for large service providers to be able to order exactly N servers/units of HW and being able to replace it at every moment. Basically the infrastructure. AMD wasn't the best on this part.
That might have been true 15 years ago, but today any IT person who isn't conversant with AMD isn't earning his pay... 
Think about cpu verification. It's brutal. Any cpu that passes those tests is going to be "stable"... All retail/server cpus go through exhaustive tests @ their rated MHz speeds before they ever hit the shrink wrap. At home I've been using AMD exclusively since 1999--never had a single problem with "stability"--never saw a single reason to go back to Intel in all of that time. What I discovered after deciding to ignore the naysayers back then was that all the noise about AMD "instability" and Incompatibility was just that--noise, most of it produced by Intel employees online at the time. Even as far back as 1999, when I got off of Intel and onto Athlon, my incidents of driver problems and overall stability was exactly the same as it had been with my Intel boards and Pentiums--before that 8086/88, 286, 386, and 486's. AMD is as solid as Intel, imo, if not moreso. Got a Ryzen 1600 coming in this week--which I'm sort of looking forward to--setting it up with an MSI Gaming Pro Carbon AC and 16GB (2x8) of Patriot Viper Elite 3200 DDR4!
Think about cpu verification. It's brutal. Any cpu that passes those tests is going to be "stable"... All retail/server cpus go through exhaustive tests @ their rated MHz speeds before they ever hit the shrink wrap. At home I've been using AMD exclusively since 1999--never had a single problem with "stability"--never saw a single reason to go back to Intel in all of that time. What I discovered after deciding to ignore the naysayers back then was that all the noise about AMD "instability" and Incompatibility was just that--noise, most of it produced by Intel employees online at the time. Even as far back as 1999, when I got off of Intel and onto Athlon, my incidents of driver problems and overall stability was exactly the same as it had been with my Intel boards and Pentiums--before that 8086/88, 286, 386, and 486's. AMD is as solid as Intel, imo, if not moreso. Got a Ryzen 1600 coming in this week--which I'm sort of looking forward to--setting it up with an MSI Gaming Pro Carbon AC and 16GB (2x8) of Patriot Viper Elite 3200 DDR4!With AMD it's usually the other kinds of stability "concern" I heard. I.e. not the quality/software, but availability/support. It's really import for large service providers to be able to order exactly N servers/units of HW and being able to replace it at every moment. Basically the infrastructure. AMD wasn't the best on this part.
kruno
Senior Member
Posts: 260
Joined: 2017-09-25
Senior Member
Posts: 260
Joined: 2017-09-25
#5498669 Posted on: 12/07/2017 08:59 AM
That is not up to amd to solve,that is server manufacturer to deal and worry about that.Amd doesn't make servers but DELL,HP,Lenovo... does
With AMD it's usually the other kinds of stability "concern" I heard. I.e. not the quality/software, but availability/support. It's really import for large service providers to be able to order exactly N servers/units of HW and being able to replace it at every moment. Basically the infrastructure. AMD wasn't the best on this part.
That is not up to amd to solve,that is server manufacturer to deal and worry about that.Amd doesn't make servers but DELL,HP,Lenovo... does
sykozis
Senior Member
Posts: 22408
Joined: 2008-07-14
Senior Member
Posts: 22408
Joined: 2008-07-14
#5499759 Posted on: 12/10/2017 06:13 PM
Most of the past stability issues were the result of motherboard manufacturers cutting corners or using low quality components. Micro-Star International (now simply, MSI) was guilty of that in the past, as were Biostar and ECS. MSI put in a lot of effort to correct the issues though and so far, neither my Z170A Gaming Pro nor my B350 Tomahawk have shown any stability or reliability issues after the initial UEFI firmware.
That might have been true 15 years ago, but today any IT person who isn't conversant with AMD isn't earning his pay... Think about cpu verification. It's brutal. Any cpu that passes those tests is going to be "stable"... All retail/server cpus go through exhaustive tests @ their rated MHz speeds before they ever hit the shrink wrap. At home I've been using AMD exclusively since 1999--never had a single problem with "stability"--never saw a single reason to go back to Intel in all of that time. What I discovered after deciding to ignore the naysayers back then was that all the noise about AMD "instability" and Incompatibility was just that--noise, most of it produced by Intel employees online at the time. Even as far back as 1999, when I got off of Intel and onto Athlon, my incidents of driver problems and overall stability was exactly the same as it had been with my Intel boards and Pentiums--before that 8086/88, 286, 386, and 486's. AMD is as solid as Intel, imo, if not moreso. Got a Ryzen 1600 coming in this week--which I'm sort of looking forward to--setting it up with an MSI Gaming Pro Carbon AC and 16GB (2x8) of Patriot Viper Elite 3200 DDR4!
Think about cpu verification. It's brutal. Any cpu that passes those tests is going to be "stable"... All retail/server cpus go through exhaustive tests @ their rated MHz speeds before they ever hit the shrink wrap. At home I've been using AMD exclusively since 1999--never had a single problem with "stability"--never saw a single reason to go back to Intel in all of that time. What I discovered after deciding to ignore the naysayers back then was that all the noise about AMD "instability" and Incompatibility was just that--noise, most of it produced by Intel employees online at the time. Even as far back as 1999, when I got off of Intel and onto Athlon, my incidents of driver problems and overall stability was exactly the same as it had been with my Intel boards and Pentiums--before that 8086/88, 286, 386, and 486's. AMD is as solid as Intel, imo, if not moreso. Got a Ryzen 1600 coming in this week--which I'm sort of looking forward to--setting it up with an MSI Gaming Pro Carbon AC and 16GB (2x8) of Patriot Viper Elite 3200 DDR4!Most of the past stability issues were the result of motherboard manufacturers cutting corners or using low quality components. Micro-Star International (now simply, MSI) was guilty of that in the past, as were Biostar and ECS. MSI put in a lot of effort to correct the issues though and so far, neither my Z170A Gaming Pro nor my B350 Tomahawk have shown any stability or reliability issues after the initial UEFI firmware.
flashmozzg
Senior Member
Posts: 145
Joined: 2013-01-30
Senior Member
Posts: 145
Joined: 2013-01-30
#5503084 Posted on: 12/20/2017 08:17 PM
I'd say it's up to AMD to work with vendors and to ensure that all of its HW is readily available for those. They are not in the position to just hope that everything works out and do nothing. At the moment they need to push their product, instead of hoping that someone would be interested enough to do most of the work for them.
That is not up to amd to solve,that is server manufacturer to deal and worry about that.Amd doesn't make servers but DELL,HP,Lenovo... does
I'd say it's up to AMD to work with vendors and to ensure that all of its HW is readily available for those. They are not in the position to just hope that everything works out and do nothing. At the moment they need to push their product, instead of hoping that someone would be interested enough to do most of the work for them.
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Once Zen proofs itself as stable platform, more companies start to consider AMD as an option.
I have no doubt most infrastructure people look up for Zen and want to build servers with it,
however if something happens they will be responsible for switching to AMD.
If Intel server dies, well another dead machine, couldn't be helped.
If AMD server dies, management start to point fingers at people who switched from Intel to AMD.
Same with software and OS support.
AMD is on right track, hopefully we see more trust towards AMD.
That might have been true 15 years ago, but today any IT person who isn't conversant with AMD isn't earning his pay...