Plans, statuses and limits
The compute plans a SQL Server instance can use, what its statuses mean, and the rules for names, database names, collations, sizes and retention.
Compute plans
A plan fixes the server's CPU request and limit, its memory — the request equals the limit, because SQL Server sizes its memory use against what it can actually have — and the default size of its data volume. These are the plans every installation gets; your platform operator may have added more.
| Plan | CPU | Memory | Storage | Meant for production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| small | 0.5–1 | 4 GiB | 20 GiB | No |
| medium | 1–2 | 8 GiB | 50 GiB | Yes |
| large | 2–4 | 16 GiB | 100 GiB | Yes |
| xlarge | 4–8 | 32 GiB | 200 GiB | Yes |
Every plan runs a single server; none has replicas. xlarge needs nodes with at least 32 GB of
memory free for one server, and a plan that this installation's nodes could never host is refused.
An instance created without a plan gets 0.5–1 CPU, 2 GiB of memory requested with a 4 GiB limit, and 20 GiB of storage.
Statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Creating | The server is not ready, and the instance has not been changed since it was created — normally while it starts for the first time. |
| Running | The server is ready and accepts connections. |
| Updating | The server is not ready after the instance was changed — normally while it restarts with the change. |
| Stopped | The server has been stopped; its data volume is kept. |
| Degraded | The platform hit an error while applying the instance. It keeps trying. |
While an operation on the instance is running, the Operations tab shows its steps, and a step that stalls says why — for example that no node has room for the server, that its image cannot be pulled, or that it keeps crashing. An operation ends as failed when the instance has not settled ten minutes after it began, naming the last status the instance reported.
Names and formats
| What | Rule |
|---|---|
| Instance name | 3 to 50 characters: lowercase letters, digits and hyphens, not starting or ending with a hyphen; unique in the resource group; cannot be changed |
| Initial database name | 1 to 128 characters: letters, digits and underscores, starting with a letter or an underscore; cannot be changed |
| Collation | Up to 128 characters; cannot be changed |
| Storage size | A number followed by Gi, Mi or Ti, such as 20Gi; the portal takes whole GB |
| Backup retention | A number followed by d, w or m, such as 30d, 4w or 6m |
| Backup schedule | A cron expression with five fields, in UTC |
| Snapshot kept for | 1 to 365 days; 7, 30, 90 or 365 in the portal |
| Allowed CIDRs | IPv4 or IPv6 ranges in CIDR notation, separated by commas |
| Instances | 1 — high availability is not available |
| Product key | Required for Standard and Enterprise in the portal |
The portal checks these rules before it creates an instance. The API does not check the instance name, database name, collation, storage size, retention or product key for SQL Server; a value the cluster cannot use leaves the instance Degraded.