What Is Azure Dedicated Host?
All public cloud services use hypervisors to isolate tenants hosted on their servers. While hypervisors are generally secure, it is theoretically possible for hackers to create bugs that break out of the private environment and directly interact with the hypervisor to take control of access privileges and computing resources. They can compromise networks to execute denial-of-service attacks that can jeopardize the functioning of all virtual machines that are controlled by the hypervisor.
Microsoft launched the Azure Dedicated Host service to provide customers dedicated hosts for the virtual machines. These dedicated hosts are physical servers that are used exclusively by a single tenant. Let us understand Azure Dedicated Host better and evaluate if it the right solution for your business.
What Are the Advantages of Azure Dedicated Host?
The host-level isolation offered by Azure Dedicated Host services has several advantages.
The hardware is isolated at the physical server level. Because the dedicated hosts are in the same data centers, use the same network, and share the same infrastructure, there is a drastic reduction in vulnerabilities.
Organizations can select specific maintenance windows for reducing service impact, especially when there are sensitive workloads, and it is impossible to pause operations.
Organizations with on-premises deployments can take advantage of Azure Hybrid Benefits for cost benefits.
When to Use Azure Dedicated Host?
Mentioned below are some of the scenarios in which Azure Dedicated Host could be the ideal solution.
- Organizations have stringent compliance requirements that necessitate the host-level isolation for virtual machine deployments.
- Businesses need a virtualized environment that is designed specifically for Azure Virtual Machines with added access to the physical server on which the service is deployed.
- The capacity of an entire host is required for complex operations, and it is financially not viable to acquire it.
- You have several Windows Server Datacenter licenses and need to take advantage of unlimited virtualization rights.
How to Deploy Virtual Machines to Azure Dedicated Host?
Deploying virtual machines to an Azure Dedicated Host is not very different from deploying regular Azure VMs. The process can be executed using Azure PowerShell, Azure Resource Manager (ARM) template, or using the Azure Command Line Interface (CLI). Here is a summary of the steps involved in the process.
- Create a host group and specify settings such as the availability zones and fault domain count.
- Choose from the list of available VM and hardware options on adding hosts to the host group.
- If you plan to take advantage of Azure Hybrid Benefit, ensure that you have added the details of the licenses that you already own at this stage.
- You might also want to raise the number of cores available as a part of your subscription to ensure that you have sufficient resources by opening a support ticket.
Once you have deployed the dedicated host, you can start creating virtual machines for it. You can even move existing VMs to the dedicated host provided it is of the same size family, same region, and same availability group as the host group. Also, it cannot be a part of a proximity placement group or an availability set.
Apps4Rent Can Help with Azure Hosting
Although Azure Dedicated Host can help organizations fulfill their compliance requirements and provide unhindered access to the physical hardware, it is an expensive proposition even with Azure Hybrid Benefits. These requirements can often be fulfilled even with other Azure services such as Azure Hybrid cloud solutions. Nonetheless, it is advisable to consult with a Microsoft CSP such as Apps4Rent for such deployments. Our Azure experts are available 24/7 via phone, chat, and email for assistance. Contact us today for affordable Azure plans.
