Azure B-Series VM size not available

Hi @FerMac ,

please check if these VM SKUs (free) are available for you:

For Windows VM: B2ATS

For Linux VM: B2ATS, and B2PTS

All of these are free of charge (750 hours per month) if used with a P6 (64GiB) managed disk.

Source: https://marketplace.microsoft.com/en-us/product/azure-services/microsoft.freeaccountvirtualmachine?tab=overview

As the B series (version 1/v1) is being retired in a lot of Azure regions the B2ATS might be the preferred VM SKU.

More details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/sizes/general-purpose/bsv2-series?tabs=sizebasic#sizes-in-series

(If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote and/or accept as answer, thank you)

Regards

Andreas Baumgarten

Thank you for sharing the details.

The original B-series (v1) virtual machines are scheduled for retirement by November 2028. As part of this retirement plan, availability of these VM sizes has already been restricted or removed in many regions, particularly for new deployments and newly created subscriptions.

You may refer to the official Microsoft retirement announcement:

Retirement: The F, Fs, Fsv2, Lsv2, G, Gs, Av2, Amv2, and B series VMs are retiring in 2028

Retired Azure VM size series

Once go to the Subscription >> Usage + Quotas >> Check for the B-series quota details.

Subscription and quota considerations

You can verify availability by navigating to: Azure Portal → Subscriptions → Usage + quotas

• If the B-series quota is unavailable, you may request access by creating a support ticket
• However, Free Trial subscriptions are not eligible for quota increase requests, which means retired or restricted SKUs such as Standard_B1s cannot be enabled in those subscriptions.

Reference: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/quotas/per-vm-quota-requests

Microsoft recommends using the newer B-series v2 (Bsv2) VM sizes, which are actively supported and available in more regions

Reference: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/sizes/general-purpose/b-family

Hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any queries.

B-series VM sizes can be unavailable in a subscription even when quota appears sufficient, due to SKU availability and subscription/region restrictions.

Key points and checks:

1. Confirm SKU availability in the region for that subscription
   • az vm list-skus --location eastus --size Standard_B1ms --output table returning nothing indicates that Standard_B1ms is not available to that subscription in eastus.
   • SKU availability is per-subscription and per-region; two subscriptions in the same tenant can see different SKUs.
2. Distinguish quota vs. capacity/SKU availability
   • Quota only means the subscription is allowed to use a certain number of vCPUs; it does not guarantee that a specific SKU is available.
   • Azure checks quota and capacity separately. Even with quota, a SKU may be blocked or not offered in that subscription/region.
   • This is consistent with guidance that “quota isn’t a capacity guarantee and is applied on a per‑region basis,” and that SKU availability varies by region and subscription.
3. Possible causes for B-series not showing
   • The B-series family is not enabled or is restricted for that specific non‑profit subscription in that region.
   • Regional capacity or SKU rollout differences for that subscription type.
4. Recommended workarounds
   1. Try a different region for the same subscription:
      • Run az vm list-skus --location <other-region> --size Standard_B1ms --output table for a few nearby regions to see if B-series appears anywhere.
      • If B-series appears in another region, you can deploy there as an interim workaround.
   2. Try a different VM family in the desired region:
      • Use az vm list-skus --location eastus --output table (optionally filter by --resource-type virtualMachines) to see which general‑purpose SKUs are available and choose a comparable low‑cost size from another series.
   3. Open a support request to enable the SKU:
      • Since another non‑profit subscription in the same organization has B-series available in the same region, this strongly suggests a subscription‑level restriction.
      • Open an Azure support request under that subscription and ask specifically for B-series (for example, Standard_B1ms, Standard_B2s) to be enabled in the required regions.
      • Support can confirm whether the SKU is blocked for that subscription and, if possible, enable it.

Because az vm list-skus returns no entries for Standard_B1ms in eastus for that subscription, the behavior is consistent with a subscription‑level restriction or lack of SKU availability, not a quota problem. The practical path is to either use another region/size or work with Azure Support to have B-series enabled for that subscription.

References:

• Virtual machine (VM) sizes, generations, and features for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
• Quotas, virtual machine size restrictions, and region availability in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
• Resolve errors for SKU not available
• Subscription considerations and recommendations
• Check vCPU quotas