Comparing Azure Generation 2 VM Capabilities

Azure generation 2 VMs offer larger processor, memory, and OS disk capacity than generation 1 VMs, and support most benefits of on-premises Hyper-V generation 2 VMs. The chart compares available capabilities.

Azure generation 2 VMs support firmware based on the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), which offers faster boot times and supports security features not provided by the basic input/output system (BIOS) emulation of generation 1 VMs. The larger processor, memory, and OS disk capacity of Azure generation 2 VMs make them more useful for memory- and processor-intensive workloads such as large relational databases; some Azure VMs with extremely high vCPU and memory allocations, like the Mv2 series, are available only as generation 2. There is no additional cost for selecting an Azure generation 2 VM over an equivalent Azure generation 1 VM.