General purpose instance profiles - Gen 2

The general-purpose 2nd generation virtual server profiles (balanced, compute, and memory) are available to provision virtual servers on both Intel and AMD processor architectures.

Intel profiles

The general-purpose 2nd generation virtual server profiles (balanced, compute, and memory) are built atop the 2nd Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors. They provide a broad set of capabilities and scale from 2 vCPUs (1 physical core) up to 128 vCPUs (64 physical cores).

The general-purpose profiles can also be paired with a corresponding dedicated host. This solution allows for single-tenant hypervisors that run workloads from a single IBM Cloud® account.

Operating systems

Linux
Windows

Processor generation

Intel - 2nd Generation Xeon® Scalable processors
- Intel® Xeon® Gold 6248
- Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8260

Availability

Status: Generally available
Regions: All, except for Montreal, and Mumbai - Airtel

Capabilities

Core type: Dedicated
Dedicated host: Yes
Hyperthreading: Yes (SMT-2)
Secure boot: No
Confidential computing: No
Live migration: Yes
Instance storage: Select profiles
NIC Capabilities:
- Max single NIC throughput: up to 25 Gbps
- Bandwidth pooling: No
Volume bandwidth allocation method: weighted by default, pooled is not supported.

VM Configuration

Hardware type: i440fx
Cloud networking: virtio
Block boot volume: virtio
- Exception: vscsi for Windows-based virtual server instances
Block data volumes: virtio
Instance storage: virtio

Instance profiles

Balanced

Balanced instance profile options, Gen 2 Intel
Profile	vCPUs / Cores	Memory (GiB)	Bandwidth cap (Gbps)	Instance storage (Qty x GB)
bx2-2x8	2 / 1	8	4
bx2d-2x8	2 / 1	8	4	1x75
bx2-4x16	4 / 2	16	8
bx2d-4x16	4 / 2	16	8	1x150
bx2-8x32	8 / 4	32	16
bx2d-8x32	8 / 4	32	16	1x300
bx2-16x64	16 / 8	64	32
bx2d-16x64	16 / 8	64	32	1x600
bx2-32x128	32 / 16	128	64
bx2d-32x128	32 / 16	128	64	2x600
bx2-48x192	48 / 24	192	80
bx2d-48x192	48 / 24	192	80	1x900
bx2-64x256	64 / 32	256	80
bx2d-64x256	64 / 32	256	80	2x1200
bx2-96x384	96 / 48	384	80
bx2d-96x384	96 / 48	384	80	2x1800
bx2-128x512	128 / 64	512	80
bx2d-128x512	128 / 64	512	80	2x2400

Compute

Compute instance profile options, Gen 2 Intel
Profile	vCPUs / Cores	Memory (GiB)	Bandwidth cap (Gbps)	Instance storage (Qty x GB)
cx2-2x4	2 / 1	4	4
cx2d-2x4	2 / 1	4	4	1x75
cx2-4x8	4 / 2	8	8
cx2d-4x8	4 / 2	8	8	1x150
cx2-8x16	8 / 4	16	16
cx2d-8x16	8 / 4	16	16	1x300
cx2-16x32	16 / 8	32	32
cx2d-16x32	16 / 8	32	32	1x600
cx2-32x64	32 / 16	64	64
cx2d-32x64	32 / 16	64	64	2x600
cx2-48x96	48 / 24	96	80
cx2d-48x96	48 / 24	96	80	1x900
cx2-64x128	64 / 32	128	80
cx2d-64x128	64 / 32	128	80	2x1200
cx2-96x192	96 / 48	192	80
cx2d-96x192	96 / 48	192	80	2x1800
cx2-128x256	128 / 64	256	80
cx2d-128x256	128 / 64	256	80	2x2400

Memory

Memory instance profile options, Gen 2 Intel
Profile	vCPUs / Cores	Memory (GiB)	Bandwidth cap (Gbps)	Instance storage (Qty x GB)
mx2-2x16	2 / 1	16	4
mx2d-2x16	2 / 1	16	4	1x75
mx2-4x32	4 / 2	32	8
mx2d-4x32	4 / 2	32	8	1x150
mx2-8x64	8 / 4	64	16
mx2d-8x64	8 / 4	64	16	1x300
mx2-16x128	16 / 8	128	32
mx2d-16x128	16 / 8	128	32	1x600
mx2-32x256	32 / 16	256	64
mx2d-32x256	32 / 16	256	64	2x600
mx2-48x384	48 / 24	384	80
mx2d-48x384	48 / 24	384	80	1x900
mx2-64x512	64 / 32	512	80
mx2d-64x512	64 / 32	512	80	2x1200
mx2-96x768	96 / 48	768	80
mx2d-96x768	96 / 48	768	80	2x1800
mx2-128x1024	128 / 64	1024	80
mx2d-128x1024	128 / 64	1024	80	2x2400

Limits

An instance has a limit for the number of volumes and virtual network interfaces that can be attached. This limit is based on the size of the instance.

General purpose profile family limits for vCPU, maximum volumes, and maximum network interfaces
Number of vCPUs	Max volumes	Max vNICs
2-16	12	5
17-48	12	10
49+	12	15

Dedicated host profiles

Dedicated hosts allow users to provision a single-tenant host server and then provision virtual server instances of the corresponding family on the dedicated host.

General purpose dedicated host profile options, Gen 2 Intel
Profile	vCPUs / Cores	Memory (GiB)	Instance storage	Sockets per host (NUMA)	Supported instance types
bx2-host-152x608	152 / 76	608	N/A	4	bx2 (all)
bx2d-host-152x608	152 / 76	608	5700 GB	4	bx2d (all)
cx2-host-152x304	152 / 76	608	N/A	4	cx2 (all)
cx2d-host-152x304	152 / 76	608	5700 GB	4	cx2d (all)
mx2-host-152x1216	152 / 76	608	N/A	4	mx2 (all)
mx2d-host-152x1216	152 / 76	608	5700 GB	4	mx2d (all)

AMD profiles

The general-purpose 2nd generation virtual server profiles are built atop the AMD’s 3rd generation EPYC processors. They provide a broad set of capabilities and scale from 2 vCPUs (1 physical core) up to 228 vCPUs (114 physical cores).