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General purpose instance profiles - Gen 2

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 running 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

Capabilities

  • Core type: Dedicated
  • Dedicated host: Yes
  • Hyperthreading: Yes (SMT-2)
  • Secure boot: No
  • Confidential computing: No
  • Live migration: Yes
  • Instance storage: Select profiles

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 15 5
17-48 15 10
49+ 15 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).

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

Operating Systems

  • Linux
  • Windows

Processor Generation

  • AMD EPYC 7763

Availability

  • Status: Generally available
  • Regions: Toronto (ca-tor)

Capabilities

  • Core type: Dedicated
  • Dedicated host: Yes
  • Hyperthreading: Yes (SMT-2)
  • Secure boot: No
  • Confidential computing: No
  • Live migration: Yes
  • Instance storage: No

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 profiles

Balanced

Balanced instance profile options, Gen 2 AMD
Profile vCPUs / Cores Memory (GiB) Bandwidth cap (Gbps)
bx2a-2x8 2 / 1 8 4
bx2a-4x16 4 / 2 16 8
bx2a-8x32 8 / 4 32 16
bx2a-16x64 16 / 8 64 32
bx2a-32x128 32 / 16 128 64
bx2a-48x192 48 / 24 192 80
bx2a-64x256 64 / 32 256 80
bx2a-96x384 96 / 48 384 80
bx2a-128x512 128 / 64 512 80
bx2a-228x912 228 / 114 912 80

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 15 5
17-48 15 10
49+ 15 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 AMD
Profile vCPUs / Cores Memory (GiB) Instance storage Sockets per host (NUMA) Supported instance types
bx2a-host-228x912 228 / 114 912 N/A 2 bx2a (all)