: VM-Series on Microsoft Azure Performance and Capacity
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VM-Series on Microsoft Azure Performance and Capacity

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VM-Series on Microsoft Azure Performance and Capacity

Performance—Many factors, such as the virtual machine size on Microsoft Azure, maximum packets per second supported, and the number of cores used, can affect VM-Series performance. In addition to those noted, the performance and capacities listed in the following table have been generated under controlled lab conditions, using the recommended Azure virtual machine size, and configured with Azure Accelerated Networking using SR-IOV and DPDK under the following test conditions:
  • Firewall throughput is measured with App-ID™ technology features enabled utilizing 64 KB HTTP 1.1 transactions
  • Threat Prevention throughput is measured with App-ID, IPS, antivirus, and anti-spyware features enabled, utilizing 64K HTTP 1.1 transactions.
  • IPsec VPN performance is measured with App-ID™ enabled and tested between two VM-Series deployed within the same region. The performance will depend on the Azure VM size and network topology, such as whether you are connecting on-premises hardware to VM-Series on Azure, or from VM-Series on an Azure VNet to an Azure VPN Gateway in another VNet, or VM-Series to VM-Series between regions.
Model**VM-50 / VM-50 Lite*VM-100VM-300VM-500 VM-700***
Azure instance size tested (recommended)N/ADS3_v2DS3_v2 DS4_v2DS5_v2
Firewall throughput (App-ID enabled)N/A 1.4 Gbps 2.5 Gbps 5.2 Gbps8.6 Gbps
Threat Prevention throughput N/A0.6 Gbps1.3 Gbps 3.2 Gbps4.3 Gbps
IPsec VPN throughput N/A 0.7 Gbps 1.0 Gbps1.2 Gbps 1.8 Gbps
*The VM-50 and VM-50 Lite are not supported on Azure.
***The test environment is capped by the Azure Network Flow limits.
Capacities— For a complete listing of all VM-Series features and capacities, refer to the firewall comparison tool.
VM-Series capacities specified in the page are not specific to Azure environments. For example, Azure Network Flow limits will limit your VM-Series session capacities in Azure. If you need additional capacity or scale, please refer to VM-Series deployment options using Azure VM Scale Sets.
Palo Alto Networks recommends additional testing within your environment to ensure that your performance and capacity requirements are met. For your scaling and capacity planning needs, use the custom PAN-OS metrics published to Azure Application Insights.