VM-Series on Microsoft Azure Performance and Capacity
Learn the latest performance and capacity numbers for the VM-Series firewall on Microsoft
Azure.
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 is measured with App-ID™ enabled and performance is tested between a
pair of VM-Series firewall instances in a placement group deployed within the
same availability zone and region. The performance will vary based on Azure
instance type and connectivity topology.
2 vCPUs (formerly VM-100)
4 vCPUs (formerly VM-300)
8 vCPUs (formerly VM-500)
16 vCPUs (formerly VM-700)
32 vCPUs
64 vCPUs
Azure instance size tested (recommended)
D3_v2*
D3_v2
D8_ds_v5
D16_ds_v5
D32_ds_v5
D64_ds_v5
Firewall throughput (App-ID enabled)
2 Gbps
3 Gbps
9 Gbps
12 Gbps
16 Gbps
32 Gbps**
Threat Prevention throughput
1.2 Gbps
2.5 Gbps
4.2 Gbps
10 Gbps
18 Gbps
22 Gbps**
IPsec VPN throughput
1 Gbps
2 Gbps
4 Gbps
8 Gbps
13 Gbps
17 Gbps**
*Limited to use a single dataplane core
**estimated
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.
