Virtual Machines limits
Find the quotas and project allocations that virtual machines consume, and the fixed limits of the console and the API.
Virtual Machines has two kinds of limits:
- Quotas cap usage through the subscription's quota and the project's allocation. You can request an increase.
- Product limits are fixed rules of the console and the API. They can't be changed.
Quotas
When you create an instance, the platform checks every quota in the following table against the subscription's quota, and refuses the whole request if any of them would be exceeded. Nothing is created in that case.
| Quota | What one instance consumes | Adjustable? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Instances | 1 | Yes | Quota ID q-instances. |
| vCPUs | The size's vCPUs | Yes | Quota ID q-vcpus. |
| RAM | The size's memory, in MB | Yes | Quota ID q-ram. |
| Volumes | 1 for the OS disk, plus 1 per data disk | Yes | Quota ID q-volumes. Booting from an existing volume adds no OS disk. |
| Volume Storage | The OS disk size plus the data disk sizes, in GB | Yes | Quota ID q-gigabytes. Booting from an existing volume adds no OS disk. |
| Floating IPs | 1, when the Floating IP option is on | Yes | Quota ID q-floating-ips. |
When you create several instances in one request, each quota is checked for all of them together.
The creation wizard's Quota after this request panel shows each subscription quota's current usage, what the request adds, and the limit. To check all quotas and allocations, see Check your quotas. To request an increase, see Request a quota increase.
Project allocations
The subscription's quota is shared between its projects. Each project can use only its allocation, the share of each quota that's assigned to it, and the cloud enforces that allocation.
- A new project starts with an allocation of up to 10 instances, 8 vCPUs, 16 GB of RAM, 10 volumes, 200 GB of volume storage, and 2 Floating IPs, as far as the subscription's quota has room left.
- To move allocation between projects, see Allocate quota to a project.
The creation wizard checks the subscription's quota. If a create fails with a quota message although the wizard showed enough quota, the project's allocation is too small. See Troubleshoot virtual machines.
Product limits
| Resource | Limit | Adjustable? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Instances per create request | 1–20 | No | With more than one, the name becomes a prefix. |
| Instance name in the console | 1–63 characters | No | Lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens. Must be unique within the project when you create the instance. In a batch, every generated name must fit. |
| Instance name with the API | 1–255 characters | No | No leading or trailing spaces. Must be unique within the project when you create the instance. |
| Instances that can boot from one existing volume | 1 | No | A batch can't boot from an existing volume. |
| OS disk size | At least the image's minimum disk size or the snapshot's size | No | No other upper limit than your Volume Storage quota. |
| Data disks per instance at creation | 8 | No | You can attach more volumes later. |
| Data disk size at creation | 1–4,096 GB | No | |
| SSH key pairs per instance | 10 | No | Installed at the first boot only. |
| Administrator username | 1–32 characters | No | Lowercase letters, digits, hyphens, and underscores, starting with a letter or an underscore. |
| Administrator password | 8–72 characters | No | No line breaks. |
| Specific IP address of an interface | IPv4 | No | Must be free and inside the subnet's allocation pool. |
| Key pair name | 1–63 characters | No | Lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens, starting with a letter or a number. Unique across all projects of your tenant in the region. |
| Tag key | 1–128 characters | No | |
| Tag value | Up to 256 characters | No | |
| Lifecycle actions in progress per instance | 1 | No | Start, stop, restart, pause, resume, and resize run one at a time. |
| Browser console ticket | Single use, valid for 60 seconds | No | Select Reconnect to get a new ticket. |
| Serial console log download | The last 1,000 lines | No |