Reservations Azure : Eighteen sets of virtual machines are no longer being renewed

Azure It sends an expiration notification via email—first 30 days in advance and then on the day itself—without requiring any prior configuration. The message is sent to the reservation owners and its administrator—and, under an Enterprise Agreement, also to the notification contacts and the EA administrator—roles that do not always correspond to the individuals responsible for monitoring the budget. The machines, meanwhile, continue to run exactly as before: only the billing changes.

The series in question

Two cases, according to the series.

Of the fourteen series in the second line, only the one-year term remained available prior to this closure: July 1, 2026, removed the last reservation option.

Please note: Dv3, Dsv3, Ev3, and Esv3 remain active products. Microsoft is not discontinuing these devices, which continue to function normally; it has simply stopped accepting pre-orders for them. Confusing the two can lead to planning for a migration that is unnecessary.

Upcoming Dates

The date that matters is the end date of each reservation, not July 1, 2026. It varies from contract to contract, so you have as many due dates to keep track of as you have reservations.

A one-year subscription purchased in June 2026 covers the resource through June 2027. At that time, you cannot renew it for the same plan, and the resource switches to the on-demand rate. The cost difference depends on the discount you were receiving.

Print out a list of your active reservations along with their expiration dates: this is your schedule. Allow a few hours. You’ll then handle each expiration before it appears on the invoice, over a period of 12 to 36 months, depending on the contracts.

Available Options

Azure Savings Plan for Compute. This is Microsoft’s top recommendation if you’re keeping these series. You commit to an hourly amount, not to a specific machine type or region, which allows you to adapt to a changing infrastructure. You can exchange your existing reservations for a Savings Plan.

Upgrade to a recent series, then make a reservation. Starting with Dv3 and Dsv3, the subsequent generations are Dsv5, Ddsv5, Dasv5, Dadsv5, Dsv6, Ddsv6, Dasv6, and Dadsv6; starting with Ev3 and Esv3, they are Esv5, Edsv5, Easv5, Eadsv5, Esv6, Edsv6, Easv6, and Eadsv6. You’ll find that pre-ordering is an option, usually with a better discount. However, you’ll need to undertake a migration, and the 6th-generation series have prerequisites—notably an image compatible with NVMe storage.

Stick with the on-demand pricing plan. This makes sense for a short-term workload, a machine you’ll be removing, or a test environment. Document this choice just as you would the other three.

Exchange an existing reservation. An exchange to a series that is still supported preserves the reservation’s savings—without a penalty—for a stable workload that you cannot migrate immediately.

Prerequisites for the 6th-generation series

Upgrading to a v6 series makes reservation easier and generally improves the discount. These series use NVMe storage, which requires a Generation 2-compatible image.

With a fleet consisting of machines sourced from the local area—often converted from other uses—this compatibility is not a given. It must be verified machine by machine. It is this verification process that determines the project’s timeline, more so than the resizing itself.

Recommended Actions

1. Export a list of your active reservations, including their series, term, and expiration date.
2. Distinguish between active and discontinued series. Microsoft is not discontinuing the v3 series. The other series will be discontinued at a later date: for those, you'll need to decide whether to resize them now or wait until the discontinuation date.
3. For each reservation that expires within twelve months, choose between a savings plan, an upgrade, an exchange, or maintaining the rate upon request.
4. Check the compatibility of your images before upgrading to a Generation 6 series.

Balancing cost, flexibility, and effort migration—this follows the same logic as choosing a hosting architecture; our Infrastructure and Cloud page provides the framework for this.

Microsoft Sources

• Transition Guide for Discontinued Reserved VM Instances ( Azure ) — Microsoft Learn
• Automatic Reservation Renewal and Expiration Notifications — Microsoft Learn
• Save Money with Reserved VM Instances Azure —Microsoft Learn
• Azure 's Virtual Machine Sizes Discontinued — Microsoft Learn
• Azure Compute Savings Plan — Microsoft Learn