Resource limits for elastic pools using the vCore purchasing model

Applies to: Azure SQL Database

This article provides the detailed resource limits for Azure SQL Database elastic pools and pooled databases using the vCore purchasing model.

Important

Shrink operations should not be considered a regular maintenance operation. Data and log files that grow due to regular, recurring business operations do not require shrink operations. Under some circumstances, you might need to shrink a database to reclaim unused space. For more information, see Manage file space in Azure SQL Database.

Each read-only replica of an elastic pool has its own resources, such as vCores, memory, data IOPS, tempdb, workers, and sessions. Each read-only replica is subject to elastic pool resource limits detailed later in this article.

You can set the service tier, compute size (service objective), and storage amount using:

Important

For scaling guidance and considerations, see Scale an elastic pool.

If all vCores of an elastic pool are busy, then each database in the pool receives an equal amount of compute resources to process queries. Azure SQL Database provides resource sharing fairness between databases by ensuring equal slices of compute time. Elastic pool resource sharing fairness is in addition to any amount of resource otherwise guaranteed to each database when the vCore min per database is set to a non-zero value.

For the same number of vCores, resources provided to an elastic pool can exceed the resources provided to a single database outside of an elastic pool. This means it's possible for the CPU, Data IO, and Log write utilization of an elastic pool to be less than the summation of CPU, Data IO, and Log write utilization across databases within the pool, depending on workload patterns. For example, in an extreme case with only one database in an elastic pool where database Data IO utilization is 100%, it's possible for pool Data IO utilization to be 50% for certain workload patterns. This can happen even if max vCores per database remains at the maximum supported value for the given pool size.

Note

The Gen5 hardware in the vCore purchasing model has been renamed to standard-series (Gen5).

General Purpose - provisioned compute - standard-series (Gen5)

General Purpose - standard-series (Gen5) (part 1 of 3)

Compute sizes (service level objectives, or SLOs) for General Purpose standard-series elastic pools follow the naming convention GP_Gen5_ followed by the number of max vCores.

The following table covers these SLOs: GP_Gen5_2, GP_Gen5_4, GP_Gen5_6, GP_Gen5_8, and GP_Gen5_10:

vCores 2 4 6 8 10
Hardware Gen5 Gen5 Gen5 Gen5 Gen5
Memory (GB) 10.4 20.8 31.1 41.5 51.9
Max number DBs per pool 1 100 200 500 500 500
Columnstore support Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
In-memory OLTP storage (GB) N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Max data size (GB) 512 756 1536 2048 2048
Max log size (GB) 2 154 227 461 461 461
tempdb max data size (GB) 64 128 192 256 320
Storage type Premium (Remote) Storage Premium (Remote) Storage Premium (Remote) Storage Premium (Remote) Storage Premium (Remote) Storage
Read IO latency (approximate) 5-10 ms 5-10 ms 5-10 ms 5-10 ms 5-10 ms
Write IO latency (approximate) 5-7 ms 5-7 ms 5-7 ms 5-7 ms 5-7 ms
Max data IOPS per pool 3 1,400 2,800 4,200 5,600 7,000
Max log rate per pool (MBps) 12 24 36 48 60
Max concurrent workers per pool 4 210 420 630 840 1050
Max concurrent logins per pool 210 420 630 840 1050
Max concurrent sessions 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000
Max concurrent external connections per pool 5 21 42 63 84 105
Min/max elastic pool vCore choices per database 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10
Number of replicas 1 1 1 1 1
Multi-AZ Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Read Scale-out N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Included backup storage 1X DB size 1X DB size 1X DB size 1X DB size 1X DB size

1 See Resource management in dense elastic pools for additional considerations.

2 For documented max data size values. Reducing max data size reduces max log size proportionally.

3 The maximum value for IO sizes ranging between 8 KB and 64 KB. Actual IOPS are workload-dependent. For details, see Data IO Governance.

4 For the max concurrent workers for any individual database, see Single database resource limits. For example, if the elastic pool is using Gen5 and the max vCore per database is set at 2, then the max concurrent workers value is 200. If max vCore per database is set to 0.5, then the max concurrent workers value is 50 since on Gen5 there are a max of 100 concurrent workers per vCore. For other max vCore settings per database that are less 1 vCore or less, the number of max concurrent workers is similarly rescaled.

5 For more information on what counts as an external connection, see External Connections.

General Purpose - standard-series (Gen5) (part 2 of 3)

Compute sizes (service level objectives, or SLOs) for General Purpose standard-series elastic pools follow the naming convention GP_Gen5_ followed by the number of max vCores.

The following table covers these SLOs: GP_Gen5_12, GP_Gen5_14, GP_Gen5_16, GP_Gen5_18, and GP_Gen5_20:

vCores 12 14 16 18 20
Hardware Gen5 Gen5 Gen5 Gen5 Gen5
Memory (GB) 62.3 72.7 83 93.4 103.8
Max number DBs per pool 1 500 500 500 500 500
Columnstore support Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
In-memory OLTP storage (GB) N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Max data size (GB) 2048 2048 2048 3072 3072
Max log size (GB) 2 614 614 614 922 922
tempdb max data size (GB) 384 448 512 576 640
Storage type Premium (Remote) Storage Premium (Remote) Storage Premium (Remote) Storage Premium (Remote) Storage Premium (Remote) Storage
Read IO latency (approximate) 5-10 ms 5-10 ms 5-10 ms 5-10 ms 5-10 ms
Write IO latency (approximate) 5-7 ms 5-7 ms 5-7 ms 5-7 ms 5-7 ms
Max data IOPS per pool 3 8,400 9,800 11,200 12,600 14,000
Max log rate per pool (MBps) 62.5 62.5 62.5 62.5 62.5
Max concurrent workers per pool 4 1260 1470 1680 1890 2100
Max concurrent logins per pool 1260 1470 1680 1890 2100
Max concurrent sessions 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000
Max concurrent external connections per pool 5 126 147 150 150 150
Min/max elastic pool vCore choices per database 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20
Number of replicas 1 1 1 1 1
Multi-AZ Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Read Scale-out N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Included backup storage 1X DB size 1X DB size 1X DB size 1X DB size 1X DB size

1 See Resource management in dense elastic pools for additional considerations.

2 For documented max data size values. Reducing max data size reduces max log size proportionally.

3 The maximum value for IO sizes ranging between 8 KB and 64 KB. Actual IOPS are workload-dependent. For details, see Data IO Governance.

4 For the max concurrent workers for any individual database, see Single database resource limits. For example, if the elastic pool is using standard-series (Gen5) and the max vCore per database is set at 2, then the max concurrent workers value is 200. If max vCore per database is set to 0.5, then the max concurrent workers value is 50 since on standard-series (Gen5) there are a max of 100 concurrent workers per vCore. For other max vCore settings per database that are less 1 vCore or less, the number of max concurrent workers is similarly rescaled.

5 For more information on what counts as an external connection, see External Connections.

General Purpose - standard-series (Gen5) (part 3 of 3)

Compute sizes (service level objectives, or SLOs) for General Purpose standard-series elastic pools follow the naming convention GP_Gen5_ followed by the number of max vCores.

The following table covers these SLOs: GP_Gen5_24, GP_Gen5_32, GP_Gen5_40, GP_Gen5_80, and GP_Gen5_128:

vCores 24 32 40 80
Hardware Gen5 Gen5 Gen5 Gen5
Memory (GB) 124.6 166.1 207.6 415.2
Max number DBs per pool 1 500 500 500 500
Columnstore support Yes Yes Yes Yes
In-memory OLTP storage (GB) N/A N/A N/A N/A
Max data size (GB) 3072 4096 4096 4096
Max log size (GB) 2 922 1229 1229 1229
tempdb max data size (GB) 768 1024 1280 2560
Storage type Premium (Remote) Storage Premium (Remote) Storage Premium (Remote) Storage Premium (Remote) Storage
Read IO latency (approximate) 5-10 ms 5-10 ms 5-10 ms 5-10 ms
Write IO latency (approximate) 5-7 ms 5-7 ms 5-7 ms 5-7 ms
Max data IOPS per pool 3 16,800 22,400 28,000 32,000
Max log rate per pool (MBps) 62.5 62.5 62.5 62.5
Max concurrent workers per pool 4 2520 3360 4200 8400
Max concurrent logins per pool 2520 3360 4200 8400
Max concurrent sessions 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000
Max concurrent external connections per pool 5 150 150 150 150
Min/max elastic pool vCore choices per database 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24, 32 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24, 32, 40 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24, 32, 40, 48, 80
Number of replicas 1 1 1 1
Multi-AZ Yes Yes Yes Yes
Read Scale-out N/A N/A N/A N/A
Included backup storage 1X DB size 1X DB size 1X DB size 1X DB size

1 See Resource management in dense elastic pools for additional considerations.

2 For documented max data size values. Reducing max data size reduces max log size proportionally.

3 The maximum value for IO sizes ranging between 8 KB and 64 KB. Actual IOPS are workload-dependent. For details, see Data IO Governance.

4 For the max concurrent workers for any individual database, see Single database resource limits. For example, if the elastic pool is using standard-series (Gen5) and the max vCore per database is set at 2, then the max concurrent workers value is 200. If max vCore per database is set to 0.5, then the max concurrent workers value is 50 since on standard-series (Gen5) there are a max of 100 concurrent workers per vCore. For other max vCore settings per database that are less 1 vCore or less, the number of max concurrent workers is similarly rescaled.

5 For more information on what counts as an external connection, see External Connections.

Business Critical - provisioned compute - standard-series (Gen5)

Business Critical - standard-series (Gen5) (part 1 of 3)

Compute sizes (service level objectives, or SLOs) in the Business Critical standard-series elastic pools follow the naming convention BC_Gen5_ followed by the number of vCores.

The following table covers these SLOs: BC_Gen5_4, BC_Gen5_6, BC_Gen5_8, BC_Gen5_10, and BC_Gen5_12:

vCores 4 6 8 10 12
Hardware Gen5 Gen5 Gen5 Gen5 Gen5
Memory (GB) 20.8 31.1 41.5 51.9 62.3
Max number DBs per pool 1 50 100 100 100 100
Columnstore support Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
In-memory OLTP storage (GB) 3.14 4.71 6.28 8.65 11.02
Max data size (GB) 1024 1536 2048 2048 3072
Max log size (GB) 2 307 307 461 461 922
tempdb max data size (GB) 128 192 256 320 384
Max local storage size (GB) 4829 4829 4829 4829 4829
Storage type Local SSD Local SSD Local SSD Local SSD Local SSD
Read IO latency (approximate) 1-2 ms 1-2 ms 1-2 ms 1-2 ms 1-2 ms
Write IO latency (approximate) 1-2 ms 1-2 ms 1-2 ms 1-2 ms 1-2 ms
Max data IOPS per pool 3 18,000 27,000 36,000 45,000 54,000
Max log rate per pool (MBps) 60 90 120 120 120
Max concurrent workers per pool 4 420 630 840 1050 1260
Max concurrent logins per pool 420 630 840 1050 1260
Max concurrent sessions 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000
Max concurrent external connections per pool 5 42 63 84 105 126
Min/max elastic pool vCore choices per database 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12
Number of replicas 4 4 4 4 4
Multi-AZ Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Read Scale-out Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Included backup storage 1X DB size 1X DB size 1X DB size 1X DB size 1X DB size

1 See Resource management in dense elastic pools for additional considerations.

2 For documented max data size values. Reducing max data size reduces max log size proportionally.

3 The maximum value for IO sizes ranging between 8 KB and 64 KB. Actual IOPS are workload-dependent. For details, see Data IO Governance.

4 For the max concurrent workers for any individual database, see Single database resource limits. For example, if the elastic pool is using standard-series (Gen5) and the max vCore per database is set at 2, then the max concurrent workers value is 200. If max vCore per database is set to 0.5, then the max concurrent workers value is 50 since on standard-series (Gen5) there are a max of 100 concurrent workers per vCore. For other max vCore settings per database that are less 1 vCore or less, the number of max concurrent workers is similarly rescaled.

5 For more information on what counts as an external connection, see External Connections.

Business Critical - standard-series (Gen5) (part 2 of 3)

Compute sizes (service level objectives, or SLOs) in the Business Critical standard-series elastic pools follow the naming convention BC_Gen5_ followed by the number of vCores.

The following table covers these SLOs: BC_Gen5_14, BC_Gen5_16, BC_Gen5_18, BC_Gen5_20, and BC_Gen5_24:

vCores 14 16 18 20 24
Hardware Gen5 Gen5 Gen5 Gen5 Gen5
Memory (GB) 72.7 83 93.4 103.8 124.6
Max number DBs per pool 1 100 100 100 100 100
Columnstore support Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
In-memory OLTP storage (GB) 13.39 15.77 18.14 20.51 25.25
Max data size (GB) 3072 3072 3072 3072 4096
Max log size (GB) 2 922 922 922 922 1229
tempdb max data size (GB) 448 512 576 640 768
Max local storage size (GB) 4829 4829 4829 4829 4829
Storage type Local SSD Local SSD Local SSD Local SSD Local SSD
Read IO latency (approximate) 1-2 ms 1-2 ms 1-2 ms 1-2 ms 1-2 ms
Write IO latency (approximate) 1-2 ms 1-2 ms 1-2 ms 1-2 ms 1-2 ms
Max data IOPS per pool 3 63,000 72,000 81,000 90,000 108,000
Max log rate per pool (MBps) 120 120 120 120 120
Max concurrent workers per pool 4 1470 1680 1890 2100 2520
Max concurrent logins per pool 1470 1680 1890 2100 2520
Max concurrent sessions 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000
Max concurrent external connections per pool 5 147 150 150 150 150
Min/max elastic pool vCore choices per database 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24
Number of replicas 4 4 4 4 4
Multi-AZ Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Read Scale-out Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Included backup storage 1X DB size 1X DB size 1X DB size 1X DB size 1X DB size

1 See Resource management in dense elastic pools for additional considerations.

2 For documented max data size values. Reducing max data size reduces max log size proportionally.

3 The maximum value for IO sizes ranging between 8 KB and 64 KB. Actual IOPS are workload-dependent. For details, see Data IO Governance.

4 For the max concurrent workers for any individual database, see Single database resource limits. For example, if the elastic pool is using standard-series (Gen5) and the max vCore per database is set at 2, then the max concurrent workers value is 200. If max vCore per database is set to 0.5, then the max concurrent workers value is 50 since on standard-series (Gen5) there are a max of 100 concurrent workers per vCore. For other max vCore settings per database that are less 1 vCore or less, the number of max concurrent workers is similarly rescaled.

Business Critical - standard-series (Gen5) (part 3 of 3)

Compute sizes (service level objectives, or SLOs) in the Business Critical standard-series elastic pools follow the naming convention BC_Gen5_ followed by the number of vCores.

The following table covers these SLOs: BC_Gen5_32, BC_Gen5_40, and BC_Gen5_80:

vCores 32 40 80
Hardware Gen5 Gen5 Gen5
Memory (GB) 166.1 207.6 415.2
Max number DBs per pool 1 100 100 100
Columnstore support Yes Yes Yes
In-memory OLTP storage (GB) 37.94 52.23 131.68
Max data size (GB) 4096 4096 4096
Max log size (GB) 2 1229 1229 1229
tempdb max data size (GB) 1024 1280 2560
Max local storage size (GB) 4829 4829 4829
Storage type Local SSD Local SSD Local SSD
Read IO latency (approximate) 1-2 ms 1-2 ms 1-2 ms
Write IO latency (approximate) 1-2 ms 1-2 ms 1-2 ms
Max data IOPS per pool 3 144,000 180,000 256,000
Max log rate per pool (MBps) 120 120 120
Max concurrent workers per pool 4 3360 4200 8400
Max concurrent logins per pool 3360 4200 8400
Max concurrent sessions 30,000 30,000 30,000
Max concurrent external connections per pool 5 150 150 150
Min/max elastic pool vCore choices per database 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24, 32 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24, 32, 40 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24, 32, 40, 48, 80
Number of replicas 4 4 4
Multi-AZ Yes Yes Yes
Read Scale-out Yes Yes Yes
Included backup storage 1X DB size 1X DB size 1X DB size

1 See Resource management in dense elastic pools for additional considerations.

2 For documented max data size values. Reducing max data size reduces max log size proportionally.

3 The maximum value for IO sizes ranging between 8 KB and 64 KB. Actual IOPS are workload-dependent. For details, see Data IO Governance.

4 For the max concurrent workers for any individual database, see Single database resource limits. For example, if the elastic pool is using standard-series (Gen5) and the max vCore per database is set at 2, then the max concurrent workers value is 200. If max vCore per database is set to 0.5, then the max concurrent workers value is 50 since on standard-series (Gen5) there are a max of 100 concurrent workers per vCore. For other max vCore settings per database that are less 1 vCore or less, the number of max concurrent workers is similarly rescaled.

5 For more information on what counts as an external connection, see External Connections.

Hyperscale - provisioned compute - standard-series (Gen5)

Note

Elastic pools for Hyperscale databases are currently in preview.

Hyperscale - standard-series (Gen5) (part 1 of 2)

Compute sizes (service level objectives, or SLOs) in the Hyperscale standard-series elastic pools follow the naming convention HS_Gen5_ followed by the number of vCores.

The following table covers these SLOs: HS_Gen5_4, HS_Gen5_6, HS_Gen5_8, HS_Gen5_10, HS_Gen5_12, and HS_Gen5_14:

vCores 4 6 8 10 12 14
Hardware Gen5 Gen5 Gen5 Gen5 Gen5 Gen5
Memory (GB) 20.8 31.1 41.5 51.9 62.3 72.7
Max number DBs per pool 1 25 25 25 25 25 25
Columnstore support Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
In-memory OLTP storage (GB) N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Max data size per pool (TB) 100 100 100 100 100 100
tempdb max data size (GB) 128 192 256 320 384 448
Max local SSD IOPS per pool 2 18,000 27,000 36,000 45,000 54,000 63,000
Max log rate per pool (MBps ) 125 125 125 125 125 125
Local read IO latency3 1-2 ms 1-2 ms 1-2 ms 1-2 ms 1-2 ms 1-2 ms
Remote read IO latency3 1-5 ms 1-5 ms 1-5 ms 1-5 ms 1-5 ms 1-5 ms
Write IO latency3 3-5 ms 3-5 ms 3-5 ms 3-5 ms 3-5 ms 3-5 ms
Storage type Multi-tiered4 Multi-tiered4 Multi-tiered4 Multi-tiered4 Multi-tiered4 Multi-tiered4
Max concurrent workers per pool 5 420 630 840 1050 1260 1470
Max concurrent external connections per pool 6 42 63 84 105 126 147
Max concurrent sessions 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000
Min/max elastic pool vCore choices per database 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14
Secondary pool replicas 0-4 0-4 0-4 0-4 0-4 0-4
Multi-AZ Not supported Not supported Not supported Not supported Not supported Not supported
Read Scale-out Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

1 See Resource management in dense elastic pools for additional considerations.

2 Hyperscale is a multi-tiered architecture with separate compute and storage components. Review Hyperscale service tier and Hyperscale service tier for more information.

3 Besides local SSD IO, workloads use remote page server IO. Actual IOPS are workload-dependent. For details, see Data IO Governance, and Data IO in resource utilization statistics.

4 Latency is 1-2 ms for data on local compute replica SSD, which caches most used data pages. Higher latency for data retrieved from page servers.

5 For the max concurrent workers for any individual database, see Single database resource limits. For example, if the elastic pool is using standard-series (Gen5) and the max vCore per database is set at 2, then the max concurrent workers value is 200. If max vCore per database is set to 0.5, then the max concurrent workers value is 50 since on standard-series (Gen5) there are a max of 100 concurrent workers per vCore. For other max vCore settings per database that are less 1 vCore or less, the number of max concurrent workers is similarly rescaled.

6 For more information on what counts as an external connection, see External Connections.

Hyperscale - standard-series (Gen5) (part 2 of 2)

Compute sizes (service level objectives, or SLOs) in the Hyperscale standard-series elastic pools follow the naming convention HS_Gen5_ followed by the number of vCores.

The following table covers these SLOs: HS_Gen5_16, HS_Gen5_18, HS_Gen5_20, HS_Gen5_24, HS_Gen5_32, HS_Gen5_40, and HS_Gen5_80:

vCores 16 18 20 24 32 40 80
Hardware Gen5 Gen5 Gen5 Gen5 Gen5 Gen5 Gen5
Max number DBs per pool 1 25 25 25 25 25 25 25
Memory (GB) 83 93.4 103.8 124.6 166.1 207.6 415.2
Columnstore support Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
In-memory OLTP storage (GB) N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Max data size per pool (TB) 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
tempdb max data size (GB) 512 576 640 768 1024 1280 2560
Max local SSD IOPS per pool 2 72,000 81,000 90,000 108,000 144,000 180,000 256,000
Max log rate per pool (MBps) 125 125 125 125 125 125 125
Local read IO latency3 1-2 ms 1-2 ms 1-2 ms 1-2 ms 1-2 ms 1-2 ms 1-2 ms
Remote read IO latency3 1-5 ms 1-5 ms 1-5 ms 1-5 ms 1-5 ms 1-5 ms 1-5 ms
Write IO latency3 3-5 ms 3-5 ms 3-5 ms 3-5 ms 3-5 ms 3-5 ms 3-5 ms
Storage type Multi-tiered4 Multi-tiered4 Multi-tiered4 Multi-tiered4 Multi-tiered4 Multi-tiered4 Multi-tiered4
Max concurrent workers per pool 5 1680 1890 2100 2520 3360 4200 8400
Max concurrent external connections per pool 6 150 150 150 150 150 150 150
Max concurrent sessions 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000
Min/max elastic pool vCore choices per database 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24, 32 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24, 32, 40 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24, 32, 40, 80
Secondary replicas 0-4 0-4 0-4 0-4 0-4 0-4 0-4
Multi-AZ Not supported Not supported Not supported Not supported Not supported Not supported Not supported
Read Scale-out Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

1 See Resource management in dense elastic pools for additional considerations.

2 Hyperscale is a multi-tiered architecture with separate compute and storage components. Review Hyperscale service tier and Hyperscale service tier for more information.

3 Besides local SSD IO, workloads use remote page server IO. Actual IOPS are workload-dependent. For details, see Data IO Governance, and Data IO in resource utilization statistics.

4 Latency is 1-2 ms for data on local compute replica SSD, which caches most used data pages. Higher latency for data retrieved from page servers.

5 For the max concurrent workers for any individual database, see Single database resource limits. For example, if the elastic pool is using standard-series (Gen5) and the max vCore per database is set at 2, then the max concurrent workers value is 200. If max vCore per database is set to 0.5, then the max concurrent workers value is 50 since on standard-series (Gen5) there are a max of 100 concurrent workers per vCore. For other max vCore settings per database that are less 1 vCore or less, the number of max concurrent workers is similarly rescaled.

6 For more information on what counts as an external connection, see External Connections.

Database properties for pooled databases

For each elastic pool, you can optionally specify per database minimum and maximum vCores to modify resource consumption patterns within the pool. Specified min and max values apply to all databases in the pool. Customizing min and max vCores for individual databases in the pool isn't supported.

You can also set maximum storage per database, for example to prevent a database from consuming all pool storage. This setting can be configured independently for each database.

The following table describes per database properties for pooled databases.

Property Description
Max vCores per database The maximum number of vCores that any database in the pool can use, if available based on utilization by other databases in the pool. Max vCores per database isn't a resource guarantee for a database. If the workload in each database doesn't need all available pool resources to perform adequately, consider setting max vCores per database to prevent a single database from monopolizing pool resources. Some degree of over-committing is expected since the pool generally assumes hot and cold usage patterns for databases, where all databases aren't simultaneously peaking.
Min vCores per database The minimum number of vCores reserved for any database in the pool. Consider setting a min vCores per database when you want to guarantee resource availability for each database regardless of resource consumption by other databases in the pool. The min vCores per database can be set to 0, and is also the default value. This property is set to anywhere between 0 and the average vCores utilization per database.
Max storage per database The maximum database size set by the user for a database in a pool. Pooled databases share allocated pool storage, so the size a database can reach is limited to the smaller of remaining pool storage and maximum database size. Maximum database size refers to the maximum size of the data files and doesn't include the space used by the log file.

Important

Because resources in an elastic pool are finite, setting min vCores per database to a value greater than 0 implicitly limits resource utilization by each database. If, at a point in time, most databases in a pool are idle, resources reserved to satisfy the min vCores guarantee are not available to databases active at that point in time.

Additionally, setting min vCores per database to a value greater than 0 implicitly limits the number of databases that can be added to the pool. For example, if you set the min vCores to 2 in a 20 vCore pool, it means that you will not be able to add more than 10 databases to the pool, because 2 vCores are reserved for each database.

Even though the per database properties are expressed in vCores, they also govern consumption of other resource types, such as data IO, log IO, buffer pool memory, and worker threads. As you adjust min and max per database vCore values, reservations and limits for all resource types are adjusted proportionally.

Min and max per database vCore values apply to resource consumption by user workloads, but not to resource consumption by internal processes. For example, for a database with a per database max vCores set to half of the pool vCores, user workload can't consume more than one half of the buffer pool memory. However, this database can still take advantage of pages in the buffer pool that were loaded by internal processes. For more information, see Resource consumption by user workloads and internal processes.

Note

The resource limits of individual databases in elastic pools are generally the same as for single databases outside of pools that have the same compute size (service objective). For example, the max concurrent workers for an GP_S_Gen5_10 database is 750 workers. So, the max concurrent workers for a database in a GP_Gen5_10 pool is also 750 workers. Note, the total number of concurrent workers in GP_Gen5_10 pool is 1050. For the max concurrent workers for any individual database, see Single database resource limits.

Previously available hardware

This section includes details on previously available hardware.

  • Gen4 hardware has been retired and isn't available for provisioning, upscaling, or downscaling. Migrate your database to a supported hardware generation for a wider range of vCore and storage scalability, accelerated networking, best IO performance, and minimal latency. For more information, see Support has ended for Gen 4 hardware on Azure SQL Database.

You can use Azure Resource Graph Explorer to identify all Azure SQL Database resources that currently use Gen4 hardware, or you can check the hardware used by resources for a specific logical server in the Azure portal.

You must have at least read permissions to the Azure object or object group to see results in Azure Resource Graph Explorer.

To use Resource Graph Explorer to identify Azure SQL resources that are still using Gen4 hardware, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the Azure portal.

  2. Search for Resource graph in the search box, and choose the Resource Graph Explorer service from the search results.

  3. In the query window, type the following query and then select Run query:

    resources
    | where type contains ('microsoft.sql/servers')
    | where sku['family'] == "Gen4"
    
  4. The Results pane displays all the currently deployed resources in Azure that are using Gen4 hardware.

    Screenshot of Azure Resources Graph Explorer in the Azure portal showing query results to identify gen4 hardware.

To check the hardware used by resources for a specific logical server in Azure, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the Azure portal.
  2. Search for SQL servers in the search box and choose SQL servers from the search results to open the SQL servers page and view all servers for the chosen subscription(s).
  3. Select the server of interest to open the Overview page for the server.
  4. Scroll down to available resources and check the Pricing tier column for resources that are using gen4 hardware.

Screenshot of the Overview page for a logical server in Azure, the overview page selected, and gen4 highlighted.

To migrate resources to standard-series hardware, review Change hardware.