Mandatory. Without it, you lose SR-IOV, and throughput drops by >70%.
Recommendation: For production >2 Gbps, always choose BYOL with a 3-year commitment. For variable workloads under 1 Gbps, PAYG works but watch your monthly bill.
Azure provides various VM sizes that can be used for FortiGate deployments. The following are some common VM sizes: fortigate vm sizing azure
Sizing impact: Double the VM resources (two VMs active). For A/A, you also need more throughput per VM.
Version: 2024 Standards Scope: Infrastructure Architects, Security Engineers, Cloud Administrators Mandatory
| Family | Example Size | vCPUs | Memory | Best For | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | D-Series v5 (Dsv5) | Standard_D2s_v5 | 2 | 8 GB | General purpose – ideal for most. High CPU perf, fair price. | | D-Series v4 (Dsv4) | Standard_D4s_v4 | 4 | 16 GB | Mature, widely available, good for mid-range. | | F-Series (Fsv2) | Standard_F4s_v2 | 4 | 8 GB | CPU-optimized – excellent for IPsec VPN termination. | | E-Series (Esv5) | Standard_E4s_v5 | 4 | 32 GB | Memory-heavy – only needed for huge session tables (>2M). | | B-Series (Burstable) | Standard_B2s | 2 | 4 GB | NOT recommended for production – CPU credits run out quickly. |
Avoid: Any -as v4 sizes (they have less network acceleration) and older A-series VMs. Azure provides various VM sizes that can be
For environments above 2 Gbps, consider FortiGate-VM with vSRX or native Azure Firewall Premium for cost comparison – FGT-VM often wins on features but not always on raw Azure throughput.
Note: Always refer to the latest Fortinet Azure Sizing Guide (FortiOS 7.4+) and Microsoft’s VM documentation, as both companies update performance data quarterly.