Microsoft Azure Overview#

There are three methods for deploying NVIDIA AI Enterprise in Microsoft Azure, the following table summarizes:

Instance Type

NVIDIA Virtual Machine Image (VMI)

License Included

Standard

No

No

NVIDIA AI Enterprise Private Offer VMI

Yes

Yes

NVIDIA AI Enterprise VMI

Yes

Yes

NVIDIA GPU-Optimized VMI

Yes

No

Azure Kubernetes Service

No

No

Marketplace Red Hat OpenShift

No

No

NVIDIA VMIs contain key technologies and software preinstalled from NVIDIA for rapid deployment, management, and scaling of AI workloads. Whereas, standard cloud instances may not include the proven supported NVIDIA AI Enterprise configurations, such as RHEL or Ubuntu based Operating Systems Certified for NVIDIA AI Enterprise, the NVIDIA driver, and the NVIDIA Container Toolkit.

Note

Please refer the NVIDIA AI Enterprise Supported Cloud Services Product Support Matrix for additional information

Attention

Regardless of which supported instance you choose, a license for NVIDIA AI Enterprise is required and may not be included in the provisioned instance automatically. In most cases, you are required to bring-your-own-license (BYOL), except for on-demand “pay-as-you-go” Enterprise VMIs and Private Offers, which include a separate license process. Detailed information for licensing NVIDIA AI Enterprise in the cloud can be found in the Cloud Deployment section of the NVIDIA AI Enterprise Packaging, Pricing, and Licensing Guide.

The upcoming sections provide further details on running NVIDIA AI Enterprise with a Standard Instance.