System Requirements
The system requirements for deploying on Windows Azure are the same as deploying Microsoft Dynamics GP on-premise or in other data centers. The virtual machines in Windows Azure have a standard processor and memory configuration that is based on the instance size. The instance sizes range from an A0 standard instance to an A7 memory intensive instance. You can scale the instance size up or down as usage patterns change. You can also add additional instances to scale out as demand increases. The following table contains the compute instance sizes for Windows Azure Virtual Machines at the time this guide was created. Refer to the Pricing Details page for the latest instance sizes and pricing. 

Standard Instances
Compute Instance Name	Virtual Cores	RAM	
Extra Small (A0)	Shared	768 MB	
Small (A1)	1	1.75 GB	
Medium (A2)	2	3.5 GB	
Large (A3)	4	7 GB	
Extra Large (A4)	8	14 GB	

Memory Intensive Instances
Compute Instance Name	Virtual Cores	RAM	
A6	4	28 GB	
A7	8	56 GB	

Use the published Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 system requirements when determining the compute instance size required for each of the virtual machine instances in your configuration. The table below maps out the published system requirements to the Windows Azure Virtual Machine instance sizes at the time this guide was created. In each server configuration you will be able to start with a specific size and then increase or decrease the instance size as needed. You may also add additional virtual machine instances for those Microsoft Dynamics GP servers that can be scaled out. These guidelines should serve as a starting point and be adjusted based on your individual configuration. 

Servers	Instance Size	
Microsoft SQL Server	•	Profile 1 – A1
•	Profile 2 – A2
•	Profile 3– A3
•	Profile 4 – A4	
Remote Desktop Services Server	•	Up to 15 users  - A2
•	Up to 30 users – A3
•	Up to 60 users – A4	
Web Server (web client)	Single Machine
•	Up to 25 users – A2
•	Up to 60 users – A3
•	Up to 120 users – A4
Scale Out
•	A2	
Session Host Server (web client)	•	Up to 25 users – A2
•	Up to 60 users – A3
•	Up to 120 users – A4	
Web Server (Web Services, Workflow, BP, SQL Reporting Services)	A2 (A3 if deploying multiple applications on single server)	
Application Server (Management Reporter services)	A2	
 * The “up to … users” recommendations are based on concurrent users.

There is a 20 core limit by default on a Windows Azure subscription. If your subscription is going to require a total of more than 20 cores, you will need to open a quota increase ticket with Microsoft Support here. A core is equal to a single small Virtual Machine instance. A medium Virtual Machine instance is equal to 2 cores, a large instance equals 4 cores, etc. 

Example:
If you have 1 large, 2 medium and 1 small Virtual Machine instances in your subscription, the total cores for the subscription is 9.

Compute Instance Size	Cores	
Small (A1)	1	
Medium (A2)	2	
Medium (A2)	2	
Large (A3)	4	
 
Total							  9

High Availability and Disaster Recovery (HADR)
While the Windows Azure Infrastructure Services are designed to provide a high availability and fault tolerant platform for applications, there are considerations you as the administrator need to plan for in order to best utilize these capabilities.  The Windows Azure high availability mechanisms protect the high availability of the Virtual Machines (VMs), not specifically the applications which run on these VMs. It is up to you as the administrator to use these mechanisms when implementing the application in order to meet the HADR capabilities you require. The following sections contain information on the high availability mechanisms available in Windows Azure to use with your Dynamics GP deployment.