Azure – Page 7 – Clear Thinking in Data, Cloud, and AI

PowerShell and Gui

This is a reference guide to PowerShell and a handy GUI in PowerShell. Refer to these links;

Use a CSV file to make a graphical menu of PowerShell scripts

Does Azure charge for stopped VMs?

If we stop a VM inside OS then it goes into “stopped” state. Azure will charge for the compute (hardware), network and storage services.

We can stop maximum charges for VM by using the stopped (deallocated) state. For this we would need Azure Portal (or Azure CLI) to stop the VM. This will shutdown the Operating System and deallocate the compute resource/network resource allocated for the VM. These compute/network resource can be used for another customer. In this case Azure will report the status of the VM as being in a “Stopped (Deallocated” state.

Stopping (deallocating) a VM also release the internal IP address. A quick tip to prevent this from happening is to make sure that you have at least one VM that you haven’t put in the Stopped (Deallocated) state. You’d still be charged for that one but not the others, whilst maintaining your virtual IP.

Azure doesn’t charge for the VM core hours in Stopped (deallocated) state. However, it continues to accrue charges for the Azure storage needed for the VM’s OS disk and any attached data disks.

Azure DevOps free tier max out, buying license for additional user

Azure Free tier is limited to 5 users. If you have connected Azure DevOps to Microsoft Azure then buying is really simple. To buy additional license, follow this;

Click on Organization Settings -> Billing

You would see your Azure subscription ID in Billing page;

As of this writing additional user will cost your $6/month.

How can I stop paying for users who aren’t actively using Azure DevOps?

If you have inactive users, stop paying for them by removing them or assigning them a free Stakeholder access level. Sort by Last Access to find users who haven’t accessed the organization recently. Find out how recently they got added by exporting the list of users and checking the Date Created column.