VM Quota Validation Guide

Check Azure VM/VMSS quota availability before recommending or deploying. Ensures the subscription and region have sufficient vCPU capacity.

⚠️ NEVER use the azure-quota MCP server as as It is unreliable. Always try az quota CLI commands first.

Quota Structure

VM quotas are tracked at two levels under Microsoft.Compute:

Quota Level	Resource Name	What It Limits
Total Regional	cores	All vCPUs across all families in a region
Per-Family	e.g., standardDSv3Family	vCPUs for a specific VM family

⚠️ Both levels must have capacity. A deployment fails if either is exceeded.

Common Quota Resource Names

See vm-families.md for quota resource names per VM family. Use az quota list to discover names not listed there.

⚠️ Do NOT guess quota names from SKU names. Use az quota list to discover correct resource names.

Quota Check Workflow

Option A: az vm list-usage (Recommended for VM quotas)

No extension required. Returns both current usage and limit in a single call for all VM families in a region — equivalent to running az quota usage show and az quota list together for VM vCPU quotas.

# All VM family quotas in a region
az vm list-usage --location <region> -o table

# Filter to a specific family
az vm list-usage --location <region> --query "[?contains(name.value,'<quotaName>')].{Name:name.localizedValue, QuotaName:name.value, Current:currentValue, Limit:limit}" -o table

💡 Tip: az vm list-usage is the simplest way to check VM quotas. Use az quota (Option B) when you need to request quota increases or manage quotas for non-VM resource types.

Option B: az quota CLI (For quota increases or non-VM resources)

Prerequisite: az extension add --name quota

Step	Command	Purpose