Forum Discussion

CvWyk's avatar
CvWyk
Copper Contributor
Jun 03, 2026

SKU, quota and policy restrictions on Azure for Students and Free Subscriptions

Subject: Azure for Students VM Availability Appears Inconsistent Across Students

Hello everyone!

We're seeing an issue across multiple cohorts using Azure for Students subscriptions, and I'm hoping someone can clarify whether there are additional restrictions being applied behind the scenes.

We understand and accept the recent changes regarding:

  • Allowed deployment regions for Azure for Students subscriptions
  • The 4 vCPU quota limitations
  • Regional capacity constraints

We've updated our teaching materials accordingly and have troubleshooting guidance for students.

However, we're observing behaviour that appears inconsistent between students with what seem to be identical subscription types.

Examples:

  • Student A can deploy several B-series VM sizes in an approved region.
  • Student B can deploy only one VM size in the same approved region.
  • Student C sees "Size not available" for every VM size in multiple approved regions.
  • Student D eventually succeeds only after trying several approved regions, despite having available credit and no existing VMs.

In one recent case, a student had:

  • A Free subscription
  • $200 credit available
  • No deployed VMs
  • No Allowed Regions policy visible (which made troubleshooting particularly confusing)

Most regions the student tested showed one or more of the following:

  • No available VM sizes
  • Family quota limit messages
  • Unsupported availability zone messages

Eventually, Denmark East allowed deployment of a Standard_B2als_v2 VM, while several other regions did not.

I have collected examples from multiple students and am seeing several different failure modes:

  • Total Regional Core quota exceeded (expected and understandable)
  • Allowed Locations policy restrictions
  • VM size unavailable in approved regions
  • Policy assignments showing "Not Registered" because Microsoft.PolicyInsights is not registered

The challenge is that students with apparently identical Azure for Students subscriptions are not encountering the same restrictions.

Has Microsoft introduced additional backend controls, SKU filtering, capacity restrictions, or subscription-specific policies that are not surfaced clearly through the Azure portal?

From an educational perspective, the lack of consistency is making it difficult to provide reliable lab instructions because one student's successful deployment path may not work for another student with the same subscription type.

My questions are:

  1. Are there additional backend restrictions beyond the visible Allowed Locations policy and published vCPU quotas?
  2. Is VM size availability being dynamically restricted per student subscription?
  3. Are regional capacity controls being applied differently across Azure for Students subscriptions?
  4. Is there a recommended method for identifying which regions and VM families are actually deployable for a specific student before beginning a lab exercise?

Any clarification would be greatly appreciated, as we're trying to reduce classroom troubleshooting time and provide students with more reliable deployment guidance.

Thank you.

Azure credits for students
community

3 Replies

  • Carlos_Chaves's avatar
    Carlos_Chaves
    Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
    Jun 04, 2026

    Microsoft’s response confirms that your troubleshooting process is correct: Azure for Students subscriptions evaluate policies, quotas, SKU restrictions, availability zones, and live regional capacity separately, so a student can have allowed regions, available credit, and visible quota yet still be unable to deploy a VM. It is possible for all allowed regions to effectively fail at the same time due to SKU or capacity restrictions, and the “policy not started” or “Not Registered” behavior likely indicates a backend policy initialization or propagation issue rather than a normal quota problem. There also appears to be little educator-facing documentation warning that allowed regions do not guarantee deployable VM availability, meaning your educators independently worked out the practical deployment workflow very accurately, sorry for not being as supportive as I want, but that's what I found internally.

    Let me know if you need anything else 

  • Carlos_Chaves's avatar
    Carlos_Chaves
    Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
    Jun 03, 2026

    Hi CvWyk​, going direct to your questions

    Additional backend restrictions beyond visible policies?Yes, behavior strongly indicates additional subscription/SKU restrictions beyond visible policies.
    Dynamic VM restrictions per student?Evidence strongly suggests yes in practice, though Microsoft does not publicly document the exact mechanism.
    Regional capacity controls different across students?Yes — capacity and eligibility appear to vary per subscription and region.
    Best way to identify deployable SKUs?Use az vm list-skus and verify against each student’s allowed regions before labs.

     and for your students, here's a list to make things easier

    Azure for Students VM Troubleshooting Checklist

    Quick Student Guide

    Use this checklist when your Azure VM deployment fails.

    Step 1 — Confirm You Are Using an Allowed Region

    Your student subscription only works in certain Azure regions.

    Check allowed regions:

    1. Open Azure Portal
    2. Search for Policy
    3. Go to:
      • Authoring → Assignments
    4. Open:
      • Allowed resource deployment regions
    5. Write down your allowed regions

    Only deploy VMs in those regions.

    Step 2 — Try Another Allowed Region

    Even allowed regions may fail temporarily due to Azure capacity shortages.

    If deployment fails:

    • Try another allowed region
    • Test several approved regions

     Some students only succeed after changing regions multiple times.

    Step 3 — Use Recommended VM Sizes

    Some older VM sizes are restricted or retired.

    Recommended VM sizes:

    • Standard_B2ats_v2
    • Standard_B2ts_v2
    • Standard_B2als_v2

    Avoid:

    • B1s
    • older B-series VM sizes

    Step 4 — Do NOT Select Availability Zones

    Availability Zones can block VM creation on student subscriptions.

    Best practice:

    • Leave zone selection on default
    • Use:
      • “No infrastructure redundancy required”

    This avoids:

    • “Unsupported availability zone”
    • “SKU unavailable in selected zone”

    Step 5 — Check VM Quotas

    You may hit VM quota limits even with free credit available.

    Check quotas:

    1. Go to:
      • Subscriptions → Usage + quotas
    2. Look for:
      • Total Regional vCPU quota
      • VM family quotas

    Common error:

    • “Total Regional Core quota exceeded”

    Step 6 — If No VM Sizes Appear

    Possible causes:

    • region capacity exhausted
    • restricted subscription
    • unsupported VM family
    • temporary Azure capacity issue

    Try:

    Another allowed region
    Another Bsv2 VM size
    Removing Availability Zones
    Trying again later

    Step 7 — Use CLI to Check Available VM Sizes (Advanced)

    The Azure Portal sometimes shows incomplete information.

    Azure CLI command:

    Shell

    az vm list-skus \

    --location <region> \

    --resource-type virtualMachines \

    --output table

    Show more lines

    Example:

    Shell

    az vm list-skus \

    --location denmarkeast \

    --size Standard_B \

    --all

    ``

    Show more lines

    This shows which VM sizes are actually available for your subscription

    Step 8 — Still Not Working?

    Document the following before asking for help:

    Subscription type
    Region used
    VM size attempted
    Exact error message
    Screenshot of:

    • Allowed regions
    • Usage + quotas page

    This makes troubleshooting much faster.

    Recommended “Safe” Student Deployment Setup

    Setting

    Recommended Value

    Region

    One of your allowed regions

    VM Size

    B2ats_v2 / B2ts_v2

    Availability Zone

    None

    OS

    Ubuntu Gen2

    vCPU usage

    Keep under 4 cores

    Important Reality Check

    Azure for Students subscriptions can behave differently between students because:

    • allowed regions differ
    • VM capacity changes dynamically
    • some VM sizes are restricted
    • region availability is not always consistent

    A deployment that works for one student may fail for another student with the same subscription type.

    • CvWyk's avatar
      CvWyk
      Copper Contributor
      Jun 04, 2026

      I appreciate your quick response Carlos Chavez​ 🤩

      Thank you for confirming that our troubleshooting sheet matching your steps is correct. Our teachers discovered these independently and we figured it all out ourselves. I am unsure if any documentation exists to warn educators.

      We understand your steps. However, sometimes its a block on all 5 allowed regions. So it was a question of, can the policies clash so badly that a student cannot find a size or an available region? 

      The one student even had an error basically saying that the policy has 'not started', so it seems it was stuck?