How to change the size of my virtual machine?

Question

How to change the size of my virtual machine?

Christoph Wilkening 0

While setting up Azure Desktop I received message that the size of the VM was not compatible. How do I change it?

Jilakara Hemalatha 10,365 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-11T18:49:32.0833333+00:00
Hi Christoph,

Thank you for reaching out!

The VM size compatibility error in Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) can occur during different stages of the deployment. Please follow the appropriate steps based on your situation.

Option 1: During Host Pool Creation (New Deployment)

If you are still in the process of creating the host pool, you can select a compatible VM size during the setup:

Go to Azure Portal → Azure Virtual Desktop → Host Pools → Create

Continue to the Virtual Machines tab

Under Size, click See all sizes

Select an AVD-compatible VM size

Complete the remaining configuration steps and click Review + Create

Reference: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-desktop/deploy-azure-virtual-desktop?tabs=portal-standard%2Cportal-session-host-configuration%2Cportal&pivots=host-pool-standard

Option 2: Resizing an Existing Virtual Machine:

If the VM has already been created, you can resize it by following these steps:

Go to Azure Portal → Virtual Machines and select your VM

Click Stop to deallocate the VM (this step is required before resizing)

Navigate to Settings → Size

Select a compatible VM size

Click Resize, then Start the VM again

Reference: Change the size of a virtual machine

Supported VM on AVD

To help us better understand the issue and assist you further, could you please share the following details?

The exact error message you received regarding the VM size incompatibility

At which step of the Azure Virtual Desktop setup the message appeared

The VM size you attempted to select

The Azure region where you are deploying the session hosts

Whether the VM was already created, or if the deployment stopped during validation

A screenshot of the error message from the Azure portal (if available)

These details will help us investigate further and provide more accurate guidance.
Additionally, could you please check private message and provide necessary details.

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Answer 1

Hi Christoph,

That error usually means the VM size you selected isn't available in that specific region right now or it's not compatible with your setup. This is common when setting up in Azure environment. I put this article here for your further information: Resize virtual machines

I would like to suggest some quick checks:

Select a different VM size in the same region.
If it still fails, stopping (deallocating) the VM lets Azure move it to compatible hardware. Sometimes the size you want isn't available on the current hardware cluster.
If the size is still unavailable, try another region since some sizes have temporary capacity limits.

Also ensure the VM size’s CPU architecture matches your image (like ARM64 sizes won’t work with x64 images).

Please do not hesitate to let me know how it goes. I am happy to help further.

Have a nice day!

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How to change the size of my virtual machine?

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