Unable to create a VM with Azure for Students

Question

Unable to create a VM with Azure for Students

tanveer khan 0

Hi everyone, I’m using Azure for Students and trying to create a small Ubuntu VM for my student project, but every VM size shows “NotAvailableForSubscription”. I’ve tried different regions and VM sizes, but I’m still getting the same error. Does anyone know how to fix this or which VM size and region work with Azure for Students?

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2 answers

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Answer 1

The following might help

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/discussions/microsoft-learn-for-educators/sku-quota-and-policy-restrictions-on-azure-for-students-and-free-subscriptions/4525160

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:

Open Azure Portal
Search for Policy
Go to:
- Authoring → Assignments
1. Open:
  - Allowed resource deployment regions
  1. 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:

Go to:
- Subscriptions → Usage + quotas
1. 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

If the above response helps answer your question, remember to "Accept Answer" so that others in the community facing similar issues can easily find the solution. Your contribution is highly appreciated.

hth

Marcin

Answer 2

For Azure for Students, this usually means the VM SKU is restricted for the subscription, the selected region is not allowed by policy, or the SKU has no capacity in that region.

Try this path:

Check which regions are allowed for the Azure for Students subscription. In Azure for Students, deployments are typically limited to a small set of allowed regions by policy. If a VM is created outside those regions, deployment can be blocked.
In one of those allowed regions, check which VM sizes are actually available. In the Azure portal, start creating a VM, open Size, and select See all sizes. Only the available SKUs for that subscription and region are shown there. If a size is unavailable for the subscription, it can appear as NotAvailableForSubscription.
If the size is unavailable, try a different allowed region or a different VM size. Azure documents two common fixes for SKU availability issues:
- choose a region where the desired VM size is available
- choose a VM size that is available in the desired region
If the deployment still fails after selecting an allowed region and an available size, it can be a capacity issue. Allocation failures can happen when Azure does not have enough capacity for that VM size in that region or zone. The supported workarounds are:
- retry later
- resize to a different VM size
- change the region or availability zone
If creating a Capacity Reservation was being considered as a workaround, that is not available for Azure for Students. Capacity Reservations are only available to paid Azure customers. Sponsored accounts such as Azure for Students are not eligible.
If no VM sizes are available in any allowed region, open a support request from Azure Portal → Help + Support → Create a support request. The accepted guidance for Azure for Students indicates support can help clarify region restrictions or next steps.

PowerShell option to verify available SKUs in a region:

Get-AzComputeResourceSku | Where-Object { $_.Locations -contains "centralus" }

To check only VM sizes with availability zone information:

Get-AzComputeResourceSku | Where-Object { $_.Locations -contains "centralus" -and $_.LocationInfo.Zones -ne $null -and $_.ResourceType -eq "virtualmachines" }

What to expect:

If the SKU is listed as NotAvailableForSubscription, that size cannot be used in that region for that subscription.
If the region itself is restricted by Azure for Students policy, resources cannot be deployed there even if the size normally exists.
If the size is valid but deployment still fails, the issue is likely temporary regional capacity.