Migrate from AMD Opteron Servers in Frankfurt (de/fra)

As we prepare to phase out the AMD Opteron servers in Frankfurt (de/fra), this article serves as a detailed guide to help you transition your AMD Opteron-based Compute Engine workloads to other server options within the Frankfurt location.

Important: You should perform the necessary changes from April 1, 2025, until May 13, 2025. After that period, we will change the CPU architecture of the remaining servers to AMD Epyc, ensuring continued operation, as we will be decommissioning the AMD Opteron physical hardware from this location.

Migration options and instructions

You may choose between maintaining your Dedicated Core servers and changing their CPU architecture or moving your workloads to vCPU Servers.

Dedicated Core - AMD Epyc

As an option, you can upgrade your existing AMD Opteron-based Dedicated Core servers by simply updating their CPU Architecture to AMD Epyc. To do so: 1. Log in to your DCD, select the Dedicated Core server element in the workspace. 2. From the Inspector pane on the right, select AMD Epyc as the CPU Architecture in the Settings tab.

Select AMD Epyc

This switch ensures minimal downtime, and your current network configurations will remain unchanged. With AMD Epyc CPUs, you can experience up to four times the performance of an AMD Opteron CPU at a competitive rate. For more information, see Dedicated Core server.

vCPU Servers

Alternatively, you can migrate your workloads to vCPU servers. This option requires:

• provisioning new machines,

• manually moving storage volumes, and

• reconfiguring network settings.

This will incur some downtime during the transition. With vCPU servers, you will still experience approximately 80% of the performance of an Opteron core while benefiting from an exceptionally attractive price point. For more information, see vCPU Server.

Important notice regarding software licensing

As you plan to migrate your Virtual Machines (VMs) from Opteron-based processors to newer options like Dedicated Core - AMD Epyc or vCPU Servers, please be aware of potential licensing implications for software running on your VMs.

Key points

Licensing on logical processors

Specific software licenses are explicitly tied to the number of logical processors recognized by the operating system. Opteron processors utilize a one-core, one-thread configuration. In contrast, newer processors like EPYC or those used in vCPU Servers use hyper-threading, where each core has two threads and is recognized as two separate logical processors.

Impact of migration

When migrating to hyper-threaded CPUs, a VM configured for a single logical processor on Opteron will appear to have precisely two logical processors on newer CPUs. It could impact your software licenses, as they may not authorize the additional logical processor, potentially leading to compliance issues and operational disruptions.

Recommendation

Review your software licensing agreements before migration and ensure compliance with the license terms when configuring VMs on hyper-threaded CPUs.