Azure Regions - What does "Stage" mean?

Question

When observing the available regions for Azure using:

az account list-locations -o table

There are several regions with a stage suffix (e.g. eastusstage) - often the same region also exists without the suffix (e.g. eastus).

What does the stage suffix stand for / what does it mean?

All azure regions with stage regions at the top:

DisplayName               Name                 RegionalDisplayName
------------------------  -------------------  -------------------------------------
Central US (Stage)        centralusstage       (US) Central US (Stage)
East US (Stage)           eastusstage          (US) East US (Stage)
East US 2 (Stage)         eastus2stage         (US) East US 2 (Stage)
North Central US (Stage)  northcentralusstage  (US) North Central US (Stage)
South Central US (Stage)  southcentralusstage  (US) South Central US (Stage)
East Asia (Stage)         eastasiastage        (Asia Pacific) East Asia (Stage)
Southeast Asia (Stage)    southeastasiastage   (Asia Pacific) Southeast Asia (Stage)
West US (Stage)           westusstage          (US) West US (Stage)
West US 2 (Stage)         westus2stage         (US) West US 2 (Stage)
East US                   eastus               (US) East US
East US 2                 eastus2              (US) East US 2
South Central US          southcentralus       (US) South Central US
West US 2                 westus2              (US) West US 2
West US 3                 westus3              (US) West US 3
Australia East            australiaeast        (Asia Pacific) Australia East
Southeast Asia            southeastasia        (Asia Pacific) Southeast Asia
North Europe              northeurope          (Europe) North Europe
Sweden Central            swedencentral        (Europe) Sweden Central
UK South                  uksouth              (Europe) UK South
West Europe               westeurope           (Europe) West Europe
Central US                centralus            (US) Central US
North Central US          northcentralus       (US) North Central US
West US                   westus               (US) West US
South Africa North        southafricanorth     (Africa) South Africa North
Central India             centralindia         (Asia Pacific) Central India
East Asia                 eastasia             (Asia Pacific) East Asia
Japan East                japaneast            (Asia Pacific) Japan East
Jio India West            jioindiawest         (Asia Pacific) Jio India West
Korea Central             koreacentral         (Asia Pacific) Korea Central
Canada Central            canadacentral        (Canada) Canada Central
France Central            francecentral        (Europe) France Central
Germany West Central      germanywestcentral   (Europe) Germany West Central
Norway East               norwayeast           (Europe) Norway East
Switzerland North         switzerlandnorth     (Europe) Switzerland North
UAE North                 uaenorth             (Middle East) UAE North
Brazil South              brazilsouth          (South America) Brazil South
Asia                      asia                 Asia
Asia Pacific              asiapacific          Asia Pacific
Australia                 australia            Australia
Brazil                    brazil               Brazil
Canada                    canada               Canada
Europe                    europe               Europe
France                    france               France
Germany                   germany              Germany
Global                    global               Global
India                     india                India
Japan                     japan                Japan
Korea                     korea                Korea
Norway                    norway               Norway
South Africa              southafrica          South Africa
Switzerland               switzerland          Switzerland
United Arab Emirates      uae                  United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom            uk                   United Kingdom
United States             unitedstates         United States
Central US EUAP           centraluseuap        (US) Central US EUAP
East US 2 EUAP            eastus2euap          (US) East US 2 EUAP
West Central US           westcentralus        (US) West Central US
South Africa West         southafricawest      (Africa) South Africa West
Australia Central         australiacentral     (Asia Pacific) Australia Central
Australia Central 2       australiacentral2    (Asia Pacific) Australia Central 2
Australia Southeast       australiasoutheast   (Asia Pacific) Australia Southeast
Japan West                japanwest            (Asia Pacific) Japan West
Jio India Central         jioindiacentral      (Asia Pacific) Jio India Central
Korea South               koreasouth           (Asia Pacific) Korea South
South India               southindia           (Asia Pacific) South India
West India                westindia            (Asia Pacific) West India
Canada East               canadaeast           (Canada) Canada East
France South              francesouth          (Europe) France South
Germany North             germanynorth         (Europe) Germany North
Norway West               norwaywest           (Europe) Norway West
Switzerland West          switzerlandwest      (Europe) Switzerland West
UK West                   ukwest               (Europe) UK West
UAE Central               uaecentral           (Middle East) UAE Central
Brazil Southeast          brazilsoutheast      (South America) Brazil Southeast

Municipal

Answer 1

When you use az account list-locations -o table , it results with both logical and physical regions supported by the subscription. Physical regions are the one which can be used by customers of Azure and Logical regions are just for internal use of Azure Backend for tracking purpose .

You can filter them by using the below commands :

Logical regions:

az account list-locations --query "[?metadata.regionType=='Logical'] .{RegionName:name,RegionDisplayName:regionalDisplayName}" --output table 

Physical regions:

 az account list-locations --query "[?not_null(metadata.latitude)] .{RegionName:name , RegionDisplayName:regionalDisplayName} " --output table

---

If you use az account az account list-locations then you will be able to see the difference between the logical and physical locations as well.

For example , for a physical location you will get latitude ,longitude and also the physical location of the data center which means that this region is present in real time and can be used by us .

But at the same time if you see the logical region , it doesn't have any of the above details and can be concluded as a Imaginary region used by azure for its internal use.

Barkeeper

Thank you for your answer and the explanaition. But I'm afraid this only partly answers my question. The (Stage)-Regions are logical regions, which I can't select via the portal for example, but I still don't know what their purpose is. If it is just for Microsofts internal use, why do they list logical regions here? – Municipal

@krsche_, not sure why its reflecting on the list of locations for the subscriptions . I would suggest you to ask the same in Microsoft Q and A. for the same . – Barkeeper

The same question has been bothering me for a long time. What exactly does "virtual area" mean? Why show it to the customer when the user doesn't need to know? – Collagen

this confused me as well, i am still any more sure why we need the stage region ever. thanks for answering though – Varga