Azure Managed Disks Overview
Azure Managed Disks are a robust and reliable storage solution for Azure Virtual Machines. They are block-level storage volumes that you can manage and use like a physical disk. Managed Disks are designed to simplify disk management and provide higher availability for your Azure VMs.
Unlike unmanaged disks where you manage the storage account for each disk, Managed Disks abstract away the underlying storage infrastructure. Azure handles the availability, redundancy, and maintenance of the storage for you, ensuring higher durability and availability.
Key Benefits of Managed Disks
- Simplified Management: No need to manage storage accounts. Azure handles the underlying storage.
- High Availability: Disks are replicated for durability and availability, even across failure domains within an Azure region.
- Scalability: Easily scale your disk capacity and performance as your needs grow.
- Security: Built-in encryption at rest and support for Azure Disk Encryption.
- Performance Options: A variety of disk types (Standard HDD, Standard SSD, Premium SSD, Ultra Disk) to match workload requirements and budget.
Types of Managed Disks
1. Standard Hard Disk Drives (HDD)
Standard HDDs offer the lowest cost per GiB and are suitable for workloads like development/test environments, non-critical applications, and backup/restore scenarios where low IOPS and throughput are acceptable.
- Low cost
- Higher latency
- Lower performance
2. Standard Solid State Drives (SSD)
Standard SSDs provide a cost-effective solution for workloads requiring consistent latency and good performance, such as web servers, lightly trafficked production workloads, and development/test environments that need better performance than Standard HDDs.
- Consistent performance
- Lower latency than Standard HDD
- More affordable than Premium SSDs
3. Premium Solid State Drives (SSD)
Premium SSDs are designed for production workloads that require low latency and high IOPS/throughput. This includes high-performance databases, production web servers, and enterprise applications.
- Low latency
- High IOPS and throughput
- Ideal for production workloads
4. Ultra Disk Storage
Ultra Disks provide the highest performance with configurable IOPS and throughput, ideal for I/O-intensive workloads such as SAP HANA, top-tier SQL and NoSQL databases, and other mission-critical applications demanding extreme performance.
- Highest IOPS and throughput
- Configurable performance
- Best for extremely demanding workloads
Use Cases
Managed Disks are versatile and can be used for a wide range of scenarios:
- Boot volumes for Azure Virtual Machines.
- Data volumes for operating systems and applications.
- Database storage (SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc.).
- Big data analytics platforms.
- Backup and disaster recovery solutions.