Azure Disk Storage

Azure Disk Storage offers highly performant and durable managed disks for Azure virtual machines. These disks provide block-level storage volumes for use with applications and servers running on Azure. They are designed for a wide range of I/O and throughput needs, from development and test workloads to performance-intensive production applications.

Tip: Managed disks simplify disk management by handling availability, patching, and redundancy for you.

Key benefits include:

  • High Availability: Built-in redundancy for durability and availability.
  • Scalability: Easily scale disk capacity and performance.
  • Security: Support for encryption at rest and in transit.
  • Cost-Effectiveness: Various disk types to meet different budget and performance requirements.

Disk Types

Azure Disk Storage provides several types of managed disks, each optimized for different scenarios:

Disk Type Description IOPS Throughput Use Case
Ultra Disk Highest performance, lowest latency, fully configurable. Up to 128K IOPS per disk Up to 2,000 MB/s per disk Mission-critical workloads, I/O-intensive databases, SAP HANA.
Premium SSD High-performance, low-latency SSD for I/O-intensive workloads. Up to 20,000 IOPS per disk Up to 1,000 MB/s per disk Production and test workloads requiring consistent performance.
Standard SSD Consistent, low-latency SSD-based storage for less demanding workloads. Up to 600 IOPS per disk Up to 120 MB/s per disk Web servers, lightly-used applications, dev/test.
Standard HDD Cost-effective, reliable HDD-based storage for backup, non-critical, and archival workloads. Up to 2,000 IOPS per disk Up to 600 MB/s per disk Backup, archival, disaster recovery, large data sets.

Key Features

  • Managed Disks: Azure handles the underlying storage infrastructure, patching, and redundancy.
  • Snapshots: Create point-in-time copies of your disks for backup and disaster recovery.
  • Disk Encryption: Azure Disk Encryption (ADE) encrypts OS and data disks at rest. Server-Side Encryption (SSE) provides encryption at rest with platform-managed or customer-managed keys.
  • Shared Disks: Enable multiple VMs to attach to the same disk for clustered applications.
  • Disk Restore: Restore a managed disk from a snapshot.
  • Disk Access: Control network access to your disks using private endpoints.

Common Use Cases

  • Boot and Data Drives for VMs: Standard practice for all Azure virtual machines.
  • Databases: High-performance disks for SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and other database systems.
  • Application Storage: Storing application data, logs, and configurations.
  • Big Data Analytics: Large-scale storage for processing and analysis.
  • Backup and Archival: Cost-effective solutions for storing backups and archival data.

Performance Considerations

When choosing a disk type, consider the following:

  • IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second): Measures how many read and write operations a disk can perform per second. Crucial for transactional workloads.
  • Throughput (MB/s): Measures the data transfer rate. Important for large file operations and sequential reads/writes.
  • Latency: The time delay between a request and its response. Lower latency is critical for responsive applications.
  • VM Size: The capabilities of your VM (CPU, RAM, network bandwidth) also limit disk performance. Ensure your VM size can support the disk's potential.

You can monitor disk performance metrics in the Azure portal to identify bottlenecks and optimize your storage configuration.

Managing Disks

You can manage Azure disks using:

  • Azure Portal: A user-friendly web interface for creating, attaching, detaching, and configuring disks.
  • Azure CLI: A command-line interface for scripting and automation.
  • Azure PowerShell: Another powerful scripting tool for managing Azure resources.
  • Azure SDKs: Programmatic access to manage disks from your applications.

Example: Creating a Premium SSD Disk (Azure CLI)


az disk create --resource-group MyResourceGroup --name MyDisk --sku Premium_LRS --size-gb 128

Example: Attaching a Disk to a VM (Azure CLI)


az vm disk attach --resource-group MyResourceGroup --vm-name MyVM --name MyDisk --new

Pricing

Azure Disk Storage pricing is based on several factors:

  • Disk Type: Different disk types have different base costs.
  • Provisioned Capacity: The amount of storage you provision for your disk.
  • IOPS and Throughput: For Ultra Disk and Premium SSD, you pay for provisioned IOPS and throughput.
  • Transactions: A small fee per million transactions for Standard HDD and Standard SSD.
  • Snapshot Storage: Storage used by disk snapshots.

Refer to the official Azure Disk Storage pricing page for the most up-to-date information.

Warning: Always consider your performance needs carefully to balance cost and application requirements.