Getting Started with Azure Managed Disks

What is Block level storage
What is Azure managed disks
Key features of Azure managed disks
Key Concepts of Azure managed disks
Azure managed disks Security Options
Azure managed disks Monitoring and Logging Options
Azure managed disks Backup Options
Azure managed disks Disaster Recovery Options
Azure managed disks Limitations and Quotas
Azure managed disks Pricing
Azure managed disks Use Cases
How to Create Azure-managed disks and use them with Linux and Windows VM
- Using Azure Portal
- Using Azure CLI
- Using PowerShell
- Using Python
- Using terraform
- Using C#
Azure managed disks Interview Questions & Answers
Summary
Azure managed disks Learning Resources

What is Block Level Storage?

Block level storage is a concept in data storage which involves storing data files on Storage Area Networks (SANs) or other forms of storage systems. The main idea is that data is saved in volumes or “blocks”, each with a unique identifier, and these blocks can be treated as individual hard drives.

Here are some key points about block level storage:

Data Segregation: In block level storage, data is broken down into blocks and then stored separately. Each block has a unique address but no other metadata, meaning the system doesn’t know what’s stored in each block.
Performance: Because each block is treated as a separate hard drive, block level storage is generally faster than file level storage. It allows for more flexibility because blocks can be controlled individually.
Use Cases: Block level storage is often used in SANs, where it’s important to have high performance and flexibility. It’s also commonly used for databases, email servers, and other applications where data needs to be accessed quickly and simultaneously.
Storage Virtualization: Block level storage is often used in storage virtualization. In this scenario, the storage devices are grouped into a single pool, and the physical storage is separated from the data, allowing for greater flexibility and efficiency.
Data Protection: Block level storage often includes features like snapshots and replication, which can help protect data and make it easier to recover in the event of a failure.

In contrast, file level storage involves storing data as a single piece of information in a folder to help the user and the system organize and locate data easily. It’s more user-friendly and easier to use, but it’s not as fast or flexible as block level storage.

What is Azure managed disks?

Azure Managed Disks are a type of block-level storage provided by Microsoft Azure, one of the leading cloud service providers. They simplify disk management for Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) virtual machines (VMs) by managing the storage accounts associated with the VM disks.

Here are some key points about Azure Managed Disks:

Simplified Management: You don’t have to worry about creating and managing storage accounts. You just specify the type of disk (Premium or Standard) and the size of the disk, and Azure creates and manages the disk for you.
Scalability: Managed Disks are designed to scale and manage a large number of VMs without worrying about the limitations of storage accounts.
Integration with Availability Sets: Managed Disks are integrated with Azure Availability Sets to ensure that the disks of VMs in an Availability Set are sufficiently isolated from each other to avoid single points of failure.
Security: Managed Disks offer granular access control through Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC). You can also use Azure Disk Encryption to encrypt your data.
Backup and Recovery: Azure provides features like snapshots and Azure Backup service for Managed Disks, which can help protect data and make it easier to recover in the event of a failure.
Disk Types: Azure Managed Disks offer different types of disks like Ultra Disks, Premium SSD, Standard SSD, and Standard HDD to cater to different performance and cost requirements.

In summary, Azure Managed Disks provide a way to create and manage persistent and highly available disk storage in the Azure cloud, simplifying the process of attaching and detaching disks to VMs and providing a range of options to suit different needs.

Key features of Azure managed disks:

Azure Managed Disks offer several key features that make them a powerful and flexible choice for disk storage in the Azure cloud. Here are some of the main features:

Simplified Management: Azure Managed Disks handle much of the management overhead for you. You don’t need to worry about creating and managing storage accounts, as Azure takes care of this behind the scenes.
Scalability: Managed Disks are designed to handle large-scale deployments. They allow you to create up to 50,000 VM disks of a type in a subscription per region, which helps in creating thousands of VMs in a single subscription.
Integration with Azure services: Managed Disks are integrated with Azure’s compute, networking, and migration services, as well as major disaster recovery solutions. They also support Azure Disk Encryption, Azure Backup, Azure Site Recovery, and Azure DevTest Labs.
Security and Access Control: Managed Disks offer granular access control with Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC). You can also use Azure Private Link to securely access your disks over a private network connection.
Highly Durable and Available: Azure provides high durability and availability for Managed Disks by automatically replicating the data within an Azure region.
Variety of Disk Types: Azure Managed Disks offer different types of disks to cater to different performance and cost requirements. These include Ultra Disks, Premium SSDs, Standard SSDs, and Standard HDDs.
Snapshots and Backups: Azure Managed Disks support the creation of snapshots, which are read-only copies of your disks. This is useful for backups or to troubleshoot virtual machine (VM) issues. Azure Backup service can also be used for backing up your disks.
Disk Sizes: Azure Managed Disks offer a wide range of disk sizes, allowing you to choose the one that best fits your needs. You can also resize the managed disks without any downtime.
Bursting Capability: Certain disk sizes support bursting, which allows your disk to handle higher than the provisioned performance level for a period of time. This can be useful for handling unexpected traffic spikes or other temporary increases in demand.
Zone-Redundant Storage (ZRS): For applications requiring high availability, Azure Managed Disks support Zone-Redundant Storage (ZRS), which replicates your data across zones within a region. This helps to protect against zone-level failures.

Key Concepts of Azure managed disks:

Azure Managed Disks have several key concepts that are important to understand when working with them:

Managed Disks: These are the basic units of scalable, durable, and highly available block-level storage in Azure. They are associated with VMs and are managed by Azure, simplifying disk management.
Disk Types: Azure offers several types of managed disks to cater to different performance and cost requirements. These include Ultra Disks, Premium SSDs, Standard SSDs, and Standard HDDs.
Disk Size: Each disk type comes in several sizes, with different performance characteristics. You can choose the size that best fits your needs, and you can resize disks without any downtime.
Snapshots: Snapshots are read-only copies of your disks. They can be used for backups or to troubleshoot VM issues. Snapshots can be created without any downtime for your applications.
Disk Encryption: Azure Managed Disks support Azure Disk Encryption, which uses the BitLocker feature of Windows and the DM-Crypt feature of Linux to provide volume encryption for the OS and the data disks.
Access Control: Managed Disks offer granular access control with Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC). You can assign specific permissions to a disk to different users.
Availability: Azure automatically handles the replication of Managed Disks within an Azure region for high durability and availability. For higher availability, you can use Zone-Redundant Storage (ZRS) which replicates your data across zones within a region.
Integration: Managed Disks are integrated with a variety of Azure services, including Azure Backup for disk backup, Azure Site Recovery for disaster recovery, and Azure DevTest Labs for testing and development environments.
Bursting: Certain disk sizes support bursting, which allows your disk to handle higher than the provisioned performance level for a period of time.
Private Link: Azure Managed Disks support Azure Private Link, which allows you to securely access your disks over a private network connection.

These concepts form the basis of working with Azure Managed Disks and provide a flexible, scalable, and secure solution for disk storage in the Azure cloud.

Azure managed disks Security Options:

Azure Managed Disks offer several security options to ensure the safety and privacy of your data. Here are some of the key security features:

Azure Disk Encryption: Azure Disk Encryption helps protect and safeguard your data to meet your organizational security and compliance commitments. It uses the BitLocker feature of Windows and the DM-Crypt feature of Linux to provide volume encryption for the OS and the data disks.
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Azure Managed Disks support Azure RBAC, which provides fine-grained access management for Azure. Using RBAC, you can assign specific permissions to a disk to different users, limiting their access and actions according to their role.
Private Endpoints: Azure Private Link allows you to access your managed disks over a private network connection. With Private Link, data transmission between the managed disk and the VM happens over the Microsoft backbone network, providing a more secure connection.
Advanced Threat Protection: Azure Security Center provides advanced threat protection for your managed disks. It detects unusual and potentially harmful attempts to access or exploit your storage accounts.
Shared Access Signature (SAS): SAS tokens provide a way to grant limited access to objects in your storage account to other clients, without exposing your account key.
Storage Service Encryption (SSE): Azure automatically encrypts your managed disks before persisting them to the cloud and decrypts them before retrieval. The handling of encryption, encryption at rest, decryption, and key management in Storage Service Encryption is transparent to users.
Azure Backup: While not a security feature per se, Azure Backup provides a crucial layer of protection against data loss. It allows you to back up your managed disks regularly, ensuring you can restore your data if it’s ever lost or corrupted.
Azure Policy: Azure Policy helps you enforce organizational standards and assess compliance at scale. With Azure Policy, you can create, assign, and manage policies to enforce different rules and effects over your resources, which can help ensure your managed disks are compliant with your organization’s security requirements.

These security options help ensure that your data is protected, both at rest and in transit, and that only authorized users and services have access to it.

Azure managed disks Monitoring and Logging Options:

Azure Managed Disks provide several options for monitoring performance, diagnosing issues, and logging activity. Here are some of the key features:

Azure Monitor: Azure Monitor can collect, analyze, and act on telemetry data from your Azure resources. It provides key metrics for Managed Disks such as transaction rate, throughput, and latency. You can set up alerts based on these metrics to notify you when certain conditions are met.
Azure Log Analytics: Azure Log Analytics is a service in Azure Monitor that collects and analyzes data generated by resources in your cloud and on-premises environments. It gives you real-time insights using integrated search and custom dashboards to readily analyze millions of records across all your workloads and servers.
Activity Logs: Activity logs provide insight into operations performed on your Managed Disks. This can include actions like creating or deleting a disk, changing the size of a disk, or creating a snapshot.
Diagnostic Logs: Diagnostic logs include all the trace logs from the resource provider operations that are performed on your Managed Disks. These logs can be streamed to an Azure Storage account, Azure Event Hubs, or Azure Monitor logs for custom processing and analysis.
Azure Advisor: Azure Advisor is a personalized cloud consultant that helps you follow best practices to optimize your Azure deployments. It includes performance recommendations to ensure your Managed Disks are running optimally.
Azure Security Center: While primarily a security tool, Azure Security Center also provides security-related recommendations for your Managed Disks and can alert you to potential security issues.
Azure Metrics Explorer: Metrics Explorer is a component of Azure Monitor that lets you visualize, query, route, archive, and take actions on the metrics and multi-dimensional metrics coming from your Managed Disks.
Alerts: You can set up alerts in Azure Monitor to notify you when certain conditions are met. For example, you might set an alert to notify you if the number of transactions on a disk exceeds a certain threshold.

These monitoring and logging options provide you with the tools you need to keep an eye on your Managed Disks, diagnose and troubleshoot issues, and ensure they are performing optimally.

Azure managed disks Backup Options:

Azure Managed Disks provide several options for backing up your data to ensure it’s protected against accidental deletion, corruption, or other forms of data loss. Here are the key backup options:

Azure Backup: Azure Backup is a straightforward and cost-effective backup-as-a-service solution that extends tried-and-trusted tools on-premises with rich and scalable cloud capabilities. It provides independent and isolated backups to guard against accidental destruction of original data. Backups are stored in a Recovery Services vault with built-in management of recovery points. Configuration and scalability are simple, backups are optimized, and you can easily restore as needed.
Snapshots: Azure Managed Disks support the creation of snapshots, which are read-only copies of your disks. Snapshots are useful for backups or to troubleshoot virtual machine (VM) issues. Snapshots can be created without any downtime for your applications. They can be used to create new disks or to backup existing disks.
Azure Site Recovery: While primarily a disaster recovery solution, Azure Site Recovery can also be used for backup purposes. It continuously replicates data from your Managed Disks to a secondary region. In the event of a disaster, you can fail over to the secondary region, and then fail back to the primary region when it’s available again.
Export to a Storage Account: You can export the data from a Managed Disk to a VHD in a storage account. This VHD can then be used to create new Managed Disks or to backup the data. This process requires that the Managed Disk be unattached or the VM be deallocated.
Azure Policy: You can use Azure Policy to enforce good practices around backups. For example, you can create a policy that requires that all Managed Disks be backed up using Azure Backup.

Remember that the best backup strategy often involves using multiple methods. For example, you might use Azure Backup for daily backups, and also take snapshots before making changes to your VMs.

Azure managed disks Disaster Recovery Options:

Azure Managed Disks offer several options for disaster recovery to ensure your data is protected and your applications can continue to run in the event of a disaster. Here are the key disaster recovery options:

Azure Site Recovery: Azure Site Recovery is a disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) offering that allows you to replicate your VMs (and the associated Managed Disks) to another Azure region for failover and failback. In the event of a disaster, you can fail over to the secondary region, and then fail back to the primary region when it’s available again.
Zone-Redundant Storage (ZRS): For applications requiring high availability, Azure Managed Disks support Zone-Redundant Storage (ZRS), which replicates your data across zones within a region. This helps to protect against zone-level failures.
Availability Sets and Availability Zones: By deploying VMs across Availability Sets or Availability Zones, you can ensure that at least one VM will remain available in the event of a failure. This, combined with the use of Managed Disks, can help ensure your application remains available during a disaster.
Azure Backup: While primarily a backup solution, Azure Backup can also be used in disaster recovery scenarios. You can restore backups to new Managed Disks, which can then be used to create new VMs.
Geo-Replicated Storage (GRS): While Managed Disks do not directly support GRS, you can create a snapshot of a Managed Disk and copy it to a storage account that is geo-replicated. This allows you to have a copy of your data in a secondary region.
Cross-Region Restore (CRR): Azure Backup now supports Cross-Region Restore (CRR), which allows you to restore Azure VMs in a secondary region, which is an Azure paired region.

Remember that the best disaster recovery strategy often involves using multiple methods. For example, you might use Azure Site Recovery for replication to a secondary region, and also take regular backups using Azure Backup.

Azure managed disks Limitations and Quotas:

Azure Managed Disks have certain limitations and quotas that you should be aware of when planning your deployments. These limits are designed to prevent misuse of resources and to ensure fair usage across all users.

As of my knowledge cutoff in September 2021, here are some of the key limitations and quotas for Azure Managed Disks:

Number of Managed Disks: You can create up to 50,000 VM disks of a type in a subscription per region.
Disk Size: The size of a managed disk can range from a minimum of 4 GiB to a maximum of 32 TiB, depending on the disk type (Ultra Disk, Premium SSD, Standard SSD, Standard HDD).
IOPS and Throughput: Each disk type and size has a maximum IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second) and throughput. For example, the maximum IOPS for a Premium SSD P50 disk is 7,500, and the maximum throughput is 250 MiB/s.
Snapshots: The maximum number of snapshots per subscription per region is 200,000.
Shared Disks: For shared disks, the maximum number of instances sharing a disk simultaneously depends on the disk size and type.
Bursting: Bursting is available only for certain disk sizes and types.
Backup and Restore: The time it takes to backup or restore a disk depends on the size of the disk and the amount of data change since the last backup.
Disk Encryption: Azure Disk Encryption for VMs and virtual machine scale sets is supported for all VM sizes where Azure Backup is supported. However, there are some limitations related to the OS type and version.

These limits are subject to change, and some of them can be increased by contacting Azure support. For the most up-to-date information, you should refer to the official Azure documentation or use the Azure portal.

Azure managed disks Pricing:

Azure Managed Disks pricing varies based on the type and size of the disk, the number of transactions, and the amount of outbound data transfer. As of my knowledge cutoff in September 2021, here are some general aspects of Azure Managed Disks pricing:

Disk Type and Size: Azure offers several types of managed disks to cater to different performance and cost requirements. These include Ultra Disks, Premium SSDs, Standard SSDs, and Standard HDDs. Each disk type and size has a different cost.
Snapshots: Snapshots are billed based on the used portion of the disk. The pricing for snapshots depends on the type of storage (Standard HDD, Standard SSD, Premium SSD) used to store the snapshots.
Transactions: For Standard HDD and Standard SSD, there is a cost for transactions (i.e., read and write operations). Premium SSD and Ultra Disks do not have transaction costs.
Outbound Data Transfer: There may be additional costs for outbound data transfer, depending on the amount of data and the destination region.
Backup and Restore: There may be additional costs for backup and restore operations, depending on the size of the disk and the amount of data change since the last backup.

For the most accurate and up-to-date information, you should refer to the official Azure Managed Disks pricing page. As the search results indicate, the pricing details can be found on the official Microsoft Azure website here.

Please note that prices can vary by region and over time, so it’s always a good idea to check the latest prices on the Azure website or in the Azure portal.

Azure managed disks Use Cases:

Azure Managed Disks are used in a variety of scenarios where persistent and high-performance storage is required. Here are some common use cases:

Virtual Machines: Managed Disks are often used as the primary storage for Azure Virtual Machines (VMs). They provide durable, highly available, and secure disk storage for your VMs, making them ideal for most workloads.
High-Performance Workloads: Premium SSD and Ultra Disks offer high IOPS and low latency, making them suitable for high-performance workloads such as databases and high-transaction-rate applications.
Disaster Recovery: Managed Disks can be used with Azure Site Recovery to replicate your VMs (and the associated disks) to another region for disaster recovery purposes.
Backup and Restore: Managed Disks can be backed up using Azure Backup, providing a simple and reliable way to protect your data from accidental deletion or corruption.
Dev/Test Environments: Managed Disks can be used in development and testing environments, where you can easily create and delete disks as needed.
Big Data and Analytics: The high capacity and performance of Managed Disks make them suitable for big data and analytics workloads, where large amounts of data need to be processed quickly.
Shared Disks: Azure Shared Disks allow multiple VMs to attach to a Managed Disk simultaneously, making it suitable for clustered databases and parallel file systems.
Lift and Shift Migration: Managed Disks simplify the migration of on-premises applications that rely on shared storage to Azure.
Containerized Applications: Managed Disks can be used as persistent volumes for Kubernetes workloads running on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
SAP HANA: Azure Managed Disks are used in the deployment of SAP HANA on Azure, providing the necessary storage performance and capacity.

These are just a few examples of how Azure Managed Disks can be used. The flexibility, performance, and durability of Managed Disks make them suitable for a wide range of applications and workloads.

How to Create Azure managed disks and use with Linux and Windows VM:

Using Azure Portal:

Creating an Azure Managed Disk and attaching it to a VM can be done through the Azure Portal. Here are the general steps for creating a disk and attaching it to both Linux and Windows VMs:

Creating a Managed Disk:

Sign in to the Azure portal.
In the left-hand menu, click on “Create a resource”.
In the “New” window, search for “Managed Disks”.
In the search results, select “Managed Disks” and then click “Create”.
In the “Create managed disk” pane, fill in the details such as the name, subscription, resource group, location, size, and type of the disk, and then click “Create”.

Attaching the Managed Disk to a VM:

In the Azure portal, go to the VM to which you want to attach the disk.
In the left-hand menu for the VM, click on “Disks”.
In the “Disks” pane, click on “+ Add data disk”.
In the drop-down menu for the new disk, select the Managed Disk you created earlier.
Click “Save” to attach the disk to the VM.

Using the Managed Disk with a Linux VM:

Once the disk is attached to the VM, you’ll need to connect to the VM and mount the disk. Here are the general steps for a Linux VM:

Connect to the VM using SSH.
Use the lsblk command to see the new disk. It will typically be named something like /dev/sdc.
Partition the disk using the fdisk command.
Format the new partition using the mkfs command.
Mount the partition to a directory using the mount command.
To ensure the disk is mounted automatically after a reboot, add an entry to the /etc/fstab file.

Using the Managed Disk with a Windows VM:

For a Windows VM, you’ll need to connect to the VM and then use the Disk Management tool to bring the disk online, initialize it, and create a volume. Here are the general steps:

Connect to the VM using Remote Desktop.
Open the Disk Management tool.
You should see the new disk listed as “Offline”. Right-click on it and select “Online”.
Once the disk is online, right-click on it again and select “Initialize Disk”.
After the disk is initialized, right-click on the unallocated space and select “New Simple Volume”. Follow the wizard to create a new volume.

Please note that these are general steps and the exact commands or steps may vary depending on the specific version of Linux or Windows you are using. Always refer to the official documentation for the most accurate and up-to-date information.

Using Azure CLI:

Creating an Azure Managed Disk and attaching it to a VM can also be done through the Azure CLI. Here are the general steps for creating a disk and attaching it to both Linux and Windows VMs:

Creating a Managed Disk:

Open your CLI interface and log in to your Azure account using az login.
Create a managed disk with the az disk create command. For example:

az disk create --resource-group MyResourceGroup --name MyDisk --size-gb 50 --sku Standard_LRS --location eastus

1	az disk create --resource-group MyResourceGroup --name MyDisk --size-gb 50 --sku Standard_LRS --location eastus

This command creates a 50 GB disk named “MyDisk” in the “MyResourceGroup” resource group.

Attaching the Managed Disk to a VM:

Attach the disk to a VM with the az vm disk attach command. For example:

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

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

This command attaches the disk “MyDisk” to the VM “MyVM”.

Using the Managed Disk with a Linux VM:

Once the disk is attached to the VM, you’ll need to SSH into the VM and mount the disk. Here are the general steps for a Linux VM:

SSH into the VM.
Use the lsblk command to see the new disk. It will typically be named something like /dev/sdc.
Partition the disk using the fdisk command.
Format the new partition using the mkfs command.
Mount the partition to a directory using the mount command.
To ensure the disk is mounted automatically after a reboot, add an entry to the /etc/fstab file.

Using the Managed Disk with a Windows VM:

For a Windows VM, you’ll need to RDP into the VM and then use the Disk Management tool to bring the disk online, initialize it, and create a volume. Here are the general steps:

RDP into the VM.
Open the Disk Management tool.
You should see the new disk listed as “Offline”. Right-click on it and select “Online”.
Once the disk is online, right-click on it again and select “Initialize Disk”.
After the disk is initialized, right-click on the unallocated space and select “New Simple Volume”. Follow the wizard to create a new volume.

Using PowerShell:

Creating an Azure Managed Disk and attaching it to a VM can also be done through Azure PowerShell. Here are the general steps for creating a disk and attaching it to both Linux and Windows VMs:

Creating a Managed Disk:

Open your PowerShell interface and log in to your Azure account using Connect-AzAccount.
Create a managed disk with the New-AzDisk command. For example:

$diskConfig = New-AzDiskConfig -Location 'East US' -CreateOption Empty -DiskSizeGB 50 -AccountType Standard_LRS
New-AzDisk -ResourceGroupName 'MyResourceGroup' -DiskName 'MyDisk' -Disk $diskConfig

1 2	$diskConfig = New-AzDiskConfig -Location 'East US' -CreateOption Empty -DiskSizeGB 50 -AccountType Standard_LRS New-AzDisk -ResourceGroupName 'MyResourceGroup' -DiskName 'MyDisk' -Disk $diskConfig

This command creates a 50 GB disk named “MyDisk” in the “MyResourceGroup” resource group.

Attaching the Managed Disk to a VM:

Get the VM to which you want to attach the disk using Get-AzVM command.

$vm = Get-AzVM -ResourceGroupName 'MyResourceGroup' -Name 'MyVM'

1	$vm = Get-AzVM -ResourceGroupName 'MyResourceGroup' -Name 'MyVM'

Attach the disk to a VM with the Add-AzVMDataDisk and Update-AzVM commands. For example:

$vm = Add-AzVMDataDisk -VM $vm -Name 'MyDisk' -CreateOption Attach -ManagedDiskId $disk.Id -Lun 1
Update-AzVM -ResourceGroupName 'MyResourceGroup' -VM $vm

1 2	$vm = Add-AzVMDataDisk -VM $vm -Name 'MyDisk' -CreateOption Attach -ManagedDiskId $disk.Id -Lun 1 Update-AzVM -ResourceGroupName 'MyResourceGroup' -VM $vm

This command attaches the disk “MyDisk” to the VM “MyVM”.

Using the Managed Disk with a Linux VM:

Once the disk is attached to the VM, you’ll need to SSH into the VM and mount the disk. Here are the general steps for a Linux VM:

SSH into the VM.
Use the lsblk command to see the new disk. It will typically be named something like /dev/sdc.
Partition the disk using the fdisk command.
Format the new partition using the mkfs command.
Mount the partition to a directory using the mount command.
To ensure the disk is mounted automatically after a reboot, add an entry to the /etc/fstab file.

Using the Managed Disk with a Windows VM:

For a Windows VM, you’ll need to RDP into the VM and then use the Disk Management tool to bring the disk online, initialize it, and create a volume. Here are the general steps:

RDP into the VM.
Open the Disk Management tool.
You should see the new disk listed as “Offline”. Right-click on it and select “Online”.
Once the disk is online, right-click on it again and select “Initialize Disk”.
After the disk is initialized, right-click on the unallocated space and select “New Simple Volume”. Follow the wizard to create a new volume.

Using Python:

To create Azure Managed Disks and use them with Linux and Windows VMs using Python, you can use the Azure SDK for Python. Here are the general steps:

Prerequisites:

Install the Azure SDK for Python if you haven’t done so already. You can do this using pip:

pip install azure-mgmt-compute

1	pip install azure-mgmt-compute

You’ll need to authenticate your application with Azure. This typically involves creating a service principal and assigning it a role. You can do this in the Azure portal, and you’ll get an application ID, directory (tenant) ID, and client secret that you can use in your application.

Creating a Managed Disk:

Here’s an example of how you can create a managed disk:

from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential
from azure.mgmt.compute import ComputeManagementClient

# Authenticate with Azure using the DefaultAzureCredential
credential = DefaultAzureCredential()

# Create a ComputeManagementClient
compute_client = ComputeManagementClient(credential, "<your-subscription-id>")

# Create a managed disk
disk = compute_client.disks.begin_create_or_update(
    "<your-resource-group-name>",
    "<your-disk-name>",
    {
        "location": "<your-location>",
        "creation_data": {
            "create_option": "Empty"
        },
        "disk_size_gb": 50
    }
).result()

from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential

from azure.mgmt.compute import ComputeManagementClient

# Authenticate with Azure using the DefaultAzureCredential

credential = DefaultAzureCredential()

# Create a ComputeManagementClient

compute_client = ComputeManagementClient(credential, "")

# Create a managed disk

disk = compute_client.disks.begin_create_or_update(

"",

{

"location": "",

"creation_data": {

"create_option": "Empty"

"disk_size_gb": 50

}

).result()

Attaching the Managed Disk to a VM:

To attach the disk to a VM, you can update the VM’s configuration:

# Get the VM
vm = compute_client.virtual_machines.get(
    "<your-resource-group-name>",
    "<your-vm-name>"
)

# Attach the disk to the VM
vm.storage_profile.data_disks.append({
    "lun": 1,
    "create_option": "Attach",
    "managed_disk": {
        "id": disk.id
    }
})

# Update the VM
compute_client.virtual_machines.begin_create_or_update(
    "<your-resource-group-name>",
    "<your-vm-name>",
    vm
).result()

# Get the VM

vm = compute_client.virtual_machines.get(

"",

)

# Attach the disk to the VM

vm.storage_profile.data_disks.append({

"lun": 1,

"create_option": "Attach",

"managed_disk": {

"id": disk.id

}

})

# Update the VM

compute_client.virtual_machines.begin_create_or_update(

"",

).result()

Using the Managed Disk with a Linux VM:

Once the disk is attached to the VM, you’ll need to SSH into the VM and mount the disk. This involves partitioning the disk, formatting the partition, and mounting it to a directory. This can be done using SSH and shell commands, but it’s not typically done using Python.

Using the Managed Disk with a Windows VM:

For a Windows VM, you’ll need to RDP into the VM and then use the Disk Management tool to bring the disk online, initialize it, and create a volume. This is typically done manually and not using Python.

Please note that these are general steps and the exact commands or steps may vary depending on your specific requirements. Always refer to the official Azure SDK for Python documentation for the most accurate and up-to-date information.

Using .Net:

To create Azure Managed Disks and use them with Linux and Windows VMs using .NET, you can use the Azure SDK for .NET. Here are the general steps:

Prerequisites:

Install the Azure SDK for .NET if you haven’t done so already. You can do this using NuGet:

Install-Package Azure.Identity
Install-Package Azure.ResourceManager.Compute

1 2	Install-Package Azure.Identity Install-Package Azure.ResourceManager.Compute

You’ll need to authenticate your application with Azure. This typically involves creating a service principal and assigning it a role. You can do this in the Azure portal, and you’ll get an application ID, directory (tenant) ID, and client secret that you can use in your application.

Creating a Managed Disk:

Here’s an example of how you can create a managed disk:

using Azure.Identity;
using Azure.ResourceManager.Compute;
using Azure.ResourceManager.Compute.Models;
using Azure.ResourceManager.Resources;

// Authenticate with Azure using the DefaultAzureCredential
var credential = new DefaultAzureCredential();

// Create a ComputeManagementClient
var computeClient = new ComputeManagementClient("<your-subscription-id>", credential);

// Create a managed disk
var disk = await computeClient.Disks.StartCreateOrUpdateAsync(
    "<your-resource-group-name>",
    "<your-disk-name>",
    new Disk("<your-location>", creationData: new CreationData(DiskCreateOption.Empty)) { DiskSizeGB = 50 }
).ConfigureAwait(false);

using Azure.Identity;

using Azure.ResourceManager.Compute;

using Azure.ResourceManager.Compute.Models;

using Azure.ResourceManager.Resources;

// Authenticate with Azure using the DefaultAzureCredential

var credential = new DefaultAzureCredential();

// Create a ComputeManagementClient

var computeClient = new ComputeManagementClient("", credential);

// Create a managed disk

var disk = await computeClient.Disks.StartCreateOrUpdateAsync(

"",

new Disk("", creationData: new CreationData(DiskCreateOption.Empty)) { DiskSizeGB = 50 }

).ConfigureAwait(false);

Attaching the Managed Disk to a VM:

To attach the disk to a VM, you can update the VM’s configuration:

// Get the VM
var vm = await computeClient.VirtualMachines.GetAsync(
    "<your-resource-group-name>",
    "<your-vm-name>"
).ConfigureAwait(false);

// Attach the disk to the VM
vm.Value.StorageProfile.DataDisks.Add(
    new DataDisk(1, DiskCreateOptionTypes.Attach, managedDisk: new ManagedDiskParameters(disk.Value.Id))
);

// Update the VM
await computeClient.VirtualMachines.StartCreateOrUpdateAsync(
    "<your-resource-group-name>",
    "<your-vm-name>",
    vm.Value
).ConfigureAwait(false);

// Get the VM

var vm = await computeClient.VirtualMachines.GetAsync(

"",

).ConfigureAwait(false);

// Attach the disk to the VM

vm.Value.StorageProfile.DataDisks.Add(

new DataDisk(1, DiskCreateOptionTypes.Attach, managedDisk: new ManagedDiskParameters(disk.Value.Id))

);

// Update the VM

await computeClient.VirtualMachines.StartCreateOrUpdateAsync(

"",

vm.Value

).ConfigureAwait(false);

Using the Managed Disk with a Linux VM:

Using the Managed Disk with a Windows VM:

Please note that these are general steps and the exact commands or steps may vary depending on your specific requirements. Always refer to the official Azure SDK for .NET documentation for the most accurate and up-to-date information.

Using terraform:

Terraform is a popular Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool that can be used to create and manage resources on Azure, including Managed Disks and VMs. Here are the general steps for creating a disk and attaching it to both Linux and Windows VMs using Terraform:

Creating a Managed Disk:

First, you’ll need to define a azurerm_managed_disk resource in your Terraform configuration file. Here’s an example:

resource "azurerm_managed_disk" "example" {
  name                 = "example-disk"
  location             = "West US 2"
  resource_group_name  = azurerm_resource_group.example.name
  storage_account_type = "Standard_LRS"
  create_option        = "Empty"
  disk_size_gb         = "100"
}

resource "azurerm_managed_disk" "example" {

name = "example-disk"

location = "West US 2"

resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.example.name

storage_account_type = "Standard_LRS"

create_option = "Empty"

disk_size_gb = "100"

}

This configuration creates a 100 GB managed disk in the “West US 2” region.

Creating a VM and Attaching the Managed Disk:

Next, you’ll need to define a azurerm_virtual_machine resource and attach the managed disk to it. Here’s an example:

resource "azurerm_virtual_machine" "example" {
  name                  = "example-vm"
  location              = "West US 2"
  resource_group_name   = azurerm_resource_group.example.name
  network_interface_id  = azurerm_network_interface.example.id
  vm_size               = "Standard_D2s_v3"

  delete_os_disk_on_termination    = true
  delete_data_disks_on_termination = true

  storage_image_reference {
    publisher = "Canonical"
    offer     = "UbuntuServer"
    sku       = "16.04-LTS"
    version   = "latest"
  }

  storage_os_disk {
    name              = "os-disk"
    caching           = "ReadWrite"
    create_option     = "FromImage"
    managed_disk_type = "Standard_LRS"
  }

  os_profile {
    computer_name  = "hostname"
    admin_username = "testadmin"
    admin_password = "Password1234!"
  }

  os_profile_linux_config {
    disable_password_authentication = false
  }

  data_disk {
    name            = azurerm_managed_disk.example.name
    managed_disk_id = azurerm_managed_disk.example.id
    create_option   = "Attach"
    lun             = 0
    disk_size_gb    = "100"
  }
}

resource "azurerm_virtual_machine" "example" {

name = "example-vm"

location = "West US 2"

resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.example.name

network_interface_id = azurerm_network_interface.example.id

vm_size = "Standard_D2s_v3"

delete_os_disk_on_termination = true

delete_data_disks_on_termination = true

storage_image_reference {

publisher = "Canonical"

offer = "UbuntuServer"

sku = "16.04-LTS"

version = "latest"

}

storage_os_disk {

name = "os-disk"

caching = "ReadWrite"

create_option = "FromImage"

managed_disk_type = "Standard_LRS"

}

os_profile {

computer_name = "hostname"

admin_username = "testadmin"

admin_password = "Password1234!"

}

os_profile_linux_config {

disable_password_authentication = false

}

data_disk {

name = azurerm_managed_disk.example.name

managed_disk_id = azurerm_managed_disk.example.id

create_option = "Attach"

lun = 0

disk_size_gb = "100"

}

This configuration creates a VM and attaches the managed disk to it. The VM is created with an Ubuntu image, and the managed disk is attached as a data disk.

Using the Managed Disk with a Linux VM:

Using the Managed Disk with a Windows VM:

Please note that these are general steps and the exact commands or steps may vary depending on your specific requirements. Always refer to the official Terraform documentation for the most accurate and up-to-date information.

Azure managed disks Interview Questions & Answers:

Here are some interview questions and answers related to Azure Managed Disks:

What is Azure Managed Disk?
Azure Managed Disks are block-level storage volumes that are managed by Azure and used with Azure Virtual Machines. Managed Disks handle storage account creation, disk management, and are designed to provide high durability and availability.
What are the benefits of using Azure Managed Disks?
Azure Managed Disks offer several benefits including high durability and availability, automatic scaling, seamless integration with availability sets, VM scale sets, Azure Backup, and Azure Site Recovery, and granular access control with Azure RBAC.
What are the different types of Azure Managed Disks?
Azure offers four types of Managed Disks: Ultra Disk, Premium SSD, Standard SSD, and Standard HDD.
What is the difference between Azure Managed Disks and Unmanaged Disks?
With Managed Disks, all the storage account handling is done by Azure. With Unmanaged Disks, you are responsible for the management of the storage accounts.
What is disk bursting and which disk types support it?
Disk bursting allows your disk to burst its IOPS and throughput performance for a period of time daily. As of my knowledge cutoff in September 2021, only certain Premium SSD sizes (P4-P20) support bursting.
What is Azure Shared Disks?
Azure Shared Disks is a feature that enables you to attach a Managed Disk to multiple VMs simultaneously. It’s useful for applications that require a shared disk resource, such as clustered databases.
What is the maximum size of an Azure Managed Disk?
As of my knowledge cutoff in September 2021, the maximum size of an Azure Managed Disk is 32 TiB for Ultra Disks and 4 TiB for Premium SSDs, Standard SSDs, and Standard HDDs.
How can you increase the size of an Azure Managed Disk?
You can increase the size of a Managed Disk by using the Azure portal, Azure CLI, Azure PowerShell, or SDKs. The VM attached to the disk needs to be deallocated before the size can be increased.
Can you decrease the size of an Azure Managed Disk?
No, once a Managed Disk has been created, you cannot decrease its size.
What is Azure Disk Encryption?
Azure Disk Encryption helps protect and safeguard your data to meet your organizational security and compliance commitments. It uses the BitLocker feature of Windows and the DM-Crypt feature of Linux to provide volume encryption for the OS and data disks.
How can you backup Azure Managed Disks?
You can backup Azure Managed Disks using Azure Backup service. It provides simple, secure, and cost-effective solutions to backup your data and recover it from the Microsoft Azure cloud.
What is the difference between Azure Snapshots and Azure Backup?
Azure Snapshots are a full, read-only copy of a virtual hard drive (VHD). You can take a snapshot of an OS or data disk VHD to use as a backup or to troubleshoot virtual machine (VM) issues. Azure Backup is a service that you use to orchestrate and manage backups. It’s used to create consistent, reliable backups of your data, and to restore your data when needed.
What is the difference between Standard SSD and Premium SSD Managed Disks?
Standard SSD Managed Disks are a cost-effective storage option optimized for workloads that need consistent performance at lower IOPS levels. Premium SSD Managed Disks are high-performance, low-latency disk support for VMs running IO-intensive workloads.
What is the use of Azure Ultra Disks?
Azure Ultra Disks deliver high throughput, high IOPS, and consistent low latency disk storage for Azure VMs. They are suitable for data-intensive workloads like SAP HANA, top tier databases, and transaction-heavy workloads.
What are the limitations of Azure Managed Disks?
Some limitations include the maximum number of disks you can attach to a VM depending on the size of the VM, the maximum size of the disk, and the maximum IOPS and throughput of the disk.
How do you monitor Azure Managed Disks?
You can monitor Azure Managed Disks using Azure Monitor and Azure Log Analytics. They provide insights into capacity, transaction rates, and latency.
What is the lifecycle of Azure Managed Disks?
The lifecycle of Azure Managed Disks typically includes creation, attaching to a VM, detaching from a VM, updating (like resizing), snapshotting for backups, and deletion.
Can you move Azure Managed Disks to another subscription or resource group?
Yes, you can move Managed Disks to another subscription or resource group.
What is the performance tier of Azure Managed Disks and how can you change it?
The performance tier of Azure Managed Disks determines the IOPS and throughput of the disk. You can change the performance tier of a disk by using the Azure portal, Azure CLI, Azure PowerShell, or SDKs.
What are the costs associated with Azure Managed Disks?
The costs associated with Azure Managed Disks depend on the type and size of the disk, the number of transactions, and the amount of outbound data transfer.
What is the availability of Azure Managed Disks?
Azure Managed Disks are designed for 99.999% availability.
What is the durability of Azure Managed Disks?
Azure Managed Disks are designed to ensure that if the Azure infrastructure has a failure, there will be no data loss for your disk.
How can you secure Azure Managed Disks?
You can secure Azure Managed Disks using Azure Disk Encryption, Azure Security Center, Azure Private Link, and by controlling access with Azure RBAC.
**What is the difference between locally redundant storage (LRS) and zone-redundant storage (ZRS) for Azure Managed Disks?**
LRS replicates your data within a single data center in a single region. ZRS replicates your data synchronously across three Azure availability zones in the same region.
What is the difference between Azure Blob Storage and Azure Managed Disks?
Azure Blob Storage is object storage suitable for unstructured data, while Azure Managed Disks are block-level storage volumes used with Azure VMs.
Can you convert an unmanaged disk to a managed disk?
Yes, you can convert an unmanaged disk to a managed disk without any downtime using the Azure portal, Azure CLI, Azure PowerShell, or SDKs.
What is the difference between Azure Managed Disks and AWS EBS (Elastic Block Store)?
Both are block-level storage volumes used with VMs, but they are offered by different cloud providers (Azure and AWS). They have different features, pricing, and performance characteristics.
What is the impact of stopping (deallocating) a VM on its associated Azure Managed Disks?
When you stop (deallocate) a VM, the VM is not billed, but the associated Managed Disks continue to accrue charges.
Can you use Azure Managed Disks with Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)?
Yes, you can use Azure Managed Disks as persistent volumes with AKS.
What is the role of Azure Managed Disks in Azure Site Recovery?
Azure Site Recovery uses Azure Managed Disks for replication and failover in disaster recovery scenarios.

Please note that these are potential questions and answers, and the exact answers may vary depending on the specific job role and the state of Azure services at the time of the interview. Always refer to the official Azure documentation for the most accurate and up-to-date information.

Summary:

Azure Managed Disks are a type of Azure Storage that provides block-level storage volumes for Azure Virtual Machines (VMs). They are designed to simplify disk management for Azure IaaS VMs by managing the storage accounts associated with the VM disks.

Key features of Azure Managed Disks include:

Highly Durable and Available: Azure Managed Disks are designed for 99.999% availability. They are automatically replicated within their availability zone to ensure protection against hardware failures.
Integration with Availability Sets and VM Scale Sets: Managed Disks are deeply integrated with Azure Availability Sets and VM Scale Sets to ensure that the disks associated with the VMs in a set are sufficiently isolated from each other to avoid single points of failure.
Automatic Scaling: Azure Managed Disks automatically scale up to meet the capacity and performance needs of your applications.
Security Features: Azure Managed Disks offer several security features including Azure Disk Encryption, integration with Azure Security Center, and granular access control with Azure RBAC.
Backup and Disaster Recovery: Managed Disks can be easily backed up using Azure Backup and can be used with Azure Site Recovery for disaster recovery purposes.
Variety of Disk Types: Azure offers four types of Managed Disks – Ultra Disk, Premium SSD, Standard SSD, and Standard HDD – to meet the needs of different workloads.
Disk Snapshots: Azure Managed Disks support disk snapshots, which are a full, read-only copy of a virtual hard drive (VHD). You can take a snapshot of an OS or data disk VHD to use as a backup or to troubleshoot virtual machine (VM) issues.

Azure Managed Disks are suitable for a wide range of applications and workloads, from small-scale development and testing to large-scale, high-performance applications. They are a key component of any application deployed on Azure VMs that require persistent and high-performance storage.

Azure managed disks Learning Resources:

Sure, here are some learning resources for Azure Managed Disks:

Official Documentation
Introduction to Azure managed disks
Managed Disks pricing
Azure Managed Disks FAQs
Tutorials and Guides
Attach a managed data disk to a Windows VM by using the Azure portal
Attach a managed data disk to a Linux VM by using the Azure portal
How to resize a managed disk or snapshot by using PowerShell
Video Tutorials
Azure Managed Disks Deep Dive
Azure Managed Disks Overview
Online Courses
Implementing and Managing Azure Storage – Pluralsight
Azure Administrator: Implement and Manage Storage – LinkedIn Learning
Blogs
Azure Managed Disks – Deep Dive
Azure Managed Disks: A Beginner’s Guide
Books
Exam Ref AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator
Azure for Architects: Implementing cloud design, DevOps, IoT, and serverless solutions on your public cloud

Remember, the best way to learn is by doing. Try to get hands-on experience with Azure Managed Disks by creating and managing disks in the Azure portal, and using them with Azure VMs.

Getting Started with Azure Managed Disks

Table of Contents:

What is Block Level Storage?

What is Azure managed disks?

Key features of Azure managed disks:

Key Concepts of Azure managed disks:

Azure managed disks Security Options:

Azure managed disks Monitoring and Logging Options:

Azure managed disks Backup Options:

Azure managed disks Disaster Recovery Options:

Azure managed disks Limitations and Quotas:

Azure managed disks Pricing:

Azure managed disks Use Cases:

How to Create Azure managed disks and use with Linux and Windows VM:

Using Azure Portal:

Using Azure CLI:

Using PowerShell:

Using Python:

Using .Net:

Using terraform:

Azure managed disks Interview Questions & Answers:

Summary:

Azure managed disks Learning Resources: