AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator Exam

Configure Disk Types and Performance

Introduction to Disk Types in Azure

Azure offers different types of virtual machine disks, each designed for specific workload needs. These include Standard HDD, Standard SSD, and Premium SSD. Selecting the right disk type can drastically impact both performance and cost. Standard HDDs are cost-effective but offer lower performance, making them suitable for less demanding tasks. Conversely, Premium SSDs provide high-performance storage for intensive workloads like databases and big data applications.

Azure also provides Ultra Disks, which are top-tier offerings designed for high throughput and low latency needs, such as in SAP HANA environments or transaction-heavy applications. One of the key features of Ultra Disks is their dynamic performance settings, which allow you to adjust throughput and IOPS without restarting your virtual machines. This feature can optimize workload handling and cost-efficiency in rapidly changing environments.

Enable Ultra Disk Compatibility

To use Ultra Disks with your virtual machine (VM), you must enable compatibility using PowerShell. The process involves stopping the VM, enabling Ultra Disk compatibility by setting the UltraSSDEnabled option to true, and then restarting the VM. This procedure allows you to adapt your VMs to use Ultra Disks, ensuring they are ready for high-performance tasks.

Here is a brief step-by-step guide:

1. Stop the VM using the Stop-AzVM command.
2. Fetch the VM object, update it with UltraSSDEnabled set to true.
3. Use the Start-AzVM command to restart the VM.

These steps are essential to making structural adjustments that support Ultra Disks, thereby unlocking their powerful features for your virtual machines.

Create and Attach an Ultra Disk

Once compatibility is enabled, it's time to create and attach an Ultra Disk to your virtual machine. Begin by setting parameters such as subscription ID, resource group, VM name, disk name, and location. Use commands like New-AzDiskConfig to define the disk settings and New-AzDisk to create it.

After setting up your new disk, attach it to your VM:

• Retrieve both VM and disk objects.
• Employ the Add-AzVMDataDisk command to attach the disk.
• Execute Update-AzVM to apply the changes.

This process binds the disk to your virtual machine, granting access to increased storage capabilities. The steps ensure that the disk operates optimally with your desired infrastructure configuration.

Adjust Ultra Disk Performance

The ability to adjust performance settings is a standout feature of Ultra Disks. You can modify these settings up to four times within a 24-hour span, making it flexible for handling varying workload demands. To make adjustments, navigate to your VM's disk settings, choose the Ultra Disk you're interested in, modify its size and performance metrics, and save the changes.

Ensuring you have the ability to tune performance means you can maintain an efficient balance between cost and requirement—adjust resources only as necessary based on specific workload demands.

Limitations of Ultra Disks

Despite their many benefits, Ultra Disks come with several limitations that need careful consideration. For instance, they cannot serve as OS disks or be used with Azure Compute Gallery or availability sets. Additionally, there's no support for existing disk-type conversion to Ultra Disks or for disk caching and Azure Disk Encryption.

Understanding these limitations helps in making informed decisions about when and how to deploy Ultra Disks effectively within your Azure environment. It's crucial to evaluate compatibility issues early on to avoid deployment hurdles later.

Conclusion

Managing virtual machine disks in Azure requires a good understanding of available options and their performances. By configuring disk types appropriately according to workload needs, you can significantly enhance both efficiency and cost-effectiveness within the cloud environment. Knowing how to enable Ultra Disk compatibility, create and attach disks, and adjust settings ensures you're using optimal resources aligned with organizational goals while keeping limitations in check for comprehensive resource management.