Managed and UnManaged Block Storage in Azure

This guide provides information on managed and unmanaged block storage in Azure.

Hafeez Baig
23 steps
2 minutes

Azure

Type **Virtual Machines** in the search bar and click on the **Virtual machines** to view the Virtual Machines dashboard

**What is Azure Virtual Machine?** An Azure Virtual Machine is a scalable computing resource provided by Microsoft Azure, enabling users to deploy and manage virtualized instances of operating systems such as Windows or Linux in the cloud.

On the **Virtual machines** dashboard, in the top left corner click on the **Create** dropdown button and click on the option **Azure virtual machine**

On the **Create a Virtual Machine** wizard, click on the **Resource group** dropdown and select the resource group **storage-rg** option **Note:** If you do not have a Resource group, you can create one by clicking on the **Create new** link option

Scroll to the **Virtual machine name** section and give Name as "**storage-unmanaged-vm-1**"

Scroll to the **Availability options** section and select the option **No infrastructure redundancy required** from the dropdown

**What is No infrastructure redundancy required option?**\ \ This option sets up a virtual machine without backup infrastructure, so it's at risk of downtime if the underlying hardware fails, making it suitable for non-critical tasks or development purposes.

Scroll to the **Image** section and click on the link **Configure VM generation**

On the right side **Configure VM generation** wizard will open, select the option **Generation 1**

Scroll the page and click on the **Apply** button

Scroll to the **SSH public key Source** section, select the option **Generate new key pair** from the dropdown and give the **Key pair name** as "**my-vm-key-azure"**

Scroll the page and click on the **Next : Disks** button

On the **Disks** wizard, scroll to the **Advanced** section and untick the check box **Use managed disks**

**Note:** If you are unable to uncheck this box, select the image "**Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS - x64 Gen1**" from the list, and it will be fixed.\ \ **Issue:** - Azure now defaults to managed disks for most modern VM types and some VM sizes and images (especially Gen 2 or with high availability features) don’t even support unmanaged storage.

**What are Managed Disks?**\ \ Managed Disks in Azure simplify storage management for Virtual Machines by handling provisioning, scaling, and maintenance tasks, offering reliability and security without the need for manual storage management.

Scroll the page and click on the **Review + create** button

Wait for the **Validation** to get passed

If your validation is displaying errors and hasn't passed, try troubleshooting by repeating previous steps and checking the validation again.

After the Validation is successfully passed, scroll the page and click on the **Create** button

**Generate new key pair** wizard will open, click on the **Download private key and create resource** button

**What is a Key pair in Azure Virtual Machines?** In Azure Virtual Machines, a key pair consists of two cryptographic keys: a public key and a private key. These keys are used for authentication and encryption purposes. When you create a virtual machine in Azure, you typically specify a key pair, where the public key is placed on the virtual machine, and the private key is kept securely on your local machine or in Azure Key Vault.

**Files and Folders** wizard will open, select the folder where you want to download the key pair and click on the **Save** button **Note:** Store this Key pair safely as it will be used to access your Azure Virtual Machine

**Your deployment is complete**

To view the disk, type **Storage Accounts** in the search bar and click on **Storage Accounts** to view the Storage Accounts dashboard

**What are Storage Accounts?**\ \ Storage Accounts in Azure are fundamental resources that provide a secure and scalable way to store different kinds of data such as files, blobs, tables, queues, and virtual machine disks. They serve as a central location to store and manage data for various Azure services and applications.

On the **Storage accounts** wizard, here you view the storage account created earlier in this demo, click on the Name **storagediskazure**

Click on the **Containers** from the left bar

**What are Containers?**\ \ Containers in Azure are lightweight, portable environments that package applications and their dependencies for consistent deployment and management across different computing environments.

On the **Containers** wizard click on the Name **vhds**

On the **vhds** wizard, here you can view all the details related to whatever is stored in this container

Congratulations on completing this lab and Understanding Managed and UnManaged Azure Block Storage! Good Job!