VM Storage: Managed Disks

Storage is critical for every virtual machine. Azure Managed Disks abstract away the complexity of managing storage accounts for VM disks, providing high durability, scalability, and integration with Azure's availability features.

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What are Managed Disks?

Azure Managed Disks are block-level storage volumes managed by Azure and used with Azure Virtual Machines. Azure handles the creation, management, and replication of the underlying storage account — you simply specify the disk type, size, and performance tier.

Managed vs Unmanaged Disks

Feature	Managed Disks	Unmanaged Disks (Legacy)
Storage account management	Handled by Azure	You manage storage accounts
Scalability	Up to 50,000 disks per subscription per region	Limited by storage account IOPS
Availability Sets	Aligned to fault domains automatically	Must manually distribute across storage accounts
Snapshots & Images	First-class support	Manual VHD copies
RBAC	Per-disk access control	Storage account level only

Managed Disks are the recommended approach for all new deployments. Unmanaged disks are legacy and should be migrated.

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Disk Types