Increase Azure Data Disk size

Question

I currently attached a data disk of 1 GB to Windows Extra Small VM running on Azure.

How do I increase the size of data disk without losing data?

Is it possible to attach many more disks to Extra Small VM especially from other storage accounts?

Solution 1

It is possible to attach more disks into an Extra Small VM.

It isn't possible to increase the size of data disk in Disk Management. But with some extra steps you can accomplish that by downloading the VHD into a larger disk attached to a different VM, mount it and extend it, then put it back where it was and attach it again to the original VM.

Please check Drew's description here

Solution 2

How do I increase the size of data disk without losing data?

I don't think you can increase the size of the data disk.

Is it possible to attach many more disks to Extra Small VM especially from other storage accounts?

You can attach another data disk. You can attach up to 16 data disks to a VM. Since the data disk is essentially a page blob, you are only charged for the space you occupy and not the actual size of the disk thus it is advisable to attach a larger size data disk so that you don't run out of disk space. Though I have not tried attaching data disks from different storage accounts but I can't see a reason why it should not be possible (they should be in same data center though). However you may want to keep all your OS and Data Disks in the same storage account for improved latency purposes. HTH.

Comments

[R Arun]

I took a slightly different approach. Stopped IIS, MySQL, HmailServer ( all were installed & running from data disk ). Copied all the data from data disk to a temporary folder in C:\ ( as the entire data is less than 1 GB ). Detached the data disk. Attached a new data disk with higher capacity. Copied files from C:\ Pasted to new drive. Restarted IIS, MySql & reinstalled HmailServer. Everything is working perfectly.

[R Arun]

Thanks for the reply. "you are only charged for the space you occupy and not the actual size of the disk thus it is advisable to attach a larger size data disk so that you don't run out of disk space" that's a very valid point.