Azure Disk Storage

 Azure Disk Storage refers to the managed disk service offered by Microsoft Azure. Managed disks are block-level storage volumes that are designed to provide durable and high-performance storage for Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) and other resources. Azure Disk Storage simplifies the management of disk storage for VMs by handling tasks such as replication, scalability, and snapshot management.

Here are some key features and concepts related to Azure Disk Storage:

1. Managed Disks: Managed disks come in two types:
• Standard Managed Disks: These disks offer reliable, solid-state drive (SSD)-backed storage at a lower cost per gigabyte.
• Premium Managed Disks: These disks provide high-performance, low-latency storage based on SSDs. Premium disks are suitable for I/O-intensive workloads.
2. Disk Sizes: Managed disks are available in a range of sizes, allowing you to choose the storage capacity that best fits your workload's needs. Disk sizes can range from a few gigabytes to several terabytes.
3. Availability Sets and Availability Zones: You can use managed disks in conjunction with Azure Availability Sets or Availability Zones to ensure high availability and fault tolerance for your VMs.
4. Data Redundancy: Managed disks offer redundancy options such as Locally Redundant Storage (LRS), Zone-Redundant Storage (ZRS), and Geo-Redundant Storage (GRS) to protect against data loss due to hardware failures or regional outages.
5. Snapshots: You can create snapshots of managed disks to capture point-in-time copies of disk data. Snapshots are useful for backup, recovery, and disaster planning.
6. Disk Encryption: Managed disks support Azure Disk Encryption to help protect data at rest. Azure Disk Encryption can use platform-managed keys or customer-managed keys stored in Azure Key Vault.
7. Scaling: You can easily scale the size and performance of managed disks associated with your VMs without requiring complex storage management tasks.
8. Backup and Disaster Recovery: Managed disks can be used in conjunction with Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery for backup and disaster recovery solutions.
9. Custom Images: Managed disks can be used to create custom VM images for provisioning new VMs with pre-configured disk contents.
10. Availability in Different Tiers: Managed disks are available in different performance tiers, including Standard HDD, Standard SSD, Premium SSD, and Ultra Disk, each tailored to different workload requirements.

Creating and using Azure Disk Storage involves the following steps:

1. Create a Managed Disk: You can create managed disks individually or as part of VM creation. When creating a VM, you specify the size and type of managed disk to attach.
2. Attach Managed Disks to VMs: Managed disks can be attached to Azure Virtual Machines to provide storage for the VM's operating system or data disks.
3. Configure Disk Redundancy: Choose the appropriate redundancy option for your managed disks based on your data protection and availability requirements.
4. Take Snapshots: You can take snapshots of managed disks to create point-in-time copies of your data for backup and recovery purposes.
5. Monitor and Manage Disks: Use Azure Monitoring and management tools to monitor the performance and health of your managed disks and make adjustments as needed.

Azure Disk Storage is a fundamental component of Azure infrastructure and is used to store both operating system and data disks for Azure VMs. It provides the storage foundation for running a wide range of applications and services in the Azure cloud.