Figure 12.12 Interacting with Azure Storage by using Microsoft Azure Storage
Explorer
When a virtual machine is created in Microsoft Azure IaaS, it has the operating system
VHD. However, you likely don’t want to store application data on this disk because by
default it has read and write caching enabled, which is not desired for most application
data workloads but is beneficial for OS disks. Additional disks can be added to a virtual
machine, and a reboot is not required because the disks are added to the virtual SCSI
controller, which supports hot-adding storage.
Additional disks are added via the Disks menu item from the VMs Settings blade.
Through the blade, either a new empty VHD can be attached or a new VHD created
and attached. When you add a disk, it will be a data disk type. You can specify a name
for the disk and a size up to 1TB (although 1,023GB is the maximum size, not 1,024 as
would be expected). The type of caching can also be configured, as shown in Figure
12.13. Notice that the type of storage account can be selected, but only xS series VMs
can use Premium Storage accounts, such as the DS, FS, and GS series VMs. Once the
options are configured, click the OK button to complete the addition, which will
generate a new page BLOB in Microsoft Azure Storage and attach the disk to the
virtual machine.