Deploying a Preconfigured VHD into availabilty zone

Cathal McBride 0 Reputation points
2023-07-25T12:56:40.0866667+00:00

Hi,

Got a problem that I don't really know how to progress with, if anyone could provide suggestions it would be much appreciated.

I have a pre-configured VHD that I need to deploy into azure and I am trying to deploy this VM using the Azure Templates. The goal is to build two devices that live in separate availability zones for an Active-Active Redundancy. The region I am using is UK South.

The VHD requires some config when it boots for the first time and that all works as part of the Template however the VM is unable to be put into an availability zone because the disks are not 'Managed Disks'. To solve this problem I migrate over the disks to become 'Managed Disks' and try to mount the disks as part of a new Template (Dont need to apply any preconfig as it is already applied).

However when I try to mount the Disk it says that the disk is not in an Availability Zone so it cannot be imported into a VM that is in an AZ. I have seen documentation around moving resources across regions however I cannot find anything on move resources in and out of availability zones.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Azure Virtual Machines
Azure Virtual Machines
An Azure service that is used to provision Windows and Linux virtual machines.
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  1. Prrudram-MSFT 27,711 Reputation points
    2023-07-27T07:01:32.16+00:00

    Hello @Cathal McBride

    Azure Managed Disks are designed to provide high availability within an Azure Availability Zone. However, it is important to note that managed disks are tied to the specific Availability Zone (AZ) when they are created, and they cannot be directly moved into Availability Zone VM.

    If you need to achieve cross-Availability Zone redundancy, you need to create copies of your managed disks in the desired Availability Zones. There are a couple of approaches you can consider:

    1. Create a managed disk snapshot: You can create a snapshot of the managed disk and then use that snapshot to create a new managed disk in another Availability Zone.
    2. Use Azure Site Recovery: Azure Site Recovery is a service that facilitates disaster recovery and migration of virtual machines between different Azure regions as well as Availability Zones.
      UK south is supported for Availability zones. Hence first create a VM with managed disks in UK west and then use Azure Site Recovery to replicate your virtual machines with managed disks to an Availability Zone in UK west.

    In a scenario where your VMs are deployed as single instance into a specific region, and you want to improve your availability by moving these VMs into an Availability Zone, you can do so by using Azure Site Recovery. Detailed document is here https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/site-recovery/move-azure-vms-avset-azone

    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/reliability/availability-zones-service-support

    Remember that both above-specified methods might incur additional costs, so you should consider the requirements and implications of each approach based on your specific use case.
    If this does answer your question, please accept it as the answer as a token of appreciation.

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