Expand the size of the virtual hard disks attached to a virtual machine

Question

We want to expand the disk size of the virtual hard disks attached to a virtual machine (SQL Server is running), can you call me.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/expand-disks

Answer 1

Hello AnandUpadhyay

Yes, you can expand the size of virtual hard disks attached to an Azure virtual machine without data loss. However, there are a few important considerations:

• Shrinking disks is not supported and may result in data loss.
• Expanding disks is supported, but depending on the disk type, it may require downtime.
• Data Safety - Expanding a disk does not cause data loss. Shrinking is not supported and can lead to data corruption.
• Downtime Requirements

OS Disk: The VM must be deallocated before you can resize the OS disk.

Data Disk: If you use the “Expand without downtime” feature, you can resize without stopping the VM. Otherwise, deallocation is required.

• Post-Resize Step
  After resizing the disk in Azure, you must extend the volume inside the operating system (Windows or Linux) to utilize the additional space.

Steps to perform - Stop or Deallocate the VM (required for OS disk, optional for data disk if not using online resize).

Resize the Disk in Azure Portal:

• Go to Disks under your VM > Select the disk you want to expand > Update the size and save and then Start the VM.
• Open Disk Management.
• Locate the disk and right-click the volume.
• Select Extend Volume and follow the wizard.

If your VM uses a spanned volume:

• Stop the VM.
• Resize each disk in the spanned set.
• Start the VM.
• Use Disk Management to extend the spanned volume to include the new space.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/expand-disks

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Thanks,
Manish Deshpande

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