Azure ultra disks offer high throughput, high IOPS, and consistent low latency disk storage for Azure IaaS virtual machines (VMs). This new offering provides top of the line performance at the same availability levels as our existing disks offerings. One major benefit of ultra disks is the ability to dynamically change the performance of the SSD along with your workloads without the need to restart your VMs. Ultra disks are suited for data-intensive workloads such as SAP HANA, top tier databases, and transaction-heavy workloads.
GA scope and limitations
The following list contains Ultra Disks's limitations:
Can't be used as OS disks.
Doesn't support disk export.
Doesn't support VM images.
Doesn't support availability sets.
Doesn't support Azure Disk Encryption.
Can't be attached to existing VMs previously encrypted with Azure Disk Encryption.
Doesn't support Azure Site Recovery.
Doesn't support disk caching.
Must deallocate your VM or detach your ultra disk in order to expand your Ultra Disk
Existing disks currently can't change their type to an Ultra Disk.
Currently only supports Single VM and Availability zone infrastructure options.
Ultra disks support a 4k physical sector size by default but also supports a 512E sector size. Most applications are compatible with 4k sector sizes, but some require 512-byte sector sizes. Oracle Database, for example, requires release 12.2 or later in order to support 4k native disks. For older versions of Oracle DB, 512-byte sector size is required.
The following table outlines the regions ultra disks are available in, and their corresponding availability options.
Note
If a region in the following list lacks availability zones that support ultra disks, then a VM in that region must be deployed without infrastructure redundancy in order to attach an ultra disk.
Redundancy options
Regions
Two availability zones
China North 3
Not every VM size is available in every supported region with ultra disks. The following table lists VM series that are compatible with ultra disks.
Specialized virtual machines targeted for heavy graphic rendering and video editing, as well as model training and inferencing (ND) with deep learning. Available with single or multiple GPUs.
Determine VM size and region availability
VMs using availability zones
To use ultra disks, you need to determine which availability zone you are in. Not every region supports every VM size with ultra disks. To determine if your region, zone, and VM size support ultra disks, run either of the following commands, make sure to replace the region, vmSize, and subscription values first:
CLI
subscription="<yourSubID>"
# example value is chinanorth3
region="<yourLocation>"
# example value is Standard_E64s_v3
vmSize="<yourVMSize>"
az vm list-skus --resource-type virtualMachines --location $region --query "[?name=='$vmSize'].locationInfo[0].zoneDetails[0].Name" --subscription $subscription
PowerShell
$region = "chinanorth3"
$vmSize = "Standard_E64s_v3"
$sku = (Get-AzComputeResourceSku | where {$_.Locations.Contains($region) -and ($_.Name -eq $vmSize) -and $_.LocationInfo[0].ZoneDetails.Count -gt 0})
if($sku){$sku[0].LocationInfo[0].ZoneDetails} Else {Write-host "$vmSize is not supported with Ultra Disk in $region region"}
The response will be similar to the form below, where X is the zone to use for deploying in your chosen region. X could be either 1, 2, or 3.
Preserve the Zones value, it represents your availability zone and you'll need it in order to deploy an Ultra disk.
ResourceType
Name
Location
Zones
Restriction
Capability
Value
disks
UltraSSD_LRS
chinanorth3
X
Note
If there was no response from the command, then the selected VM size is not supported with ultra disks in the selected region.
Now that you know which zone to deploy to, follow the deployment steps in this article to either deploy a VM with an ultra disk attached or attach an ultra disk to an existing VM.
Deploy an ultra disk using Azure Resource Manager
First, determine the VM size to deploy. For a list of supported VM sizes, see the GA scope and limitations section.
If you intend to use your own template, make sure that apiVersion for Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines and Microsoft.Compute/Disks is set as 2018-06-01 (or later).
Set the disk sku to UltraSSD_LRS, then set the disk capacity, IOPS, availability zone, and throughput in MBps to create an ultra disk.
Once the VM is provisioned, you can partition and format the data disks and configure them for your workloads.
Fill in the remaining entries with selections of your choice.
Select Disks.
On the Disks blade, select Yes for Enable Ultra Disk compatibility.
Select Create and attach a new disk to attach an ultra disk now.
On the Create a new disk blade, enter a name, then select Change size.
Change the Disk SKU to Ultra Disk.
Change the values of Custom disk size (GiB), Disk IOPS, and Disk throughput to ones of your choice.
Select OK in both blades.
Continue with the VM deployment, it is the same as you would deploy any other VM.
First, determine the VM size to deploy. See the GA scope and limitations section for a list of supported VM sizes.
You must create a VM that is capable of using ultra disks, in order to attach an ultra disk.
Replace or set the $vmname, $rgname, $diskname, $location, $password, $user variables with your own values. Set $zone to the value of your availability zone that you got from the start of this article. Then run the following CLI command to create an ultra enabled VM:
First, determine the VM size to deploy. See the GA scope and limitations section for a list of supported VM sizes.
To use ultra disks, you must create a VM that is capable of using ultra disks. Replace or set the $resourcegroup and $vmName variables with your own values. Set $zone to the value of your availability zone that you got from the start of this article. Then run the following New-AzVm command to create an ultra enabled VM:
Sign in to the Azure portal, then search for and select Disks.
Select + New to create a new disk.
Select a region that supports ultra disks and select an availability zone, fill in the rest of the values as you desire.
Select Change size.
For Disk SKU select Ultra disk, then fill in the values for the desired performance and select OK.
On the Basics blade, select the Advanced tab.
Select 512 for Logical sector size, then select Review + Create.
First, determine the VM size to deploy. See the GA scope and limitations section for a list of supported VM sizes.
You must create a VM that is capable of using ultra disks, in order to attach an ultra disk.
Replace or set the $vmname, $rgname, $diskname, $location, $password, $user variables with your own values. Set $zone to the value of your availability zone that you got from the start of this article. Then run the following CLI command to create a VM with an ultra disk that has a 512 byte sector size:
#create an ultra disk with 512 sector size
az disk create --subscription $subscription -n $diskname -g $rgname --size-gb 1024 --location $location --sku UltraSSD_LRS --disk-iops-read-write 8192 --disk-mbps-read-write 400 --logical-sector-size 512
az vm create --subscription $subscription -n $vmname -g $rgname --image Win2016Datacenter --ultra-ssd-enabled true --zone $zone --authentication-type password --admin-password $password --admin-username $user --size Standard_D4s_v3 --location $location --attach-data-disks $diskname
First, determine the VM size to deploy. See the GA scope and limitations section for a list of supported VM sizes.
To use ultra disks, you must create a VM that is capable of using ultra disks. Replace or set the $resourcegroup and $vmName variables with your own values. Set $zone to the value of your availability zone that you got from the start of this article. Then run the following New-AzVm command to create an ultra enabled VM:
Alternatively, if your existing VM is in a region/availability zone that is capable of using ultra disks, you can make use of ultra disks without having to create a new VM. By enabling ultra disks on your existing VM, then attaching them as data disks. To enable ultra disk compatibility, you must stop the VM. After you stop the VM, you can enable compatibility, then restart the VM. Once compatibility is enabled you can attach an ultra disk:
Navigate to your VM and stop it, wait for it to deallocate.
Once your VM has been deallocated, select Disks.
Select Additional settings.
Select Yes for Enable Ultra Disk compatibility.
Select Save.
Select Create and attach a new disk and fill in a name for your new disk.
For Storage type select Ultra Disk.
Change the values of Size (GiB), Max IOPS, and Max throughput to ones of your choice.
After you're returned to your disk's blade, select Save.
Start your VM again.
Alternatively, if your existing VM is in a region/availability zone that is capable of using ultra disks, you can make use of ultra disks without having to create a new VM.
Enable ultra disk compatibility on an existing VM - CLI
To enable ultra disk compatibility, you must stop the VM. After you stop the VM, you can enable compatibility, then restart the VM. Once compatibility is enabled, you can attach an ultra disk:
az vm deallocate -n $vmName -g $rgName
az vm update -n $vmName -g $rgName --ultra-ssd-enabled true
az vm start -n $vmName -g $rgName
Create an ultra disk - CLI
Now that you have a VM that is capable of attaching ultra disks, you can create and attach an ultra disk to it.
location="chinanorth3"
subscription="xxx"
rgname="ultraRG"
diskname="ssd1"
vmname="ultravm1"
zone=3
#create an ultra disk
az disk create `
--subscription $subscription `
-n $diskname `
-g $rgname `
--size-gb 4 `
--location $location `
--zone $zone `
--sku UltraSSD_LRS `
--disk-iops-read-write 1000 `
--disk-mbps-read-write 50
Attach the disk - CLI
rgName="<yourResourceGroupName>"
vmName="<yourVMName>"
diskName="<yourDiskName>"
subscriptionId="<yourSubscriptionID>"
az vm disk attach -g $rgName --vm-name $vmName --disk $diskName --subscription $subscriptionId
Alternatively, if your existing VM is in a region/availability zone that is capable of using ultra disks, you can make use of ultra disks without having to create a new VM.
Enable ultra disk compatibility on an existing VM - PowerShell
To enable ultra disk compatibility, you must stop the VM. After you stop the VM, you can enable compatibility, then restart the VM. Once compatibility is enabled, you can attach an ultra disk:
#Stop the VM
Stop-AzVM -Name $vmName -ResourceGroupName $rgName
#Enable ultra disk compatibility
$vm1 = Get-AzVM -name $vmName -ResourceGroupName $rgName
Update-AzVM -ResourceGroupName $rgName -VM $vm1 -UltraSSDEnabled $True
#Start the VM
Start-AzVM -Name $vmName -ResourceGroupName $rgName
Create and attach an ultra disk - PowerShell
Now that you have a VM that is capable of using ultra disks, you can create and attach an ultra disk to it:
Currently, adjusting disk performance is only supported with Azure CLI or the Azure PowerShell module.
Ultra disks offer a unique capability that allows you to adjust their performance. You can adjust the performance of an Ultra Disk four times within a 24 hour period. The following command depicts how to use this feature:
az disk update --subscription $subscription --resource-group $rgname --name $diskName --disk-iops-read-write=5000 --disk-mbps-read-write=200
Adjust the performance of an ultra disk using PowerShell
Ultra disks have a unique capability that allows you to adjust their performance. You can adjust the performance of an Ultra Disk four times within a 24 hour period. The following command is an example that adjusts the performance without having to detach the disk:
