Description:

This check ensures that Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) are using Managed Disks for storage. Managed Disks provide high availability, durability, and scalability by automatically managing the underlying storage infrastructure. They offer improved reliability over unmanaged disks and simplify disk management for Azure VMs.


Rationale:
Managed Disks are recommended for production workloads as they handle storage account management automatically. They provide optimized placement, automatic replication, enhanced security, easier scaling, and improved monitoring compared to unmanaged disks.


Impact:
Managed Disks simplify storage management, provide built-in redundancy and high availability, enhance security via encryption and Azure Security Center integration, and improve scalability, making it easier to manage large numbers of VMs and disks efficiently.


Default Value:

By default, new Azure VMs are created with Managed Disks. However, existing VMs may still be using unmanaged disks if they were created before Managed Disks became the default option.


Pre-requisites:

  • Appropriate role permissions: Owner or Contributor

  • Ensure that the virtual machines are either newly created or migrated to utilize Managed Disks. 


Test Plan:

  1. Log in to the Azure portal at https://portal.azure.com.

  2. Use the search bar to navigate to Virtual Machines.

  3. Select the virtual machine you want to review from the list of virtual machines.

  4. Under the Settings section, click Disks.

  5. Verify that the OS disk and any data disks are configured as Managed Disks.

  6. If not, follow the implementation steps.


Implementation steps:

  1. Log in to the Azure portal at https://portal.azure.com.

  2. Use the search bar to navigate to Virtual Machines.

  3. Select the virtual machine for which you want to enable Managed Disks.

  4. Under the Settings section, click Disks.

                            


  1. If the virtual machine is using unmanaged disks, select the OS disk and choose Convert to managed disk.



  1. Follow the on-screen steps to complete the conversion and click Save.


Backout Plan:

  1. Log in to the Azure portal.

  2. Navigate to Virtual Machines.

  3. Select the virtual machine for which you want to revert the Managed Disk configuration.

  4. Under the Settings section, click Disks.

  5. If the virtual machine is using managed disks, select the OS disk and choose Convert to unmanaged disk.

  6. Follow the on-screen steps to complete the conversion and click Save.


References: