Steps to attach unmanaged OS Disk to a Windows Azure VM

In this blog, we will show you the steps to attach unmanaged OS Disk to a Windows Azure VM through the portal.

REQUIREMENTS

• Microsoft Azure Subscription
• Azure Storage Explorer
• OS VHD Disk

OVERVIEW

• We have already created a Windows 2016 VM named az-unman-vm-01 using traditional (Blob) storage.

• For demo purpose, we are deleting the above VM and reattach the OS disk using the Azure storage explorer.

INSTALLING STORAGE EXPLORER

• Open the web browser and access the URL https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/features/storage-explorer/ and download the tool to your local PC.

• Follow the on-screen instructions and install the tool on your PC. Open the Azure Storage Explorer.

CONFIGURING STORAGE EXPLORER

• First, add our existing Azure account to access the storage blobs.

• After successful authentication, our storage blob will be displayed in the explorer.

• We are using the webtierstorage01 storage account to store the az-unman-vm-01 az-unman-vm-01 VM VHD.

VM CONFIGURATION

• Login to our demo VM az-unman-vm-01 through RDP.

• We have created few files and folder for demo purpose on the desktop. Need to verify that we are using the existing VHD for newly creating VM.

DELETING THE VM

• Go-to azure portal and click on virtual machines link from services list.

• First, stop the VM and delete it.

• Open the storage explorer and make sure that VHD is available in the blob storage.

DELETING EXISTING VM CONFIGURATION

• Delete the existing associated IP for az-unman-vm-01 VM from virtual networks before creating the new VM.

CREATING NEW VM

• Create a new VM using virtual machines link from the Azure service list.

• We are using windows 2016 image to create a new VM for this demo.

• During VM provisioning, Azure will create a new IP and VHD file under the blob storage.

• Cancel the VM provisioning now.

• It will take few minutes to complete the operation.

RE-CONFIGURING THE VM

• Open the storage explorer and right click on the new created VHD and click Break Lease.

• It prompts for confirmation, click Yes to continue.

• Make a note of the new VHD name and delete it.

• Rename the existing VHD file with new name as az-unman-vm-0120171128011004.vhd using the rename option.

• Provide the new name and click on Rename button.

• The VHD has been renamed successfully.

VERIFICATION

• Open the Azure portal and select the VM and start it. For this demo, it’s az-unman-vm-01.

• It will take few minutes to complete the operation.

• Log in to the VM using RDP.

• You can see our old files & folders available on the desktop.

VIDEO

Thanks for reading this blog. We hope it was useful for you to learn about attaching the existing unmanaged VHD to a new VM.