Shaving costs for Azure IaaS VMs when stopped (deallocated)

Ranjeet Singh 21 Reputation points
2020-08-23T12:45:42.297+00:00

Hi All

Just had a question as I have not managed to try this myself but thought I would ask if anyone else has tried.

I am currently on a tight budget with a VM I am using in Azure. It is a fairly high spec and when it's not in use I ensure its in a stopped (deallocated) state.

My question is if there is a prolonged period when I don't need to use it (e.g. when I am on a 2 week holiday) if I was to change the disk from Premium to Standard HDD and also lower the spec from the F series it's on to an A just before the last time I finish, am I right in assuming for those 2 weeks I would get charged at the lower rates and from a disk perspective, I wouldn't lose any of the data vs just keeping it off the whole time but with a premium SSD and high spec?

What's everyone's thoughts of this, would my thinking here be an option and potentially save me money for when the VM is not in use?

Many thanks

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  1. vipullag-MSFT 25,616 Reputation points
    2020-08-24T11:41:44.03+00:00

    anonymous user-3999

    Based on the cost saving you want by converting both VM SKU from F series (Premium Storage: Supported) & A series (Premium Storage: Not Supported), your assumption is correct in terms of the way you will be charged for the disks and VM type.

    I just tried your ask in my lab environment from D series to A series and the server is working as expected without any data loss.

    It is highly recommend to try on a test server if possible before trying on a prod server.
    Also, to ensure the data safety below is some more information that can help you in planning this:

    • Enable soft delete of the storage account
    • Take Snasphots of the disks
    • Create a new Standard storage account and copy the disks using storage explorer and once the disks are copied, you can create new VM with the SKU of your choice.

    VM and disk before resize:
    19818-zz-1.jpg
    19819-zz-2.jpg

    VM and disk after resize:
    19809-zz-3.jpg
    19862-zz-4.jpg

    Hope provided information is helpful.
    Please 'Accept as answer' if the provided information is helpful, so that it can help others in the community looking for help on similar topics.

    1 person found this answer helpful.