---
title: Azure – You can now use shared disks in Azure for your clustered workloads - cubesys
description: With this new capability added to Azure, you can now deploy/migrate your clustered workloads on Azure virtual machines.This is quite handy as with the end of support of Windows Server and SQL Server 2008, you can benefit up to 3 years support if these workloads run on Azure (and there…
---

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# [Azure – You can now use shared disks in Azure for your clustered workloads - cubesys](https://www.cubesys.com.au/blog/azure-you-can-now-use-shared-disks-in-azure-for-your-clustered-workloads)

 Written by [cubesys](https://www.cubesys.com.au/blog/author/cubesys) | Feb 17, 2020 1:00:00 PM

With this new capability added to Azure, you can now deploy/migrate your clustered workloads on Azure virtual machines.

This is quite handy as with the end of support of Windows Server and SQL Server 2008, you can benefit up to 3 years support if these workloads run on Azure (and there is still quite a few still alive).

This Azure Shared Disks feature has been designed to support SQL Server Failover Cluster, Scale Out File Servers, Remote Desktop Server and SAP ASCS/SCS.

As this feature is currently in preview, you need to register first to [https://aka.ms/AzureSharedDiskPreviewSignUp](https://aka.ms/AzureSharedDiskPreviewSignUp)

It is going to work the same way than a cluster deployed on-premises

<https://www.cubesys.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/image-14.png>

**IMPORTANT NOTE** at this stage, support for Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery is **not available** but this is off course in the roadmap.

This feature is currently only available from **West Central US** region and only when using **premium SSD** (which quite make sense from a performance perspective).

Once you have register for the preview and have been approved, you can deploy shared disks by using **PowerShell** only (support for doing the same from the portal is underway)

> $resourceGroup = <your resource group>  
>  $location = “WestCentralUS” – as currently only available in West Central US  
>  $ppgName = <proximity placement group> – if you don’t know/need a refresh you can read the documentation [here](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-au/azure/virtual-machines/windows/proximity-placement-groups)  
>  $ppg = New-AzProximityPlacementGroup -Location $location -Name $ppgName -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroup -ProximityPlacementGroupType Standard
> 
> $vm = New-AzVm -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroup –Name <the virtual machine going to use the shared disk> -Location $location –VirtualNetworkName <your vNet> –SubnetName <your subnet> –SecurityGroupName <your NSG> –PublicIpAddressName <your Public IP> -ProximityPlacementGroup $ppg.Id
> 
> $dataDisk = Get-AzDisk -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroup –DiskName <the shared drive to be attached>
> 
> $vm = Add-AzVMDataDisk -VM $vm -Name <the shared drive to be attached> -CreateOption Attach -ManagedDiskId $dataDisk.Id -Lun 0
> 
> update-AzVm -VM $vm -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroup

[View full post](https://www.cubesys.com.au/blog/azure-you-can-now-use-shared-disks-in-azure-for-your-clustered-workloads)

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