Home > Software design >  Azure Batch DataDisk vs Mounted Virtual File System
Azure Batch DataDisk vs Mounted Virtual File System

Time:12-31

In Azure Batch when creating a pool in the portal you can create a DataDisk and set it's size in GB as well as choose between Standard LRS and Premium LRS.

When using Powershell and/or the .NET libraries you can also set up a MountConfiguration to a FileShare (as well as Blobs, etc).

I'm confused as to what the difference is between the two. Specifically between a DataDisk and a Mounted FileShare.

For my scenario I want to use the lowest powered Linux VM possible but need at least 500GB of storage isolated to each node (no need for sharing across nodes).

I added a DataDisk to my pool since it seemed simpler than mounting a FileShare but my nodes do not have access to the additional file storage. Are there additional configurations that need to be made to the job or task? Does it need to be mounted to a drive letter like a FileShare does?

If I add a 500GB DataDisk to my pool is that shared across all the nodes that are running or does each new node get their own 500GB partition?

There does not seem to be much documentation on DataDisks for Azure Batch. In fact searching for the term within the Batch documentation has 0 results!

CodePudding user response:

• When you add a data disk of a particular size to a batch pool, it is added to all the nodes existing or created in that batch pool, i.e., if you are adding a data disk of 500 GB to a batch pool and you created 4 nodes in that pool, then all the 4 nodes will be attached with a data disk of 500 GB individually. If these nodes are Linux VMs, then they will be attached with the data disk individually and you need to initialize these data disks from within the VM. To mount the disks and partition them, please follow the below documentation: -

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/linux/attach-disk-portal#connect-to-the-linux-vm-to-mount-the-new-disk

By following the above documentation, you will be able to mount these data disks individually to all the nodes from within the VM.

• When you add a data disk in a VM, you won’t be able to see them until you initialize them or format them from within the VM, thus you will need to login to every node and then partition it or initialize the disk for it to be visible and used.

Data disks are dedicated storage spaces or attached disks to a system/VM which can be shared with another resource likewise unless enabled but File shares are network mounted and partitioned storage volumes that are available over the network to all provisioned resources/VMs/systems. File shares like data disks have a fixed disk space/size but it is shared equally amongst the shared resources unless quota is allocated to each resource accessing the file share.

The above is same for nodes in an Azure batch pool also.

Please find the below links for your reference: -

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/batch/virtual-file-mount?tabs=linux

  • Related