{"id":5549,"date":"2015-03-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-03-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/blog\/azure-vm-os-drive-limit-octupled"},"modified":"2025-09-16T13:47:50","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T20:47:50","slug":"azure-vm-os-drive-limit-octupled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/azure-vm-os-drive-limit-octupled\/","title":{"rendered":"Azure VM OS drive limit has octupled!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Back in the old days, last week, Azure virtual machines had a maximum OS drive size of 127 GB. This worked fine&nbsp;if you were&nbsp;deploying virtual machines from the <a title=\"Azure Marketplace\" href=\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/marketplace\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Azure Marketplace<\/a>, but was less useful if you were trying to&nbsp;migrate a&nbsp;physical PC or virtual machine&nbsp;from on-premises which had a larger OS drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;m pleased to announce the maximum OS drive has been increased by a factor of 8 to <strong>1023 GB<\/strong>. Last week, a new update rolled out globally&nbsp;to remove the 127 GB limit&nbsp;which applies to both Windows and Linux VMs. All public regions have been updated and the&nbsp;China and Government clouds will also follow suit soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Though the limit has been increased, it&#8217;s not recommended to use&nbsp;the OS drive for performance intensive production workloads. Disk caching is optimized for OS performance, and for applications with persistent data requirements you can&nbsp;get better throughput&nbsp;by using&nbsp;an attached data drive. The guidance remains the same, but the 127 GB maximum size is no longer enforced &#8211; opening up simpler and more straightforward VM migration into Azure,&nbsp;&nbsp;particularly&nbsp;where on-premises apps&nbsp;and data reside&nbsp;on the OS drive beyond 127 GB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is also no change in&nbsp;recommendations for applications running on Azure VMs with&nbsp;more demanding IO requirements. If you need maximum IO performance and require disk persistence across hardware failure and reboots, you&nbsp;have the option of using <a title=\"Azure Premium Storage\" href=\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/documentation\/articles\/storage-premium-storage-preview-portal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Premium Storage<\/a>&nbsp;currently in preview, which with disk striping,&nbsp;can provide up to 50,000 IOPS per VM. Performance&nbsp;intensive applications which do not need to be backed by the Azure Storage Service (i.e. don&#8217;t need to keep their data across reboots and hardware failure events) also have the option of using SSD temp drives&nbsp;with <a title=\"D Series Azure VMs\" href=\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/22\/new-d-series-virtual-machine-sizes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">D Series VM sizes<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Note that there are no plans to increase the OS drive sizes for VM images in the Azure Gallery\/Marketplace, or for VMs you&#8217;ve already deployed. The OS drive limit increase is for migrating VHDs from on-premises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now that the 127 GB OS drive limit has been octupled, we\u2019ll be updating the existing documentation and introducing updates to&nbsp;our Azure <a href=\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/services\/site-recovery\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DR and migration&nbsp;offerings <\/a>to reflect the new 1023 GB limit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m pleased to announce the maximum OS drive has been increased by a factor of 8 to 1023 GB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ms_queue_id":[],"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","_classifai_text_to_speech_error":"","_alt_title":"","footnotes":"","msx_community_cta_settings":[]},"categories":[1467],"tags":[],"audience":[3057,3055,3053,3056],"content-type":[],"product":[1455],"tech-community":[],"topic":[],"coauthors":[991],"class_list":["post-5549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-compute","audience-data-professionals","audience-developers","audience-it-decision-makers","audience-it-implementors","product-virtual-machines","review-flag-1680286581-295","review-flag-8-1680286581-263","review-flag-new-1680286579-546","review-flag-vm-1680286585-143"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Azure VM OS drive limit has octupled! | Microsoft Azure Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I&#039;m pleased to announce the maximum OS drive has been increased by a factor of 8 to 1023 GB.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/azure-vm-os-drive-limit-octupled\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Azure VM OS drive limit has octupled! | Microsoft Azure Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I&#039;m pleased to announce the maximum OS drive has been increased by a factor of 8 to 1023 GB.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/azure-vm-os-drive-limit-octupled\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Microsoft Azure Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/microsoftazure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-25T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-16T20:47:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guy Bowerman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@azure\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@azure\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Guy Bowerman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/azure-vm-os-drive-limit-octupled\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/azure-vm-os-drive-limit-octupled\/\"},\"author\":[{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/author\/guy-bowerman\/\",\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@name\":\"Guy Bowerman\"}],\"headline\":\"Azure VM OS drive limit has octupled!\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-03-25T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-16T20:47:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/azure-vm-os-drive-limit-octupled\/\"},\"wordCount\":397,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Compute\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/azure-vm-os-drive-limit-octupled\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/azure-vm-os-drive-limit-octupled\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/azure-vm-os-drive-limit-octupled\/\",\"name\":\"Azure VM OS drive limit has octupled! | Microsoft Azure Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-03-25T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-16T20:47:50+00:00\",\"description\":\"I'm pleased to announce the maximum OS drive has been increased by a factor of 8 to 1023 GB.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/azure-vm-os-drive-limit-octupled\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/azure-vm-os-drive-limit-octupled\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/azure-vm-os-drive-limit-octupled\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Blog home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Compute\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/category\/compute\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Azure VM OS drive limit has octupled!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Microsoft Azure Blog\",\"description\":\"Get the latest Azure news, updates, and announcements from the Azure blog. From product updates to hot topics, hear from the Azure experts.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Microsoft Azure Blog\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/microsoft_logo.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/microsoft_logo.webp\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"Microsoft Azure Blog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/microsoftazure\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/azure\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/microsoftdeveloper\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/16188386\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/windowsazure\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c702e5edd662b328b49b7e1180cab117\",\"name\":\"shakir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9342c7c05bb16548741bc5cd3a3e3b7ee0c8e746844ad2cc582db5beb5514c6f?s=96&d=mm&r=g7664e653ea371ce16eaf75e9fa8952c4\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9342c7c05bb16548741bc5cd3a3e3b7ee0c8e746844ad2cc582db5beb5514c6f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9342c7c05bb16548741bc5cd3a3e3b7ee0c8e746844ad2cc582db5beb5514c6f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"shakir\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/author\/shakir\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Azure VM OS drive limit has octupled! | Microsoft Azure Blog","description":"I'm pleased to announce the maximum OS drive has been increased by a factor of 8 to 1023 GB.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/azure-vm-os-drive-limit-octupled\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Azure VM OS drive limit has octupled! | Microsoft Azure Blog","og_description":"I'm pleased to announce the maximum OS drive has been increased by a factor of 8 to 1023 GB.","og_url":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/azure-vm-os-drive-limit-octupled\/","og_site_name":"Microsoft Azure Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/microsoftazure","article_published_time":"2015-03-25T00:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-09-16T20:47:50+00:00","author":"Guy Bowerman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@azure","twitter_site":"@azure","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Guy Bowerman","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/azure-vm-os-drive-limit-octupled\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/azure-vm-os-drive-limit-octupled\/"},"author":[{"@id":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/author\/guy-bowerman\/","@type":"Person","@name":"Guy Bowerman"}],"headline":"Azure VM OS drive limit has octupled!","datePublished":"2015-03-25T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-16T20:47:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/azure-vm-os-drive-limit-octupled\/"},"wordCount":397,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Compute"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/azure-vm-os-drive-limit-octupled\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/azure-vm-os-drive-limit-octupled\/","url":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/azure-vm-os-drive-limit-octupled\/","name":"Azure VM OS drive limit has octupled! | Microsoft Azure Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-03-25T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-16T20:47:50+00:00","description":"I'm pleased to announce the maximum OS drive has been increased by a factor of 8 to 1023 GB.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/azure-vm-os-drive-limit-octupled\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/azure-vm-os-drive-limit-octupled\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/azure-vm-os-drive-limit-octupled\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Blog home","item":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Compute","item":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/category\/compute\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Azure VM OS drive limit has octupled!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/","name":"Microsoft Azure Blog","description":"Get the latest Azure news, updates, and announcements from the Azure blog. From product updates to hot topics, hear from the Azure experts.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/#organization","name":"Microsoft Azure Blog","url":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/microsoft_logo.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/microsoft_logo.webp","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Microsoft Azure Blog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/microsoftazure","https:\/\/x.com\/azure","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/microsoftdeveloper\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/16188386","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/windowsazure"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c702e5edd662b328b49b7e1180cab117","name":"shakir","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9342c7c05bb16548741bc5cd3a3e3b7ee0c8e746844ad2cc582db5beb5514c6f?s=96&d=mm&r=g7664e653ea371ce16eaf75e9fa8952c4","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9342c7c05bb16548741bc5cd3a3e3b7ee0c8e746844ad2cc582db5beb5514c6f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9342c7c05bb16548741bc5cd3a3e3b7ee0c8e746844ad2cc582db5beb5514c6f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"shakir"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com"],"url":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/author\/shakir\/"}]}},"msxcm_display_generated_audio":false,"msxcm_animated_featured_image":null,"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Microsoft Azure Blog","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46387,"href":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5549\/revisions\/46387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5549"},{"taxonomy":"audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/audience?post=5549"},{"taxonomy":"content-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-type?post=5549"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=5549"},{"taxonomy":"tech-community","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tech-community?post=5549"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=5549"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}