Deploy an Elastic SAN

This article explains how to deploy and configure an elastic storage area network (SAN). If you're interested in Azure Elastic SAN, or have any feedback you'd like to provide, fill out this optional survey.

Prerequisites

  • If you're using Azure PowerShell, install the latest Azure PowerShell module.
  • If you're using Azure CLI, install the latest version.
  • Once you've installed the latest version, run az extension add -n elastic-san to install the extension for Elastic SAN.

Limitations

The following list contains the regions Elastic SAN is currently available in, and which regions support both zone-redundant storage (ZRS) and locally redundant storage (LRS), or only LRS:

  • South Africa North - LRS
  • East Asia - LRS
  • Southeast Asia - LRS
  • Brazil South - LRS
  • Canada Central - LRS
  • France Central - LRS & ZRS
  • Germany West Central - LRS
  • Australia East - LRS
  • North Europe - LRS & ZRS
  • West Europe - LRS & ZRS
  • UK South - LRS
  • Japan East - LRS
  • Korea Central - LRS
  • Central US - LRS
  • East US - LRS
  • South Central US - LRS
  • East US 2 - LRS
  • West US 2 - LRS & ZRS
  • West US 3 - LRS
  • Sweden Central - LRS
  • Switzerland North - LRS

Create the SAN

  1. Sign in to the Azure portal and search for Elastic SAN.

  2. Select + Create a new SAN

  3. On the basics page, fill in the appropriate values.

    • Elastic SAN name must be between 3 and 24 characters long. The name can only contain lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens and underscores, and must begin and end with a letter or a number. Each hyphen and underscore must be preceded and followed by an alphanumeric character. For best performance, your SAN should be in the same zone as your VM.
  4. Specify the amount of base capacity you require, and any additional capacity, then select next.

    Increasing your SAN's base size will also increase its IOPS and bandwidth. Increasing additional capacity only increase its total size (base+additional) but won't increase IOPS or bandwidth, however, it's cheaper than increasing base.

  5. Select Next : Volume groups.

    Screenshot of creation flow.

Create volume groups

Now that you've configured the basic settings and provisioned your storage, you can create volume groups. Volume groups are a tool for managing volumes at scale. Any settings or configurations applied to a volume group apply to all volumes associated with that volume group.

  1. Select + Create volume group and name your volume group.

    • The name must be between 3 and 63 characters long. The name can only contain lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens, and must begin and end with a letter or a number. Each hyphen must be preceded and followed by an alphanumeric character. The volume group name can't be changed once created.
  2. Select Next : Volumes

Create volumes

Now that you've configured the SAN itself, and created at least one volume group, you can create volumes.

Volumes are usable partitions of the SAN's total capacity, you must allocate a portion of that total capacity as a volume in order to use it. Only the actual volumes themselves can be mounted and used, not volume groups.

  1. Create volumes by entering a name, selecting an appropriate volume group, and entering the capacity you'd like to allocate for your volume. The volume name is part of your volume's iSCSI Qualified Name, and can't be changed once created.

  2. Select Review + create and deploy your SAN.

    Screenshot of volume creation.

Next steps

Now that you've deployed an Elastic SAN, Connect to Elastic SAN volumes from either Windows or Linux clients.