Azure Disk Encryption for Linux virtual machines FAQ

Azure Disk Encryption for Linux VMs uses the dm-crypt feature of Linux to provide full disk encryption of the OS disk* and data disks. Additionally, it provides encryption of the temporary disk when using the EncryptFormatAll feature. The content flows encrypted from the VM to the Storage backend. Thereby, providing end-to-end encryption with a customer-managed key.

See Supported VMs and operating systems.

Azure Disk Encryption for Linux VMs is in general availability in all Azure public regions.

Azure Disk Encryption GA supports Azure Resource Manager templates, Azure PowerShell, and Azure CLI. The different user experiences give you flexibility. You have three different options for enabling disk encryption for your VMs. For more information on the user experience and step-by-step guidance available in Azure Disk Encryption, see Azure Disk Encryption scenarios for Linux.

There's no charge for encrypting VM disks with Azure Disk Encryption, but there are charges associated with the use of Azure Key Vault. For more information on Azure Key Vault costs, see the Key Vault pricing page.

To get started, read the Azure Disk Encryption overview.

The Azure Disk Encryption overview article lists the VM sizes and VM operating systems that support Azure Disk Encryption.

Yes, you can encrypt both boot and data volumes, or you can encrypt the data volume without having to encrypt the OS volume first.

After you've encrypted the OS volume, disabling encryption on the OS volume isn't supported. For Linux VMs in a scale set, only the data volume can be encrypted.

No, Azure Disk Encryption only encrypts mounted volumes.

Storage server-side encryption encrypts Azure managed disks in Azure Storage. Managed disks are encrypted by default with Server-side encryption with a platform-managed key (as of June 10, 2017). You can manage encryption of managed disks with your own keys by specifying a customer-managed key. For more information see: Server-side encryption of Azure managed disks.

Azure Disk Encryption provides end-to-end encryption for the OS disk, data disks, and the temporary disk, using a customer-managed key.

• If your requirements include encrypting all of the above and end-to-end encryption, use Azure Disk Encryption.
• If your requirements include encrypting only data at rest with customer-managed key, then use Server-side encryption with customer-managed keys. You cannot encrypt a disk with both Azure Disk Encryption and Storage server-side encryption with customer-managed keys.
• If your Linux distro is not listed under supported operating systems for Azure Disk Encryption or you are using a scenario called out in the restrictions, consider Server-side encryption with customer-managed keys.
• If your organization's policy allows you to encrypt content at rest with an Azure-managed key, then no action is needed - the content is encrypted by default. For managed disks, the content inside storage is encrypted by default with Server-side encryption with platform-managed key. The key is managed by the Azure Storage service.

To rotate secrets, just call the same command you used originally to enable disk encryption, specifying a different Key Vault. To rotate the key encryption key, call the same command you used originally to enable disk encryption, specifying the new key encryption.

To add a key encryption key, call the enable command again passing the key encryption key parameter. To remove a key encryption key, call the enable command again without the key encryption key parameter.

Yes, you can supply your own key encryption keys. These keys are safeguarded in Azure Key Vault, which is the key store for Azure Disk Encryption. For more information on the key encryption keys support scenarios, see Creating and configuring a key vault for Azure Disk Encryption.

Yes, you can use Azure Key Vault to generate a key encryption key for Azure disk encryption use. These keys are safeguarded in Azure Key Vault, which is the key store for Azure Disk Encryption. For more information on the key encryption key, see Creating and configuring a key vault for Azure Disk Encryption.

You can't use the on-premises key management service or HSM to safeguard the encryption keys with Azure Disk Encryption. You can only use the Azure Key Vault service to safeguard the encryption keys. For more information on the key encryption key support scenarios, see Creating and configuring a key vault for Azure Disk Encryption.

There are prerequisites for Azure Disk Encryption. See the Creating and configuring a key vault for Azure Disk Encryption article to create a new key vault, or set up an existing key vault for disk encryption access to enable encryption, and safeguard secrets and keys. For more information on the key encryption key support scenarios, see Creating and configuring a key vault for Azure Disk Encryption.

There are prerequisites for Azure Disk Encryption. See the Azure Disk Encryption with Microsoft Entra ID content to create an Microsoft Entra application, create a new key vault, or set up an existing key vault for disk encryption access to enable encryption, and safeguard secrets and keys. For more information on the key encryption key support scenarios, see Creating and configuring a key vault for Azure Disk Encryption with Microsoft Entra ID.

Yes. Disk encryption using a Microsoft Entra app is still supported. However, when encrypting new VMs it's recommended that you use the new method rather than encrypting with a Microsoft Entra app.

Currently, there isn't a direct migration path for machines that were encrypted with a Microsoft Entra app to encryption without a Microsoft Entra app. Additionally, there isn't a direct path from encryption without a Microsoft Entra app to encryption with an AD app.

Use the latest version of the Azure PowerShell SDK to configure Azure Disk Encryption. Download the latest version of Azure PowerShell. Azure Disk Encryption is not supported by Azure SDK version 1.1.0.

For deployment scenarios like Azure Resource Manager (ARM), where you have a need to deploy Azure disk encryption extension for Linux VM to enable encryption on your Linux IaaS VM, you must use the Azure disk encryption production supported extension "Microsoft.Azure.Security.AzureDiskEncryptionForLinux".

You can't apply Azure Disk Encryption on your custom Linux image. Only the gallery Linux images for the supported distributions called out previously are supported. Custom Linux images aren't currently supported.

Yes, you can perform a yum update on a Red Hat Linux VM. For more information, see Azure Disk Encryption on an isolated network.

The following workflow is recommended to have the best results on Linux:

• Start from the unmodified stock gallery image corresponding to the needed OS distro and version
• Back up any mounted drives that will be encrypted. This back up allows for recovery if there's a failure, for example if the VM is rebooted before encryption has completed.
• Encrypt (can take several hours or even days depending on VM characteristics and size of any attached data disks)
• Customize, and add software to the image as needed.

If this workflow isn't possible, relying on Storage Service Encryption (SSE) at the platform storage account layer may be an alternative to full disk encryption using dm-crypt.

The "Bek volume" is a local data volume that securely stores the encryption keys for Encrypted Azure VMs.

Azure Disk Encryption uses the decrypt default of aes-xts-plain64 with a 256-bit volume master key.

No, data won't be erased from data drives that are already encrypted using Azure Disk Encryption. Similar to how EncryptFormatAll didn't re-encrypt the OS drive, it won't re-encrypt the already encrypted data drive. For more information, see the EncryptFormatAll criteria.

Encryption of XFS OS disks is supported.

Encryption of XFS data disks is supported only when the EncryptFormatAll parameter is used. This will reformat the volume, erasing any data previously there. For more information, see the EncryptFormatAll criteria.

Resize of an ADE encrypted OS disk is currently not supported.

Azure Backup provides a mechanism to backup and restore encrypted VM's within the same subscription and region. For instructions, please see Back up and restore encrypted virtual machines with Azure Backup. Restoring an encrypted VM to a different region is not currently supported.

You can ask questions or provide feedback on the Microsoft Q&A question page for Azure Disk Encryption.

Next steps

In this document, you learned more about the most frequent questions related to Azure Disk Encryption. For more information about this service, see the following articles:

• Azure Disk Encryption Overview
• Apply disk encryption in Azure Security Center
• Azure data encryption at rest