Add disk to lab services VM

Question

Hi i'm running a class of 15 students with a lab services Large VM (8 core and 32 GB RAM) but only appr. 128 GB disk, i'm expecting to install 4/5 windows server 2019 and 2 Windows 10 clients in the Hyper V environment, but for that i need at least 256 GB of disk.

so i would like to add more disk to this VM, how is this possible.

regards
Anders Sekkelund, Denmark

Answer 1

Currently, Azure Lab Services supports images and disk sizes up to 128 GB:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/lab-services/administrator-guide#storage-charges

The logic behind this is that Azure Lab Services is designed to spin up and tear down quickly as your needs change. As a result, the recommendation is typically that you have 1 lab per class which reduces the amount of software that needs to be installed at any one time.

That's not always enough though and your scenario provides a great use case for our feedback channel. I see that you've already added your comments there and I've added my vote for increased visibility:
https://feedback.azure.com/forums/320373-lab-services/suggestions/36495472-be-able-to-add-additional-disk-space-to-the-vms

(Another useful channel is the Azure Lab Services Tech Community--you can see that there are a couple others with similar storage needs.)

In addition to this, I'm reaching out directly to the Product Group to see if there is anything that can be done for your scenario and I'll update this answer when I hear back.

Edit - Update from the Product Group: Increasing disk sizes is something that is being looked at based on customer feedback like yours so this is very valuable (especially understanding the use cases for increased disk sizes--thank you!).

Until a decision is made to increase disk size for Azure Lab Services, here are some workarounds that may be helpful:

• Nested Virtualization Tips
  Right now the best alternative for your scenario is likely our Nested Virtualization Tips. Using the VHDX format for virtual disks allows the actual size of the file to be reduced and increased later to the maximum disk size. This could potentially allow for more Hyper-V VMs on a lab template machine. (Dynamic memory is also something to look at--this allows Hyper-V virtual machines or the host machine to use memory when it is not needed.)
• External File Storage in Lab Services
  Less useful for your scenario, but this is an option for increasing disk storage for people that are running up against that 128 GB limit.