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5lovak
Asked: 2017-03-14 07:24:23 +0800 CST

Why are there multiple .vhd files in my Azure blob storage

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I have some virtual machines in the Azure cloud, and I've just found that there are several .vhd files (all 127GB) on one of my premium storage accounts. I don't ever recall creating these by snap-shotting my machines, so I'm wondering why there are multiple files with different dates on. Can old ones just be deleted safely, and also, how can I stop these from being created autmatically, if indeed they are being automatically created? Azure premium storage is a little pricey, so I'm keen to try and understand what is going on here and cut down on the storage spending where necessary.

vhd cloud azure cloud-storage blob-storage

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    It's not created automatically. Theses are probably leftovers from previously created Virtual Machines that does not exist anymore. When you delete a VM, it's vhd remains in the storage. You can safely delete these disks if they are not in use and you know it's not from any previous VM you want to recover. Disks in use (attached to VMs) are not allowed to be deleted.

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  2. Agree with Bruno, by the way, we can use PowerShell to list the VHD and VHD's status:

    Login-AzureRmAccount
$RGName = "resourcegroupname"
$SAName = "storageaccountname"
$ConName = "vhds"
$TempObj = New-Object -TypeName PSCustomObject
$TempObj |Add-Member -Name BlobName -MemberType NoteProperty -Value $null
$TempObj |Add-Member -Name LeaseState -MemberType NoteProperty -Value $null
$Keylist = Get-AzureRmStorageAccountKey -ResourceGroupName $RGName -StorageAccountName $SAName
$Key = $Keylist[0].Value
$Ctx = New-AzureStorageContext -StorageAccountName $SAName -StorageAccountKey $Key
$List = Get-AzureStorageBlob -Blob *.vhd -Container $ConName -Context $Ctx
$List | ForEach-Object { $TempObj.BlobName = $_.Name; $TempObj.LeaseState = $_.ICloudBlob.Properties.LeaseState; $TempObj }

    Here is the result, we can find the VHD leased (in use) or not: enter image description here

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