Can We hotswap a Disk in Azure?

Question

Can We hotswap a Disk in Azure?

Sheik Mohamed Yasar 390

Hi

Can we hotswap an OS disk in Azure? If yes, please provide the steps to perform.

Manish Deshpande 2,930 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-01-31T18:24:29.3166667+00:00
Hello Sheik Mohamed Yasar

Thank you for contacting us about the OS Disk issue.

Pls try this steps and confirm

Using Azure CLI:

Get the IDs of the disks: Use the command below to list the disks in your resource group.

az disk list -g <yourResourceGroup> --query '[].{DiskName:name, DiskID:id}' -o table

Stop the VM (optional, but recommended for safety):

az vm stop -g <yourResourceGroup> -n <yourVM>

Swap the OS disk: Use the full resource ID of the new disk in the command below:

az vm update -g <yourResourceGroup> -n <yourVM> --os-disk <diskResourceId>

Start the VM:
az vm start -g <yourResourceGroup> -n <yourVM>

Thanks,
Manish Deshpande

Answer accepted by question author

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Manish Deshpande 2,930 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-01-31T18:24:29.3166667+00:00

Hello Sheik Mohamed Yasar

Thank you for contacting us about the OS Disk issue.

Pls try this steps and confirm

Using Azure CLI:

Get the IDs of the disks: Use the command below to list the disks in your resource group.

az disk list -g <yourResourceGroup> --query '[].{DiskName:name, DiskID:id}' -o table

Stop the VM (optional, but recommended for safety):

az vm stop -g <yourResourceGroup> -n <yourVM>

Swap the OS disk: Use the full resource ID of the new disk in the command below:

az vm update -g <yourResourceGroup> -n <yourVM> --os-disk <diskResourceId>

Start the VM:
az vm start -g <yourResourceGroup> -n <yourVM>

Thanks,
Manish Deshpande

Answer 1

Andreas Baumgarten 130.5K MVP Volunteer Moderator

Hi @Sheik Mohamed Yasar ,

to swap the OS disk of an Azure VM the VM needs to be stopped/deallocated.

In my opinion this is not a "hot-swap", the VM isn't available for a short time, there will be a short downtime,

The process looks like this:

Stop/deallocate Azure VM
Swap the OS disk (Azure Cli, PowerShell, Azure Portal)
Start the Azure VM

(If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote and/or accept as answer, thank you)

Regards

Andreas Baumgarten

Sheik Mohamed Yasar 390 Reputation points

2026-02-02T11:54:48.7+00:00

Thank you for your response. However, I would like to know, whether the disk swap possible without taking a reboot of VM.
Andreas Baumgarten 130.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-02-02T12:31:08.3+00:00

Hi @Sheik Mohamed Yasar ,

no. The shutdown/deallocation of the VM is required before you can switch the OS disk.

Sorry to say but it is like it is.

(If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote and/or accept as answer, thank you)

Regards

Andreas Baumgarten
Sheik Mohamed Yasar 390 Reputation points

2026-02-02T12:35:29.6233333+00:00

Thanks a lot for your explanation. @Andreas Baumgarten
Andreas Baumgarten 130.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-02-02T12:39:18.9266667+00:00

You are welcome!

(If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote and/or accept as answer, thank you)

Regards

Andreas Baumgarten

Answer 2

Yes, you can hotswap an OS disk in Azure. This can be done using either the Azure CLI or Azure PowerShell. Here are the general steps to perform the hotswap:

Using Azure CLI:

List the Disks: Use the command to get a list of the disks in your resource group:

   az disk list \
      -g myResourceGroupDisk \
      --query '[*].{diskId:id}' \
      --output table

Update the VM: Use the az vm update command with the full resource ID of the new disk:

   az vm update \
      -g myResourceGroup \
      -n myVM \
      --os-disk /subscriptions/<subscription ID>/resourceGroups/<resource group>/providers/Microsoft.Compute/disks/myDisk

Start the VM: Restart the VM using:

   az vm start \
      -n myVM \
      -g myResourceGroup

Using Azure PowerShell:

List the Disks: Get a list of disks in a resource group:

   Get-AzDisk -ResourceGroupName myResourceGroup | Format-Table -Property Name

Set the OS Disk: Assign the new disk as the OS disk for the VM. You can stop the VM before this step if needed:

   Stop-AzVM -Name myVM -ResourceGroupName myResourceGroup
   Set-AzVMOSDisk -VM $vm -ManagedDiskId $newDiskId -CreateOption FromImage

Start the VM: Finally, start the VM again.

Make sure that the VM size and storage type are compatible with the disk you want to attach, and ensure that both disks are the same size and meet any encryption requirements.

References:

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Can We hotswap a Disk in Azure?

Using Azure CLI:

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Using Azure CLI:

Using Azure PowerShell:

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