Do azure RDSH Citrix VDAs need local storage for any reason? Trying to save a few dollars on the vm bill by not having it.

Are you using MCS or PVS ? There are different disk requirements for these and of course if your just installing the VDA on a vm that would be different also.

MCS to create simple VDAs

Persistent or non-persistent? Fore np mcs will delete the osdisk and vm when the machine is turned off. There is the identity disk which is always required that is 4 gb. You shouldn’t have any other disk. If it’s persistent the osdisk is required as it is where the vms files are and there is still an identity disk. Mcs also has a new feature to create a data disk which is totally optional for customers that want a persistent disk for some reason.

I think i may not understand something in azure. The red arrows in the pic below means that the VM has no disks at all? Or it means it doesn't come with the extra disk that is called "temporary storage"

That means it doesnt have a temp disk for that instance type

That azure temp disk is not relevant to any Citrix requirements for MCS\PVS, ect?

Depends

It appears the ones that have N/A are cheaper by exluding it

Usually but not always

so i guess the bottom line is that if im not using MCSIO then I dont need it.

Nope

Be warned though, azure uses those temp disks for page file placement, so you will add more tax to your os disk of you choose an instance type that doesn’t have temp storage - which is fine, but you should be aware of it

Thoughts on this? "If your VMs are pooled/non-persistent you can use ephemeral storage with MCS provisioned machines which is a) very fast and b) completely free You'll have a very small identity disc for each VM but those costs are negligible. If you need persistency then you'll of course need local storage, but can opt for cheaper Standard tiers and use the MCSIO memory cache to give you the required IO."

Accurate really

Well all but the completely free part. Instances w ephemeral disks cost more then the same spec instance without one.

Yah I think this became more prevalent in the v5 instance types where you got some newer (faster) CPU's included in the series (not guaranteed to get them) but no more ED disks or temp SSD, and you pay a little less $$$$. Is that cost differential the equivalent of an OS disk at the spec that ED gives you - that's an excel spreadsheet waiting to happen. And if you get the newer CPU types on the v5 instance actually allocated, then the clock speed differential there is significant also - which is very handy for Multi-Session Public Cloud instance sizing - the gift that keeps giving

Ha