I've been trolling through the forums as well as the main Azure pages, and have some questions I can't seem to find answers to.
When purchasing a Linux VM instance, what flexibility do I have to upgrade the instance type (say, from Small to Medium) when my demand rises?
What storage is included with a VM? For example, a Medium instance comes with 135GB of space for the OS, correct? It can support up to 4 data disks of up to 1TB each, but what's included? Are these disks prices at standard Azure storage prices? E.g.,
a 50GB disk would be $3.50/mo? Is it possible to up-size a disk if additional storage is needed later?
The pricing FAQ unfortunately seems contradictory. It states that, "local disk storage is provided…and not charged separately," but also states that the "…price does
not include any Storage costs associated with the image running in the virtual machine." Need clarification.
How can these Linux VMs be made redundant? For example, I've read the Availability Set description. Does this imply that I'd have to double my virtual machines? What's the pricing
on that? If one VM is running a MySQL database, how does it "synchronize" with its availability backup VM? Note that I'm not after load balancing; I just want to ensure my service remains running more or less constantly even if Microsoft's physical
host dies (I'd like to think part of the service would involve automatically moving the VM to a working host, but...)
