As organizations modernize datacenters and accelerate migration from legacy virtualization platforms, flexibility in storage architecture has become a key requirement. Customers increasingly want to reuse existing storage investments, scale infrastructure independently, and choose the connectivity model that best fits their environment.
Building on the general availability of Fibre Channel (FC) SAN support, Azure Local now introduces iSCSI SAN integration, extending disaggregated architecture support to IP-based storage networks. With support for both Fibre Channel and iSCSI, Azure Local provides customers greater flexibility in how they modernize and scale their infrastructure while maintaining an Azure-consistent management experience.
Expanding disaggregated infrastructure
iSCSI support enables organizations to:
- Leverage existing IP-based storage networks
- Deploy cost-efficient disaggregated architectures without FC dependency
- Scale compute and storage independently
- Maintain an Azure-consistent management experience
Architecture and deployment
Azure Local supports 6-adapter configurations to balance cost, performance, and resiliency:
- 6 adapters: enhanced performance and redundancy with dedicated iSCSI paths.
Today, iSCSI follows a manual configuration flow during deployment.
Azure Local Deployment
Azure Local supports two SAN deployment approaches:
Hybrid deployments (S2D + SAN)
Customers can attach external SAN storage to existing Azure Local deployments while continuing to use Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) for platform storage. This approach enables organizations to incrementally adopt SAN while reusing existing storage investments.
Disaggregated deployments (SAN-only)
Customers can also deploy Azure Local using external SAN storage as the primary storage platform for both infrastructure and workloads. This enables:
- Independent scaling of compute and storage
- Fibre Channel or iSCSI connectivity
- Larger-scale infrastructure deployments
- Connected and disconnected deployment models
- Manage rising disk costs associated with hyperconverged architectures
Additionally, customers can create local availability zones to align VM placement with physical infrastructure boundaries and support more granular workload placement. The deployment also validates connected SAN arrays against the supported vendor ecosystem, helping ensure a streamlined and fully supported experience.
Accelerating infrastructure modernization
Azure Migrate now supports migration to Azure Local deployments that use external SAN storage, including NTFS-based volumes. This allows organizations to modernize compute infrastructure while preserving existing storage investments.
Customers can:
- Reuse existing SAN arrays and operational processes
- Minimize disruption during modernization projects
- Retain familiar storage architectures while adopting Azure Local
- Simplify migration from existing virtualization environments
What's next
iSCSI support represents another step in our broader vision for external storage on Azure Local. Our goal is to provide a comprehensive storage platform that spans deployment, operations, protection, and recovery.
Looking ahead, we are investing in:
- Integration of iSCSI node configuration into cluster deployment to simplify the initial setup.
- Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) for SAN-backed workloads, including replication, failover, and failback capabilities between two external SAN attached or disaggregated Azure local clusters.
- Day-N storage management experiences that simplify monitoring, troubleshooting, and operational workflows.
- Replication management capabilities that provide visibility into recovery readiness, replication health, and workload mobility across environments.
- Expanding enterprise storage vendors ecosystem for Azure Local, helping customers adopt Azure Local while preserving their existing storage investments.
Together, these investments will extend Azure Local beyond SAN connectivity and deployment to deliver a unified storage management experience across a broad ecosystem of enterprise storage solutions.
Summary
With iSCSI support, Azure Local now delivers a more complete SAN strategy—giving customers the flexibility to choose Fibre Channel or iSCSI, deploy hybrid or fully disaggregated architectures, and modernize infrastructure without abandoning existing storage investments.
As we continue to invest in SAN management, replication, and disaster recovery, Azure Local is evolving into a comprehensive platform for enterprise storage and infrastructure modernization—from edge deployments to sovereign-scale datacenters.
Microsoft
