Install N-able N-central on Microsoft Azure Managed Disks
The instructions below walk you through a new installation of N-able N-central in the Microsoft Azure Manage
Disks environment. Microsoft Azure Classic deployment is no longer supported, however, Azure Resource
Manager without Manage Disks is still supported.
While we recommend new deployments use this Azure Managed Disk deployment method, the 100GB, 200GB,
500GB and 1TB VHD images are still available for Azure Resource Manager without Managed Disks, and is
available and supported for reinstalling and restoring N-able N-central from a backup.
Unlike all other N-able N-central deployments, Azure Managed Disks (MD) deployments support/require at
least one Data disk in addition to the Operating System Disk. When you use the deployment script and assign
one Data disk, Azure creates a RAID 0 array of the one disk. If you assign
X
data disks, Azure creates a RAID 0 of
those
X
disks. N-able N-central uses a RAID 0 to combine multiple Data disks into a single mount point, while
writing to all disks in parallel. This increases the IOPS throughput by
X
times.
Additionally, Azure MD deployments have no SWAP Volume, as N-able N-central uses the Resource Disk for the
SWAP Volume. The Azure MD OS Disk image is 8 GB, as the install dynamically expands the image to match the
deployed Managed Disk size on first boot.
Azure MD images are published to each Public Azure Region, so you no longer need to upload the VHD. It is
important to know that there are some Azure Regions that are restricted to certain Azure users. These are a
second, geographically separated Azure Region in the same country, or in the case of the EU, another nearby
country that is reserved for customers needing in-country disaster recovery. For information on Azure regions,
see https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/global-infrastructure/geographies/#overview.
Deployment
Deploying N-able N-central to Azure with Managed Disks is simplified by using a Deployment PowerShell script.
The script requires PowerShell 7 (formerly PowerShell Core) and the Azure PowerShell Module. You can run the
script on any operating system that supports the cross platform PowerShell 7.
You must have basic knowledge of how to use Microsoft Azure, Windows PowerShell and how to install
and configure N-able N-central.
The script is available for download on the N-able N-central release page of the N-able Partner Success
Center.
After downloading the PowerShell Script, you need to edit the settings at the top of the script to meet your
requirements. Some items are required, while others can be left with the defaults unless they need to use
specific values, such as the virtual network settings. The script contains full documentation explaining all
included options.
Ultra_SSD Data Disks are not supported.
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