A deallocated session host still bills for its OS disk. In host pools with Start VM on Connect turned on, Smart Disk Tiering moves the disks of deallocated hosts down to Standard HDD, keeps one or two premium standby hosts ready for the next start, and moves disks back up to your pool's performance tier before autoscale starts a host, or when the pool gets busy. Azure chooses which host Start VM on Connect boots, and a running host's disk tier cannot change, so a host started that way outside the standby buffer and the daily warm-up window runs on Standard HDD until it is next deallocated. You pay premium storage mostly for the hosts that are actually serving users.
Key capabilities
- Downgrades the disks of deallocated hosts to Standard HDD, never a running host's
- Keeps one or two premium standby hosts ready, depending on how busy the pool is
- Upgrades a host's disk to your pool's tier (Premium SSD or Standard SSD) before autoscale starts it
- Pre-upgrades standby hosts in Start VM on Connect pools, and when pool capacity passes your threshold; a host Start VM on Connect boots outside that buffer starts on Standard HDD
- Automatic, scheduled-window, or manual-only optimization mode
- Daily warm-up window that keeps every powered-off host on its performance disk, with a per-pool override
- Disk tier queue, change history, and monthly and lifetime savings
Available on: Atlas AVD plan and above
Smart Disk Tiering is included in every Atlas AVD subscription.