Optimize Azure Compute Galleries
Learn how to optimize Azure Compute Galleries with actionable insights to enhance cost efficiency, improve performance, and ensure operational excellence.
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Cost Optimization Recommendations
Review and Delete Unused Images
Regularly review images stored in your Azure Compute Gallery and delete those that are no longer in use or are older than six months. This practice helps in reducing storage costs and maintaining an efficient gallery.
- Unused images that no longer serve a purpose only add unnecessary costs.
- Implement a policy to periodically review and identify obsolete images.
- Consider automation tools to streamline the process of identifying and removing unused images.
Implement Image Lifecycle Management
Implement an image lifecycle management strategy that aligns with your organization's needs. This involves defining retention policies for images based on their usage and importance to your workloads.
- Retain only critical images that are actively used for production or testing purposes.
- For older or less frequently used images, move them to a cheaper storage option or delete them if they are no longer needed.
Optimize Image Versions
Instead of maintaining multiple versions of the same image, keep only the most recent stable versions and remove older versions that are no longer required. This can help reduce storage costs and streamline your image management.
- Consolidate older versions of images into a single version or backup as needed.
- Apply a version control strategy to maintain only essential image versions, especially for development and testing.
Reliability Recommendations
Use Azure Shared Image Gallery
When using Azure Compute Galleries, consider leveraging Azure Shared Image Gallery for better scalability, availability, and reliability. Shared Image Gallery allows you to replicate your images across multiple regions, which provides fault tolerance and reduces the need to maintain multiple copies of the same image in different locations.
- Regional replication of images can improve the availability of resources and reduce the cost of regional image duplication.
- Shared Image Gallery helps scale the number of image versions you store, allowing for better versioning and cost control.
- Learn more about Shared Image Gallery
Archive Infrequently Used Images
For images that are rarely used but still need to be retained for compliance or backup purposes, consider archiving them to a lower-cost storage tier such as Azure Blob Storage (Cool or Archive tier).
- Archiving images ensures they are still accessible when needed without incurring the costs of maintaining them in high-performance storage.
- Archive images can be restored back to a Compute Gallery when required for future use.
Operational Excellence Recommendations
Regularly Monitor and Audit Compute Gallery Usage
Establish monitoring and auditing practices to track the usage of Compute Gallery images. This helps identify underused or obsolete images and ensures that the gallery is used efficiently.
- Set up alerts to notify administrators of images that haven't been deployed in a certain period (e.g., six months).
- Use Azure Policy to enforce image management practices and ensure that unused or unnecessary images are removed on time.
Leverage Automation for Image Management
Automate image creation, retention, and deletion processes to reduce manual effort and enforce policies consistently. Azure automation tools such as Azure Automation or Azure Logic Apps can simplify and optimize these processes.
- Set up automated workflows to periodically check for unused images and prompt for deletion or archiving.
- Use Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions to automate the creation and deployment of images based on predefined templates.