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Creating an Azure file share is an essential task for cloud administrators and is covered within the scope of the AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator exam. An Azure file share is a service that allows you to create a Server Message Block (SMB) file share in Azure. This is extremely useful for providing scalable and accessible file storage to Azure virtual machines, on-premises, or cloud-native applications.
The first step to creating a file share is to set up a storage account, which provides a namespace where you can access your Azure file share.
Click on “Review + create” and then “Create” to provision your storage account. It may take a couple of minutes for your storage account to be created.
Once your storage account is ready, you can proceed to create a file share within it.
Click on “Create” to provision your Azure file share.
To leverage the file share, you need to mount it on your systems. Here’s how to do it on Windows and Linux systems:
\\storageaccountname.file.core.windows.net\filesharename
.Mount the file share using the cifs-utils package—for example:
sudo mount -t cifs //storageaccountname.file.core.windows.net/filesharename /mnt/myshare -o vers=3.0,username=storageaccountname,password=storageaccountkey,dir_mode=0777,file_mode=0777,serverino
Replace storageaccountname
, filesharename
, and storageaccountkey
with your specific details.
Access to the file share is controlled using Shared Access Signature (SAS) tokens or Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) authentication.
When creating Azure file shares, consider the following best practices:
In recap, creating and using an Azure file share involves setting up a storage account, creating a file share within that storage account, mounting the file share to your systems, and managing access efficiently. By following the outlined steps, you can set up a durable and scalable file storage solution in Azure to serve the needs of your applications.
You can create multiple file shares within a single Azure storage account, up to the limits imposed by the account’s capacity and performance tiers.
The Azure file share must be in the same region as the Azure storage account because the file share is a service provided within the storage account.
Answer: A, B
Azure file shares can be accessed via the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol and, as of recent updates, can also support the Network File System (NFS) protocol for Linux compatibility.
Azure allows direct migration of on-premises file shares to Azure file shares using Azure File Sync without requiring any data transformation.
Answer: D
As of the knowledge cutoff, Azure Files offers a standard file share with a maximum size of 64 TB.
Azure Files supports encryption of data at rest using Storage Service Encryption (SSE), which uses Microsoft-managed keys by default.
Answer: B
Azure File Sync allows tiering and caching of files between an Azure file share and on-premises servers, providing a smooth integration for hybrid storage scenarios.
Azure Backup can be used to protect Azure file shares by creating backup policies and recovery points for disaster recovery.
Answer: B
You need to create an Azure storage account before you can create an Azure file share within it.
Answer: A, C, D
To connect from on-premises machines, you’ll generally require the storage account name and key. A VPN connection or ExpressRoute may also be used to establish a secure connection to Azure when directly accessing the file share.
The quota of an Azure file share is simply a limit on the amount of storage space that can be used. It does not directly affect the performance of the file share.
Answer: D
Geo-zone-redundant storage (GZRS) combines both zone and geo redundancy to replicate data across multiple locations within a region and across regions to protect against local and regional outages.
An Azure file share is a secure SMB file share that can be mounted over the internet to a customer’s on-premises environment or in Azure.
Azure File Sync is a service that enables organizations to centralize file services in Azure while keeping the flexibility, performance, and compatibility of an on-premises file server.
Locally redundant storage (LRS) replicates your data three times within a single physical location in the primary region. In contrast, zone-redundant storage (ZRS) replicates your data synchronously across three Azure availability zones within a single region.
An Azure file share can grow up to 5 TiB.
You can create an Azure file share using the Azure portal, Azure Storage Explorer, Azure PowerShell, or Azure CLI.
You can secure an Azure file share by using either SMB or SMB over the internet with a private endpoint.
Azure File Sync planning helps you assess whether the service is a good fit for your organization and provides guidance on how to set up and configure the service.
The Storage Sync Service Agent is a lightweight service that runs on a Windows Server to synchronize files between an on-premises file server and an Azure file share.
Yes, you can use Azure File Sync to synchronize data between multiple file servers.
Azure File Sync enables organizations to reduce storage costs, improve data protection and disaster recovery, and simplify file server management.
You can extend your Storage Sync Service Agent deployment to additional servers by registering them with the Azure File Sync service and installing the agent on them.
Synchronous replication ensures that data is written to multiple locations simultaneously, providing strong data consistency, while asynchronous replication writes data to a single location first and then copies it to other locations, providing greater flexibility and scalability.
You can create up to 200 file shares in an Azure file share account.
An SMB file share uses the SMB protocol, which is typically used in Windows environments, while an NFS file share uses the NFS protocol, which is typically used in Linux and UNIX environments.
No, Azure File Sync can only be used to synchronize files between an on-premises file server and an Azure file share.
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