Azure-in-bullet-points

Azure Files

• 99.9% SLA with availability, redundancy and disaster recovery.
• Typical use cases:
  • Lift and shift
  • Hybrid solutions
  • Born-in-cloud applications that require shared storage are
  • Storage for cross-platform solutions
  • Any workload that currently uses a file server or NAS providing SMB access
• REST compatible
• SMB-compatible
  • File protocol over port 445
  • Can be mounted by Linux & windows & macOS compatible
  • Versions
    • SMB 1: Limited block sizes, chatty protocl
    • SMB 2.1 (Supported by Azure)
      • No encryption
      • Better network performance than SMB 1.0
      • Group file shares, software shares
      • Supported >Windows 7, > Windows Server 2008
    • SMB 3 (Supported by Azure)
      • Active-active support: Clustring with nodes
      • Transparent failover
      • RDMA support, multi channel > Lower latency
      • Enables usage of SQL and Hyper-V
      • Encryption support
      • Supported > Windows 8, > Windows Server 2012
  • Talks through port 445 and outbound connection
• Create Azure File Share
  • Multiple Azure File shares can be created under a storage account
  • Each has a name and optional quota assigned
    • Quota limits the size up to 5120 GB
  • Storage -> Files -> File Share
• File access
  • Access is via standard SMB client
  • Dialect of SMB is negotiated between the client and Azure Files upon connection
  • Encryption used if outside the Azure region or if required as part of the storage account configuration
  • SMB access utilizes the storage account name (as user name) and access key (as password).
  • REST access can utilize SAS tokens

Azure File Snapshots

• Delta snapshot of a file share
• Read-only, you can download your snapshot or mount it.
• Azure Backup can schedule and manage snapshots
• ❗ 200 snapshots per file share
• If the file share is deleted all snapshots are also deleted

Replication options

• DFS-R (before it was File Replication Service)
• xcopy, robocopy
• Considerations: locking of files, data consistency, amount of data replicated and maintaining ACLs.

Azure File Sync

• Enables replication from a single Azure Files share to one or more Windows based file servers
  • Windows service are in a synchronozation group.
• Utilizes an agent deployed on each Windows Server instance that’s then registered with the Storage Sync service then added to a sync group.
• Cloud tiering
  • Least used data is moved to the cloud
    • Leaves a thumbprint on the server providing transparent access
    • Data is pulled down when access is requested.
  • Tiering is based on maintaining a certain percentage of free space.
    • Ensures around 20% is always free in file server.
  • Can be disabled
  • Is scoped to a file sync namespace.
  • ❗ File must be higher than 64 KB
• Quality of Service (QoS)
  • Default configuration: Server will consume maximum possible bandwith for data transfer via the storage sync service.
  • Supports network limits to be configured
  • For a VM based file server, QoS of the hypervisor can be used.
• Considerations:
  • Avoid actions that’d cause data to be pulled down from the cloud
    • E.g. anti-virus scans, backups on-premises
  • ACL (Access Control Lists) are replicated to the cloud but are not enforced when accessed via Azure Files.
    • 💡 Content should be restored to an IaaS VM file server to enable ACL enforcement.
  • Data can be pre-seeded via Azure Databox with some caveats
    • Enables pre-seeding instead of full copy over the network.
  • Be careful when combining other data replication technologies.
• Workflow for replication
  1. Deploy a storage account
  2. Deploy a Azure File Share
  3. Deploy Storage Sync service
     • Must be in same region as storage account
  4. Create a sync group
     • Sync group has:
       • Storage account & file share
       • Server endpoints
       • Cloud endpoints
  5. Register server
     1. Sync Service -> Registered Service -> Download Azure File Sync Agent
     2. Install the service and register the server
  6. Add file share into the sync group as server endpoint
     • 💡 You can have only 1 cloud endpoint for the same sync group
     • You can enable/disable cloud tiering
  7. Install agent on file server
     • Supported >Windows Server 2012
     • Selected files can be skipped
  8. Register server to the storage sync service as server endpint
• ❗ Scale and Limits
  • 15 storage sync services per subscription
  • 30 sync groups per storage service
  • 1 cloud endpoint and 50 server endpoints per sync group
  • 4 TB maximum space
  • 100 GB maximum file size
  • 64 KB minimum file size to be tiered
• Troubleshooting
  • Check if TCP 445 is open for outbound traffic.
  • In metrics you can monitor for problems.
  • In Sync Services -> Sync Groups -> Group -> You can see health status and action recommendations for problems for cloud and server endpoints
  • In Event Viewer you can check FileSync events

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