Reviewing File Storage in Azure

Introduction

General-purpose azure storage accounts can store files on network accessible file shares. Blob storage can store any type of file as well but file shares are best suited for use cases where you want to share files using computers' file systems to make accessing and sharing files easy. Azure file shares support the industry-standard Server Message Block (SMB) protocol and can be used to share files across Windows, macOS, and Linux machines. You will explore a file share created for you by the Cloud Academy Lab environment in this Lab Step.

Instructions

1. In the Azure Portal navigation trail, click the storage account name that begins with calstor to return to the storage account blade:

2. In the left navigation menu click  File shares under the Data storage heading:

The table includes a file share named lab-share created for you by the Cloud Academy Lab environment. Shares have a quota to limit the amount of storage and, as a consequence, the maximum cost of storage for the share. Shares can store up to 5 tebibytes (TiB) or 100 TiB depending on the region. For standard storage accounts, you only pay for the storage you use and not the quota you set. However, for premium storage accounts you pay for the quota since the storage is provisioned completely to provide you guaranteed performance levels.

3. Click on lab-share to view the share contents.

Note: From within the Portal you can perform basic operations such as adding folders and uploading files. However, you would usually interact with the share by adding it to your computer's file system. 

4. Click Connect to view instructions for how to mount the share in different operating systems:

There are instructions available for Windows, macOS, and Linux in the blade:

Once you connect to the file share you can use it the same way you would use your local hard drive and multiple users can share it at the same time. You don't need to connect to the share for this Lab.

Summary

In this Lab Step, you reviewed Azure file shares for storing files in Azure. Azure file storage is most appropriate when you want to share files using a file system. The SMB 3.0 protocol is supported for connecting to the file share.