Azure
Files and Azure File Sync
Most of the Companies , Large and
Small, have File Servers . Microsoft has
released couple of great applications to manage Files in the Cloud.
These are Azure Files and Azure Files Sync.
Azure
File Service
Azure files are fully managed File
shares in the Cloud. When you have a local network, you can attach a NAS box so
that all users in a network can access the files. Inside a cloud service, unfortunately
, this is absent. This need is fulfilled by Azure File Service.
Azure
Files use cases:
1. Replace On Premise file servers or
supplement with Azure File sync
2. Lift and shift applications. If you
are moving any application to the Cloud , the using Azure Files, you can move
both Application and Data to the Cloud. Or you can implement Hybrid scenario
where application runs On Premise and Data resides in the Cloud. If you have an
app that works with your on-premise file server, moving it to Azure means
rewriting it, or setting up a file server in the cloud. Azure Files is perfect
for that.
3. Shared Application settings. If you
are running a Distributed application at multiple locations, and there is a
need for these multiple applications to access common application settings , these can be on Azure
Files
4. A Cloud Application can write logs ,
metrics, crash dumps on Azure files. Then using Azure File Sync these will be replicated on local Server
periodically.
Azure
File Sync
Azure File Sync syncs file shares to
Storage Account using Azure File Service.
Features
and Benefits
1. Multiple File Servers at multiple
locations. Sync all to single Azure File Storage. Commonly used files are
cached on local server . If local server goes down, quickly install another
Server or VM and sync Azure files to it.
2. The older , rarely accessed files will
move to Azure thus freeing your local file Server .
3. Sync Group helps to manage locations
that should be kept in sync with each other. Every Sync Group has one common
Cloud Storage. So a Sync Group will have one Azure End point and multiple
Server end points. There is a 2 way sync so that changes to Cloud are
replicated on local server within 12 to 24 hours. But changes on a local server
are replicated to all end points within 5 minutes.
4. An agent is installed on the Server end
point . There is no need to change or relocate data on a different volume. Thus
it is non-disruptive type of agent.
5. Every Server end point creates an
Azure file share in the storage account. End user experience is unchanged
6. When a particular local file is
getting synced , then it is locked. But this is only for a few seconds.
7. A Disaster Recovery Solution for File
Server. If local File Server is destroyed, set up a VM or physical server ,
join to the previous sync group and you get “rapid restore”.
8. When a file is renamed or moved, the
meta data is preserved.
9. Its different from One Drive . One Drive is for Personal Document management
and is not a general purpose File Server. One Drive is primarily meant for
collaborating on Office files. Not optimized for very large files , CAD
drawings, multimedia development projects.
10.Azure File Sync works with On Premise
AD and not Azure AD.
Use
cases for Azure File Sync:
1. Company with multiple offices having a
need to share files with all offices.
2. Branch Office backup of files. In real
world, the files of branch offices rarely get backed up.
3. Disaster Recovery Solution in case
File Server goes down.
4. New Branch Office setup . You can
setup new Server and connect to same Azure Storage.
5. Move old data automatically to Azure .
This is Cloud Tiering. The non used data will move to Azure. The files will
have greyed icons with an offline O file attribute to tell user that this file
is only on Azure.
Please
leave your valued feedback by clicking here
with
warm regards
Suresh Ramani
Microsoft MVP
2009
Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year 2011 & 2007
IAMCP Worldwide
Gold Award Winner 2016