Azure File Sync (AFS) allows you to leverage the power of Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform to scale your Windows file server’s storage to epic amounts of storage using Azure File Shares. Azure File Sync is a hybrid cloud solution that solves common business problems. These include running low on storage on your file server, backing it up, and keeping multiple file servers in sync. In this blog, we’ll share when to use Azure File Sync, how it works, and most importantly – the problems it solves.
What are Azure File Sync and Azure File Shares?
Azure File Sync (AFS) allows you to centralize your organization’s Windows file shares in Azure File Shares. This helps maintain the ease of management, flexibility and performance of a local Windows file server. It enables you to synchronize data between your Windows Servers and Azure File shares. This provides a seamless hybrid cloud experience. The main features of AFS are cloud tiering and multi-site access. Cloud tiering caches frequently accessed files locally on your file server and tiers less-used files to the cloud. Multi-site access ensures that changes made in one location are automatically synchronized across all connected servers.
Azure File Shares are exactly what they sound like – fully managed file shares stored in the cloud (Azure). You can access Azure File Shares from the cloud, and on-premises deployments of Windows, Linux, and macOS. Azure File Shares are relatively secure, since you can’t usually access Azure File Shares over the internet directly. Typically a VPN is needed to access them. Azure File Shares are a good fit for many workloads. It’s important to remember they’re not drop-in replacements for traditional Windows file servers – although they can fill that role.
Common pitfalls of file servers
Here are some of the most common issues with file servers, and how Azure File Shares can help.
- File servers run out of space and need to be backed up: Backups have always been important, but they are more important than ever with the constant threat of Ransomware events. With AFS, your file servers are backed up offsite in Microsoft’s secure data centers.
- Adding more space takes time and money: Azure File Shares can be up to 100 TB, you only pay for what you use. It doesn’t need to be allocated; it just grows as you need it to. This can take the headache out of trying to predict what you’ll need. It also keeps you from paying for more than you need, or worse, not having enough.
- The server or appliance used to back up the file server can run low on space or need maintenance: AFS can offload infrequently used files from your file server. This process, known as tiering, frees up valuable space.
- Branch offices needing to access centralized corporate data: AFS can even provide an on-premises cache of your main office data in your branch offices.
- File servers needing a physical location in the main office: Since Azure File Shares are cloud based, you don’t have the same physical location requirements you do with an on-premise server.
Using Azure File Sync and Azure File Shares in your business
Every business generates and uses data. A lot of this includes user generated files created with productivity applications, like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, images, videos, AutoCAD, etc. stored on file servers. Microsoft’s SharePoint Online (i.e. Microsoft 365) is a great place to store Office files like Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and some other file types like PDFs, images and small videos.
However, lots of other file types are impossible to store in systems like SharePoint. Files like Access databases, or project systems with lots of large files, such as those for editing audio or video. Many businesses have data stored in files that don’t work well with SharePoint online, so for the foreseeable future, plain old file servers aren’t going anywhere. That’s where Azure File Sync comes in.
How does Azure File Sync help solve business challenges?
Any business with a Windows Server used as file server that’s running Windows Server 2012 R2 or higher and a reliable internet connection can run Azure File Sync (AFS). A great example is a business looking to upgrade a large Windows file server because it’s nearing (or already reached) end-of-life. With AFS, the new server or VM doesn’t have to be as big (or bigger than) the new server. It can be smaller, with faster drives. It creates a cache of your files, stored in an Azure File Share. A file share can be up to 100 TB. AFS enables you to move the data to the new server seamlessly. You don’t need large maintenance windows to copy the data from the old server to the new one. The new server doesn’t even have to be on premises!
AFS is compatible with Distributed File System Namespaces (DFS-N) and Distributed File System Replication (DFS-R). AFS allows you to scale-out your file servers for increased performance. DFS-N provides a single logical endpoint for your network drive as well as replacing DFS-R with something more modern and functional.
How does AFS work?
Azure File Sync (AFS) is installed right on your Windows File Server. It syncs files from a chosen folder or volume on the server to a preconfigured Azure File Share. Syncing is coordinated by a service running in Azure. Server agents (aka server endpoints) are put into named groups in the Storage Sync Service. This ensures they sync with each other and to the same Azure File Share. When you add a server endpoint to a group, you choose whether you want to enable cloud tiering.
Cloud Tiering in Azure File Shares
Cloud tiering keeps frequently used files on your local server while uploading all the files to Azure. Infrequently used files are kept only in the cloud. This frees up local storage while still allowing seamless access to all files. When a file is tiered, an empty file is put in its place on the disk. The tiered file has the Offline (O) and Recall Data on Access (M) attributes set in NTFS. These attributes identify tiered files, ensuring that accessing them triggers a seamless download of their content from the cloud.
Files are tiered based on policies you can set. The percent of disk drive to keep free, as well an optional date policy where any file not used in a certain number of days will be tiered. The least recently used files will be tiered to free up disk space and based on the date policy with the system using the maximum of a file’s timestamps to determine how recently it was used.
Azure backup takes snapshots of the Azure File Share. Azure backups can take daily, weekly, monthly and yearly snapshots. It can also automatically archive them, with up to 10 years of retention.
Limitations
There are limitations to Azure File Sync, and it’s not a perfect solution for everyone. You can technically sync transactional database files (like SQL Server) but it’s not a best practice. Log and database files must be in perfect lockstep, or they’ll become corrupt and could get out of sync. Working with a trusted IT partner ensures AFS is configured in a way that works for your business.
Using Azure File Sync for your business
Azure File Sync (AFS) connects your data seamlessly between your local servers and the cloud. Your data gets a home in the cloud, freeing up local storage but is still accessible on-premises while keeping everything safely backed up. There are a lot of technical and architectural considerations when deploying Azure File Sync, so let ADNET help you embrace this interconnected future.
ADNET is a Microsoft Solutions Partner with all six designations, and we have several Azure experts on our team as part of the New Charter Technologies platform.