📁 Azure Files — Full Practical Tutorial¶

1️⃣ What Azure Files Is (1-liner)¶

Azure Files = managed network file system in Azure (SMB / NFS)

Used for:

Shared uploads
Persistent app data
Lift-and-shift legacy apps
Multiple apps accessing same files

2️⃣ Blob vs Azure Files (Must Know)¶

Feature	Blob Storage	Azure Files
Storage type	Object	File system
Folder support	Virtual	Real folders
Mount to OS	❌	✅
Protocol	HTTP(S)	SMB / NFS
App Service mount	❌	✅

👉 If you need mount → Azure Files

az storage share create \
  --account-name $STORAGE \
  --name app-files \
  --quota 50 \
  --auth-mode login

✔ 50 GB shared file system ✔ Inside your existing Storage Account

4️⃣ Upload & List Files (CLI)¶

Upload file¶

az storage file upload \
  --account-name $STORAGE \
  --share-name app-files \
  --source ./config.json \
  --path config/config.json \
  --auth-mode login

List files¶

az storage file list \
  --account-name $STORAGE \
  --share-name app-files \
  --path config \
  --auth-mode login

5️⃣ Mount Azure Files on Linux VM (Very Common)¶

Step 1: Create mount directory¶

sudo mkdir /mnt/appfiles

Step 2: Get storage key¶

az storage account keys list \
  --account-name $STORAGE \
  --resource-group $RESOURCE_GROUP \
  -o table

Step 3: Mount¶

sudo mount -t cifs \
  //$STORAGE.file.core.windows.net/app-files \
  /mnt/appfiles \
  -o vers=3.0,username=$STORAGE,password=<STORAGE_KEY>,dir_mode=0777,file_mode=0777

📌 Files now behave like local disk

6️⃣ Mount Azure Files in Azure App Service¶

Portal path (important):

App Service → Configuration
Path mappings
Add Azure Files
Share name: app-files
Mount path: /mnt/files

Use in code:

fs.readFile("/mnt/files/config/config.json")

✔ Persistent storage ✔ Shared across instances

7️⃣ Authentication Options (Important)¶

Method	Use
Storage Account Key	Simple, common
Azure AD Kerberos	Enterprise
SAS	Temporary access

⚠️ Managed Identity is NOT supported directly yet (unlike Blob)

8️⃣ Azure File Sync (Hybrid Use Case)¶

Sync local server ↔ Azure File Share

Used when:

On-prem server exists
Need cloud backup
Want local performance

Components¶

Storage Sync Service
Server Agent
Sync Group

(We usually configure via Portal — CLI is rare here.)

9️⃣ Security Best Practices¶

✅ Private storage account ✅ HTTPS only ✅ Mount via private endpoint (prod) ❌ No public access ❌ No embedding storage keys in repos

🔟 Common Real-World Patterns¶

App uploads¶

App → Azure Files (mounted)

Shared config¶

Multiple apps → same file share

Legacy migration¶

VM → Azure Files → remove local disk

🧠 Azure Files in One Sentence¶

Azure Files provides a shared, mountable file system in the cloud using SMB/NFS.

✅ You Now Know Azure Files¶

✔ When to use it ✔ How to create file shares ✔ Upload & list files ✔ Mount on VM ✔ Mount on App Service ✔ Hybrid sync concept