Today i have a Physical Machine running Windows Server 2008 that servers File to all my employees, so i have a On-Premises File Server.
This On-Premises File Server have a lot of rules based on my Active Directory Server. i.e: Folder "financial" only can be accessed by users in group "manager".
Now i want to migrate this to files to some service in azure cloud, so after some searching i found following options: Blob Storage and File Storage. I think File Storage is ideal for my business but i have some doubts:
Can i apply Active Directory rules in File Storage ? I have AD Sync enable in my azure account.
File storage is better solutions for my case ? If no, what is the other solution ?
No, the closest you can get is using the Azure AD Domain Services (link, another link)
File storage is definitely a better solution, blobs are not really meant to be accessed like a file server.
You might want to look at Azure File Sync, while its not what you ask for exactly, it's pretty close.
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/score-one-for-the-it-pro-azure-file-sync-is-now-generally-available/
Related
I am designing a web application and it needs to be in the Azure web app. The app is focused on managing files, so it needs to upload files and store them.
As is a cloud app, I suppose that I am not able to create a directory in the web app service. My question is if I have to use the benefits of Azure and create a Storage Account and if this is the solution, What will be the best storage solution, Blob or File?
Thank you in advance.
Best wishes
Container is a Blob Storage, which is a great option for programmable storage, where our program can read and write to the storage account.
If we don't want to allow websites and the public to access the files, we can choose the below options.
Blob Storage Containers can contain any binary files/ binary large objects, there is no ordering and hierarchy, we can have a virtual folder structure.
Containers are usually programmed to share files to access using Shared Access Signature and Access Policy
I suppose that I am not able to create a directory in the web app service
Azure Files is more useful for mounting a file share to a server and multiple servers can mount the same file share. It can have a quota.
File share has a Directory Structure, we can create Directories and Subdirectories in a Hierarchical manner compared to Containers.
The Connect option in the File Share gives you details on how to mount drive onto a Windows/Linux machine.
Use file storage if you need the shared drive protocol, if not we can design the applications and use blob storage.
As per your requirement, if you want to create Directories you can choose AzureFile Share.
Reference link Azure Blob and Fileshare storage mentioned by #deherman-MSFT
I have a problem that I have been wracking my brain about and figured I would need some perspective and insight from people who are a lot more knowledgeable about this.
What I have currently: Web based application hosted in azure uses azure blob store to store files that are generated as part of data import processes. We have a seperate application that extends the original web application that allows users to upload files and these files are currently also stored in azure blob store.
Where I am trying to go: I have a requirement that wants the ability to map network file shares on a users laptop and be able to access these files that currently reside in the blob.
Since Azure blob does not support SMB I have no way of actually doing this with a blob store.
I could use Azure files in conjunction with a File Server running the sync agent. However, this requires a lot of work both in terms of refactoring, setup and some custom service that add remove permissions on the file server.
I'm wondering if there is a service or a piece of software that exists in the market currently that allows me to continue using blob and perhaps sync the blob files into a file server that can then allow users to access and open files using windows file explorer? I found one that looks like an open source project but only does a one way sync from the blob to the file share. Ideally I'd like to find a solution that does a two way sync like azure file sync does.
Any thoughts and ideas will be appreciated.
Since the max number of blob containers, file shares is unlimited. Per my understanding, you could leverage the following approaches:
Migrate the data from blob storage to azure file share instead of blob storage, then the subsequent file store is azure file storage.
Note: Currently you must specify storage account key when mounting file shares, details you could follow this feedback. I recommend that you'd better do not map network file shares on a users laptop.
You could still use the blob storage, and you could create each blob container for each user and generate each blob container SAS token for your users, then the users could leverage Azure Storage Explorer to manage their blob files or use AzCopy and other command tools to download the blob files into their laptop file system.
Note: For security consideration, you could combine a stored access policy with a SAS, in order to revoke the permissions, you just need to invalidate the related access policy instead of regenerating the account key. Details you could follow Controlling a SAS with a stored access policy and Shared Access Signatures, Part 2: Create and use a SAS with Blob storage.
As the title says, I'm looking for a way to access an azure files share (in preview) directly from an azure website. I cannot use any REST API or anything like this and I was looking for the possibility of mounting a SMB share directly into the website (through the new portal or any other way).
I found the following links, from which I understand that this is still under review (http://feedback.azure.com/forums/169385-web-apps-formerly-websites/suggestions/6084609-allow-map-azure-file-share-microsoft-azure-file-s) and also a SO question (Can the new Azure File Service be used from Azure WebSites?) that doesn't answer my question.
To be honest and for the sake of giving more details, my scenario is pretty simple - I have some websites and also some virtual machines that should access the files from the azure files service. Regarding the VM, the approach is pretty straight forward and easy but regarding the WebSites, I don't find any way at this moment.
On the other hand, regardless of the answer to the above question, does it make sense to (or do I have the possibility to) enable CDN over an Azure Files Share?
Thank you very much.
As of today, no single technology will serve your purpose. You can't use File Service as you don't have the capability to mount a share in an Azure Website as well as it is not suited for streaming purposes (all access to files there need to be authorized and there's no concept of Shared Access Signature in File Service today).
I guess, you would have to pick one of the two technologies (Blob Service and File Service) and make some compromises to make it work in both Websites and Virtual Machines.
Assuming you go with File Service, then you can mount them in the Virtual Machine and do the processing on the files there. On the website front, you would need to use Storage Client library to download the relevant files in some folder in your website and stream those files from there.
Assuming you go with Blob Service, then you can simply stream them in your website directly from blob storage (no need to have those files in your website). In the Virtual Machine, when you need to process those files (blobs), you would simply download them to your VM for processing and then re-upload them in blob storage.
Does it make sense to (or do I have the possibility to) enable CDN
over an Azure Files Share?
Currently it is not possible to serve Azure File Service files via CDN.
We are looking at migrating some sites from Azure Cloud Services to Azure Websites (as that is how things seem to be going). Cloud services obviously we were told specifically didn't preserve the file system state as they were re-deployed on machine failure.
I am assuming websites are built on Blob storage. Is there a page from Microsoft that confirms if I upload files to the site via FTP etc. that they are persistent, backed up and preserved as part of the site? If they are persistent what are their SLAs? Is there any inbuilt function to backup local files? What happens on instance scale out to files on local file system? Can I get access to the underlying blob storage?
If they are standard is there any issues with letting users upload files in a hosting sense? I appreciate risks of what users shouldn't upload. If files are persistent is it sill best practice to offload to blob storage?
Yes, files that are part of your Web Site are persisted. You can access them via FTP.
You can use the backup service (currently in preview) to schedule backups to blob storage.
The Azure Web Sites SLA is available here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=39303
I'm new to Azure, and a little confused about blob storage. I have a need for clients to access via FTP / SFTP to push and pull files (XML, CSV, EDI, etc). The pushed files are read in by a .net application and written to a database. As I understand, we would use a VM role to create a FTP / SFTP server, a worker role to execute the .net code, SQL Storage for the DB and Blob storage for the files.
Am I correct in this assumption first, and second can a VM role attach a storage blob for writing and reading files and can a worker role attach to the same storage blob to read and write files as well.
Sample:
client pushed xml file to VM via FTP. VM writes XML file to storage. Worker role reads file, processes it and writes contents to db.
Is my thinking correct or am I missing the boat?
Thanks
Given Azure has an array of services so you have a few options. One important thing to keep in mind with Azure is that your worker roles, which are simply Windows Server 2008 without IIS installed, are very flexible so there is a lot you can do with them – this includes writing your own FTP server and being able to host it via a worker role VMs. The FTP to Azure Blob Storage Bridge (on CodePlex) solution is an example of this.
In addition, you could use a web role (which is the same as a worker role but with IIS enabled) to do the same - so rather than rolling your own FTP server you can use IIS. A visual guide to setting IIS up to run as an FTP server in Azure can be found on ITQ.
I’d recommend doing some further reading to determine which is the better option of the two. Also have a think about you requirements as this may influence your approach, i.e. scaling, bandwidth, costs, your preferred deployment model etc.
As far as storing the files goes you can certainly use Blob Storage. If you have no need for a relational database in your system then you could skip using SQL Azure altogether (in which case the web role solution referenced above won’t be of much use) – but again that comes down to your particular requirements.
The official Windows Azure website is a good source of knowledge, especially if you’re getting started, so do take the time to look through some of the pertinent documentation.