Azure NAS for Cloud Storage Made Easy

Azure NAS is a game-changer for businesses and individuals alike, making cloud storage a breeze. It's a fully managed file share service that integrates seamlessly with Azure Virtual Machines.

With Azure NAS, you can store and share files across your organization without worrying about storage capacity or data security. This is because Azure NAS provides 4 TB of standard storage and 16 TB of premium storage.

Azure NAS is also highly scalable, allowing you to easily increase or decrease storage capacity as your needs change. This makes it an ideal solution for businesses with fluctuating storage needs.

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SoftNAS is a cloud-based NAS (Network Attached Storage) solution that allows you to create a storage system in under an hour. It's a software-only solution that runs on Azure, giving you the flexibility to choose from a wide range of Azure compute instances to meet varying performance demands.

SoftNAS Cloud is designed to work seamlessly with Azure, leveraging its infrastructure to service workloads using standard storage protocol interfaces. This means you can adjust your storage configuration over time to match your business requirements.

The configuration process is straightforward, with four fundamental steps that all occur via the Azure Portal. These steps include creating the Virtual Storage Appliance, attaching the Storage Account, setting up High Availability, and finalizing the configuration.

Here's a brief overview of the steps involved in configuring SoftNAS Cloud:

SoftNAS Cloud is a great combination for increasing the native Azure file services capacity beyond the 5TB limit available today.

Azure NAS offers a range of key features and benefits that make it an attractive option for businesses and individuals alike.

One of the most significant advantages of Azure NAS is its ease of use. With Azure file shares, you don't need to do anything special to access the data - just navigate to the path where the file share is mounted and open/modify a file.

Azure NAS supports shared access, allowing you to seamlessly replace your on-premises file shares with Azure file shares without worrying about application compatibility. This means you can share a file system across multiple machines, applications, and application instances.

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Fully managed Azure file shares can be created without the need to manage hardware or an OS. This means you don't have to deal with patching the server OS with critical security upgrades or replacing faulty hard disks.

Azure NAS provides scripting and tooling options, including PowerShell cmdlets and Azure CLI, to create, mount, and manage Azure file shares. You can also use Azure portal and Azure Storage Explorer to manage Azure file shares.

Azure Files is built to be always available, replacing on-premises file shares with Azure Files means you no longer have to wake up to deal with local power outages or network issues.

Azure NAS offers a range of benefits, including a simple and secure cloud file sharing service for modern enterprise workloads. The service is fully managed and serverless, allowing users to focus on their core tasks rather than on busywork related to hardware management, operating system (OS) patching and security upgrades.

Here are some of the key features and benefits of Azure NAS:

Azure NAS supports a range of operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and macOS, allowing users to directly mount and access their Azure file shares from any client.

You can get started with SoftNAS Cloud on Azure in just a few minutes using the Azure Test Drive, which loads automatically and connects to your Azure storage account.

The Azure Test Drive is a great way to try SoftNAS Cloud without requiring a credit card or Azure subscription, and it's available for 1 hour from the time you enter the test drive.

To get started with the Free 30-Day Trial, you'll need an Azure subscription, but this will allow you to install, configure, and use SoftNAS Cloud like you would in a production environment.

You can also purchase SoftNAS Cloud on the Azure Marketplace, with options for the Express Edition (1TB of capacity) or the Standard Edition (20TB of capacity), and larger deployments are available via a BYOL (Bring Your Own License).

Here are your options for getting started:

Plan for an Azure Files deployment and create an Azure file share to get started with your Azure NAS setup.

Azure cloud storage services offer a range of solutions for object, block, and file storage, providing high availability and enterprise-grade security.

Azure Files is a managed file share and storage service that offers a highly available and durable distributed file system.

With Azure Files, organizations get 100 GB of local redundant storage, or LRS, transaction optimized, hot and cool files, and 2 million read, list and other file operations per month, available free for 12 months.

Azure Files supports multiple protocols, including SMB, NFS, and File Transfer Protocols (FTPs), allowing users to seamlessly replace on-prem file shares with Azure file shares and share file systems across multiple machines and applications.

Azure already provides storage options, but they may not cover all your needs for a public cloud-hosted infrastructure.

Azure Storage has various capabilities, but it's limited in file services, and SoftNAS Cloud on Azure overcomes these capacity limits.

SoftNAS Cloud on Azure adds all file protocols, full AD/AAD/LDAP user access controls, and consumption efficiency.

Here's a comparison of Azure Storage capabilities and how SoftNAS Cloud complements them:

SoftNAS Cloud on Azure accelerates performance and improves data efficiency by leveraging Azure's block and object storage.

Azure cloud storage services offer high availability and enterprise-grade security, making it an ideal choice for enterprise users.

With Azure cloud storage services, you can scale cloud performance and unify data management.

You can choose from several cloud storage services, including object, block, and file storage.

Azure Files is a managed file share and storage service that provides a highly available and durable distributed file system.

By replacing or augmenting on-prem file shares with Azure Files, organizations can worry less about local power outages or network issues affecting business continuity.

Azure Files offers 100 GB of local redundant storage, or LRS, transaction optimized, hot and cool files.

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Additionally, Azure Files provides 2 million read, list and other file operations.

These files and operations are available free every month for 12 months.

Azure Files supports multiple protocols, including SMB, NFS and File Transfer Protocols (FTPs).

This allows users to seamlessly replace on-prem file shares with Azure file shares and even share file systems across multiple machines, applications and application instances.

The service is ideal for hybrid cloud deployments, allowing users to transform Windows Servers into caches of cloud shares and mount the file shares from anywhere.

Azure Native Qumulo offers expansive regional availability, allowing you to provision storage directly from the Azure Portal in various regions.

You can access Azure Native Qumulo in regions across the US, EU, UK, Asia, and Canada.

Brazil South, specifically Sao Paulo State, is one of the America regions where you can provision Azure Native Qumulo.

The EMEA & Canada regions also support Azure Native Qumulo, giving you more options for deployment.

APAC regions are another area where you can take advantage of Azure Native Qumulo's cloud storage capabilities.

You can store data in Azure cloud storage services, which provide high availability and enterprise-grade security. These services allow users to scale cloud performance and unify data management.

Azure Files is a managed file share and storage service that offers a highly available and durable distributed file system. With Azure Files, organizations get 100 GB of local redundant storage, or LRS, transaction optimized, hot and cool files, and 2 million read, list, and other file operations.

Azure Files is a fully managed service, which means users are relieved of the management or administration burden. To access the stored data, they simply navigate to the path where the file share is mounted and open the file. This makes it easy to replace or augment on-prem file shares with Azure Files.

You can store and access data from multiple sources since Azure Files supports multiple protocols, including SMB, NFS, and File Transfer Protocols (FTPs). This allows users to seamlessly replace on-prem file shares with Azure file shares and even share file systems across multiple machines, applications, and application instances.

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Here's a summary of the storage and deployment process:

You can also create a mapping table to determine how many Azure file shares you need and which parts of your existing data will end up in which Azure file share. This will help you stay organized and refer to your mapping plan when provisioning many Azure resources.

You can run any workload in the cloud with Azure Native Qumulo, which offers high-performance file storage. This is ideal for applications that require large file capacity, such as video/media storage, user file directories, and source code repository.

Qumulo is a great option for businesses that need to ensure business continuity and disaster recovery. This is because it allows for easy replication and expansion to the cloud, making it a reliable choice for critical data.

Azure Native Qumulo also provides a general file share, which is perfect for organizations that need to store and share files across different departments and locations. This can be especially useful for companies that have remote workers or partners who need access to shared files.

Some of the key features of Azure Native Qumulo include:

With Azure Native Qumulo, you can run any workload in the cloud with ease, knowing that your data is secure and easily accessible.

To provision a Windows Server on-premises, you'll need to create a virtual machine or deploy a physical server, and it's recommended to use Windows Server 2022 or 2019. You can also use a Windows Server failover cluster.

The amount of storage you provision can be smaller than what you're currently using on your NAS appliance, but you'll need to use Azure File Sync's cloud tiering feature to free up space on the server. If you don't want to permanently commit a lot of storage to your Windows Server, you can reduce the volume size after the migration.

The resource configuration of the Windows Server depends mostly on the number of items (files and folders) you'll be syncing, so it's a good idea to go with a higher performance configuration if you have any concerns. You can orient towards the smaller number for your server's memory (RAM) in the table provided, but expect that initial sync can take significantly more time.

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Here's a rough estimate of the server memory (RAM) range based on the number of items:

Keep in mind that you can always reduce the volume size after the migration, but it's better to have some extra storage capacity to avoid issues with cloud tiering.

To deploy cloud resources, start by deploying the Azure File Sync cloud resource, specifically a Storage Sync Service, which is the core resource to configure. This service should be deployed in a region close to your location to simplify management and ensure optimal performance.

You'll need your Azure subscription credentials to complete this step. Create a new resource group in your subscription that houses sync and storage resources to make management easier.

For Azure File Sync, it's a best practice to deploy only one Storage Sync Service for all servers syncing the same set of files now or in the future. This approach helps prevent data exchange between servers that shouldn't share data.

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The Storage Sync Service should be deployed in the same region as all other cloud resources. You can create multiple Storage Sync Services only if you have distinct sets of servers that must never exchange data.

Next, deploy Azure storage resources, specifically Azure storage accounts and file shares within them. Consult the mapping table from Phase 1 to determine the correct number of Azure storage accounts and file shares to provision.

Each Azure file share is stored in the cloud in an Azure storage account, so consider performance considerations when deploying these resources. If you have highly active shares, you may need to deploy multiple Azure file shares within a storage account to avoid performance limits.

A best practice is to deploy storage accounts with one file share each to ensure optimal performance. However, if you have archival shares or expect low day-to-day activity, you can pool multiple Azure file shares into the same storage account.

When deploying Azure storage resources, make sure the region of each storage account matches the region of the Storage Sync Service resource. Also, consider your storage redundancy needs and choose the appropriate redundancy options for your Azure file shares.

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Deploying storage resources is a crucial step in setting up your Azure file shares. You'll need to determine the correct number of Azure storage accounts and file shares within them.

To do this, consult the mapping table you created earlier, which should outline how many Azure file shares you need and which parts of your existing data will end up in which Azure file share.

If you have highly active shares, consider deploying two Azure file shares per storage account to avoid performance issues. However, if you have archival shares or expect low day-to-day activity, you can pool multiple Azure file shares into the same storage account.

A best practice is to deploy storage accounts with one file share each. Make sure the region of each storage account matches the region of the Storage Sync Service resource you've already deployed.

Here's a summary of the key considerations for deploying storage resources:

When deploying Azure storage resources, consider your storage redundancy needs. If you create an Azure file share that has a 100 TiB limit, it can only use locally redundant storage or zone-redundant storage redundancy options. Make sure to follow the steps in Create an Azure file share to create a large file share.

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To deploy the Azure File Sync agent, you need to install the latest version, which can be downloaded from the Microsoft Download Center: Azure File Sync Agent.

First, turn off Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration, as it's not applicable with Azure File Sync and can cause authentication issues.

If you're having trouble reaching the internet from your server, now is the time to solve those problems, as Azure File Sync uses any available network connection to the internet.

You can configure a machine-wide proxy or specify a proxy that only Azure File Sync will use, but be aware that this might require opening your firewalls for the server.

A network connectivity report will be generated after server registration, showing the exact endpoint URLs in Azure that Azure File Sync needs to communicate with for the region you've selected.

This report will also tell you why communication is needed, allowing you to lock down the firewalls around the server to specific URLs.

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Alternatively, you can limit the server to communicate with higher-level DNS namespaces, following your own networking best practices.

After completing server installation, a server registration wizard will open, where you need to register the server to your Storage Sync Service's Azure resource from earlier.

To confirm successful completion of this step, go to the Storage Sync Service resource in the Azure portal, navigate to Registered servers, and you'll see your server listed there.

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You can use a pricing calculator tool to estimate your storage costs for your workloads.

Using ANQ for your workloads allows you to estimate your storage costs with ease.

Our pricing calculator tool is a valuable resource that helps you plan your storage costs in advance.

You can access the pricing calculator tool to start estimating your storage costs today.