Courses Azure Administrator AssociateStorage

Azure Files & Backup

Shared file shares and data protection.

Intermediate30 min · lesson 9 of 15

Beyond object storage, administrators handle shared file storage and data protection. Azure Files provides managed network shares, and Azure Backup plus Recovery Services vaults protect data against loss.

Azure Files

Azure Files offers fully-managed file shares accessible over SMB and NFS that multiple clients — VMs, on-prem machines, and containers — can mount concurrently, making it ideal for lift-and-shift applications needing a shared drive, user home directories, or shared configuration. Unlike a managed disk (which attaches to a single VM), a file share is accessible from many places at once. Azure File Sync extends this by caching shares on on-prem Windows servers while keeping the cloud as the source of truth, giving a hybrid file service. Choose Azure Files when you need a shared POSIX/SMB file system rather than object storage (Blob) or single-VM block storage (managed disks).

file storage vs the alternatives

#  NEED                                    SERVICE
#  shared file system, many clients     →  Azure Files (SMB/NFS share)
#  object/blob storage, HTTPS API       →  Blob storage
#  disk for ONE VM                      →  managed disk
#  hybrid cached file share             →  Azure File Sync
#
# Mount a file share (Linux):
#   sudo mount -t cifs //contosodata.file.core.windows.net/share /mnt/share ...

Backup and recovery

Data protection is a core administrator responsibility. Azure Backup provides centralized, policy-based backup for Azure VMs, files, SQL and SAP databases, and on-prem workloads, storing recovery points in a Recovery Services vault (the container for backup and disaster-recovery data). You define backup policies (frequency and retention) and can restore individual files or whole VMs. For disaster recovery, Azure Site Recovery (ASR) replicates workloads to another region and orchestrates failover, providing business continuity against a regional outage — distinct from Backup, which is about recovering data, ASR is about keeping the workload running. Together they cover the two failure modes: data loss (Backup) and site loss (Site Recovery). A well-run Azure estate has defined backup policies on critical resources and a tested DR plan.

Data protection

shared files

Azure Files

SMB/NFS shares, many clients

File Sync

hybrid cached shares

protect data

Azure Backup

VMs/files/DBs → Recovery Services vault

Site Recovery (ASR)

replicate + failover to another region

Azure Files for shared drives; Backup recovers lost data and Site Recovery keeps the workload running through a regional outage.

Untested backups and DR are false assurance

Backup policies and a Site Recovery plan that have never been restored or failed over often fail when finally needed — corrupt recovery points, missing dependencies, permissions that do not work. Periodically test restores and DR failover, and confirm they meet your recovery-time and recovery-point objectives; the first real recovery should never be a discovery exercise.

Blob storage & lifecycleVirtual networks & NSGs