DFS-Namespace On Azure Files

DFS Namespaces is a role service in Windows Server that enables you to group shares located on different servers into one or more logically structured namespaces. This makes it possible to give users a virtual view of shared folders, where a single path leads to files located on multiple servers. This article will go over some steps to setup DFS-N on Azure Files.

You will need DFS-N on Azure Files directly if:

1. You do not have an Azure File Sync as Azure Files is sufficient for your use case.
2. A unified namespace across all disparate shares is needed.
3. A larger share size all under same name is required.
4. A particular share name wants to be retained.

Azure Files is a fully manages SMB file share in Azure which can be leveraged for your convenient lift-and-shift of file servers. Data in Azure Files can be accessed in many different ways with the following two being dominant:

1. Direct SMB access to Azure Files by mounting Azure Files Share directly either from on-premises or within Azure
2. Continue to access the local file server by configuring Azure Files Sync which provides you a way to turn on-premises Windows Server into a fast disposable cache of most frequently accessed data with data tiering setup into Azure Files. If you have Azure File Sync configured, DFS-N with Azure File Sync needs no changes and you will not need these instructions. Your DFS-N will continue to work as is.

Step 1 – Create a local user with same name as storage account and storage account key as Password

Create a Storage Account And File Shares

• Create a Storage Account using the Azure Portal

• Create some file shares. In my case below I created a storage account with name standardgrsstacct and created 4 file shares namely – configs, docs, images, logs.

• Go to the portal to get your azure storage account name and storage account key

• Go to the URL by substituting relevant values

• https://ms.portal.azure.com/resource/subscriptions/<SubscriptionID>/resourceGroups/<ResourceGroupName>/providers/Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/<StorageAccountName>/keys

• You will be able to copy your account name and key by clicking on the highlighted copy button.

Create a new local user

• Go to the server on which you want to setup your DFS-N (henceforth referred to as DFSN-Server). In my case it is pfsdemo1

• Click on Computer Management from the Start menu

• Create a new user with name of the storage account and password that is Storage Account Key.

• Make sure this new user has read permissions on C:\

Step 2 - Enable DFS Namespace Role

Add DFS-N role

• Go to Server Manager and Click on “Add Roles and Features”

• Upon clicking a few “Next” Buttons, you will come to the “Server Roles” screen where you can check the DFS Namespace checkbox.

• Complete the enabling role by walking through rest of the wizard with default options.

Step 3 - Create a new DFS Namespace

• On Server Manager, click on Tools -> DFS Management

• Create a new namespace by right clicking on Namespaces

• Add your server name (in my case it is pfsdemo1)

• You can provide any name for your namespace. In my case, I chose to make it AzureFileShares

Step 4: Map Azure Files File Shares to Folders

• Right Click on the newly created namespace to start adding the file share mapping

• I mapped all my shares to folders under the namespace I created one by one.

Step 5:Set up the client machineS (from where you can access this namespace)

Note – You will have to repeat this step on every Client Machine.

Login to any client machine and persist the credentials

• Run the following command with appropriate substitutions to add the Storage account credentials to Key Manager to persist connection.

cmdkey /add:<YourStorageAccountName>.file.core.windows.net /user:<YourStorageAccountName> /pass:<StorageAccountKeyEndingWith==>

• Run the following command with appropriate substitutions to add the DFS-N Server credentials to Key Manager to persist connection. In my case the ServerName is pfsdemo1.

cmdkey /add:<ServerName> /user:<YourStorageAccountName> /pass:<StorageAccountKeyEndingWith==>

Step 6: Start using Azure Files with Your custom DFS Namespace

• dir \\pfsdemo1\AzureFileShares

• Or open up the explorer and start browsing files.

Conclusions

That’s it. You have your custom namespace with each folder that can go up to 5TB.