Azure Files: Shares, Snapshots & Recovery
Azure Files gives you fully managed SMB file shares in the cloud — the Azure equivalent of your on-prem file server. Learn how to create file shares, configure snapshots, set up soft delete, and understand identity-based authentication.
What is Azure Files?
Azure Files is a file server in the cloud that speaks the same language as your on-prem shares.
If you’ve managed Windows file servers with SMB shares (the kind you map as a network drive like \server\share), Azure Files does exactly the same thing — but without a server to maintain. Users map a drive letter, open files in Explorer, save documents, just like before. The difference? The data lives in Azure, backed by Microsoft’s infrastructure.
It also supports NFS for Linux workloads, making it useful for both Windows and Linux environments.
Creating and configuring file shares
Key settings when creating a file share:
| Setting | Options | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens | Must be 3-63 characters |
| Protocol | SMB or NFS | NFS requires Premium tier |
| Quota | 1 GB to 100 TiB | Sets maximum size; can be increased later |
| Tier | Hot, Cool, Transaction Optimised (Standard) or Premium | Affects cost model |
| Access tier | Transaction Optimised (default), Hot, Cool | Standard tier only |
Premium vs Standard file shares:
| Feature | Standard File Shares | Premium File Shares |
|---|---|---|
| Storage type | HDD (hard disk) | SSD (solid state) |
| Account kind | StorageV2 (general-purpose v2) | FileStorage |
| Billing model | Pay for what you use | Provisioned (pay for capacity, get guaranteed IOPS) |
| Max share size | 100 TiB (with large file share enabled) | 100 TiB |
| IOPS | Up to 20,000 (burst) | Up to 100,000 (provisioned) |
| Protocols | SMB only | SMB and NFS |
| Redundancy | LRS, ZRS, GRS, GZRS | LRS, ZRS |
Real-world: TechCorp's file server migration
TechCorp Solutions migrated their on-prem file servers to Azure Files:
- Before: 4 Windows Servers running SMB shares, backed up to tape weekly
- After: 2 Azure File shares (one for active documents, one for archives)
- Users map the same drive letters (Z: and Y:) but they point to Azure Files
- Authentication via on-prem AD DS (hybrid identity with Entra Connect)
- Azure File Sync keeps a hot cache on a local server for fast access
Result: no more patching file servers, no more tape backups, and users didn’t notice the change.
File share snapshots
Azure Files supports share snapshots — read-only, point-in-time copies of the entire file share.
Key facts:
- Snapshots are taken at the share level (entire share, not individual files)
- They’re incremental — only changes since the last snapshot are stored
- Maximum 200 snapshots per file share
- Snapshots can be browsed and individual files restored via Windows “Previous Versions” tab
- Deleting a share with snapshots requires deleting all snapshots first (or using “Delete share including snapshots”)
Soft delete for file shares
Soft delete retains deleted file shares for a configurable period (1-365 days), allowing recovery.
How it works:
- Enable soft delete on the storage account (applies to all file shares)
- Set retention period (e.g., 14 days)
- When a file share is deleted, it moves to a “soft deleted” state
- During retention, the share can be undeleted (restored)
- After retention expires, the share is permanently deleted
Important: Soft delete protects the file share (the container), not individual files within it. If a user deletes a file from a share, soft delete won’t help — you need snapshots for that.
Exam tip: Snapshots vs Soft Delete
This distinction is commonly tested. Soft delete protects against share-level deletion (someone deletes the entire file share). Snapshots protect against file-level changes (someone overwrites or deletes a specific file within the share). For maximum protection, enable both.
Knowledge check
A user at TechCorp Solutions accidentally deleted an important spreadsheet from an Azure File share yesterday. Soft delete is enabled on the storage account. Can Alex recover the file?
Meridian Financial needs a high-performance file share for their database log files. The share must support both Windows (SMB) and Linux (NFS) clients with guaranteed IOPS. What should Alex provision?