Tailwind Traders must ensure that the content of file shares is reliably available in each regional office. However, its current file server infrastructure makes this difficult.

Some small offices, such as the Wangaratta retail location in Australia, do not have local file servers. Access to files and folders for these locations is provided through a VPN connection to a file server located at the Melbourne office.

Another challenge for Tailwind Traders is that users constantly create new files. The volumes hosting the file shares regularly fill up and require administrator intervention to free up disk space.

This storage issue is not limited to file volumes. Several on-premises SQL databases continue to grow to the point of saturating existing storage capacity, forcing database administrators to regularly add storage.

In this unit, you will learn how certain hybrid technologies enable Tailwind Traders to address its challenges with file server replication, SQL databases, and storage management.

What is an Azure File Share?

Azure Files offers two industry-standard protocols for mounting an Azure file share:

• SMB (Server Message Block)
• NFS (Network File System)

You can integrate Azure Files with Microsoft Entra ID and Microsoft Entra Connect. This integration allows users to securely access the Azure file share endpoint using their on-premises credentials or Microsoft Entra credentials.

It is also possible to configure Azure file shares to support Access Control Lists (ACLs). This allows you to restrict access to files and folders, just as you would with an on-premises file server.

Thanks to Azure Storage, Azure file shares can store far more files and folders than their on-premises equivalents. You can also back up Azure file shares using Azure Backup, with cloud-based backup and restore, without needing a separate local backup solution.

The following image shows clients connecting to Azure file shares.

Azure File Share and Azure File Sync

An Azure file share endpoint could provide a solution to some of the challenges faced by Tailwind Traders.

In particular, placing a file share in Azure can serve as a simple replacement for retail sites.
For example, the Wangaratta site could use this solution instead of establishing a VPN connection to a file server located at the Melbourne office.

Azure file share endpoints can be used with Azure File Sync, which you will learn about in the next section.

What is Azure File Sync?

Azure File Sync enables the deployment of distributed file shares in regional offices, where files are automatically replicated to each endpoint and backed up to an Azure file share.

You can also use Azure File Sync to configure cloud tiering.
Cloud tiering allows you to specify that only recently accessed files are kept on the local file server.
Files moved to the Azure share are replaced by placeholders.

The Azure file share, which has much greater storage capacity than a local share, retains a complete copy of all files written to it, including those no longer present on-premises due to cloud tiering.

When a user attempts to open a file represented by a placeholder, it is replicated from the Azure share and opens normally for the user.

Cloud tiering configuration options:

• Specify that a certain amount of disk space remains free on the volume hosting the share.
• Specify that files not accessed for a certain period are automatically moved to the cloud.
• Enable both options simultaneously.

The following image shows a basic Azure File Sync deployment.

Replacing DFS and Managing Storage

Tailwind Traders currently uses a Distributed File System (DFS) to replicate a set of file shares across its sites in Australia and New Zealand.

Azure File Sync would allow the company to replace DFS as the file replication mechanism.
The advantage is that it would enable Tailwind Traders to activate cloud tiering, which would solve disk space issues on file servers when new files are created and stored regularly.

What is SQL Stretch Database?

Microsoft SQL Server Stretch Database allows you to automatically migrate rarely accessed data to Azure in a seamless and secure manner.

When a query is performed on this migrated data, the results are returned, but with an additional delay compared to data stored locally.

The advantage of Stretch Database over other solutions for removing infrequently accessed data is that the data remains online.
There is no need to modify existing queries, and the application is unaware of the actual location of the data.

Tailwind Traders can enable Stretch Database on databases where storage needs to be added regularly to keep up with table growth.
Once enabled, infrequently accessed data is continuously migrated to Azure, while new data remains on-premises, close to the application executing the queries.