You can also set up different peering policies. You can control how many files are uploaded by limiting the storage and local disk space used on-prem on the fileserver.įor more information about cloud tiering, please visit the Cloud tiering overview. Other files are transferred to Azure and only kept as a local link. With cloud tiering, you enable a feature that only caches the most frequently accessed files on-prem on the local storage. Introduction to Azure File Sync | Microsoft DocsĪnother feature worth mentioning is the cloud tearing and cloud site backups possible with Azure Files and Azure File Sync. Here you can find more information about the File Sync and Identity integration. A guide to configuring the hybrid connectivity can be found below.Īzure AD Connect sync: Understand and customize synchronization | Microsoft Docs To achieve that, your Windows Active Directory must be synced with Azure Active Directory. So, every user or computer who wants to use the Fileshare must be hybrid joined/cloud synced. There is only one small issue, Azure Files is based on Azure AD Users, Groups and Permissions. The latency should be below 12 milliseconds. That would be a great scenario if you are already in Azure and want to save some money or have a branch or datacenter very near to an Azure Region. If you want to use a local fileserver only, you do not need to do anything in addition but there is also the option to use Azure Fileshare target directly without a fileserver. With the Fileshares and Files, the Access Control Lists (ACLs) are also migrated between servers. This gives you a great option to set up global Fileshares using DFS Namespaces and also set up redundancy without the hustle of cluster hardware. You can sync fileserver clusters and stand-alone servers. You can use Azure File Sync to sync Fileshares and Servers from 2012 R2 and newer. Azure Storage acts as a central repository for all attached File Servers. The client syncs all data to an Azure Storage Fileshare. In the difference to Distributed File System Replication, Azure Files works with a sync client like OneDrive. In comparison to Azure File Sync, you can consider File Sync as a cloud-managed DFS-R Service which uses Azure Storage Backend in addition to local File Servers. You can enable DFS R to replace NFS starting with Windows Server 2008 or later domain function level.ĭFS-R is a pretty good Windows Service, sometimes a bit hard and clunky to set up and stabilize, but it does its job. This folder contains the Active Directory Domain Information for a domain and forest. It was built to replace FRS as the replication engine for DFS Namespaces as well as Windows Server Active Directory Domain Services (Windows ADDS) SYSVOL folder. DFS R is the successor of File Replication Service or FRS. Since then it is part of all Windows Servers.
Distributed File System Replicationĭistributed File System Replication or DFS Replication is a role service within a Windows Fileserver that was introduced in Windows Server 2008. It’s not meant to be used as a classic file share. OneDrive is primarily built for User files like those you would classically put into a user fileserver home directory. To access OneDrive you need either a web browser or the OneDrive Client which integrates into the Operating System of your Client or Mobile Device. Users can share those files using the Microsoft Content Delivery Network. Users can cooperate with others on files within an organization or outside of it. The access is built to be easy and secure. With OneDrive, users can access and store files from various devices like Windows Clients, Mobile Phones and Web Browsers. So, to understand file sync we need to understand its on-premises equivalent and its client equivalent first. When I try to explain Azure File Sync, I normally start with: “Think of Windows Server Distributed File System Replication on Drugs, or Office 365 One Drive for Servers.” I will not be able to touch everything about Azure File Sync, but I will try to include the most important things and guide you to the rest so that you can find them in the documentation or additional resources. In this article, I will focus on Azure File Sync, explaining the service and the use cases.