| title | description | author | ms.service | ms.topic | ms.date | ms.author | ms.custom |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Configure Azure Files network endpoints |
Learn how to configure public and private network endpoints for Server Message Block (SMB) and Network File System (NFS) Azure file shares. Restrict access by setting up a privatelink. |
khdownie |
azure-file-storage |
how-to |
05/10/2024 |
kendownie |
devx-track-azurepowershell, devx-track-azurecli |
Azure Files provides two main types of endpoints for accessing Azure file shares:
- Public endpoints, which have a public IP address and can be accessed from anywhere in the world.
- Private endpoints, which exist within a virtual network and have a private IP address from within the address space of that virtual network.
Public and private endpoints exist on the Azure storage account. A storage account is a management construct that represents a shared pool of storage in which you can deploy multiple file shares, as well as other storage resources, such as blob containers or queues.
This article focuses on how to configure a storage account's endpoints for accessing the Azure file share directly. Much of this article also applies to how Azure File Sync interoperates with public and private endpoints for the storage account. For more information about networking considerations for Azure File Sync, see configuring Azure File Sync proxy and firewall settings.
We recommend reading Azure Files networking considerations before reading this guide.
| File share type | SMB | NFS |
|---|---|---|
| Standard file shares (GPv2), LRS/ZRS |  |
 |
| Standard file shares (GPv2), GRS/GZRS | |
|
| Premium file shares (FileStorage), LRS/ZRS | |
|
- This article assumes that you already created an Azure subscription. If you don't already have a subscription, then create a free account before you begin.
- This article assumes that you already created an Azure file share in a storage account that you want to connect to from on-premises. To learn how to create an Azure file share, see Create an Azure file share.
- If you intend to use Azure PowerShell, install the latest version.
- If you intend to use the Azure CLI, install the latest version.
You can configure your endpoints to restrict network access to your storage account. There are two approaches to restricting access to a storage account to a virtual network:
- Create one or more private endpoints for the storage account and restrict all access to the public endpoint. This ensures that only traffic originating from within the desired virtual networks can access the Azure file shares within the storage account. See Private Link cost.
- Restrict the public endpoint to one or more virtual networks. This works by using a capability of the virtual network called service endpoints. When you restrict the traffic to a storage account via a service endpoint, you're still accessing the storage account via the public IP address, but access is only possible from the locations you specify in your configuration.
When you create a private endpoint for your storage account, the following Azure resources are deployed:
- A private endpoint: An Azure resource representing the storage account's private endpoint. You can think of this as a resource that connects a storage account and a network interface.
- A network interface (NIC): The network interface that maintains a private IP address within the specified virtual network/subnet. This is the exact same resource that gets deployed when you deploy a virtual machine (VM), however instead of being assigned to a VM, it's owned by the private endpoint.
- A private Domain Name System (DNS) zone: If you haven't deployed a private endpoint for this virtual network before, a new private DNS zone will be deployed for your virtual network. A DNS A record will also be created for the storage account in this DNS zone. If you've already deployed a private endpoint in this virtual network, a new A record for the storage account will be added to the existing DNS zone. Deploying a DNS zone is optional. However, it's highly recommended, and required if you're mounting your Azure file shares with an AD service principal or using the FileREST API.
Note
This article uses the storage account DNS suffix for the Azure Public regions, core.windows.net. This commentary also applies to Azure Sovereign clouds such as the Azure US Government cloud and the Microsoft Azure operated by 21Vianet cloud. Just substitute the appropriate suffixes for your environment.
[!INCLUDE storage-files-networking-endpoints-private-portal]
[!INCLUDE storage-files-networking-endpoints-private-powershell]
If you have a VM inside of your virtual network, or you've configured DNS forwarding as described in Configuring DNS forwarding for Azure Files, you can test that your private endpoint is set up correctly. Run the following commands from PowerShell, the command line, or the terminal (works for Windows, Linux, or macOS). You must replace <storage-account-name> with the appropriate storage account name:
nslookup <storage-account-name>.file.core.windows.net
If successful, you should see the following output, where 192.168.0.5 is the private IP address of the private endpoint in your virtual network (output shown for Windows):
Server: UnKnown
Address: 10.2.4.4
Non-authoritative answer:
Name: storageaccount.privatelink.file.core.windows.net
Address: 192.168.0.5
Aliases: storageaccount.file.core.windows.net
If you have a VM inside of your virtual network, or you've configured DNS forwarding as described in Configuring DNS forwarding for Azure Files, you can test that your private endpoint is set up correctly by running the following commands:
$storageAccountHostName = [System.Uri]::new($storageAccount.PrimaryEndpoints.file) | `
Select-Object -ExpandProperty Host
Resolve-DnsName -Name $storageAccountHostNameIf successful, you should see the following output, where 192.168.0.5 is the private IP address of the private endpoint in your virtual network:
Name Type TTL Section NameHost
---- ---- --- ------- --------
storageaccount.file.core.windows CNAME 60 Answer storageaccount.privatelink.file.core.windows.net
.net
Name : storageaccount.privatelink.file.core.windows.net
QueryType : A
TTL : 600
Section : Answer
IP4Address : 192.168.0.5
If you have a VM inside of your virtual network, or you've configured DNS forwarding as described in Configuring DNS forwarding for Azure Files, you can test that your private endpoint is set up correctly by running the following commands:
httpEndpoint=$(az storage account show \
--resource-group $storageAccountResourceGroupName \
--name $storageAccountName \
--query "primaryEndpoints.file" | \
tr -d '"')
hostName=$(echo $httpEndpoint | cut -c7-$(expr length $httpEndpoint) | tr -d "/")
nslookup $hostName
If everything successful, you should see the following output, where 192.168.0.5 is the private IP address of the private endpoint in your virtual network. You should still use storageaccount.file.core.windows.net to mount your file share instead of the privatelink path.
Server: 127.0.0.53
Address: 127.0.0.53#53
Non-authoritative answer:
storageaccount.file.core.windows.net canonical name = storageaccount.privatelink.file.core.windows.net.
Name: storageaccount.privatelink.file.core.windows.net
Address: 192.168.0.5
Limiting public endpoint access first requires you to disable general access to the public endpoint. Disabling access to the public endpoint does not impact private endpoints. After the public endpoint is disabled, you can select specific networks or IP addresses that may continue to access it. In general, most firewall policies for a storage account restrict networking access to one or more virtual networks.
When access to the public endpoint is disabled, the storage account can still be accessed through its private endpoints. Otherwise valid requests to the storage account's public endpoint will be rejected, unless they are from a specifically allowed source.
[!INCLUDE storage-files-networking-endpoints-public-disable-portal]
[!INCLUDE storage-files-networking-endpoints-public-disable-powershell]
[!INCLUDE storage-files-networking-endpoints-public-disable-cli]
When you restrict the storage account to specific virtual networks, you're allowing requests to the public endpoint from within the specified virtual networks. This works by using a capability of the virtual network called service endpoints. This can be used with or without private endpoints.
[!INCLUDE storage-files-networking-endpoints-public-restrict-portal]
[!INCLUDE storage-files-networking-endpoints-public-restrict-powershell]
[!INCLUDE storage-files-networking-endpoints-public-restrict-cli]