Azure Documentation

Azure Files Premium File Shares

Azure Files Premium offers fully managed file shares in the cloud with high performance, low latency, and options for SSD-based storage. This tier is ideal for demanding enterprise workloads that require consistent performance.

Key Features

  • High Performance: Offers significantly higher IOPS and throughput compared to Standard file shares, enabled by SSD-backed storage.
  • Low Latency: Provides consistent and low latency access, critical for I/O intensive applications.
  • Multiple Performance Tiers: Choose between transaction optimized, read/write optimized, and heavy IO workloads.
  • Scalability: Easily scale your file share capacity and performance up or down as needed.
  • SMB & NFS Support: Supports both Server Message Block (SMB) and Network File System (NFS) protocols for broad compatibility.
  • Data Redundancy Options: Available with LRS, ZRS, GRS, and RA-GRS for data durability.
  • Security: Integrates with Azure Active Directory for seamless authentication and authorization.

Use Cases

Azure Files Premium is suitable for a variety of scenarios, including:

  • Hosting enterprise applications requiring high IOPS and low latency (e.g., SQL Server, SAP).
  • Lift-and-shift migrations of on-premises file servers.
  • Development and test environments needing fast storage.
  • Big data analytics and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads.

Getting Started

To create a Premium file share, you'll need an Azure Storage account of type FileStorage.

Creating a Premium File Share

You can create a Premium file share using the Azure portal, Azure CLI, or Azure PowerShell.

Using Azure CLI

The following command creates a Premium file share with a capacity of 100 GiB and a transaction optimized tier:

az storage share create \
    --name myshare \
    --account-name mystorageaccount \
    --account-type FileStorage \
    --quota 100 \
    --enabled-protocol SMB \
    --tier TransactionOptimized

For more details on creating and managing Premium file shares, refer to the official Azure Files Premium documentation.

Performance and Pricing

Performance characteristics and pricing vary based on the chosen tier (Transaction Optimized, Read Optimized, or Heavy IO) and provisioned capacity. It's recommended to consult the Azure Files pricing page for the most up-to-date information.