Storage configuration and file management

Understanding Microsoft Azure Architecture and Services

Florin Angelescu

Azure Architect

Storage redundancy

• Duplication or replication of data across multiple locations or devices
• Protects data from hardware problems, power interruptions, and natural disasters
• Ensures data is available even during failures

Locally redundant storage (LRS)

• Three copies in the same data center from the primary region
• All copies may be lost in case of disaster

Zone-redundant storage (ZRS)

• Three copies across three data centers from the primary region
• Data remains accessible if one zone becomes unavailable

Geo-redundant storage (GRS)

• Copy data to a secondary region for extra protection
• Data is secure when failure prevents recovery in the primary region
• Similar to the use of locally redundant storage in two regions
• Data has three copies of data in a single place for each region

Geo-zone-redundant storage (GZRS)

• Offers high availability from redundancy across zones and protection from regional outages
• Data copied in three availability zones in the primary region
• Data is also replicated the secondary region

Redundancy hierarchy

Data migration options

• Move infrastructure, applications, and data:
  • Azure Migrate (real-time)
  • Azure Data Box (conventional)

Azure Migrate

• Service to move from on-premises to the cloud
• Offers a variety of tools for assessing and migrating data
• Helpful when moving data in Azure cloud

Azure Data Box

File operations

• Azure provides tools designed for moving or interacting with individual files or groups of files

AzCopy

• Command-line tool
• Facilitates file manipulation
• Used for:
  • Storage accounts
  • Local sources
  • Other cloud providers

Azure Storage Explorer

• Application with a graphical interface
• Handle files and blobs in storage accounts
• Same functionality as AzCopy
• User-friendly interface

Azure File Sync

• Synchronize files across different computers and Azure cloud
• Most recent files are accessible from any location

Let's practice!

Understanding Microsoft Azure Architecture and Services