Priyam VaidyaAzure Files provide fully managed File shares in the cloud that are approachable via SMB. Azure File shares can be attached parallelly by cloud or on-premises deployments of Windows, Linux, and macOS. It can be cached on Windows servers with Azure File Sync for quicker access. It permits the user to set up highly obtainable network file shares that can be accessed by using the standard Server Message Block (SMB) protocol. Multiple VMs can share similar files with both read and write permissions.
The only contrast between Azure Files and files on a corporate file share is, the user can access the files from anywhere by using a URL that points to the
file and contains a shared access signature (SAS) token. SAS tokens can be generated by the user; they allow specified access to a private asset for a specific period.
The storage of file shares is one type of data that can be contained in an Azure Storage account. File shares can be implemented for many real-time scenarios:
Many on-premises applications rely on file shares. This feature makes it flexible to migrate the applications that share data to Azure. If the file share is mounted to the same drive letter that is used by the on-premises application, the segment of the application that accesses the file share should work with minimal, if any, changes.
Configuration files are secured on a file share and can be accessed from multiple VMs. Tools and utilities consumed by multiple developers in a group can be stored on a file share, making sure that everybody can view it and use the same version.
Resource logs, metrics, and crash dumps are just three models of data that can be written to a file share and can be handled or examined later.
Azure Storage File Use case
When it comes to file sharing, the end user should not be allowed to access the copies of the file from its URI and need to be mapped locally in the computers. This is when Azure File Storage fits customer needs. File Storage can be used if the business use case needs to deal mostly with standard File extensions like *.docx, *.png and *.bak, then you should probably go with this storage option.
Azure Blob Storage vs File Storage
Azure Blob Storage and File Storage, both services have their own defined properties and are implemented in different scenarios. Azure Files provides fully managed and organized cloud file shares that can be accessed from anywhere. Azure Blob Storage permits the storage of unstructured data and it can be accessed at a massive scale.
Consider a development environment where every developer needs access to IDE and tools without using the internet to download them. In this situation, Azure Blob Storage would meet the need and use in which the developer can only store development tools and then give a link to the team to access the Blob location.
For implementing a File server in an organization, the user should choose the Azure Files option. A File server is used to share files across departments in an organization. When it comes to File sharing, end users should not be allowed to access the copies of the file from its URI and need to be mapped locally in the computers. This is when Azure File Storage fits the organization’s needs.
Azure Storage Queues
Azure Queue storage is an Azure service that implements cloud-based queues. Each queue maintains an inventory of messages. Application components access a queue employing a REST API or an Azure-supplied client library. Typically, you will have one or more sender components and one or more receiver components. Sender components add messages to the queue. Messages are retrieved from the front of the queue for processing by receiver components. Storage Queues are part of the Azure Storage infrastructure, and feature a simple REST-based GET/PUT/PEEK interface, providing reliable, persistent messaging within and between services.
Azure Storage Queues Use case
Imagine the user works as a developer for a major news organization that reports breaking news alerts. The company employs a worldwide network of journalists that are constantly sending updates through a web portal and a mobile app. A middle-tier web service layer then takes those alert updates and publishes them online through several channels. However, it’s been noticed the system is missing alerts when globally significant events occur.
The middle tier provides plenty of capacity to handle normal loads. However, a look at the server logs revealed the system was overloaded when several journalists tried to upload larger breaking stories at the same time. Some writers complained the portal became unresponsive, and others said they lost their stories altogether. The user has spotted a direct correlation between the reported issues and the spike in demand on the middle-tier servers.
The user needs a way to handle these unexpected peaks. In such a situation user doesn’t want to add more instances of the website and middle-tier web service because they are expensive and, under normal conditions, redundant. They could dynamically spin up instances, but this takes time and they would have the issue of waiting for new servers to come online.
This problem can be solved by using Azure Queue storage. A storage queue is a high-performance message buffer that can act as a broker between the front-end components and the middle tier. The front-end components place a message for each new alert into a queue. The middle tier then retrieves these messages one at a time from the queue for processing. At times of high demand, the queue may grow in length, but no stories will be lost, and the application will remain responsive. When demand drops back to normal levels, the web service will catch up by working through the queue backlog.
Azure Storage Queue properties
- Azure Storage Queues can be used when there is a need to store messages larger than the size of 80 GB.
- Azure Storage Queues provide logging of all the occurred transactions in the Storage Queue which can be used for analytics or audit purpose. If the application requires load balancing, failure tolerance, and increased scalability then Azure Storage Queues are the best choice.
- When it comes to scalability, the Storage Queues can store up to 200 TB of messages. It is also possible to create an unlimited number of Storage Queues in a Storage Account.
- Allowed characters in Storage Queues names are lowercase alphabets, numbers, and hyphens with lengths ranging from 3 to 63.
- The maximum message size in Storage Queues is 64 KB. If the messages are base64 encoded, then the maximum message size is 48 KB. Large message sizes are supported by combining queues with blobs, through which messages up to 200 GB can be enqueued as single data.
- Whenever the messages in a Storage Queue are retrieved more than the specified Dequeue Count, the messages are then moved to the configured dead-letter queue
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