Migrate Local File Shares to Azure File Shares with Existing NTFS Permissions

CentreStack now offers the capability to integrate with Azure File Shares as shown in the steps below. These steps show how an Azure file share can be mounted as a team folder in CentreStack. However, a more interesting application is using the Azure file share as back end storage for a tenant: 

This allows you to migrate existing file shares and their NTFS permissions to the Azure file share by using CentreStack's Cloud Server Agent on your local file server. 

Steps to connect Azure File Shares in CentreStack

1. Login to portal.azure.com using your Azure account and click on Storage Accounts.
   
   
   
   
2. Once logged in, either click ‘Add’ to create a new storage account or if you already have one, click on it. In the screenshot below, we are clicking on the ‘centrestackazurefiles’ storage account that was already created. Click on ‘File Share’ to create a new file share in Azure files.

3. Once inside the storage account, click ‘+ File Share’ to start creating a file share. Give it a name and quota if desired and click on Create.
   
   
   
   
4. Once a file share is created, click on it and then click on ‘Connect.’
   
   
   
   
5. You will be shown the scripts in the right panel for Windows, Linux, and macOS. Copy the Windows Script in notepad as it contains all the parameters required to attach this share in CentreStack.
   
   
   
   
6. The essential parameters required are the path to the Azure file share, username, and password.
   
   
   
   
7. Login to your CentreStack environment as a cluster admin or tenant admin and click on ‘Create a Team Folder’ under ‘Team Folders’.
   
   
   
   
   
8. Select ‘File Servers in Local Area Network’ and click on ‘Manual Configuration’
   
   
   
   
   
9. Give a name to the team folder and copy and paste the Azure File Share path from the notepad file and click ‘Continue’.
   
   
   
   
10. Now paste and username and password also from the notepad file and click on ‘Import’.
    
    
    
    
    
    
11. You will see the folder created for your Azure File Share and you can add the users who will need access to this share.
    
    
    
    
12. Now login as the user who was given access to the Azure file share above and you should see the Azure File Share team folder.
    
    
    
    
    
13. Now, go inside the Azure file share and drag and drop a file from your local machine. You should be able to add a file to the team folder without any issues.
    
    
    
    
    
14. In order to verify the file has been uploaded into Azure File Share correctly, go back into Azure File share in Azure portal and ensure that the file just uploaded by the user above is listed there.
    
    
    
    
    
15. Now, upload a file in Azure portal in your Azure file share and make sure it is visible in CentreStack web portal.
16. You should see the file uploaded in Azure in your web portal browser.