title	titleSuffix	description	author	ms.service	ms.topic	ms.date	ms.author	ms.subservice	ms.custom
Create an Azure file share	Azure Files	How to create an Azure file share by using the Azure portal, PowerShell, or the Azure CLI.	khdownie	storage	how-to	07/27/2021	kendownie	files	devx-track-azurecli, references_regions, devx-track-azurepowershell

Create an Azure file share

To create an Azure file share, you need to answer three questions about how you will use it:

What are the performance requirements for your Azure file share?
Azure Files offers standard file shares which are hosted on hard disk-based (HDD-based) hardware, and premium file shares, which are hosted on solid-state disk-based (SSD-based) hardware.
What are your redundancy requirements for your Azure file share?
Standard file shares offer locally-redundant (LRS), zone redundant (ZRS), geo-redundant (GRS), or geo-zone-redundant (GZRS) storage, however the large file share feature is only supported on locally redundant and zone redundant file shares. Premium file shares do not support any form of geo-redundancy.

Premium file shares are available with locally redundancy and zone redundancy in a subset of regions. To find out if premium file shares are currently available in your region, see the products available by region page for Azure. For information about regions that support ZRS, see Azure Storage redundancy.
What size file share do you need?
In local and zone redundant storage accounts, Azure file shares can span up to 100 TiB. However, in geo- and geo-zone redundant storage accounts, Azure file shares can span only up to 5 TiB.

For more information on these three choices, see Planning for an Azure Files deployment.

Applies to

File share type	SMB	NFS
Standard file shares (GPv2), LRS/ZRS
Standard file shares (GPv2), GRS/GZRS
Premium file shares (FileStorage), LRS/ZRS

Prerequisites

This article assumes that you have already created an Azure subscription. If you don't already have a subscription, then create a free account before you begin.
If you intend to use Azure PowerShell, install the latest version.
If you intend to use the Azure CLI, install the latest version.

Create a storage account

Azure file shares are deployed into storage accounts, which are top-level objects that represent a shared pool of storage. This pool of storage can be used to deploy multiple file shares.

Azure supports multiple types of storage accounts for different storage scenarios customers may have, but there are two main types of storage accounts for Azure Files. Which storage account type you need to create depends on whether you want to create a standard file share or a premium file share:

General purpose version 2 (GPv2) storage accounts: GPv2 storage accounts allow you to deploy Azure file shares on standard/hard disk-based (HDD-based) hardware. In addition to storing Azure file shares, GPv2 storage accounts can store other storage resources such as blob containers, queues, or tables. File shares can be deployed into the transaction optimized (default), hot, or cool tiers.
FileStorage storage accounts: FileStorage storage accounts allow you to deploy Azure file shares on premium/solid-state disk-based (SSD-based) hardware. FileStorage accounts can only be used to store Azure file shares; no other storage resources (blob containers, queues, tables, etc.) can be deployed in a FileStorage account.

Portal

To create a storage account via the Azure portal, select + Create a resource from the dashboard. In the resulting Azure Marketplace search window, search for storage account and select the resulting search result. This will lead to an overview page for storage accounts; select Create to proceed with the storage account creation wizard.

Basics

The first section to complete to create a storage account is labeled Basics. This contains all of the required fields to create a storage account. To create a GPv2 storage account, ensure the Performance radio button is set to Standard and the Account kind drop-down list is selected to StorageV2 (general purpose v2).

:::image type="content" source="media/storage-how-to-create-file-share/files-create-smb-share-performance-standard.png" alt-text="A screenshot of the performance radio button with standard selected and account kind with storagev2 selected.":::

To create a FileStorage storage account, ensure the Performance radio button is set to Premium and Fileshares is selected in the Premium account type drop-down list.

:::image type="content" source="media/storage-how-to-create-file-share/files-create-smb-share-performance-premium.png" alt-text="A screenshot of the performance radio button with premium selected and account kind with FileStorage selected.":::

The other basics fields are independent from the choice of storage account:

Storage account name: The name of the storage account resource to be created. This name must be globally unique. The storage account name will be used as the server name when you mount an Azure file share via SMB. Storage account names must be between 3 and 24 characters in length and may contain numbers and lowercase letters only.
Location: The region for the storage account to be deployed into. This can be the region associated with the resource group, or any other available region.
Replication: Although this is labeled replication, this field actually means redundancy; this is the desired redundancy level: locally redundancy (LRS), zone redundancy (ZRS), geo-redundancy (GRS), and geo-zone-redundancy (GZRS). This drop-down list also contains read-access geo-redundancy (RA-GRS) and read-access geo-zone redundancy (RA-GZRS), which do not apply to Azure file shares; any file share created in a storage account with these selected will actually be either geo-redundant or geo-zone-redundant, respectively.

Networking

The networking section allows you to configure networking options. These settings are optional for the creation of the storage account and can be configured later if desired. For more information on these options, see Azure Files networking considerations.

Data protection

The data protection section allows you to configure the soft-delete policy for Azure file shares in your storage account. Other settings related to soft-delete for blobs, containers, point-in-time restore for containers, versioning, and change feed apply only to Azure Blob storage.

Advanced

The advanced section contains several important settings for Azure file shares:

Secure transfer required: This field indicates whether the storage account requires encryption in transit for communication to the storage account. If you require SMB 2.1 support, you must disable this.

:::image type="content" source="media/storage-how-to-create-file-share/files-create-smb-share-secure-transfer.png" alt-text="A screenshot of secure transfer enabled in the advanced settings for the storage account.":::
Large file shares: This field enables the storage account for file shares spanning up to 100 TiB. Enabling this feature will limit your storage account to only locally redundant and zone redundant storage options. Once a GPv2 storage account has been enabled for large file shares, you cannot disable the large file share capability. FileStorage storage accounts (storage accounts for premium file shares) do not have this option, as all premium file shares can scale up to 100 TiB.

:::image type="content" source="media/storage-how-to-create-file-share/files-create-smb-share-large-file-shares.png" alt-text="A screenshot of the large file share setting in the storage account's advanced blade.":::

The other settings that are available in the advanced tab (hierarchical namespace for Azure Data Lake storage gen 2, default blob tier, NFSv3 for blob storage, etc.) do not apply to Azure Files.

Important

Selecting the blob access tier does not affect the tier of the file share.

Review + create

The final step to create the storage account is to select the Create button on the Review + create tab. This button won't be available if all of the required fields for a storage account are not filled.

PowerShell

To create a storage account using PowerShell, we will use the New-AzStorageAccount cmdlet. This cmdlet has many options; only the required options are shown. To learn more about advanced options, see the New-AzStorageAccount cmdlet documentation.

To simplify the creation of the storage account and subsequent file share, we will store several parameters in variables. You may replace the variable contents with whatever values you wish, however note that the storage account name must be globally unique.

$resourceGroupName = "myResourceGroup"
$storageAccountName = "mystorageacct$(Get-Random)"
$region = "westus2"

To create a storage account capable of storing standard Azure file shares, we will use the following command. The -SkuName parameter relates to the type of redundancy desired; if you desire a geo-redundant or geo-zone-redundant storage account, you must also remove the -EnableLargeFileShare parameter.

$storAcct = New-AzStorageAccount `
    -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
    -Name $storageAccountName `
    -SkuName Standard_LRS `
    -Location $region `
    -Kind StorageV2 `
    -EnableLargeFileShare

To create a storage account capable of storing premium Azure file shares, we will use the following command. Note that the -SkuName parameter has changed to include both Premium and the desired redundancy level of locally redundant (LRS). The -Kind parameter is FileStorage instead of StorageV2 because premium file shares must be created in a FileStorage storage account instead of a GPv2 storage account.

$storAcct = New-AzStorageAccount `
    -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
    -Name $storageAccountName `
    -SkuName Premium_LRS `
    -Location $region `
    -Kind FileStorage

Azure CLI

To create a storage account using the Azure CLI, we will use the az storage account create command. This command has many options; only the required options are shown. To learn more about the advanced options, see the az storage account create command documentation.

To simplify the creation of the storage account and subsequent file share, we will store several parameters in variables. You may replace the variable contents with whatever values you wish, however note that the storage account name must be globally unique.

resourceGroupName="myResourceGroup"
storageAccountName="mystorageacct$RANDOM"
region="westus2"

To create a storage account capable of storing standard Azure file shares, we will use the following command. The --sku parameter relates to the type of redundancy desired; if you desire a geo-redundant or geo-zone-redundant storage account, you must also remove the --enable-large-file-share parameter.

az storage account create \
    --resource-group $resourceGroupName \
    --name $storageAccountName \
    --kind StorageV2 \
    --sku Standard_ZRS \
    --enable-large-file-share \
    --output none

To create a storage account capable of storing premium Azure file shares, we will use the following command. Note that the --sku parameter has changed to include both Premium and the desired redundancy level of locally redundant (LRS). The --kind parameter is FileStorage instead of StorageV2 because premium file shares must be created in a FileStorage storage account instead of a GPv2 storage account.

az storage account create \
    --resource-group $resourceGroupName \
    --name $storageAccountName \
    --kind FileStorage \
    --sku Premium_LRS \
    --output none

Enable large files shares on an existing account

Before you create an Azure file share on an existing storage account, you may want to enable it for large file shares (up to 100 TiB) if you haven't already. Standard storage accounts using either LRS or ZRS can be upgraded to support large file shares without causing downtime for existing file shares on the storage account. If you have a GRS, GZRS, RA-GRS, or RA-GZRS account, you will need to convert it to an LRS account before proceeding.

Portal

Open the Azure portal, and navigate to the storage account where you want to enable large file shares.
Open the storage account and select File shares.
Select Enabled on Large file shares, and then select Save.
Select Overview and select Refresh.
Select Share capacity then select 100 TiB and Save.

:::image type="content" source="media/storage-files-how-to-create-large-file-share/files-enable-large-file-share-existing-account.png" alt-text="Screenshot of the storage account, file shares blade with 100 TiB shares highlighted.":::

PowerShell

To enable large file shares on your existing storage account, use the following command. Replace <yourStorageAccountName> and <yourResourceGroup> with your information.

Set-AzStorageAccount `
    -ResourceGroupName <yourResourceGroup> `
    -Name <yourStorageAccountName> `
    -EnableLargeFileShare

Azure CLI

To enable large file shares on your existing storage account, use the following command. Replace <yourStorageAccountName> and <yourResourceGroup> with your information.

az storage account update --name <yourStorageAccountName> -g <yourResourceGroup> --enable-large-file-share

Create a file share

Once you've created your storage account, you can create your file share. This process is mostly the same regardless of whether you're using a premium file share or a standard file share. You should consider the following differences:

Standard file shares may be deployed into one of the standard tiers: transaction optimized (default), hot, or cool. This is a per file share tier that is not affected by the blob access tier of the storage account (this property only relates to Azure Blob storage - it does not relate to Azure Files at all). You can change the tier of the share at any time after it has been deployed. Premium file shares cannot be directly converted to any standard tier.

Important

You can move file shares between tiers within GPv2 storage account types (transaction optimized, hot, and cool). Share moves between tiers incur transactions: moving from a hotter tier to a cooler tier will incur the cooler tier's write transaction charge for each file in the share, while a move from a cooler tier to a hotter tier will incur the cool tier's read transaction charge for each file the share.

The quota property means something slightly different between premium and standard file shares:

For standard file shares, it's an upper boundary of the Azure file share, beyond which end-users cannot go. If a quota is not specified, standard file shares can span up to 100 TiB (or 5 TiB if the large file shares property is not set for a storage account). If you did not create your storage account with large file shares enabled, see Enable large files shares on an existing account for how to enable 100 TiB file shares.
For premium file shares, quota means provisioned size. The provisioned size is the amount that you will be billed for, regardless of actual usage. The IOPS and throughput available on a premium file share is based on the provisioned size. For more information on how to plan for a premium file share, see provisioning premium file shares.

Portal

If you just created your storage account, you can navigate to it from the deployment screen by selecting Go to resource. Once in the storage account, select the File shares in the table of contents for the storage account.

In the file share listing, you should see any file shares you have previously created in this storage account; an empty table if no file shares have been created yet. Select + File share to create a new file share.

The new file share blade should appear on the screen. Complete the fields in the new file share blade to create a file share:

Name: the name of the file share to be created.
Quota: the quota of the file share for standard file shares; the provisioned size of the file share for premium file shares. For standard file shares, the quota will also determine what performance you receive.
Tiers: the selected tier for a file share. This field is only available in a general purpose (GPv2) storage account. You can choose transaction optimized, hot, or cool. The share's tier can be changed at any time. We recommend picking the hottest tier possible during a migration, to minimize transaction expenses, and then switching to a lower tier if desired after the migration is complete.

Select Create to finishing creating the new share.

PowerShell

You can create an Azure file share with the New-AzRmStorageShare cmdlet. The following PowerShell commands assume you have set the variables $resourceGroupName and $storageAccountName as defined above in the creating a storage account with Azure PowerShell section.

The following example shows creating a file share with an explicit tier using the -AccessTier parameter. If a tier is not specified, the default tier for standard file shares is transaction optimized.

Important

For premium file shares, the -QuotaGiB parameter refers to the provisioned size of the file share. The provisioned size of the file share is the amount you will be billed for, regardless of usage. Standard file shares are billed based on usage rather than provisioned size.

# Assuming $resourceGroupName and $storageAccountName from earlier in this document have already
# been populated. The access tier parameter may be TransactionOptimized, Hot, or Cool for GPv2 
# storage accounts. Standard tiers are only available in standard storage accounts. 
$shareName = "myshare"

New-AzRmStorageShare `
        -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
        -StorageAccountName $storageAccountName `
        -Name $shareName `
        -AccessTier TransactionOptimized `
        -QuotaGiB 1024 | `
    Out-Null

Azure CLI

You can create an Azure file share with the az storage share-rm create command. The following Azure CLI commands assume you have set the variables $resourceGroupName and $storageAccountName as defined above in the creating a storage account with Azure CLI section.

Important

For premium file shares, the --quota parameter refers to the provisioned size of the file share. The provisioned size of the file share is the amount you will be billed for, regardless of usage. Standard file shares are billed based on usage rather than provisioned size.

shareName="myshare"

az storage share-rm create \
    --resource-group $resourceGroupName \
    --storage-account $storageAccountName \
    --name $shareName \
    --access-tier "TransactionOptimized" \
    --quota 1024 \
    --output none

Note

The name of your file share must be all lowercase. For complete details about naming file shares and files, see Naming and referencing shares, directories, files, and metadata.

Change the tier of an Azure file share

File shares deployed in general purpose v2 (GPv2) storage account can be in the transaction optimized, hot, or cool tiers. You can change the tier of the Azure file share at any time, subject to transaction costs as described above.

Portal

On the main storage account page, select File shares select the tile labeled File shares (you can also navigate to File shares via the table of contents for the storage account).

:::image type="content" source="media/storage-files-quick-create-use-windows/click-files.png" alt-text="Screenshot of storage account blade, file shares selected.":::

In the table list of file shares, select the file share for which you would like to change the tier. On the file share overview page, select Change tier from the menu.

On the resulting dialog, select the desired tier: transaction optimized, hot, or cool.

PowerShell

The following PowerShell cmdlet assumes that you have set the $resourceGroupName, $storageAccountName, $shareName variables as described in the earlier sections of this document.

Update-AzRmStorageShare `
    -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
    -StorageAccountName $storageAccountName `
    -Name $shareName `
    -AccessTier Cool

Azure CLI

The following Azure CLI command assumes that you have set the $resourceGroupName, $storageAccountName, and $shareName variables as described in the earlier sections of this document.

az storage share-rm update \
    --resource-group $resourceGroupName \
    --storage-account $storageAccountName \
    --name $shareName \
    --access-tier "Cool"

Expand existing file shares

If you enable large file shares on an existing storage account, you must expand existing file shares in that storage account to take advantage of the increased capacity and scale.

Portal

From your storage account, select File shares.
Right-click your file share, and then select Quota.
Enter the new size that you want, and then select OK.

PowerShell

To set the quota to the maximum size, use the following command. Replace <YourResourceGroupName>, <YourStorageAccountName>, and <YourStorageAccountFileShareName> with your information.

$resourceGroupName = "<YourResourceGroupName>"
$storageAccountName = "<YourStorageAccountName>"
$shareName="<YourStorageAccountFileShareName>"

# update quota
Update-AzRmStorageShare `
    -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
    -StorageAccountName $storageAccountName `
    -Name $shareName `
    -QuotaGiB 102400

Azure CLI

To set the quota to the maximum size, use the following command. Replace <yourResourceGroupName>, <yourStorageAccountName>, and <yourFileShareName> with your information.

az storage share-rm update \
    --resource-group <yourResourceGroupName> \
    --storage-account <yourStorageAccountName> \
    --name <yourFileShareName> \
    --quota 102400

Next steps

Plan for a deployment of Azure Files or Plan for a deployment of Azure File Sync.
Networking overview.
Connect and mount a file share on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

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storage-how-to-create-file-share.md

storage-how-to-create-file-share.md

Create an Azure file share

Applies to

Prerequisites

Create a storage account

Portal

Basics

Networking

Data protection

Advanced

Tags

Review + create

PowerShell

Azure CLI

Enable large files shares on an existing account

Portal

PowerShell

Azure CLI

Create a file share

Portal

PowerShell

Azure CLI

Change the tier of an Azure file share

Portal

PowerShell

Azure CLI

Expand existing file shares

Portal

PowerShell

Azure CLI

Next steps

Files

storage-how-to-create-file-share.md

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storage-how-to-create-file-share.md

File metadata and controls

Create an Azure file share

Applies to

Prerequisites

Create a storage account

Basics

Networking

Data protection

Advanced

Tags

Review + create

Enable large files shares on an existing account

Create a file share

Change the tier of an Azure file share

Expand existing file shares

Next steps