Using Azure Files with a Linux VM

Create a file that will contain the Samba credentials for the storage account. Note that for the file name, you should enter your unique service account name:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/smbcredentials

sudo vi /etc/smbcredentials/<STORAGE_ACCOUNT_NAME>.cred

Store the Samba user (storage account name) and password (storage account key) in the file. Input your unique storage account name and key, which you can find via Azure portal.

The file should look like this:

username=<STORAGE_ACCOUNT_NAME>
password=<STORAGE_ACCOUNT_KEY>

Set permissions on the credential file so that only root can read it:

sudo chmod 600 /etc/smbcredentials/<STORAGE_ACCOUNT_NAME>.cred

Create a directory for the mount:

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/sattrecords

Edit the fstab file:

sudo vi /etc/fstab

At the end of the file, add a line to automatically mount the Azure file share whenever the server starts up:

//<STORAGE_ACCOUNT_NAME>.file.core.windows.net/records /mnt/sattrecords cifs nofail,vers=3.0,credentials=/etc/smbcredentials/<STORAGE_ACCOUNT_NAME>.cred,serverino

Mount the file share by mounting all filesystems in fstab.

sudo mount -a

Browse the mounted directory. You should see files there that are stored in the Azure file share:

cd /mnt/sattrecords

ls -la

Test your ability to write to the Azure file share by creating a test file:

sudo vi test_file.txt

Write some text to your test file and save it. If you wish, you can navigate to the file share in the Azure portal and view your new file there.