what is the best / easiest / cheapest / good performance way to set up a file share in Azure that will be accessed by local user apps through a drive share?

To set up a file share in Azure that can be accessed by local applications through a drive share, Azure Files is the recommended solution. Azure Files allows you to create file shares in the cloud that can be mounted on on-premises machines using the SMB (Server Message Block) protocol. This setup will enable your local applications to access files as if they were on a local drive, which is essential since they are hard-coded to specific drive letters.

Here are the steps to achieve this:

1. Create an Azure File Share: You can create an Azure file share in your Azure storage account. This share can hold the files that your applications need.
2. Mount the Azure File Share: On your on-premises PCs, you can map the Azure file share to a drive letter (e.g., E:). This can be done using the Windows Explorer or command line, allowing your applications to access the files directly.
3. Use Azure File Sync: If you need to keep a local copy of the files or require better performance, consider using Azure File Sync. This service allows you to cache Azure file shares on your local servers, providing fast access to frequently used files while keeping everything in sync with the cloud.
4. Consider Performance and Cost: Azure Files offers different storage tiers (SSD and HDD) to balance performance and cost. For your use case, since the total size is only about 2 GB and you expect more than 20 connections, SSD file shares might be a good fit for low latency and high performance.

This approach should meet your requirements for cloud storage while allowing your local applications to function without modification.

Hi IT,

Thanks for posting question in Microsoft Q&A forum,

what is the best / easiest / cheapest / good performance way to set up a file share in Azure that will be accessed by local user apps through a drive share?

You can use Azure Files with Premium tier using the Provisioned v2 billing model (SSD storage with Local-redundant storage) - this is Microsoft's officially recommended solution for your scenario of mapping a 2 GB file share as E: drive on more than 20 on-premises Windows PCs for legacy applications that are hard-coded to specific drive letters.

• Easiest: Native SMB 3.1.1 - apps see E: drive unchanged (SharePoint failed due to WebDAV)​
• Cheapest: $0.15-0.40/mo (5 GiB provisioned) vs $15+ VM​
• Best Performance: 3,000 IOPS baseline (bursts 10K+), <10ms latency​
• Cyberattack Protection: Immutable snapshots, AD auth, private endpoints.

Map Drive on Each PC (Run PowerShell as Administrator):

# Test network connectivity first
$connectTestResult = Test-NetConnection -ComputerName yourstorageaccount.file.core.windows.net -Port 445
if ($connectTestResult.TcpTestSucceeded) {
    # Store credentials securely for persistent mapping
    cmd.exe /C "cmdkey /add:`"yourstorageaccount.file.core.windows.net`" /user:`"Azure\yourstorageaccount`" /pass:`"YOUR_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_KEY`""
    
    # Map persistent E: drive
    New-PSDrive -Name "E" -PSProvider FileSystem -Root "\\yourstorageaccount.file.core.windows.net\yoursharename" -Persist
    Write-Host "E: drive successfully mapped to Azure Files!" -ForegroundColor Green
} else {
    Write-Error "Port 445 blocked by ISP/firewall. Solutions:"
    Write-Host "- Deploy Azure Point-to-Site VPN (tunnels SMB over TCP 443)"
    Write-Host "- Use Azure File Sync with local caching server" -ForegroundColor Yellow
}

Reference:

• Understand Azure Files Billing | Microsoft Learn
• Mount SMB Azure File Share on Windows | Microsoft Learn
• Azure Files Pricing | Microsoft Azure

Kindly let us know if the above helps or you need further assistance on this issue. 

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