Using NFS with Azure Blob Storage as a Volume

Azure Blob Storage is an economical data storage option on Azure and supplies much of the infrastructure for Azure storage in general. With NFS though, it allows Azure Blob Storage to be mounted as part of a the file system for a Windows or Linux VM, opening up a wide array of possible options for apps, both old and new, to take advantage of Blob Storage on a VM.

Enable the Feature with Azure CLI

az feature register --namespace Microsoft.Storage --name AllowNFSV3
az feature register --namespace Microsoft.Storage --name PremiumHns

Mount Storage in Windows:

Enable Read/Write access in Windows:

New-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ClientForNFS\CurrentVersion\Default -Name AnonymousUid -PropertyType DWord -Value 0
New-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ClientForNFS\CurrentVersion\Default -Name AnonymousGid -PropertyType DWord -Value 0

Mount Storage using Linux

Twitter:

[BhanuFamily]

Simple and crisp, Thanks for the knowledge.
A quick question, I am getting only about 110Mbps speed when uploading the data to the storage mount container - is there any performance limitations for NFS exclusive?

[ThehrStruggle]

I've mounted the drive but I can't access my container via Windows just getting Windows cannot access then the path. My use case is Local Workgroups i.e. no AD or Azure AD in the mix. Where do you set permissions to ensure that I can actually write data to the location? I'm hoping to configure SQL to dump backups to it natively in SMSS.

[anushibinj]

Great tutorial! Can you please give any hints on how I can access the mount publically? I do NOT want to create an Azure VM to access the files. I need it on my local PC.

[martijn]

works fine .. only one problem .. Q Drive doesn't appear in File Explorer .. Q: drive in cmd.exe works fine . .any idea?

[CyberPodcast]

Blake, I am trying to mount blob storage on my windows 10 machine. I keep getting the "Network Error -53." Have you come across such errors? Also, are you using all your virtual machines in Azure or do you have P2S or S2S set up on your network?

[ninghu]

Thanks for the instructions! I ran into an issue when trying it out. When using the mounted share in (Windows server 2019) I get an "Invalid device" error when I create new folder or file, or when trying to rename an existing file. Seems like I can only create the default named files. Is that an issue with windows NFS client? Is there a workaround?

[coloradogolfer]

Good tutorial... how would you mount the drive at boot keeping it persistent?

[afzaalawan]

can we connect a blob in windows to a drive letter (we can connect Fileshare though)

[Bhuvnesh]

Can blob storage be mounted on linux containers ?