Can a blob storage container be presented as file share in windows

Question

Can a blob storage container be presented as file share in windows.

I am aware this can be done with file share in Azure but no option for blob container it seems.

Thanks

Brijesh

Answer 1

Hello Pathak, Brijesh,

Greetings! Welcome to Microsoft Q&A Platform.

I understand that you would like to mount blob storage on your Windows VM to share files and folders.

Mounting as NFS 3.0 is available with Linux VMs. Although not officially supported, some users have been able to configure this to work with Windows VMs. You can check this video for steps on how some have performed this & reference doc here - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/network-file-system-protocol-support-how-to?tabs=windows.

Blob storage was not designed to be a filesystem and I would recommend using Azure Files.

That being said there are a few options that you can explore. Accessing Blob Storage through AzCopy or Azure Storage Explorer. You can also consider using SFTP for blob storage.

refer - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/data-share/how-to-share-from-storage for some possible ways to share and receive data in Blob storage.

Similar SO thread for reference - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/56010675/how-can-we-mount-azure-blob-storage-as-a-network-drive-in-windows, https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60417089/link-azure-blob-storage-to-computer.

Hope this answer helps! Please let us know if you have any further queries. I’m happy to assist you further.

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Answer 2

Hi Brijesh,

Unfortunately Microsoft doesn't provide capability to mount blob container as a drive in windows. They had a driver for it years ago to support a discontinued Azure service, but the driver isn't available.

What you can consider is third-party paid tool called CloudBerry Drive. It allows you to mount a container as a drive in windows. When I played with it long time ago it seemed to work okay.

Please click Accept Answer and upvote if the above was helpful.

Thanks.

-TP

Answer 3

Hello @Pathak, Brijesh

Thanks for reaching out in the Microsoft Q&A!

No, a blob storage container in Azure cannot be directly presented as a file share in Windows. Blob storage and Azure file storage serve different purposes. Blob storage is optimized for storing unstructured data accessed through code or APIs, while Azure file shares provide a traditional file system interface for shared storage needs. However, alternatives like Azure Files, Azure Storage Explorer can offer similar functionalities for accessing blob data from a Windows environment.

If you found this solution helpful, consider accepting it.