Mount an Azure File share and access the share in Windows

• 04/11/2018
• 4 minutes to read
• Contributors
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Azure Files is Microsoft's easy-to-use cloud file system. Azure File shares can be mounted in Windows and Windows Server. This article shows three different ways to mount an Azure File share on Windows: with the File Explorer UI, via PowerShell, and via the Command Prompt.

In order to mount an Azure File share outside of the Azure region it is hosted in, such as on-premises or in a different Azure region, the OS must support SMB 3.0.

You can mount Azure File shares on a Windows installation that is running either in an Azure VM or on-premises. The following table illustrates which OS versions support mounting file shares in which environment:

¹Windows Server version 1709.
²Windows 10 versions 1507, 1607, 1703, and 1709.

Prerequisites for Mounting Azure File Share with Windows

• Storage Account Name: To mount an Azure File share, you will need the name of the storage account.

• Storage Account Key: To mount an Azure File share, you will need the primary (or secondary) storage key. SAS keys are not currently supported for mounting.

• Ensure port 445 is open: Azure Files uses SMB protocol. SMB communicates over TCP port 445 - check to see if your firewall is not blocking TCP ports 445 from client machine. You can use Portqry to check whether the TCP port 445 is open. If the TCP port 445 is displayed as filtered, the TCP port is blocked. Here is an example query:

  g:\DataDump\Tools\Portqry>PortQry.exe -n [storage account name].file.core.windows.net -p TCP -e 445

  If TCP port 445 is blocked by a rule along the network path, you will see the following output:

  TCP port 445 (Microsoft-ds service): FILTERED

  For more information about how to use Portqry, see Description of the Portqry.exe command-line utility.

Persisting connections across reboots

CmdKey

The easiest way to establish a persistent connection is to save your storage account credentials into windows using the “CmdKey” command-line utility. The following is an example command-line for persisting your storage account credentials into your VM:

C:\>cmdkey /add:<yourstorageaccountname>.file.core.windows.net /user:<domainname>\<yourstorageaccountname> /pass:<YourStorageAccountKeyWhichEndsIn==>

CmdKey will also allow you to list the credentials it stored:

C:\>cmdkey /list

Output will be as follows:

Currently stored credentials:

Target: Domain:target=<yourstorageaccountname>.file.core.windows.net
Type: Domain Password
User: AZURE\<yourstorageaccountname>

Once the credentials have been persisted, you no longer have to supply them when connecting to your share. Instead you can connect without specifying any credentials.

Mount the Azure File share with File Explorer

1. Open File Explorer: This can be done by opening from the Start Menu, or by pressing Win+E shortcut.

2. Navigate to the "This PC" item on the left-hand side of the window. This will change the menus available in the ribbon. Under the Computer menu, select "Map Network Drive".

   

3. Copy the UNC path from the "Connect" pane in the Azure portal.

   

4. Select the Drive letter and enter the UNC path.

   

5. Use the Storage Account Name prepended with Azure\ as the username and a Storage Account Key as the password.

   

6. Use Azure File share as desired.

   

7. When you are ready to dismount (or disconnect) the Azure File share, you can do so by right-clicking on the entry for the share under the "Network locations" in File Explorer and selecting "Disconnect".

Mount the Azure File share with PowerShell

1. Use the following command to mount the Azure File share: Remember to replace <storage-account-name>, <share-name>, <storage-account-key>, <desired-drive-letter> with the proper information.

   $acctKey = ConvertTo-SecureString -String "<storage-account-key>" -AsPlainText -Force
   $credential = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList "Azure\<storage-account-name>", $acctKey
   New-PSDrive -Name <desired-drive-letter> -PSProvider FileSystem -Root "\\<storage-account-name>.file.core.windows.net\<share-name>" -Credential $credential
   

2. Use the Azure File share as desired.

3. When you are finished, dismount the Azure File share using the following command.

   Remove-PSDrive -Name <desired-drive-letter>
   

Mount the Azure File share with Command Prompt

1. Use the following command to mount the Azure File share: Remember to replace <storage-account-name>, <share-name>, <storage-account-key>, <desired-drive-letter> with the proper information.

   net use <desired-drive-letter>: \\<storage-account-name>.file.core.windows.net\<share-name> <storage-account-key> /user:Azure\<storage-account-name>
   

2. Use the Azure File share as desired.

3. When you are finished, dismount the Azure File share using the following command.

   net use <desired-drive-letter>: /delete
   

cmdkey /add:<storage-account-name>.file.core.windows.net /user:AZURE\<storage-account-name> /pass:<storage-account-key>

Next steps

See these links for more information about Azure Files.

• FAQ
• Troubleshooting on Windows

Conceptual articles and videos

• Azure Files: a frictionless cloud SMB file system for Windows and Linux
• How to use Azure Files with Linux

Tooling support for Azure Files

• How to use AzCopy with Microsoft Azure Storage
• Using the Azure CLI with Azure Storage
• Troubleshooting Azure Files problems - Windows
• Troubleshooting Azure Files problems - Linux

Blog posts

• Azure Files is now generally available
• Inside Azure Files
• Introducing Microsoft Azure File Service
• Migrating data to Azure File

Reference

• Storage Client Library for .NET reference
• File Service REST API reference