Azure NetApp Files

Overview

Azure NetApp Files is a high-performance, enterprise-class file storage service that provides scalable and flexible file shares using protocols like NFS and SMB. It supports multiple performance tiers and integrates seamlessly with Azure services, offering a robust solution for file storage needs.

Core Functionality

1. High-Performance Storage: Offers all-flash performance with submillisecond latency, suitable for performance-intensive workloads.
2. Multi-Protocol Support: Supports NFSv3, NFSv4.1, SMB 3.0, and SMB 3.1.1, allowing seamless integration with existing infrastructure.
3. Flexible Performance Tiers: Provides three performance tiers—Standard, Premium, and Ultra—to meet different workload requirements.
4. Scalability: Easily resize file volumes from 50 GiB up to 100 TiB without downtime.
5. Data Management and Security: Includes features like data encryption at rest, role-based access control (RBAC), and Active Directory authentication.

Throughput calculation (service levels)

• Attributable to a capacity pool
• Differentiated by the volume size and storage type
• A bigger volume improves throughput

Service levels

Per 1 TiB of storage

Ultra; 128 MiB/s

Premium; 64 MiB/s

Standard; 16 MiB/s

Throughput calculation for capacity pools | auto QoS

• The throughout for the entire capacity pool is determined automatically based on
  • Service level
  • Volume quota

Example 1; a 2 TiB volume on a premium service level would have a throughput of 128 MiB/s (2 TiB * 64 MiB/s)

Example 2; a 100 GiB volume on a premium service level would have a throughout of 6.4 MiB/s (0.1 TiB * 64 MiB/s)

Throughout calculation for capacity pools | manual QoS

• Manual QoS allows you to set the throughput in MiB/s per volume within the capacity pool
• The total volume throughput depends on the size of the capacity pool and the service level
• It is capped by (capacity pool size TiB x service level throughput TiB/s)
• You divide the volumes up so combined they do not exceed the throughout of the capacity pool

Example 1; a 10 TiB capacity pool on a premium service level would have a throughput of 1280 MiB/s (10 TiB x 128 MiB/s). You can then divide this pool into different volumes and assigned different throughput values to each volume that amounted to 1280 MiB/s.

Pricing

Azure NetApp Files offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model, with costs depending on the performance tier and storage usage. This ensures a cost-effective solution for various file storage needs.

References

• What is Azure NetApp Files | Microsoft Learn
• Azure NetApp Files | Microsoft Azure