Azure Files gives totally managed file shares within the cloud you can entry from wherever utilizing normal protocols akin to Server Message Block (SMB) or Network File System (NFS).
Since asserting the final availability of assist for the Network File System (NFS) v4.1 protocol again in December 2021, we’ve got seen prospects leveraging this functionality for all kinds of vital use circumstances together with enterprise useful resource planning (ERP) options, growth and take a look at environments (devops), content material administration techniques (CMS), and mission crucial workloads like SAP. We’re thrilled to share that SAP ECS has adopted Azure Files NFS because the default alternative for deploying SAP InternetWeaver servers and SAP HANA shared directories on Azure. SAP’s resolution to incorporate Azure file shares is a testomony to the truth that they’re a cheap alternative for mission crucial workloads requiring excessive efficiency and excessive availability. We’ve additionally continued to take heed to buyer suggestions and are very excited to announce a number of extremely anticipated options, together with a 99.99 % uptime SLA, snapshot assist, and nconnect.
NFS Azure file shares are actually the default choice for SAP Enterprise Cloud Services (ECS) deployments
Azure file shares present the performance, efficiency, and reliability required to maintain your SAP purposes operating easily. Being a completely managed service brings simplicity and extra price effectiveness than options, akin to constructing NFS cluster (DRDB) file shares, particularly when contemplating redundancy. SAP and Microsoft partnered to carefully validate the usage of Azure Files in high-availability deployments for Azure SAP RISE, the place it’s now supplied by default for deployment of SAP InternetWeaver servers and SAP HANA shared directories. We’re excited that SAP themselves have chosen Azure Files to assist energy lots of the world’s largest and most advanced workloads.
“Partnering with Microsoft and the Azure Files team was very productive. Our teams worked closely together to enable new highly available solutions around NFS shares and lower cost structures. The zonal replication capabilities that Azure Files provides strengthen and simplify SAP RISE architectures on Azure beyond what we could deploy with any other technology on Azure. We expect to reduce costs both directly and indirectly by using this service. With the lower time-to-market now achieved with this simplified architecture, we can bootstrap more deployments rather quickly and earn new business.”—Lalit Patil, Chief Technology Officer, SAP Enterprise Cloud Services.
To be taught extra about operating SAP workloads on Azure, see the next articles:
Additionally, you need to use Azure Center for SAP Solutions (Preview) to deploy a extremely accessible S4/HANA system with NFS on Azure Files.
One such buyer, Germany-based Munich Re benefited from utilizing Azure Files NFS with its SAP deployments. Munich Re, one of many world’s main insurance coverage corporations, runs one of many largest SAP environments in Europe. Munich Re took a eager curiosity in Azure Files and has been utilizing it in manufacturing because the NFS protocol grew to become usually accessible. With Azure Files, they will rapidly deploy a file share with only a few clicks. It used to take Munich Re from 4 to 6 months so as to add sources, however with SAP on Azure and their infrastructure automation, they will now do it inside an hour.
“We love how easy Azure Files is to use and manage, and we certainly appreciate its interoperability with other Azure services. And having a fully managed service eliminates the burden and costs of managing NFS servers.”—Matthias Spang, Technical Architect for SAP Solutions, Munich Re.
High-availability (HA) SAP options want a extremely accessible file share for internet hosting sapmnt, transport, and interface directories. You can use Azure Files premium NFS with availability units and availability zones.
Figure 1 – High-availability (HA) SAP InternetWeaver system with Azure Files.
A extremely accessible SAP HANA system in a scale-out configuration with HANA system replication (HSR) and Pacemaker wants shared file techniques for storing shared recordsdata between all hosts in an SAP HANA system. You can use Azure Files premium NFS for satisfying this usecase.
Figure 2 – Azure Files NFS for SAP HANA scale-out system with Pacemaker cluster. Note: Azure Files is used for /hana/shared and never used for storing DBMS or logs.
New SLA of 99.99 % uptime for Azure Files Premium Tier is mostly accessible
In at present’s world of digital enterprise, downtime shouldn’t be an choice. Azure Files now provides a 99.99 % SLA per file share for its Premium Tier. The new 99.99 % uptime SLA applies to all Azure Files Premium shares, no matter protocol (SMB, NFS, and REST) or redundancy sort (Locally Redundant Storage (LRS) or Zonally Redundant Storage (ZRS)). This means you can profit from this SLA instantly, with none configuration modifications or further prices.
With this new SLA, you will be assured that your information is extremely accessible. If the supply drops under the assured 99.99 % uptime, you’re eligible for service credit.
Furthermore, Azure Files provides a ZRS answer with twelve 9’s sturdiness. This means you’ll be able to belief that your information is protected, even within the face of {hardware} failures or different surprising occasions.
With the brand new 99.99 % uptime SLA for Azure Files Premium Tier, you’ll be able to have a excessive stage of confidence and assurance that your information is all the time accessible. By leveraging the most recent in cloud applied sciences and options, Azure Files delivers a dependable and sturdy storage answer that may meet the wants of even probably the most demanding workloads.
Snapshot assist for NFS file shares (Preview)
While it’s uncommon, information corruption or unintentional deletion can occur to anybody, and you have to be protected. File share snapshots defend your information from these occasions by making certain you will have a crash constant dataset to get better from. File share snapshots seize the share state at a cut-off date, are immutable (read-only), and are differential (delta copies to maintain your TCO low).
Snapshots are simple to handle and use in Azure Files. The creation of a snapshot is instantaneous. Once created, you’ll be able to handle snapshots utilizing the Azure portal, REST API, Azure CLI, or PowerShell. Enumeration of snapshots, looking of file or folders, and copying of information is supported from throughout the NFS purchasers below the “.snapshots” folder which is current on the root of the mountpath.
Figure 3 – List, browse, and replica out of your snapshots from any linked shopper.
Data safety is a key enterprise promise and a compliance requirement for a lot of organizations. To date, our prospects have fulfilled this requirement by doing their very own replication or utilizing considered one of our backup companions to repeat the first information from the share to a different location. You can use snapshots to boost these options. By replicating from snapshots as a substitute of the first share, you’ll be able to be sure that the info being copied is all from a selected cut-off date.
Are you as excited as we’re? If so, you’ll be able to fill out the enrollment type to get knowledgeable of the supply of this preview characteristic within the area of your alternative.
Boosting per-client efficiency with NFS nconnect is mostly accessible
Azure Files just lately introduced assist for nconnect on its NFS shares. By utilizing nconnect, you’ll be able to enhance a multi-core shopper’s throughput and IOPS as much as 4 occasions with out making any modifications to the app itself. Previously, purposes had been restricted by the bandwidth of a single core utilizing a single TCP connection. Nconnect is good for throughput-intensive eventualities like information ingestion, analytics, machine studying, devops, ETL pipelines, batch processing, and extra. For instance, monetary providers performing Value at Risk (VaR) Monte Carlo or machine studying mannequin information simulations operating on the Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) with Azure Files can now carry out extra threat calculations with fewer shopper machines of their AKS node swimming pools. With the parallelism that nconnect permits, you’ll be able to full your throughput-intensive simulations in much less time, permitting you to scale down the compute sources sooner and scale back general TCO.
In addition to delivering larger efficiency, nconnect enhances fault tolerance by permitting the shopper to change to another TCP connection within the occasion of a connection failure. By enabling the shopper to make use of a number of connections, nconnect gives better flexibility and cargo balancing for machines with a number of community paths.
Using nconnect is easy. For instance, to make use of 4 channels on a Linux VM, merely add “-o nconnect=4” parameter to the mount command. You can use nconnect along with your AKS cluster as a persistent quantity by utilizing the identical Azure Files NFS CSI driver and including “-nconnect=4” below “mountoptions”. Nconnect is accessible in all areas the place NFS is supported at no further price. Please go to our product web page to be taught extra.
Up to 1100 MiB/s single shopper write throughput
Up to 1700 MiB/s single shopper learn throughput
Learn extra
Learn the right way to create an NFS Azure file share.
Check out NFS FAQ for extra data.
With these new options, Azure Files NFS is poised to energy much more of the world’s largest and most advanced workloads, delivering superior performance, efficiency, and reliability to prospects throughout a variety of industries and use circumstances. We imagine that the brand new 99.99 % SLA, snapshot capabilities, and better efficiency with nconnect will unlock many extra use circumstances and purposes. We’re excited to see the way you reap the benefits of these new capabilities!
If you will have a characteristic request or suggestions, don’t hesitate to succeed in out to the Azure Files group by emailing azurefiles@microsoft.com or filling out this type.