This page provides a guide for configuring an Azure Storage service (Azure Files and Azure Blobs) as a Storage Target in Verba.

The Azure file storage can be accessed with two different methods:

Azure Files and Azure Blobs can be accessed through a REST API
Alternatively, Azure Files can be accessed via SMB protocol. Both SMB 2.1 and SMB 3.0 are supported.

Configuration guidance is shown for both options below.

The advantages of using Azure Storage are:

Highly scalable: Storage keeps pace with your growing data needs, delivering petabytes of storage for the largest scenarios. Whether you're building modern applications or a high-scale big data application, Storage can handle it.
Data is accessible globally: Storage is available in a lot of regions, letting you store your data where it makes the most business sense. Scale up or across data centers as needed, and be closer to your customers for faster access and better performance.
Durable and highly available: Storage automatically replicates your data and maintains multiple copies—either in a single region or globally with geo-redundancy—to help guard against unexpected hardware failures.

For a general description of storage targets, please refer to Storage and export targets.

Immutable Blob Storage

For more information regarding the use of Immutable Blob Storages, see: Immutable Blob Storage

Accessing Azure Files through a REST API

Creating an Azure Storage target

Follow the steps below to create a new Verba storage target for Azure Storage:

Step 1 - Open the Verba Web interface then select Data > Storage targets from the top menu.

Step 2 - Click on Add New Storage Target

Step 3 - Fill in the configuration form according to the requirements in the following table.

Configuration item	Description
Name	Name your storage target. This name will identify this target across the system
Type	Select Microsoft Azure Storage
Azure Service	Azure Files
File Share Name	There is an access URL shown in Azure. From this URL, the <share name> attribute should be specified here. https://<storage account>.file.core.windows.net/<share name>/
Access Key	Select either "Azure Storage Account Details" or "Azure Storage Connection String" based on your authentication preference.
Account Name	(If Account Details is selected.) There is an access URL shown in Azure. From this URL, the <storage account> attribute should be specified here. https://<storage account>.file.core.windows.net/<share name>/
Account Key	(If Account Details is selected.) Specify the access key
Azure Storage Connection String	(If Connection String is selected.) Specify the connection string that you can find under Storage Account / Access keys menu on the Microsoft Azure Portal.

Step 4 - Click Save to save the settings

After this point, the Storage target is available for use by other Verba components (e.g. Data management policies).

Accessing Azure Blobs through a REST API

Creating an Azure Storage target

Follow the steps below to create a new Verba storage target for Azure Storage:

Step 1 - Open the Verba Web interface then select Data > Storage targets from the top menu.

Step 2 - Click on Add New Storage Target

Step 3 - Fill in the configuration form according to the requirements in the following table.

Configuration item	Description
Name	Name your storage target. This name will identify this target across the system
Type	Select Microsoft Azure Storage
Azure Service	Azure Blobs
Blob Container Name	The container name that you have created under Storage Account / Blob Service menu on the Microsoft Azure Portal. Do not specify folders or subfolders, the system does NOT support subfolders, only the root folder of the container is supported.
Access Key	Select either "Azure Storage Account Details" or "Azure Storage Connection String" based on your authentication preference.
Account Name	(If Account Details is selected.) There is an access URL shown in Azure. From this URL, the <storage account> attribute should be specified here. https://<storage account>.file.core.windows.net/<share name>/
Account Key	(If Account Details is selected.) Specify the access key
Azure Storage Connection String	(If Connection String is selected.) Specify the connection string that you can find under Storage Account / Access keys menu on the Microsoft Azure Portal.

Step 4 - Click Save to save the settings

After this point, the Storage target is available for use by other Verba components (e.g. Data management policies).

Accessing Azure Files using the SMB Protocol

Creating an Azure Storage using Network Storage Target

Follow the steps below to create a new Verba Storage target for Azure Storage:

Step 1 - Visit the Microsoft Documentation and create your file share. You should get an address in the following format:

\\<storage-account-name>.file.core.windows.net\<share-name>

Step 2 - Open the Verba Web interface then select Data > Storage Targets from the top menu.

Step 3 - Click on Add New Storage Target

Step 4 - Fill in the configuration form according to the requirements in the following table.

Configuration item	Description
Name	Name your storage target. This name will identify this target across the system.
Type	Network Storage
Path	This is the path where you want to store the media files. \\<storage-account-name>.file.core.windows.net\<share-name>
Use custom credentials for accessing file share	Checked
Login Name	Account name of the Azure storage user. <storage-account-name>
Password	Access Key of the Azure storage account. To find the storage account access key, click Settings of your storage account, and then click Access keys.

Step 5 - Click Save to save the settings

Creating an Azure Storage by mounting it as a Drive

Follow the steps below to create a new Verba Storage target for Azure Storage:

Step 1 - Visit the Microsoft Documentation and create your file share. You should get a mount command in the following format:

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

Step 2 - Persist your storage account credentials for the virtual machine. Before mounting to the file share, first persist your storage account credentials on the virtual machine. This step allows Windows to automatically reconnect to the file share when the virtual machine reboots. To persist your account credentials, run the cmdkey command from the PowerShell window on the virtual machine. Replace <storage-account-name> with the name of your storage account, and <storage-account-key> with your storage account key:

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

Step 3 - Mount the file share using the persisted credentials. Once you have a remote connection to the virtual machine, you can run the net use command to mount the file share, using the following syntax. Replace <storage-account-name> with the name of your storage account, and <share-name> with the name of your File storage share:

net use <drive-letter>: \\<storage-account-name>.file.core.windows.net\<share-name>

Since you persisted your storage account credentials in the previous step, you do not need to provide them with the net use command. If you have not already persisted your credentials, then include them as a parameter passed to the net use command, as shown in the first step.

Step 4 - Open the Verba Web interface then select Policies > Storage Targets from the top menu.

Step 5 - Click on Add New Storage Target

Step 6 - Fill in the configuration form according to the requirements in the following table.

Configuration item	Description
Name	Name your storage target. This name will identify this target across the system.
Type	Select Verba Media Repository Local Disk
Path	Specify the path where the storage is accessible in the Windows file system (UNC path)

Step 4 - Click Save to save the settings

After this point, the Storage target is available for use by other Verba components (e.g. Data management policies).

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