1 00:00:00,940 --> 00:00:03,440 Understand Azure File Sync. 2 00:00:03,440 --> 00:00:08,650 What is Azure File Sync in Azure, AFS for short? Well, it's, in a nutshell, 3 00:00:08,650 --> 00:00:12,990 a way for you to centralize your business' file share infrastructure 4 00:00:12,990 --> 00:00:15,830 without disrupting your users and applications. 5 00:00:15,830 --> 00:00:19,120 So let's assume that on‑prem you have local file servers. 6 00:00:19,120 --> 00:00:21,270 If we want to constrain it to Windows, 7 00:00:21,270 --> 00:00:24,280 which we might as well because this Windows Server Hybrid Cloud 8 00:00:24,280 --> 00:00:26,390 Administrator cert doesn't mention Linux, 9 00:00:26,390 --> 00:00:29,480 at least not yet, you're sharing those files probably with 10 00:00:29,480 --> 00:00:32,190 the Windows File Sharing protocol, SMB. 11 00:00:32,190 --> 00:00:35,690 The idea here is that you can begin to bring the public 12 00:00:35,690 --> 00:00:38,490 cloud to bear to give you various benefits, 13 00:00:38,490 --> 00:00:40,920 including cloud tiering and cloud backup. 14 00:00:40,920 --> 00:00:45,130 Think of OneDrive or OneDrive for Business. Understand Azure File Sync has 15 00:00:45,130 --> 00:00:48,070 nothing to do with OneDrive or OneDrive for Business, 16 00:00:48,070 --> 00:00:51,970 but it's a somewhat similar motif in terms of you can use your sync 17 00:00:51,970 --> 00:00:56,460 group in Azure File Sync as a cloud backup repository, and there's a 18 00:00:56,460 --> 00:01:00,170 feature you can enable in AFS that allows you to do cloud tiering. This 19 00:01:00,170 --> 00:01:04,940 can potentially save your local file server space by offloading those 20 00:01:04,940 --> 00:01:06,710 infrequently accessed files, 21 00:01:06,710 --> 00:01:08,970 putting them up in Azure, and removing them from your 22 00:01:08,970 --> 00:01:10,940 local file server's file system. 23 00:01:10,940 --> 00:01:15,290 Multi‑site access and sync, this is a very nice value proposition where 24 00:01:15,290 --> 00:01:19,450 you can advertise the same file shares in multiple locations, keep the 25 00:01:19,450 --> 00:01:21,750 files in synchronization. You might be thinking, 26 00:01:21,750 --> 00:01:22,320 wait a minute, 27 00:01:22,320 --> 00:01:24,660 isn't that what distributed file system and, in 28 00:01:24,660 --> 00:01:27,550 particular, DFSR replication is all about? 29 00:01:27,550 --> 00:01:28,230 Yes. 30 00:01:28,230 --> 00:01:28,750 In fact, 31 00:01:28,750 --> 00:01:32,140 we can look at Azure File Sync as essentially the next 32 00:01:32,140 --> 00:01:37,080 generation of DFS and directly a replacement of DFS. In the next 33 00:01:37,080 --> 00:01:41,700 module, we'll go over Microsoft's suggested roadmap for moving 34 00:01:41,700 --> 00:01:44,510 or migrating from DFSR to AFS. 35 00:01:44,510 --> 00:01:48,100 But for now, let's just understand the service from a higher level. And then 36 00:01:48,100 --> 00:01:53,310 we have BCDR, business continuity disaster recovery, being able to resurrect 37 00:01:53,310 --> 00:01:56,180 a file server's contents quickly and easily. 38 00:01:56,180 --> 00:02:00,520 Now, for you who are network professionals or security professionals, 39 00:02:00,520 --> 00:02:05,410 you know that the Windows file sharing protocol SMB that operates on TCP port 40 00:02:05,410 --> 00:02:09,160 445 is not a port that you want to open to the internet, 41 00:02:09,160 --> 00:02:12,890 assuming that you're not using either a site‑to‑site VPN or an 42 00:02:12,890 --> 00:02:15,740 ExpressRoute circuit into an Azure virtual network. 43 00:02:15,740 --> 00:02:20,360 You should know that AFS was engineered not to use TCP 445. 44 00:02:20,360 --> 00:02:24,700 We're using TCP 443 and a protocol called FileREST. 45 00:02:24,700 --> 00:02:29,330 What you can do on‑prem is share entire volume roots on your local file 46 00:02:29,330 --> 00:02:33,510 servers, or, more commonly, you would map your individual shared folders 47 00:02:33,510 --> 00:02:37,250 with or without DFS into the Azure File Sync sync group that you'll 48 00:02:37,250 --> 00:02:39,050 learn how to create momentarily. 49 00:02:39,050 --> 00:02:39,590 Lastly, 50 00:02:39,590 --> 00:02:43,570 you can combine Azure File Sync with Azure Backup to back up 51 00:02:43,570 --> 00:02:45,780 the file shares that are in your sync groups. 52 00:02:45,780 --> 00:02:50,120 This can protect your on‑premises files against something like a ransomware 53 00:02:50,120 --> 00:02:58,000 attack because you would be able to restore a known good backup of those files in your Azure Recovery Services vault.