Open Internet Explorer by clicking Start, and then clicking Internet Explorer. Click the Tools button, and then click Internet Options. Click the Security tab, click on Internet, and then click the Custom level button. Scroll down to the Downloads category, and set File download to Enable. Click OK, and then click yes. Azure File storage is a service that offers file shares in the cloud using the standard Server Message Block (SMB) Protocol. Both SMB 2.1 and SMB 3.0 are supported. With Azure File storage, you can migrate legacy applications that rely on file shares to Azure quickly and without costly rewrites.
-->This guide walks you through the basics of working with Azure file shares with the Azure Storage Explorer. Azure file shares are just like other file shares, but stored in the cloud and backed by the Azure platform. Azure File shares support the industry standard SMB protocol and enable file sharing across multiple machines, applications, and instances.
The Azure Storage Explorer is a popular client tool that's available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. You can use Storage Explorer to manage Azure file shares and other storage resources.
If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account before you begin.
Prerequisites
This quickstart requires Storage Explorer to be installed. To download and install it, go to Azure Storage Explorer.
Create a storage account
You can't use Storage Explorer to create new resources. For the purposes of this demo, create the storage account in the Azure portal.
A storage account is a shared pool of storage in which you can deploy an Azure file share or other storage resources, such as blobs or queues. A storage account can contain an unlimited number of shares. A share can store an unlimited number of files, up to the capacity limits of the storage account.
To create a storage account:
In the left menu, select + to create a resource.
Select Storage account to create a storage account.
In Name, enter mystorageacct followed by a few random numbers, until you see a green check mark that indicates that it's a unique name. A storage account name must be all lowercase and globally unique. Make a note of your storage account name. You will use it later.
In Performance, keep the default value of Standard.
In Replication, select Locally redundant storage (LRS).
In Subscription, select the subscription that was used to create the storage account. If you have only one subscription, it should be the default.
In Resource group, select Create new. For the name, enter myResourceGroup.
In Location, select East US.
When you're finished, select Create to start the deployment.
Connect Storage Explorer to Azure resources
When you first start Storage Explorer, the Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer - Connect window appears. Storage Explorer provides several ways to connect to storage accounts:
- Sign in by using your Azure account: You can sign in by using the user credentials for your organization or your Microsoft account.
- Connect to a specific storage account by using a connection string or SAS token: A connection string is a special string that contains a storage account name and storage account key/SAS token. With the token, Storage Explorer directly accesses the storage account (rather than simply seeing all the storage accounts in an Azure account). To learn more about connection strings, see Configure Azure storage connection strings.
- Connect to a specific storage account by using a storage account name and key: Use the storage account name and the key for your storage account to connect to Azure storage.
For the purposes of this quickstart, sign in by using your Azure account. Select Add an Azure Account, and then select Sign in. Follow the prompts to sign in to your Azure account.
Create a file share
To create your first Azure file share in the storageacct<random number> storage account:
Expand the storage account that you created.
Right-click File Shares, and then select Create File Share.
For the file share, enter myshare, and then press Enter. Free forensic software for mac.
Share names can contain only lowercase letters, numbers, and single hyphens (but they can't start with a hyphen). For complete details about naming file shares and files, see Naming and referencing shares, directories, files, and metadata.
After the file share is created, a tab for your file share opens in the right pane.
Use your Azure file share
Now that you have created an Azure file share, you can mount the file share with SMB on Windows, Linux, or macOS. Alternatively, you can work with your Azure file share by using Azure Storage Explorer. The advantage of using Azure Storage Explorer instead of mounting the file share by using SMB is that all requests that are made with Azure Storage Explorer are made by using the File REST API. You can use the File REST API to create, modify, and delete files and directories on clients that don't have SMB access.
Create a directory
Adding a directory provides a hierarchical structure for managing your file share. You can create multiple levels in your directory. But, you must ensure that parent directories exist before you create subdirectories. For example, for the path myDirectory/mySubDirectory, you must create the directory myDirectory first. Then, you can create mySubDirectory.
On the tab for the file share, on the top menu, select the New Folder button. The Create New Directory pane opens.
For the directory name, enter myDirectory, and then select OK.
The myDirectory directory is listed on the tab for the myshare file share.
Upload a file
You can upload a file from your local machine to the new directory in your file share. You can upload an entire folder or a single file.
- In the top menu, select Upload. This gives you the option to upload a folder or a file.
- Select Upload File, and then select a file to upload from your local machine.
- In Upload to a directory, enter myDirectory, and then select Upload.
When you are finished, the file appears in the list in the myDirectory pane.
Download a file
To download a copy of a file from your file share, right-click the file, and then select Download. Choose where you want to put the file on your local machine, and then select Save.
The progress of the download appears in the Activities pane at the bottom of the window.
Clean up resources
You can't use Storage Explorer to remove resources. To clean up from this quickstart, you can use the Azure portal.
When you're done, you can delete the resource group. Deleting the resource group deletes the storage account, the Azure file share, and any other resources that you deployed inside the resource group.
- In the left menu, select Resource groups.
- Right-click the resource group, and then select Delete resource group. A window opens and displays a warning about the resources that will be deleted with the resource group.
- Enter the name of the resource group, and then select Delete.
Next steps
-->Overview
Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer is a standalone app that makes it easy to work with Azure Storage data on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
In this article, you'll learn several ways of connecting to and managing your Azure storage accounts.
Prerequisites
The following versions of Windows support Storage Explorer:
- Windows 10 (recommended)
- Windows 8
- Windows 7
For all versions of Windows, Storage Explorer requires .NET Framework 4.7.2 at a minimum.
The following versions of macOS support Storage Explorer:
- macOS 10.12 Sierra and later versions
Storage Explorer is available in the Snap Store for most common distributions of Linux. We recommend Snap Store for this installation. The Storage Explorer snap installs all of its dependencies and updates when new versions are published to the Snap Store.
For supported distributions, see the snapd installation page.
Storage Explorer requires the use of a password manager. You might have to connect to a password manager manually. You can connect Storage Explorer to your system's password manager by running the following command:
Storage Explorer is also available as a .tar.gz download. If you use the .tar.gz, you must install dependencies manually. The following distributions of Linux support .tar.gz installation:
- Ubuntu 20.04 x64
- Ubuntu 18.04 x64
- Ubuntu 16.04 x64
The .tar.gz installation might work on other distributions, but only these listed ones are officially supported.
For more help installing Storage Explorer on Linux, see Linux dependencies in the Azure Storage Explorer troubleshooting guide.
Download and install
To download and install Storage Explorer, see Azure Storage Explorer.
Connect to a storage account or service
Storage Explorer provides several ways to connect to Azure resources:
Sign in to Azure
Note
To fully access resources after you sign in, Storage Explorer requires both management (Azure Resource Manager) and data layer permissions. This means that you need Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) permissions to access your storage account, the containers in the account, and the data in the containers. If you have permissions only at the data layer, consider choosing the Sign in using Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) option when attaching to a resource. For more information about the specific permissions Storage Explorer requires, see the Azure Storage Explorer troubleshooting guide.
In Storage Explorer, select View > Account Management or select the Manage Accounts button.
ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT now displays all the Azure accounts you're signed in to. To connect to another account, select Add an account...
The Connect to Azure Storage dialog opens. In the Select Resource panel, select Subscription.
In the Select Azure Environment panel, select an Azure environment to sign in to. You can sign in to global Azure, a national cloud or an Azure Stack instance. Then select Next.
Tip
For more information about Azure Stack, see Connect Storage Explorer to an Azure Stack subscription or storage account.
Storage Explorer will open a webpage for you to sign in.
After you successfully sign in with an Azure account, the account and the Azure subscriptions associated with that account appear under ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT. Select the Azure subscriptions that you want to work with, and then select Apply.
EXPLORER displays the storage accounts associated with the selected Azure subscriptions.
Attach to an individual resource
Storage Explorer lets you connect to individual resources, such as an Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 container, using various authentication methods. Some authentication methods are only supported for certain resource types.
| Resource type | Azure AD | Account Name and Key | Shared Access Signature (SAS) | Public (anonymous) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Storage accounts | Yes | Yes | Yes (connection string or URL) | No |
| Blob containers | Yes | No | Yes (URL) | Yes |
| Gen2 containers | Yes | No | Yes (URL) | Yes |
| Gen2 directories | Yes | No | Yes (URL) | Yes |
| File shares | No | No | Yes (URL) | No |
| Queues | Yes | No | Yes (URL) | No |
| Tables | No | No | Yes (URL) | No |
Storage Explorer can also connect to a local storage emulator using the emulator's configured ports.
To connect to an individual resource, select the Connect button in the left-hand toolbar. Then follow the instructions for the resource type you want to connect to.
When a connection to a storage account is successfully added, a new tree node will appear under Local & Attached > Storage Accounts.
For other resource types, a new node is added under Local & Attached > Storage Accounts > (Attached Containers). The node will appear under a group node matching its type. For example, a new connection to an Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 container will appear under Blob Containers.
If Storage Explorer couldn't add your connection, or if you can't access your data after successfully adding the connection, see the Azure Storage Explorer troubleshooting guide.
The following sections describe the different authentication methods you can use to connect to individual resources.
Azure AD
Storage Explorer can use your Azure account to connect to the following resource types:
- Blob containers
- Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 containers
- Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 directories
- Queues
Azure AD is the preferred option if you have data layer access to your resource but no management layer access.
- Sign in to at least one Azure account using the steps described above.
- In the Select Resource panel of the Connect to Azure Storage dialog, select Blob container, ADLS Gen2 container, or Queue.
- Select Sign in using Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) and select Next.
- Select an Azure account and tenant. The account and tenant must have access to the Storage resource you want to attach to. Select Next.
- Enter a display name for your connection and the URL of the resource. Select Next.
- Review your connection information in the Summary panel. If the connection information is correct, select Connect.
Account name and key
Storage Explorer can connect to a storage account using the storage account's name and key.
You can find your account keys in the Azure portal. Open your storage account page and select Settings > Access keys.
- In the Select Resource panel of the Connect to Azure Storage dialog, select Storage account.
- Select Account name and key and select Next.
- Enter a display name for your connection, the name of the account, and one of the account keys. Select the appropriate Azure environment. Select Next.
- Review your connection information in the Summary panel. If the connection information is correct, select Connect.
Shared access signature (SAS) connection string
Azure Data Explorer
Storage Explorer can connect to a storage account using a connection string with a Shared Access Signature (SAS). A SAS connection string looks like this:
- In the Select Resource panel of the Connect to Azure Storage dialog, select Storage account.
- Select Shared access signature (SAS) and select Next.
- Enter a display name for your connection and the SAS connection string for the storage account. Select Next.
- Review your connection information in the Summary panel. If the connection information is correct, select Connect.
Shared access signature (SAS) URL
Storage Explorer can connect to the following resource types using a SAS URI:
- Blob container
- Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 container or directory
- File share
- Queue
- Table
A SAS URI looks like this:
Download Azure File Storage Explorer
- In the Select Resource panel of the Connect to Azure Storage dialog, select the resource you want to connect to.
- Select Shared access signature (SAS) and select Next.
- Enter a display name for your connection and the SAS URI for the resource. Select Next.
- Review your connection information in the Summary panel. If the connection information is correct, select Connect.
Local storage emulator
Storage Explorer can connect to an Azure Storage emulator. Currently, there are two supported emulators:
- Azure Storage Emulator (Windows only)
- Azurite (Windows, macOS, or Linux)
If your emulator is listening on the default ports, you can use the Local & Attached > Storage Accounts > Emulator - Default Ports node to access your emulator.
If you want to use a different name for your connection, or if your emulator isn't running on the default ports:
Azure File Sync
Start your emulator.
Important
Storage Explorer doesn't automatically start your emulator. You must start it manually.
In the Select Resource panel of the Connect to Azure Storage dialog, select Local storage emulator.
Enter a display name for your connection and the port number for each emulated service you want to use. If you don't want to use to a service, leave the corresponding port blank. Select Next.
Review your connection information in the Summary panel. If the connection information is correct, select Connect.
Connect to Azure Cosmos DB
Storage Explorer also supports connecting to Azure Cosmos DB resources.
Connect to an Azure Cosmos DB account by using a connection string
Instead of managing Azure Cosmos DB accounts through an Azure subscription, you can connect to Azure Cosmos DB by using a connection string. To connect, follow these steps:
Under EXPLORER, expand Local & Attached, right-click Cosmos DB Accounts, and select Connect to Azure Cosmos DB.
Select the Azure Cosmos DB API, enter your Connection String data, and then select OK to connect the Azure Cosmos DB account. For information about how to retrieve the connection string, see Manage an Azure Cosmos account.
Connect to Azure Data Lake Store by URI
You can access a resource that's not in your subscription. You need someone who has access to that resource to give you the resource URI. After you sign in, connect to Data Lake Store by using the URI. To connect, follow these steps:
Under EXPLORER, expand Local & Attached.
Right-click Data Lake Storage Gen1, and select Connect to Data Lake Storage Gen1.
Enter the URI, and then select OK. Your Data Lake Store appears under Data Lake Storage.
This example uses Data Lake Storage Gen1. Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 is now available. For more information, see What is Azure Data Lake Storage Gen1.
Generate a shared access signature in Storage Explorer
Account level shared access signature
Right-click the storage account you want share, and then select Get Shared Access Signature.
In Shared Access Signature, specify the time frame and permissions you want for the account, and then select Create.
Copy either the Connection string or the raw Query string to your clipboard.
Service level shared access signature
You can get a shared access signature at the service level. For more information, see Get the SAS for a blob container.
Search for storage accounts
To find a storage resource, you can search in the EXPLORER pane.
As you enter text in the search box, Storage Explorer displays all resources that match the search value you've entered up to that point. This example shows a search for endpoints:
Note
To speed up your search, use Account Management to deselect any subscriptions that don't contain the item you're searching for. You can also right-click a node and select Search From Here to start searching from a specific node.
Next steps