Manage registered servers with Azure File Sync

Azure File Sync allows you to centralize your organization's file shares in Azure Files without giving up the flexibility, performance, and compatibility of an on-premises file server. It does this by transforming your Windows Servers into a quick cache of your Azure file share. You can use any protocol available on Windows Server to access your data locally (including SMB, NFS, and FTPS) and you can have as many caches as you need across the world.

The following article illustrates how to register and manage a server with a Storage Sync Service. See How to deploy Azure File Sync for information on how to deploy Azure File Sync end-to-end.

Register/unregister a server with Storage Sync Service

Registering a server with Azure File Sync establishes a trust relationship between Windows Server and Azure. This relationship can then be used to create server endpoints on the server, which represent specific folders that should be synced with an Azure file share (also known as a cloud endpoint).

Prerequisites

To register a server with a Storage Sync Service, you must first prepare your server with the necessary prerequisites:

• Your server must be running a supported version of Windows Server. For more information, see Azure File Sync system requirements and interoperability.

• Ensure that you've deployed a Storage Sync Service. For more information on how to deploy a Storage Sync Service, see How to deploy Azure File Sync.

• Ensure that the server is connected to the internet and that Azure is accessible.

• Disable the IE Enhanced Security Configuration for administrators with the Server Manager UI.

  

• Ensure that the Azure PowerShell module is installed on your server. If your server is a member of a Failover Cluster, every node in the cluster will require the Az module. More details on how to install the Az module can be found on the Install and configure Azure PowerShell.

  Note

  We recommend using the newest version of the Az PowerShell module to register/unregister a server. If the Az package has been previously installed on this server (and the PowerShell version on this server is 5.* or greater), you can use the Update-Module cmdlet to update this package.

• If you utilize a network proxy server in your environment, configure proxy settings on your server for the sync agent to utilize.

  1. Determine your proxy IP address and port number
  2. Edit these two files:
     • C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\Config\machine.config
     • C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Config\machine.config
  3. Add the lines in figure 1 (beneath this section) under /System.ServiceModel in the above two files changing 127.0.0.1:8888 to the correct IP address (replace 127.0.0.1) and correct port number (replace 8888):
  4. Set the WinHTTP proxy settings via command line:
     • Show the proxy: netsh winhttp show proxy
     • Set the proxy: netsh winhttp set proxy 127.0.0.1:8888
     • Reset the proxy: netsh winhttp reset proxy
     • If this is set up after the agent is installed, then restart our sync agent: net stop filesyncsvc

    Figure 1:
    <system.net>
        <defaultProxy enabled="true" useDefaultCredentials="true">
            <proxy autoDetect="false" bypassonlocal="false" proxyaddress="http://127.0.0.1:8888" usesystemdefault="false" />
        </defaultProxy>
    </system.net>

Register a server with Storage Sync Service

Before a server can be used as a server endpoint in an Azure File Sync sync group, it must be registered with a Storage Sync Service. A server can only be registered with one Storage Sync Service at a time.

Install the Azure File Sync agent

1. Download the Azure File Sync agent.

2. Start the Azure File Sync agent installer.

   

3. Be sure to enable updates to the Azure File Sync agent using Microsoft Update. It's important because critical security fixes and feature enhancements to the server package are shipped via Microsoft Update.

   

4. If the server has not been previously registered, the server registration UI will pop up immediately after completing the installation.

Register the server using the server registration UI

1. If the server registration UI didn't start immediately after completing the installation of the Azure File Sync agent, start it manually by executing C:\Program Files\Azure\StorageSyncAgent\ServerRegistration.exe.

2. Select Sign-in to access your Azure subscription.

   

3. Pick the correct subscription, resource group, and Storage Sync Service from the dialog.

   

4. You might be prompted to sign into Azure again to complete the process.

Register the server with PowerShell

You can also perform server registration via PowerShell.

Register-AzStorageSyncServer -ResourceGroupName "<your-resource-group-name>" -StorageSyncServiceName "<your-storage-sync-service-name>"

Unregister the server with Storage Sync Service

There are several steps that are required to unregister a server with a Storage Sync Service. Let's take a look at how to properly unregister a server.

(Optional) Recall all tiered data

If you want files that are currently tiered to be available after removing Azure File Sync (i.e. this is a production, not a test, environment), recall all files on each volume containing server endpoints. Disable cloud tiering for all server endpoints, and then run the following PowerShell cmdlet:

Import-Module "C:\Program Files\Azure\StorageSyncAgent\StorageSync.Management.ServerCmdlets.dll"
Invoke-StorageSyncFileRecall -Path <a-volume-with-server-endpoints-on-it>

Remove the server from all sync groups

Before unregistering the server on the Storage Sync Service, you must remove all server endpoints on that server. You can do this via the Azure portal:

1. Navigate to the Storage Sync Service where your server is registered.

2. Remove all server endpoints for this server in each sync group in the Storage Sync Service. Do this by right-clicking the relevant server endpoint in the sync group pane.

   

You can also do this with a simple PowerShell script:

Connect-AzAccount

$storageSyncServiceName = "<your-storage-sync-service>"
$resourceGroup = "<your-resource-group>"

Get-AzStorageSyncGroup -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroup -StorageSyncServiceName $storageSyncServiceName | ForEach-Object { 
    $syncGroup = $_; 
    Get-AzStorageSyncServerEndpoint -ParentObject $syncGroup | Where-Object { $_.ServerEndpointName -eq $env:ComputerName } | ForEach-Object { 
        Remove-AzStorageSyncServerEndpoint -InputObject $_ 
    } 
}

Unregister the server

Now that all data has been recalled and the server has been removed from all sync groups, you can unregister the server.

1. In the Azure portal, navigate to the Storage Sync Service and select Sync > Registered servers.

2. Right-click on the server you want to unregister and select Unregister Server.

   

Unregister the server with PowerShell

You can also unregister the server via PowerShell by using the Unregister-AzStorageSyncServer cmdlet.

$RegisteredServer = Get-AzStorageSyncServer -ResourceGroupName "<your-resource-group-name>" -StorageSyncServiceName "<your-storage-sync-service-name>"
Unregister-AzStorageSyncServer -Force -ResourceGroupName "<your-resource-group-name>" -StorageSyncServiceName "<your-storage-sync-service-name>" -ServerId $RegisteredServer.ServerId

Ensuring Azure File Sync is a good neighbor in your data center

Because Azure File Sync will rarely be the only service running in your data center, you might want to limit the network and storage usage of Azure File Sync.

Set Azure File Sync network limits

You can throttle the network utilization of Azure File Sync by using the StorageSyncNetworkLimit cmdlets.

For example, you can create a new throttle limit to ensure that Azure File Sync doesn't use more than 10 Mbps between 9 am and 5 pm (17:00h) during the work week:

Import-Module "C:\Program Files\Azure\StorageSyncAgent\StorageSync.Management.ServerCmdlets.dll"
New-StorageSyncNetworkLimit -Day Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday -StartHour 9 -EndHour 17 -LimitKbps 10000

You can see your limit by using the following cmdlet:

Get-StorageSyncNetworkLimit # assumes StorageSync.Management.ServerCmdlets.dll is imported

To remove network limits, use Remove-StorageSyncNetworkLimit. For example, the following command removes all network limits:

Get-StorageSyncNetworkLimit | ForEach-Object { Remove-StorageSyncNetworkLimit -Id $_.Id } # assumes StorageSync.Management.ServerCmdlets.dll is imported

Use Windows Server storage QoS

When Azure File Sync is hosted in a virtual machine running on a Windows Server virtualization host, you can use Storage QoS (storage quality of service) to regulate storage IO consumption. You can set the Storage QoS policy either as a maximum (or limit, such as how StorageSyncNetworkLimit is enforced in the previous example) or as a minimum (or reservation). Setting a minimum instead of a maximum allows Azure File Sync to burst to use available storage bandwidth if other workloads aren't using it. For more information, see Storage Quality of Service.

See also

• Planning for an Azure File Sync deployment
• Deploy Azure File Sync
• Monitor Azure File Sync
• Troubleshoot Azure File Sync