Azure WaImportExport - NTFS Maximum Length Limit

Question

Hey everyone,

I was hoping to get some help on an issue with which I've been grappling. To quickly summarize what I'm trying to do...

I have a large amount of data that I would like to backup to Azure Blob Storage. In order to avoid hitting my ISP's bandwidth limits, I am transferring the backup data via an azure data box import/export job using my own drive. I am going through the steps to prepare the drive/copy the data, and am hitting the following error:

• "Destination file or directory name exceeds the NTFS length limit. Renaming '' to ''."

I assume this error has to do with windows' NTFS maximum length limit of 260 characters for paths.

Here are my main questions:

1. Is it possible to disable this max length limit file renaming behavior seen above? I already have long paths enabled on my version of windows. According to this link, enabling long paths allows avoiding a similar error when using the data box copy tools, but doesn't seem to have an effect for the WaImportExport tool.
   1. As far as I can tell, Azure Blob Storage supports well over this limit (1,024 according to this link), so it seems like it should be do-able.
2. OR, is it possible I've misunderstood... When WaImportExport tool hits this limit, it appears to generate a GUID for the resulting file. When the data drive is imported into Azure, will the GUID file path be corrected back into the original file path?
   1. This is a very important point. If this is the case, then I don't really care what the intermediate filename looks like so long as it doesn't cause problems down the road when imported to Azure. If the file path were to change when imported into Azure, it would cause major problems when being matched back to the original filesystem of which this is meant to be a backup.
   Thank you all for your time!

Answer 1

Hi Minty ,

The error you're encountering with the Azure Data Box import/export tool, related to the NTFS length limit, is likely due to restrictions within Windows and not directly configurable for the tool. Azure Blob Storage indeed supports longer paths, but the tool generates a GUID for such cases. When imported into Azure, the GUID file path is corrected back to the original, ensuring compatibility. Focus on Azure Blob Storage's path length support rather than the intermediate GUID, as it won't impact the final import. Regards, Saravanan Ganesan.