Windows Shares to Azure Service with Cloud only access

Banerjee, Somdutta 166

Is there an Option to move Windows Shares to Azure Service (Azure File or alternatives) giving access through Entra ID (Cloud Only Identities) without any dependency on AD, ADDS, Or Entra DS service?

Keshavulu Dasari 3,095 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2025-01-23T19:35:11.6466667+00:00

Hi Banerjee, Somdutta ,

Greetings & Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum! Thanks for posting your query!

you can migrate Windows Shares to Azure Files and provide access through Entra ID without relying on AD, ADDS, or AADDS.

you can achieve this by:

Azure Files: Azure Files allows you to create fully managed file shares in the cloud that are accessible via the SMB protocol. You can set up Azure Files to use Entra ID for authentication, enabling cloud-only identities to access the file shares.

Access Control: You can configure Azure Files to use Azure RBAC to manage permissions. This allows you to grant access to users and groups in Entra ID without needing an on-premises AD or AADDS.

Migration Tools: To migrate your existing Windows Shares to Azure Files, you can use tools like Azure Storage Mover, Robocopy, or Azure File Sync. These tools help you transfer your data to Azure Files while preserving file metadata and permissions

For more information:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/files/windows-server-to-azure-files
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/files/storage-files-migration-overview

Hope this helps. Do let us know if you have any further queries.
Banerjee, Somdutta 166 Reputation points

2025-01-23T19:49:26.73+00:00

Thanks Keshavulu Dasari

You mentioned that we can set up Azure Files to use Entra ID for authentication, enabling cloud-only identities to access the file shares. However, from the documentation, it seems we only can use Cloud only access when we enable Entra DS as per : https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/files/storage-files-active-directory-overview#supported-authentication-scenarios

The criteria is Using Azure File share with Cloud only identities, No hybrid Identity, authenticating to it using Entra ID only .

Please could you clarify.
Keshavulu Dasari 3,095 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2025-01-23T20:21:03.55+00:00

Hi Banerjee, Somdutta ,

You are understanding is correct. As of now, Azure Files requires Azure AD Domain Services (Entra DS) for enabling identity-based access with cloud-only identities

This means that to use Azure Files with Entra ID for authentication, you need to have Entra DS enabled.

Here:

Direct integration of Azure Files with Entra ID for authentication without Entra DS is not currently supported.

To use Azure Files with cloud-only identities, you need to enable Entra DS, which provides the necessary domain services for authentication.

If you are looking for a solution that does not require Entra DS, you might consider alternatives like Azure Blob Storage with Azure AD authentication or using SharePoint Online for file storage and sharing.
Keshavulu Dasari 3,095 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2025-01-24T18:49:18.13+00:00

Hi Banerjee, Somdutta ,

Just checking in to see if the response helped. If you have any questions, let me know in the "comments" and I would be happy to help you.
Keshavulu Dasari 3,095 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2025-01-27T14:44:53.6566667+00:00

Hi Banerjee, Somdutta ,

Just checking in to see if the response helped. If you have any questions, let me know in the "comments" and I would be happy to help you.

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Windows Shares to Azure Service with Cloud only access

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