Region-specific drives for a VM located in Azure AU region

Berchmans Marcelline 0

Hi Team,

We have a requirement from clients to have the data in the respective data drives, for example - client from US wants to have their data in a drive which is physically located in the azure data centre in US region. We are looking at partitioning SQL data based on that region the client is based on.

We are aware how to partition it but we need to have these region-specific separate drives added to the SQL server VM which is located in Azure AU region.

For example

SQL Sever 2019 VM SQL-AU-DEV located in Azure AU region data centre
C Drive : OS Windows 2019
D Drive AU : Azure Storage from AU Region
E Drive US : Azure Storage from US Region
F Drive EU : Azure Storage from EU Region

Wonder this can be achieved in Azure by using a BLOB drive or file share or any method.

Thanks

Keshavulu Dasari 3,185 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2025-02-06T23:52:46.3966667+00:00
Hi Berchmans Marcelline,

Greetings! Welcome to Microsoft Q&A Forum. Thanks for posting you query here!

By using either Azure Blob Storage or Azure File Shares you can set this up in Azure. You can configure region-specific drives for your SQL Server VM,

Using Azure Blob Storage

Create Blob Storage Containers Create separate containers in the Azure Blob Storage accounts located in the respective regions (US, EU, AU).

Create SAS Generate SAS tokens for each container to control access. And Create SQL Server Credentials: Use the SAS tokens to create credentials in SQL Server.

Use the BACKUP TO URL and RESTORE FROM URL commands to manage data files in the Blob Storage.

Using Azure File Shares

Create premium file shares in the Azure Storage accounts located in the respective regions. And mount these file shares to your SQL Server VM using the net use command or through the Azure portal. Configure SQL Server to use these mounted drives for storing data files.

For more information
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/tutorial-use-azure-blob-storage-service-with-sql-server-2016?view=sql-server-ver16

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/virtual-machines/windows/failover-cluster-instance-premium-file-share-manually-configure?view=azuresql

Example Configuration

For your SQL Server VM SQL-AU-DE located in the Azure AU region:

C Drive: OS Windows 2019

D Drive AU: Mount Azure File Share from AU Region

E Drive US: Mount Azure File Share from US Region

F Drive EU: Mount Azure File Share from EU Region

This setup ensures that your clients' data is stored in the respective regional data centers, meeting compliance and data residency requirements.

If you have any other questions or are still running into more issues, let me know in the "comments" and I would be happy to help you.
Berchmans Marcelline 0 Reputation points

2025-02-07T09:53:13.8833333+00:00

Thanks for the quick response.

We tried the File Share option but having issues with visibility of the drive for all domain users. The admin user executes the PS script see the drive not any other domain user.

Is there a way it can be mounted and all users can see - including SQL service account?

Thanks
Keshavulu Dasari 3,185 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2025-02-07T18:41:00.64+00:00
Hi Berchmans Marcelline,

You can mount an Azure File Share so that it is visible to all domain users, including the SQL service account, assign share-level permissions to the Microsoft Entra identities representing the users, groups, or service principals in your AD DS. This ensures that all users have the necessary permissions to access the file share.

Mount the File Share for All Users : Persistent Mounting , use a PowerShell script to mount the Azure File Share persistently for all users. This script should be run with elevated privileges to ensure it applies to all users on the VM. below is an example,

$storageAccountName = "<storage-account-name>" $fileShareName = "<file-share-name>" $driveLetter = "Z" $username = "<domain-username>" $password = "<domain-password>" # Remove any existing persistent credentials cmdkey /delete:$storageAccountName.file.core.windows.net # Add new persistent credentials cmdkey /add:$storageAccountName.file.core.windows.net /user:$username /pass:$password # Mount the file share New-PSDrive -Name $driveLetter -PSProvider FileSystem -Root "\\$storageAccountName.file.core.windows.net\$fileShareName" -Persist -Scope Global

Ensure that the SQL Server service account has the necessary permissions to access the mounted drive. You can do this by adding the service account to the appropriate AD group that has access to the file share
**
For more detail information:**
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/files/storage-files-identity-mount-file-share

If you have any other questions or are still running into more issues, let me know in the "comments" and I would be happy to help you.

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Region-specific drives for a VM located in Azure AU region

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