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Azure Information supplies absolutely managed file shares within the cloud which you can entry from anyplace utilizing customary protocols equivalent to Server Message Block (SMB) or Community File System (NFS).
Since asserting the overall availability of assist for the Community File System (NFS) v4.1 protocol again in December 2021, now we have seen clients leveraging this functionality for all kinds of necessary use circumstances together with enterprise useful resource planning (ERP) options, improvement and take a look at environments (devops), content material administration methods (CMS), and mission vital workloads like SAP. We’re thrilled to share that SAP ECS has adopted Azure Information NFS because the default alternative for deploying SAP NetWeaver servers and SAP HANA shared directories on Azure. SAP’s determination to incorporate Azure file shares is a testomony to the truth that they’re a cheap alternative for mission vital workloads requiring excessive efficiency and excessive availability. We’ve additionally continued to take heed to buyer suggestions and are very excited to announce a number of extremely anticipated options, together with a 99.99 % uptime SLA, snapshot assist, and nconnect.
NFS Azure file shares are actually the default choice for SAP Enterprise Cloud Providers (ECS) deployments
Azure file shares present the performance, efficiency, and reliability required to maintain your SAP functions working easily. Being a completely managed service brings simplicity and extra value effectiveness than alternate options, equivalent to constructing NFS cluster (DRDB) file shares, particularly when contemplating redundancy. SAP and Microsoft partnered to carefully validate using Azure Information in high-availability deployments for Azure SAP RISE, the place it’s now supplied by default for deployment of SAP NetWeaver servers and SAP HANA shared directories. We’re excited that SAP themselves have chosen Azure Information to assist energy most of the world’s largest and most advanced workloads.
“Partnering with Microsoft and the Azure Information group was very productive. Our groups labored intently collectively to allow new extremely obtainable options round NFS shares and decrease value buildings. The zonal replication capabilities that Azure Information supplies strengthen and simplify SAP RISE architectures on Azure past what we may deploy with another expertise on Azure. We anticipate to scale back prices each instantly and not directly by utilizing this service. With the decrease time-to-market now achieved with this simplified structure, we are able to bootstrap extra deployments reasonably shortly and earn new enterprise.”—Lalit Patil, Chief Know-how Officer, SAP Enterprise Cloud Providers.
To be taught extra about working SAP workloads on Azure, see the next articles:
Moreover, you need to use Azure Middle for SAP Options (Preview) to deploy a extremely obtainable S4/HANA system with NFS on Azure Information.
One such buyer, Germany-based Munich Re benefited from utilizing Azure Information NFS with its SAP deployments. Munich Re, one of many world’s main insurance coverage firms, runs one of many largest SAP environments in Europe. Munich Re took a eager curiosity in Azure Information and has been utilizing it in manufacturing because the NFS protocol grew to become typically obtainable. With Azure Information, they’ll shortly deploy a file share with just some clicks. It used to take Munich Re from 4 to 6 months so as to add sources, however with SAP on Azure and their infrastructure automation, they’ll now do it inside an hour.
“We love how straightforward Azure Information is to make use of and handle, and we actually admire its interoperability with different Azure companies. And having a completely managed service eliminates the burden and prices of managing NFS servers.”—Matthias Spang, Technical Architect for SAP Options, Munich Re.
Excessive-availability (HA) SAP options want a extremely obtainable file share for internet hosting sapmnt, transport, and interface directories. You should utilize Azure Information premium NFS with availability units and availability zones.
Determine 1 – Excessive-availability (HA) SAP NetWeaver system with Azure Information.
A extremely obtainable SAP HANA system in a scale-out configuration with HANA system replication (HSR) and Pacemaker wants shared file methods for storing shared recordsdata between all hosts in an SAP HANA system. You should utilize Azure Information premium NFS for satisfying this usecase.
Determine 2 – Azure Information NFS for SAP HANA scale-out system with Pacemaker cluster. Notice: Azure Information is used for /hana/shared and never used for storing DBMS or logs.
New SLA of 99.99 % uptime for Azure Information Premium Tier is mostly obtainable
In in the present day’s world of digital enterprise, downtime will not be an choice. Azure Information now gives a 99.99 % SLA per file share for its Premium Tier. The brand new 99.99 % uptime SLA applies to all Azure Information Premium shares, no matter protocol (SMB, NFS, and REST) or redundancy sort (Domestically Redundant Storage (LRS) or Zonally Redundant Storage (ZRS)). This implies which you can profit from this SLA instantly, with none configuration adjustments or further prices.
With this new SLA, you might be assured that your knowledge is very obtainable. If the supply drops beneath the assured 99.99 % uptime, you’re eligible for service credit.
Moreover, Azure Information gives a ZRS answer with twelve 9’s sturdiness. This implies you may belief that your knowledge is secure, even within the face of failures or different sudden occasions.
With the brand new 99.99 % uptime SLA for Azure Information Premium Tier, you may have a excessive stage of confidence and assurance that your knowledge is at all times obtainable. By leveraging the newest in cloud applied sciences and options, Azure Information delivers a dependable and sturdy storage answer that may meet the wants of even essentially the most demanding workloads.
Snapshot assist for NFS file shares (Preview)
Whereas it’s uncommon, knowledge corruption or unintended deletion can occur to anybody, and it is advisable to be protected. File share snapshots defend your knowledge from these occasions by guaranteeing you may have a crash constant dataset to get better from. File share snapshots seize the share state at a cut-off date, are immutable (read-only), and are differential (delta copies to maintain your TCO low).
Snapshots are straightforward to handle and use in Azure Information. The creation of a snapshot is instantaneous. As soon as created, you may handle snapshots utilizing the Azure portal, REST API, Azure CLI, or PowerShell. Enumeration of snapshots, looking of file or folders, and copying of knowledge is supported from inside the NFS purchasers beneath the “.snapshots” folder which is current on the root of the mountpath.
Determine three – Listing, browse, and replica out of your snapshots from any linked consumer.
Knowledge safety is a key enterprise promise and a compliance requirement for a lot of organizations. So far, our clients have fulfilled this requirement by doing their very own replication or utilizing considered one of our backup companions to repeat the first knowledge from the share to a different location. You should utilize snapshots to reinforce these options. By replicating from snapshots as a substitute of the first share, you may be sure that the info being copied is all from a selected cut-off date.
Are you as excited as we’re? If that’s the case, you may fill out the enrollment type to get knowledgeable of the supply of this preview characteristic within the area of your alternative.
Boosting per-client efficiency with NFS nconnect is mostly obtainable
Azure Information just lately introduced assist for nconnect on its NFS shares. Through the use of nconnect, you may enhance a multi-core consumer’s throughput and IOPS as much as 4 instances with out making any adjustments to the app itself. Beforehand, functions have been restricted by the bandwidth of a single core utilizing a single TCP connection. Nconnect is good for throughput-intensive situations like knowledge ingestion, analytics, machine studying, devops, ETL pipelines, batch processing, and extra. For instance, monetary companies performing Worth at Threat (VaR) Monte Carlo or machine studying mannequin knowledge simulations working on the Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) with Azure Information can now carry out extra threat calculations with fewer consumer machines of their AKS node swimming pools. With the parallelism that nconnect permits, you may full your throughput-intensive simulations in much less time, permitting you to scale down the compute sources sooner and cut back total TCO.
Along with delivering increased efficiency, nconnect enhances fault tolerance by permitting the consumer to change to another TCP connection within the occasion of a connection failure. By enabling the consumer to make use of a number of connections, nconnect supplies larger flexibility and cargo balancing for machines with a number of community paths.
Utilizing nconnect is straightforward. For instance, to make use of 4 channels on a Linux VM, merely add “-o nconnect=four” parameter to the mount command. You should utilize nconnect along with your AKS cluster as a persistent quantity by utilizing the identical Azure Information NFS CSI driver and including “-nconnect=four” beneath “mountoptions”. Nconnect is on the market in all areas the place NFS is supported at no extra value. Please go to our product web page to be taught extra.
As much as 1100 MiB/s single consumer write throughput
As much as 1700 MiB/s single consumer learn throughput
Study extra
Learn to create an NFS Azure file share.
Take a look at NFS FAQ for extra info.
With these new options, Azure Information NFS is poised to energy much more of the world’s largest and most advanced workloads, delivering superior performance, efficiency, and reliability to clients throughout a variety of industries and use circumstances. We imagine that the brand new 99.99 % SLA, snapshot capabilities, and better efficiency with nconnect will unlock many extra use circumstances and functions. We’re excited to see the way you benefit from these new capabilities!
When you’ve got a characteristic request or suggestions, don’t hesitate to achieve out to the Azure Information group by emailing azurefiles@microsoft.com or filling out this type.
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