Agent installed on Windows Server on premises that keeps a local cache of an Azure file share, syncing changes both ways and tiering cold files to the cloud.
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In the Ultra Transcenders books
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Each book explains Azure File Sync in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- Agent
A specialised form of Microsoft Copilot set up for one particular job, pairing instructions with knowledge and skills. You can create one in Copilot Studio, SharePoint or Agent Builder, and administrators control them from the Microsoft 365 admin center.
- LSDOU
The sequence in which Group Policy is processed: the local policy first, followed by site, domain and organisational unit policies. The nearest, last-processed setting takes effect unless Enforced or Block Inheritance alters that.
- File share
Created within a storage account, an Azure Files share works like a shared drive on an office network: clients connect to it using NFS or SMB.
- Cold
Online access tier for blobs that costs less to store than Cool but more to read, while data stays instantly available.
Related terms
- Authoritative upload
Option for an Azure File Sync server endpoint pre-seeded with the share's data, letting the server's files overwrite the cloud copy on upload.
- Cloud tiering
When enabled on an Azure File Sync server endpoint, rarely opened files move up to the cloud share, while the server keeps a local cache of those used often.
- Internet routing
Routing preference in which traffic leaves Microsoft's network for a transit ISP at the POP closest to the storage account, reducing networking costs. It is unsupported for Azure File Sync and AD-joined Azure Files.
- Low disk space mode
Once free space on a cloud-tiering volume dips under the lowest of 20 GiB, 10% of capacity or the configured free space policy, Azure File Sync switches that server endpoint into this state. Tiering then happens every minute, and recalled files are not retained on disk until room becomes available again.
- Microsoft routing
The default network routing choice for a storage account, carrying traffic across Microsoft's own global backbone. Joining Azure Files to AD DS and running Azure File Sync both depend on it, since neither works with internet routing.
- Proactive recall
With this option, any file created or edited in the Azure file share is downloaded straight away to the server endpoints you pick, which raises egress costs. Part of Azure File Sync.
- Server endpoint
In Azure File Sync, a folder on a registered Windows Server; its sync group keeps it matched with the cloud endpoint, and cloud tiering can be turned on for it.
- Storage Sync Service
The top-level Azure resource for Azure File Sync, where servers are registered and sync groups live.