Create a Storage Solution in Azure for Mapped Drives

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Azure Files is Microsoft's easy-to-use cloud file system. Azure file shares can be seamlessly used in Windows and Windows Server.

To use an Azure file share with Windows, you must either mount it, which means assigning it a drive letter or mount point path, or access it via its UNC path.

Unlike other SMB shares you may have interacted with, such as those hosted on a Windows Server, Linux Samba server, or NAS device, Azure file shares do not currently support Kerberos authentication with your Active Directory (AD) or Azure Active Directory (AAD) identity, although this is a feature we are working on.

Instead, you must access your Azure file share with the storage account key for the storage account containing your Azure file share. A storage account key is an administrator key for a storage account, including administrator permissions to all files and folders within the file share you're accessing, and for all file shares and other storage resources (blobs, queues, tables, etc) contained within your storage account.

To map a network drive from Windows 10 to Azure Storage, you need to create a storage solution in Azure that can provide this capability. The correct solution for this scenario is to create a Files service in a storage account, which allows you to create a file share in Azure that can be accessed via the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol.

Option A, an Azure SQL database, is not the correct solution for this scenario, as SQL databases are used for structured data storage and not for storing files. Option B, a virtual machine data disk, is also not the correct solution, as this provides a virtual hard drive for a single virtual machine, and cannot be accessed by multiple computers at the same time.

Option C, a Files service in a storage account, is the correct solution for this scenario. The Files service allows you to create a file share in Azure that can be accessed via the SMB protocol, just like a traditional file server. This file share can be mapped as a network drive on Windows 10 computers, allowing users to access and store files in Azure as if they were on a local network drive.

Option D, a Blobs service in a storage account, is not the correct solution for this scenario, as Blobs are designed for unstructured data storage, such as documents, images, videos, and other large files. Blobs are not suitable for storing files that need to be accessed via the SMB protocol, as they cannot be mapped as network drives.