Creating an Azure SMB file share
Azure provides you with the ability to create SMB shares with an Azure storage account. These SMB shares act the same as the local on-premises SMB shares you used in Chapter 9, Managing Network Shares. The key difference is how you create them and the credentials you use to access the shares.
Before an SMB client can access data held in an SMB share, the SMB client needs to authenticate with the SMB server. With Windows-based shares, you either use a user ID/password credential, or in a domain environment, the SMB client utilizes Kerberos to authenticate. With Azure, you use the storage account name as the user ID and the storage account key as the password.
The storage account key provides you with two keys (imaginatively named key1 and key2). The values of both keys are valid passwords for Azure SMB file shares. Having two keys enables you to do regular key rotation. If your application uses the value of key1, you can reconfigure your application to use...
