Lab answer key: Implementing Azure File Sync

Note: An interactive lab simulation is available that allows you to click through this lab at your own pace. You may find slight differences between the interactive simulation and the hosted lab, but the core concepts and ideas being demonstrated are the same.

Exercise 1: Implementing Distributed File System (DFS) Replication in your on-premises environment

Task 1: Deploy DFS

1. Connect to SEA-ADM1, and then, if needed, sign in as CONTOSO\Administrator with a password of Pa55w.rd.
2. On SEA-ADM1, on the Start menu, select Windows PowerShell.
3. In the Windows PowerShell console, enter the following, and then press Enter to install Distributed File System (DFS) management tools:
   CodeCopy

   Install-WindowsFeature -Name RSAT-DFS-Mgmt-Con -IncludeManagementTools
   

4. On the taskbar, select File Explorer.
5. In File Explorer, browse to the C:\Labfiles\Lab10 folder.
6. In File Explorer, in the details pane, select the file L10_DeployDFS.ps1, display its context-sensitive menu, and then, in the menu, select Edit.
   

   Note: This will automatically open the file L10_DeployDFS.ps1 in the script pane of Windows PowerShell ISE.

7. In the Windows PowerShell ISE script pane, review the script, and then execute it by selecting the Run Script icon in the toolbar or by pressing F5.

Task 2: Test DFS deployment

1. On SEA-ADM1, select Start, enter DFS, and then select DFS Management.
2. In DFS Management, in the navigation pane, right-click or access the context menu for Namespaces, and then select Add Namespaces to Display.
3. In the Add Namespaces to Display dialog box, in the list of namespaces, select \\contoso.com\Root, and then select OK.
4. In the navigation pane, right-click or access the context menu for Replication, and then select Add Replication Groups to Display.
5. In the Add Replication Groups to Display dialog box, in the Replication groups section, select Branch1, and then select OK.
6. In the navigation pane, expand the \\contoso.com\Root namespace, and then select the Data folder.
7. In the details pane, verify that the Data folder has two referrals to the Data folder on SEA-SVR1 and SEA-SVR2.
8. In the navigation pane, select Branch1.
9. In the details pane, verify that the S:\Data folder on SEA-SVR1 and on SEA-SVR2 are members of the Branch1 replication group.
   

   Note: DFS Replication replicates the content between the S:\Data folders on SEA-SVR1 and SEA-SVR2.

10. Open two instances of File Explorer. In the first File Explorer instance, connect to \\SEA-SVR1\Data, and then in the second File Explorer instance, connect to \\SEA-SVR2\Data.
11. Create a new file with your name in \\SEA-SVR1\Data.
12. Verify that the file with your name replicates to \\SEA-SVR2\Data after a few seconds. This confirms that DFS Replication is working.
    

    Note: Wait until the files are replicated and both the File Explorer windows record the same content.

Exercise 2: Creating and configuring a sync group

Task 1: Create an Azure file share

1. On SEA-ADM1, start Microsoft Edge, browse to the Azure portal at https://portal.azure.com, and sign in by using the credentials of a user account with the Owner role in the subscription you’ll be using in this lab.
2. In the Azure portal, in the Search resources, services, and docs text box in the toolbar, search for and select the Storage accounts.
3. On the Storage accounts page, select + Create.
4. On the Basics tab of the Create a storage account page, specify the following settings:
   • Resource group: Select Create new, enter AZ800-L1001-RG as resource group name, and then select OK.
   • Storage account name: Type a string of characters starting with a lower case letter followed by any combination of lower case letters and digits, with the total length between 3 and 24 characters.

   Note: Choose the name which is likely to be globally unique. For example, you can specify the storage account name in the following format: <yourlowercaseinitials>DDMMYY; for example, if your name is Devon Torres and you’re creating a storage account on January 30, 2022, the storage account name will be dt013022. If that name is already taken, add another character to the name until the name is available.

   • Region: Any Azure region in your geographical area in which you can create storage accounts.

   Note: Use the same region for deploying all resources in this lab.

   • Redundancy: Locally-redundant storage (LRS)
5. Accept the default values for all other settings, select Review, and then select Create.
6. After the storage account is created, on the Deployment page, select Go to resource.
7. On the storage account page, select File shares, and then select + File share.
8. On the New file share tab, enter share1 in the Name text box, and then select Create.

Task 2: Use an Azure file share

1. On SEA-ADM1, in the Azure portal, in the details pane, select share1.
2. In the details pane, select Upload.
3. On the Upload files tab, browse to C:\Labfiles\Lab10\File1.txt, select Upload, and when the upload is complete, close the Upload files tab.
4. On the share1 page, select Snapshots, select Add snapshot, and then select OK.
5. On the share1 page, select Overview, select Connect, select Show Script, use the Copy to clipboard button to copy the script, and then close the Connect tab.
6. On SEA-ADM1, switch to the Windows PowerShell ISE window, open another tab in the script pane, and paste the copied script into it.
7. Review the content of the script, and then execute it by selecting the Run Script icon in the toolbar or by pressing F5.
   

   Note: The script mounted the Azure file share to drive letter Z.

8. On the taskbar, right-click or access the context menu for File Explorer, select File Explorer, and then, in the Quick Access text box, type *Z:*, and then press Enter.
9. Verify that the file File1.txt appears in the details pane. This is the file that you uploaded to the Azure file share.
10. Double-click or select File1.txt, and then press Enter to open the file in Notepad.
11. Use Notepad to modify the file content by appending your name in the last line, save the change, and close Notepad.
12. Right-click or access the context menu for File1, select Properties, and then, in the File1 Properties window, select the Previous Versions tab.
13. Verify that one previous file version is available. Select that version (File1.txt), select Restore twice, and then select OK twice.
14. Double-click or select File1.txt, select Enter, and then confirm that it doesn’t include your name. This is because you restored the snapshot created before you modified the file.
15. Close Notepad.

Task 3: Deploy Storage Sync Service and a File Sync group

1. On SEA-ADM1, in the Azure portal, in the Search resources, services, and docs text box in the toolbar, search for and select Azure File Sync.
2. On the Basics tab of the Deploy File Sync page, in the Resource Group drop-down list, select AZ800-L1001-RG.
3. In the Storage Sync Service name text box, enter FileSync1.
4. In the Region drop-down list, select the same region in which you created the storage account.
5. On the Basics tab of the Deploy File Sync page, select Review + Create and Create.
6. On the Deployment blade, once the File Sync is provisioned, select Go to resource.
7. On the FileSync1 Storage Sync Service page, select Sync groups, and then select + Sync group to create a new File Sync group.
8. On the Sync group page, enter Sync1 in the Sync group name text box.
9. Select Select storage account, and then, on the Choose storage account page, select the storage account that you created.
   

   Note: If you can’t find the storage account, it was probably deployed to a different Azure region. You need to ensure that the storage account resides in the same region as the Storage Sync Service.

10. In the Azure File Share drop-down list, select share1, and then select Create.
11. On the Storage Sync Service page, select Registered servers, and verify that there are no currently registered servers.

Exercise 3: Replacing DFS Replication with File Sync-based replication

Task 1: Add SEA-SVR1 as a server endpoint

1. On SEA-ADM1, in the Azure portal, on the FileSync1 | Registered servers page, select the Azure File Sync agent link to go to the Azure File Sync Agent Microsoft Downloads page.
2. On the Azure File Sync Agent Microsoft Downloads page, select Download, select the checkbox next to the entry for File Sync agent for Windows Server 2022 (StorageSyncAgent_WS2022.msi), and select Next to start the download. After the download is complete, close the Microsoft Edge tab that opened for the download.
3. Use File Explorer to copy the downloaded file to the C:\Labfiles\Lab10 folder.
4. In File Explorer displaying the content of the C:\Labfiles\Lab10 folder, in the details pane, select the file Install-FileSyncServerCore.ps1, display its context-sensitive menu, and then, in the menu, select Edit.
   

   Note: This will automatically open the file Install-FileSyncServerCore.ps1 in the script pane of Windows PowerShell ISE.

5. In the Windows PowerShell ISE script pane, review the script, and then execute it by selecting the Run Script icon in the toolbar or by pressing F5.
   

   Note: Monitor the script execution. This should take about 3 minutes.

6. When prompted with a WARNING message to sign in, copy the nine-character code in the warning message to the Clipboard.
7. Switch to the Microsoft Edge window displaying the Azure portal, open a new tab by selecting +, and then, on the new tab, browse to https://microsoft.com/devicelogin.
8. In Microsoft Edge, in the Enter code dialog box, paste the code you copied into Clipboard, and then, if needed, sign in with your Azure credentials, on the page displaying the message Are you trying to sign in to Microsoft Azure PowerShell?, select Continue, and then close the Microsoft Edge tab you opened in the previous step.
9. Switch to the Windows PowerShell ISE window and ensure that the script completed successfully.
10. Switch back to the Microsoft Edge window displaying the Azure portal, and then, on the FileSync1 | Registered servers page, select Refresh to display the current list of registered servers.
11. Verify that the SEA-SVR1.Contoso.com server appears on the list of registered servers of the FileSync1 Storage Sync Service.
12. On SEA-ADM1, switch to the File Explorer window, browse to the \\SEA-SVR1\Data share, and verify that the folder doesn’t currently contain File1.txt.
13. Switch to the Microsoft Edge window displaying the Azure portal, on the FileSync1 | Registered servers page, select Sync Groups, select Sync1, and then, on the Sync1 page, select Add server endpoint.
14. On the Add server endpoint tab, select SEA-SVR1.Contoso.com in the Registered servers list.
15. In the Path text box, enter S:\Data, and then select Create.
16. Switch to the File Explorer window and verify that the \\SEA-SVR1\Data folder now contains File1.txt.
    

    Note: You uploaded File1.txt to the Azure file share, from where it was synced to SEA-SVR1 by File Sync.

Task 2: Register SEA-SVR2 with File Sync

1. On SEA-ADM1, switch to the Windows PowerShell ISE window to the tab of the script pane displaying the content of the Install-FileSyncServerCore.ps1 file.
2. In the Windows PowerShell ISE script pane, in the first line, replace SEA-SVR1 with SEA-SVR2, save the change, and execute the script by selecting the Run Script icon in the toolbar or by pressing F5.
   

   Note: Monitor the script execution. This should take about 3 minutes.

3. When prompted with a WARNING message to sign in, copy the nine-character code in the warning message to the Clipboard.
4. Switch to the Microsoft Edge window displaying the Azure portal, open a new tab by selecting +, and then, on the new tab, browse to https://microsoft.com/devicelogin.
5. In Microsoft Edge, in the Enter code dialog box, paste the code you copied into Clipboard, and then, if needed, sign in with your Azure credentials, on the page displaying the message Are you trying to sign in to Microsoft Azure PowerShell?, select Continue, and then close the Microsoft Edge tab you opened in the previous step.
6. Switch to the Windows PowerShell ISE window and ensure that the script completed successfully.
7. When the script completes, switch to the Microsoft Edge window displaying the Azure portal and browse back to the FileSync1 | Registered servers page.
8. Confirm that SEA-SVR1.Contoso.com and SEA-SVR2.Contoso.com are now both listed as registered servers with the FileSync1 Storage Sync Service.

Task 3: Remove DFS Replication and add SEA-SVR2 as a server endpoint

1. On SEA-ADM1, select DFS Management on the taskbar.
2. In DFS Management, in the navigation pane, right-click or access the context menu for Branch1, select Delete, select the Yes, delete the replication group, stop replicating all associated replicated folders, and delete all members of the replication group option, and then select OK.
3. Switch to the Microsoft Edge window displaying the Azure portal, browse back to the FileSync1 Storage Sync Service page, in the list of sync groups, select Sync1, and then, on the Sync1 page, select Add server endpoint.
4. In the Add server endpoint pane, select SEA-SVR2.Contoso.com in the Registered servers list, enter S:\Data in the Path text box, and then select Create.

Exercise 4: Verifying replication and enabling cloud tiering

Task 1: Verify File Sync

1. On SEA-ADM1, switch to the File Explorer window displaying the content of the \\SEA-SVR1\Data share.
2. Create another arbitrarily named file in the \\SEA-SVR1\Data folder.
3. On SEA-ADM1, switch to the File Explorer window displaying the content of the \\SEA-SVR2\Data share and verify that, shortly afterwards, the file with the same name also appears in the \\SEA-SVR2\Data folder.
   

   Note You removed DFS Replication in the previous exercise, which means that File Sync replicated the newly created file.

Task 2: Enable cloud tiering

1. On SEA-ADM1, in the Azure portal, on the Sync1 sync group page, select SEA-SVR2.Contoso.com in the server endpoints section.
2. In the Server Endpoint Properties pane, select Enabled in the Cloud Tiering section.
3. In the Always preserve the specified percentage of free space on the volume text box, enter 90 and set Date policy to Enabled. In the Only cache files that were accessed or modified within the specified number of days text box, enter 14, and then select Save.
   

   Note: After some time, files on SEA-SVR2 would be automatically tiered. You will trigger this process by using PowerShell.

4. On SEA-ADM1, switch to the Windows PowerShell ISE window:
5. In the Windows PowerShell ISE, in the console pane, trigger tiering immediately by entering the following commands and pressing Enter after each:
   CodeCopy

   Enter-PSSession -computername SEA-SVR2
   fsutil file createnew S:\Data\report1.docx 254321098
   fsutil file createnew S:\Data\report2.docx 254321098
   fsutil file createnew S:\Data\report3.docx 254321098
   fsutil file createnew S:\Data\report4.docx 254321098
   Import-Module "C:\Program Files\Azure\StorageSyncAgent\StorageSync.Management.ServerCmdlets.dll"
   Invoke-StorageSyncCloudTiering -Path S:\Data 
   

6. On SEA-ADM1, switch to the File Explorer window displaying the content of the \\SEA-SVR2\Data folder.
7. In the File Explorer window, add the Attributes column in the details pane by right-clicking or accessing the context menu for the Title column in the details pane; for example, in the Name column, select More, select the Attributes checkbox, and then select OK.
8. Drag the Attributes column to be next to the Name column, and then note the file dates and their attributes.
9. Identify files with the attribute L, M, and O, which indicate that the tiering took place.

Exercise 5: Troubleshooting replication issues

Task 1: Monitor File Sync replication

1. On SEA-ADM1, use File Explorer to copy the C:\Windows\INF folder to \\SEA-SVR2\Data\. The folder will sync to the cloud endpoint, which will cause sync traffic.
2. On SEA-ADM1, switch to the Azure portal displaying the Sync1 sync group page of the FileSync1 Storage Sync Service.
3. In the server endpoints section, verify that the Health of both endpoints has green check marks.
4. Select the SEA-SVR2.Contoso.com endpoint in the Server Endpoint Properties pane, review Sync Activity, and then close the pane.
5. Select the Files Synced graph, and then explore how you can customize the graph by using a filter.
6. Switch to the File Explorer window displaying the content of drive Z mapped to the Azure File share and verify that the drive contains the content of the INF folder synchronized from \\SEA-SVR2\Data.
7. Switch to the Azure portal and verify that the INF sync traffic is reflected in the Files Synced and Bytes Synced graphs. The INF folder has more than 800 files, and its size is more than 40 MB.
   

   Note: You might need to refresh the page displaying the Azure portal to see the updated statistics.

Task 2: Test replication conflict resolution

1. On SEA-ADM1, position the File Explorer windows displaying the content of \\SEA-SVR1\Data\ and \\SEA-SVR2\Data\ side-by-side.
2. In the File Explorer window displaying the content of \\SEA-SVR1\Data\, create a file named Demo.txt.
3. In the File Explorer window displaying the content of \\SEA-SVR2\Data\, create a file named Demo.txt.
4. Add an arbitrary text to the first Demo.txt file and save the change.
5. Immediately afterwards, add an arbitrary text (different from the one you used in the previous step) to the second Demo.txt file and save the change.
   

   Note: Make sure to save the change to the second file as soon as possible. You’re creating files with the same name but different content to intentionally trigger a sync conflict.

6. In each File Explorer window, review their content and verify what they contain, in addition to the Demo.txt file, also check for Demo-SEA-SVR2.txt (and potentially Demo-Cloud.txt).
   

   Note: This is because File Sync detected a sync conflict and added a suffix representing the endpoint name (SEA-SVR2) or Cloud to the file that caused the conflict.

   Note: You might need to wait a few minutes for the sync conflict to occur.

Exercise 6: Cleaning up the Azure subscription

Task 1: Delete the Azure resources that were created in the lab

1. On SEA-ADM1, switch to the Microsoft Edge window displaying the Azure portal and browse to the FileSync1 Storage Sync Service page.
2. In the Storage Sync Service page, select Registered Servers.
3. In the details pane, right-click or access the context menu for SEA-SVR2.Contoso.com, and then select Unregister server.
4. In the Unregister server pane, enter SEA-SVR2.Contoso.com in a text box, and then select Unregister.
5. In Storage Sync Service pane, select Registered Servers.
6. In the details pane, right-click or access the context menu for SEA-SVR1.Contoso.com, and then select Unregister server.
7. In the Unregister server pane, enter SEA-SVR1.Contoso.com in a text box, and then select Unregister.
8. Wait until the registration for both servers is removed.
9. In the Storage Sync Service pane, select Sync groups, and then in the details pane, select Sync1.
10. In the Sync1 pane, right-click or access the context menu for share1 in the cloud endpoints section, select Delete, and then select OK.
11. Wait until share1 is deleted.
12. Select Delete, and then select OK.
13. In the navigation pane, select All resources.
14. In the details pane, select FileSync1 and the Azure storage account that you created in this lab.
15. In the Delete Resources pane, select Delete, enter yes in a text box, and then select Delete.
16. In the navigation pane, select Resource groups.
17. In the details pane, select AZ800-L1001-RG, select Delete resource group, enter AZ800-L1001-RG, and then select Delete.