VERDE Clustered Deployment Using Microsoft Azure File Shares

VERDE Clustered Deployment Using Microsoft Azure File Shares

Product Line:  VERDE

A VERDE clustered deployment (2 or more servers) requires shared storage available to all servers in the cluster.

When deploying a VERDE cluster to Microsoft Azure the File Shares feature provides the required shared storage. Once created, the Azure File Share is mounted using SMB 3.0 protocol to the Linux servers hosting VERDE.

This document provides technical details on configuring File Shares.

Create the File Share

The Azure File Share must be created using the Microsoft Azure Web Portal.

File Shares are owned by a Storage account.

Create a Storage account (if necessary):

Click on Storage accounts in the left navigation bar or the main button.

Click + Add to create a new Storage account:



Select the relevant Subscription account, resource group and location. Note: the location must be the same as your VERDE servers.

Recommendation: for performance reasons the Premium performance option should be selected.




Click “Next: Networking >”


Select the most appropriate network connectivity method.



Selecting Public endpoint (all networks) is the simplest approach.

Selected networks or private endpoints can be configured to enable additional security. More advanced networking knowledge is required to properly select these options.

Click the “Review + create” button to validate and finalize the storage account:



Click “Create” button to create the storage account.


Create the File Share

Click on the premium storage account:




Click on the File Shares menu option then “+ File share” to create a new file share:




Enter a name for the File Share and a quota:


Note: The performance of the File Share increases based on the Quota. Consider the following examples:



Specify the Quota that is most appropriate for your deployment then click the ‘Create’ button.

Back on the list of File Shares, click on the “…” button to reveal the pull-down menu. Click the Connect option:



Click on the Linux option to obtain the information required to mount the file share to the VERDE server:


Copy the contents of the Linux commands generated in the text box display.



The following is an example of the Linux commands:


These commands create a file (e.g., /etc/smbcredentials/mystorageaccount.cred) containing the credentials (username and password) required to mount the file share. This is simply a convenience to reduce the complexity of the mount command and the information saved to /etc/fstab.

Some changes are required to the default Linux commands provided by Azure to ensure compatibility with VERDE. The following is the modified commands:




The red text highlights the modifications.

The above commands must be executed on each of the servers in the VERDE cluster. This includes the Cluster Master and all VDI servers.

These commands must be performed before VERDE installation.


Use the “df -h” Linux command to confirm that the File Share has been successfully mounted.

e.g.,




Recommendation: Enable the VERDE cacheIO feature to improve performance and reduce data transfer costs associated with the Azure File Share.

end of document