Mount File Share into Azure Virtual Desktop with Azure AD User

Question

Greetings,

Despite extensively reviewing various discussions, FAQs, articles, and Microsoft documentation, I remain uncertain about the feasibility of my desired setup.

I am attempting to implement a purely cloud-based solution involving an Azure Virtual Desktop environment and Azure Active Directory for authentication. My intention is to incorporate a file share (network drive) accessible by all users within the Azure Virtual Desktop environment, and I have gathered that Azure File Shares is the most suitable option for this purpose.

To accomplish my objective, is it necessary to utilize Azure Active Directory Domain Services for authentication, Azure AD Kerberos, or neither?

Ultimately, my aim is to enable users to authenticate to the file share using their Azure Active Directory accounts, ensuring that the files within the file share are owned by the respective users.

With my current setup I followed the steps of this article: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-desktop/create-profile-container-azure-ad

PS C:\Users\MoritzKnorr> New-PSDrive -Name Z -PSProvider FileSystem -Root "\\NAME.file.core.windows.net\virtual-desktop\Test\"
New-PSDrive: The specified drive root "\\NAME.file.core.windows.net\virtual-desktop\Test\" either does not exist, or it is not a folder.
PS C:\Users\MoritzKnorr> New-PSDrive -Name Z -PSProvider FileSystem -Root "\\NAME.file.core.windows.net\virtual-desktop\Test\" -Persist
New-PSDrive: The network resource type is not correct.

Answer 1

@Moritz Knorr Thanks for posting your query on Microsoft Q&A.

If you would like to follow the approach from the link, it is required that you use hybrid user identities. Cloud-only users aren’t supported to authenticate to Azure files.

Another approach would be to use Azure AD Domain services (AAD DS), but this also comes with some limitations like - an AVD setup with AAD DS doesn’t support SSO to the service and hybrid join of your session hosts, if you need this.

Cloud-only user support for Azure files is a backlog item on the Azure Files team they are working on. No ETA to share currently.

Hope that helps you plan your setup.

If you still have questions, please let us know in the "comments" and we would be happy to help you. Comment is the fastest way of notifying the experts.

If this helps, please 'Accept answer' so that it can help others in the community looking for help on the same topic.

Answer 2

Hi @Moritz Knorr , good news.

Azure AD Support for Azure Files SMB shares REST API is now in Public Preview!

Public Preview: Introducing Azure AD Support for Azure Files SMB shares REST API - Microsoft Community Hub