How to deploy an Azure Files storage share into a container using a json template

Question

In my storage account I've created an Azure Files share that I want to add to a Linux container that I already have deployed. What I want to do is redeploy the container using an ARM template with the file share mounted. How exactly to do this?

The existing template for the container looks like this (some fields anonymised) :

{
    "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2019-04-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
    "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
    "parameters": {
        "containerGroups_tds_name": {
            "defaultValue": "tds",
            "type": "String"
        }
    },
    "variables": {},
    "resources": [
        {
            "type": "Microsoft.ContainerInstance/containerGroups",
            "apiVersion": "2024-10-01-preview",
            "name": "[parameters('containerGroups__name')]",
            "location": <azure location>",
            "properties": {
                "sku": "Standard",
                "containers": [
                    {
                        "name": "[parameters('containerGroups__name')]",
                        "properties": {
                            "image": "[concat(<image name>), ':latest')]",
                            "command": [
                                "/bin/bash",
                                "-c",
                                "echo Hello; service apache2 restart; sleep infinity"
                            ],
                            "ports": [
                                {
                                    "protocol": "TCP",
                                    "port": 80
                                },
                                {
                                    "protocol": "TCP",
                                    "port": 19390
                                }
                            ],
                            "environmentVariables": [],
                            "resources": {
                                "requests": {
                                    "memoryInGB": 1.5,
                                    "cpu": 1
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                ],
                "initContainers": [],
                "imageRegistryCredentials": [
                    {
                        "server": "<server>",
                        "username": "<uname>"
                    }
                ],
                "restartPolicy": "OnFailure",
                "ipAddress": {
                    "ports": [
                        {
                            "protocol": "TCP",
                            "port": 80
                        }
                    ],
                    "ip": "<ip address>",
                    "type": "Public",
                    "dnsNameLabel": "[concat(parameters('containerGroups__name'), '<something>')]",
                    "autoGeneratedDomainNameLabelScope": "TenantReuse"
                },
                "osType": "Linux"
            }
        }
    ]
}

For the storage account I have the share name, storage account name and the storage account key. Plus of course the mount point inside the Linux container where I want to access the storage. So how can I do this?

Answer 1

Hi Zubin Sethna

Try updating your existing ARM template to include the Azure File Share configuration. This involves adding a volumes section at the container group level and a volumeMounts section inside the container definition.

To mount an Azure file share as a volume in Azure Container Instances, you require: the storage account name, the share name and the storage access key.

Once deployment is completed, you can verify by connecting to container and execute, df -h

Please check below documentation for more information:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-volume-azure-files

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/templates/microsoft.containerinstance/containergroups?pivots=deployment-language-bicep

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