Creating Azure Files SMB share

Assuming that you are following along with these examples on a fresh Azure subscription, let's create an Azure Resource Group and Azure Storage Account first:

1. In a PowerShell window, execute the following code:

az group create `
   --name docker-storage-resource-group `
   --location westeurope

You can choose a location that is the most suitable for you (in order to show a list of available locations, run az account list-locations). In this example, we are using the westeurope Azure location.

2. After the successful creation of an Azure Resource Group, continue by creating an Azure Storage Account:

az storage account create `
   --name dockerstorageaccount `
   --resource-group docker-storage-resource-group `
   --location westeurope `
   --sku Standard_RAGRS `
   --kind StorageV2

The preceding command will create a general-purpose v2 storage account with read-access geo-redundant storage called dockerstorageaccount in docker-storage-resource-group. This operation can take up to a few minutes to complete.

3. Next, you have to create the actual Azure Files SMB share. First, create a connection string for your Azure Storage Account and store it as a variable in PowerShell:

$azureStorageAccountConnString = az storage account show-connection-string `
    --name dockerstorageaccount `
    --resource-group docker-storage-resource-group `
    --query "connectionString" `
    --output tsv

if (!$azureStorageAccountConnString) {
    Write-Error "Couldn't retrieve the connection string."
}

Remember to keep the connection string safe as it can be used to manage your storage account!

4. Using the connection string stored in the $azureStorageAccountConnString variable, create the share:

az storage share create `
   --name docker-bind-mount-share `
   --quota 2 `
   --connection-string $azureStorageAccountConnString 

This will create a share called docker-bind-mount-share with a quota limit of 2 GB, which we will now use in our Docker container.