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Azure Files scalability and performance targets

Here’s a concise summary of the article on Scalability and performance targets for Azure Files:

Overview

  • Azure Files provides fully managed SMB and NFS file shares in the cloud.

  • Scalability and performance are governed by both Azure Files limits and other deployment variables; you should test your workload to confirm adequacy.

  • Resources are managed in Azure subscriptions/resource groups and delivered by resource providers. Storage accounts are provided by Microsoft.Storage and are top-level resources that contain classic file shares and other storage resources (depending on account kind). All resources within a storage account share its limits.

Two categories of limits

  • Control plane limits: enforced by Microsoft.Storage and apply to management requests (create/update/delete storage account and child resources).

  • Data plane limits: enforced by the Azure storage platform and apply to file operations and other data I/O. Some management operations are also available via the data plane (FileREST) and are therefore subject to data plane limits instead of Microsoft.Storage control plane limits.

Microsoft.Storage (control plane) limits (selected)

  • Max storage accounts per subscription per region: 250.

  • Max classic file shares per storage account:

    • SSD/HDD provisioned v2: 50

    • SSD provisioned v1: 1024 (recommended ≤ 50)

    • HDD pay-as-you-go: unlimited (recommended ≤ 50)

  • Max file share snapshots per share: 200.

  • Max virtual network rules per account: 200. Max IP address rules: 200.

  • Management read ops: 800 per 5 minutes; write ops: 10/sec (1200/hour); list ops: 100 per 5 minutes.

Storage account (data plane) SKUs / limits — high-level Four storage-account combinations for classic file shares:

  1. SSD provisioned v2 (FileStorage, PremiumV2_LRS/PremiumV2_ZRS): SSD only, only classic file shares.

  2. HDD provisioned v2 (FileStorage, StandardV2_*): HDD only, only classic file shares.

  3. SSD provisioned v1 (FileStorage, Premium_LRS/Premium_ZRS): SSD only, classic file shares.

  4. HDD pay-as-you-go (StorageV2, Standard_*): can contain file shares and other storage resources.

Key storage-account data plane limits (high-level)

  • Maximum storage capacity:

    • SSD provisioned v2: 256 TiB

    • HDD provisioned v2: 4 PiB

    • SSD provisioned v1: 100 TiB

    • HDD pay-as-you-go: 5 PiB

  • Maximum IOPS (storage-account total):

    • SSD provisioned v2: 102,400 IOPS

    • HDD provisioned v2: 50,000 IOPS

    • SSD provisioned v1: 102,400 IOPS

    • HDD pay-as-you-go: default 20,000 IOPS (select regions higher: 40,000)

  • Maximum throughput (storage-account total):

    • SSD provisioned v2: 10,340 MiB/s

    • HDD provisioned v2: 5,120 MiB/s

    • SSD provisioned v1: 10,340 MiB/s

    • HDD pay-as-you-go: defaults and select-region values differ for ingress/egress (see original).

Classic file share data plane limits (per share)

  • Provisioning units: storage (1 GiB), IOPS (1 IO/s), throughput (1 MiB/s) for provisioned SKUs.

  • Minimum provisioned size: 32 GiB (provisioned v2), 100 GiB (provisioned v1); pay-as-you-go has no minimum.

  • Maximum share size:

    • SSD provisioned v2 / HDD provisioned v2: 256 TiB

    • SSD provisioned v1: 100 TiB

    • HDD pay-as-you-go: 100 TiB

  • Maximum IOPS (per share, dependent on provisioning):

    • SSD provisioned v2 / v1: up to 102,400 IOPS

    • HDD provisioned v2: up to 50,000 IOPS

    • HDD pay-as-you-go: 20,000 IOPS

  • Maximum throughput (per share): depends on provisioning and SKU (see storage-account limits).

  • Maximum metadata IOPS: up to 12,000 IOPS across SKUs.

  • Naming rules: full pathname length limit 2,048 characters; individual path component limit 255 characters.

  • SMB Multichannel channels: up to 4 on SSD SKUs (N/A on HDD).

Individual file limits

  • Maximum file size: 4 TiB (all SKUs).

  • Maximum data IOPS per file:

    • SSD: 8,000 IOPS

    • HDD: 1,000 IOPS

  • Maximum throughput per file:

    • SSD: 1,024 MiB/s

    • HDD: 60 MiB/s

  • Concurrent handles:

    • Root directory: up to 10,000

    • Individual file/directory: up to 2,000

Notes and recommendations

  • Provisioned v2 file shares may burst IOPS above provisioned values on a best-effort basis, but bursts across multiple shares are capped by the storage-account limits.

  • Provisioned v1 shares can provision IOPS/throughput beyond a storage account’s limits; if aggregate usage exceeds account limits, throttling occurs at account level.

  • For HDD pay-as-you-go, many values depend on region; some regions have higher IOPS/throughput.

  • Test your usage pattern to validate that Azure Files meets your performance and scalability needs.

References

  • Azure Files introduction: https://docs.azure.cn/en-us/storage/files/storage-files-introduction

  • Planning for an Azure Files deployment: https://docs.azure.cn/en-us/storage/files/storage-files-planning

  • Understand Azure Files performance: https://docs.azure.cn/en-us/storage/files/understand-performance

  • Understanding Azure Files billing: https://docs.azure.cn/en-us/storage/files/understanding-billing

(Article last updated: 09/19/2025)

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