Use Azure Files share snapshots

Here’s a concise summary of the article on using share snapshots with Azure Files:

What share snapshots are

• Point-in-time, read-only copies of an Azure file share (SMB or NFS, depending on tier/ redundancy).

• Snapshots are incremental: only changed data after the prior snapshot is stored.

• A snapshot’s URI is the base share URI with a DateTime query (e.g., ?sharesnapshot=...).

• Snapshots persist until explicitly deleted or until the base share is deleted (snapshots are deleted with the share).

When to use snapshots

• Protect against application errors or data corruption (take a snapshot before deployment).

• Recover from accidental file renames or deletions (restore previous file versions).

• General backups and retention for audits/disaster recovery (consider Azure file share backup for automation).

Capabilities and behavior

• Snapshots provide file-level protection and read-only access to the captured state.

• You can read, copy (file-by-file), or delete snapshots but cannot modify them or promote a snapshot to the base share.

• Restores overwrite base files when copied back; snapshots remain intact after copying.

• Snapshots don’t count toward the 100 TiB share-size limit; storage account limits still apply.

Space and retention

• Incremental snapshots reduce time and storage costs; you pay for changed content.

• Only data unique to a deleted snapshot is removed when that snapshot is deleted.

• Maximum 200 snapshots per share; snapshots can be retained up to 10 years.

• No limit on simultaneous snapshot creation calls.

SMB snapshot specifics

• Create, list, delete, and restore via Portal, PowerShell, or Azure CLI.

• Windows: view snapshots via Previous Versions in File Explorer and restore files or directories.

• Linux: mount a specific SMB snapshot by including a snapshot option (format @GMT-YYYY.MM.DD-HH.MM.SS) with CIFS mount.

NFS snapshot specifics

• Create, list, delete, and restore via Portal, PowerShell, or Azure CLI (recommended to mount the share before taking snapshots).

• Access snapshots under the .snapshots directory after mounting the share; copy files from the snapshot directory to restore.

• NFS limitations: only file management APIs (AzRmStorageShare) are supported for snapshots; Azure Backup currently not supported for NFS shares.

Operations (examples)

• Create snapshot: az storage share snapshot --name --account-name

• List snapshots: az storage share list --account-name --include-snapshots

• Delete snapshot: az storage share delete --account-name --name --snapshot (Portal and PowerShell equivalents also supported; the article contains exact commands and portal steps.)

Best practices and notes

• Automate snapshot creation/backup where possible (use Azure file share backup or scripting).

• Plan snapshot frequency and retention to control costs.

• Snapshots are not protection against account-level accidental deletion — enable soft delete or use locks for protection.

Limits and other notes

• Max 200 snapshots per share; can retain up to 10 years.

• Some features (e.g., mounting specific versions as drives) have platform-specific availability (Windows vs Linux).

• You cannot copy a whole share snapshot to another storage account in a single operation — copy files individually.

Last updated: 12/23/2025

If you want, I can produce a shorter one-paragraph summary, extract the key CLI/PowerShell commands into a quick reference, or convert the portal step sequences into a GitBook stepper. Which would you prefer?