The Azure Data Box hybrid solution enables you to send terabytes of data to Azure in a quick, inexpensive, and reliable way using a transfer device. This FAQ contains questions and answers that you may have when you use Data Box in the Azure portal.
Azure Data Box service is designed for offline data ingestion. This service manages an array of products of differing storage capacities, all tailored for data transport.
The Azure Data Box allows a quick, inexpensive, and secure transfer of terabytes of data into Azure. You order the Data Box device via the Azure portal. Azure ships you a storage device through a regional carrier.
If you have 40 - 500 TB of data that you want to transfer to or from Azure, you would benefit from using Data Box. For data sizes < 40 TB, use Data Box Disk.
Data Box is available at a nominal charge for 10 days. When you select the product model while creating an order in the Azure portal, the charges for the device are displayed. Standard shipping charges and charges for Azure storage also apply. Export orders follow a similar pricing model as for import orders, though additional egress charges may apply.
For more information, go to Azure Data Box pricing. For egress charges, see Bandwidth pricing.
No. Data Box does not store any customer data outside of the service region. The customer has full ownership of their data. They can save the data to a specified location based on the storage account they select during the order creation.
In addition to the customer data, there is Data Box data that includes security artifacts related to the device, monitoring logs for the device and the service, and service-related metadata. In all regions, Data Box data is stored and replicated in the paired region via a Geo-redundant Storage account to protect against data loss.
No. The Data Box resource does not need to be the same as the storage account region where you want to transfer data. You can choose a storage account in any region selected during the order. The Data Box region is only used to deploy the resource during order creation. This cannot be changed.
In extreme circumstances where a region is lost because of a significant disaster, Azure may initiate a regional failover. No action on your part is required in this case. Your order will be fulfilled through the failover region if it is within the same country/region or commerce boundary. However, some Azure regions don't have a paired region in the same geographic or commerce boundary. If there is a disaster in any of those regions, you will need to create the Data Box order again from a different region that is available, and copy the data to Azure in the new region. For more information, see Business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR): Azure Paired Regions.
If you come across any issues with Data Box, contact Azure Support.
Yes. There is a charge for a lost or damaged device. This charge is covered on the Pricing page.
Data Box has a raw capacity of 100 TB and usable capacity of 80 TB. You can transfer up to 80 TB of data with Data Box. To transfer more data, you need to order more devices.
For information on which countries/regions the Data Box is available, go to region availability.
For more information, go to Region availability.
If you can't create a Data Box order, there's a problem with either your subscription type or access.
Check your subscription. Data Box is only available for Enterprise Agreement (EA) and Cloud solution provider (CSP) subscription offers. If you don't have either of these subscription types, contact Azure Support to upgrade your subscription.
If you have a supported offer type for the subscription, check your subscription access level. You need to be a contributor or owner in your subscription to create an order.
We allow a maximum of five active orders per subscription for any Data Box product. You can have five active Data Box orders. If you need to order an additional device, contact Azure Support to increase the limit for your subscription.
When I try to create an order, I receive a notification that the Data Box service is not available. What does this mean?
The Data Box service isn't available for the region you selected for the selected product. For a list of the regions where the service is available, go to Region availability for Data Box.
My Data Box is dispatched, but now I want to cancel this order. Why is the cancel button not available?
You can only cancel the order after the Data Box is ordered and before the order is processed. Once the Data Box order is processed, you can no longer cancel the order.
I have filled up my Data Box with data and need to order another one. Is there a way to quickly place the order?
You can clone your previous order. Cloning creates the same order as before and allows you to edit order details only without the need to type in address, contact, and notification details. Cloning is allowed only for import orders. For more information, see Clone an order.
The following estimated lead times for each phase of order processing will give you a good idea of what to expect.
These lead times are estimates. The time for each stage of order processing is affected by load on the datacenter, concurrent orders, and other environmental conditions.
Estimated lead times for a Data Box order:
Order Data Box: A few minutes, from the portal
Device allocation and preparation: 1-2 business days, subject to inventory availability and other orders pending fulfillment
Shipping: 2-3 business days
Data copy at customer site: Depends on nature of data, size, and number of files
Return shipping: 2-3 business days
Processing device at datacenter: 1-2 business days, subject to other orders pending processing
Upload data to Azure: Begins as soon as processing is complete and the device is connected. Upload time depends on nature of data, size, and number of files.
When you place an order, we check whether a device is available for your order. If a device is available, we will ship it within 10 days. It is conceivable that there are periods of high demand. In this situation, your order will be queued and you can track the status change in the Azure portal. If your order is not fulfilled in 90 days, the order is automatically canceled.
In the Azure portal, go to your Data Box order, and navigate to Device details. Copy the unlock password. Use this password to log into the local web UI on your Data Box. For more information, go to Tutorial: Unpack, cable, connect your Azure Data Box.
Yes. You can use Data Box to connect to SMB and NFS clients. For more information, go to the list of Supported operating systems for Data Box.
Yes. Multiple host computers can connect to Data Box to transfer data and multiple copy jobs can be run in parallel. For more information, go to Tutorial: Copy data to Azure Data Box.
Yes. Both of the 10-GbE interfaces can be connected on the Data Box to copy data at the same time. For more information on how to copy data, go to Tutorial: Copy data to Azure Data Box.
If you aren't able to access the unlock password in the Azure portal, check the permissions on your subscription and storage account. Ensure that you have contributor or owner permission at resource group level. You need to have at least Data Box Operator role permission to see the access credentials.
We don't support port channel configuration, Multipath IO (MPIO) configuration, or vLAN configuration on Data Box.
The automatically generated self-signed certificates expire after 12 months, and the device can no longer be used. You're notified 3 months before the certificates expire. To avoid data loss, return the device at least 1 month before certificate expiration so all data can be ingested in the datacenter before the certificates expire.
After the data copy is complete, when you run Prepare to ship, your data is validated. Data Box generates a list of files and checksums for the data during the validation process. You can download the list of files and verify the list against the files in the source data. For more information, go to Prepare to ship.
There are two LED lights under the power button on the front of a Data Box. The bottom-most light is the system fault indicator, which indicates whether your system is healthy.
A system fault indicator LED that is red may indicate one of the following issues:
- Fan failure
- CPU temperature is high
- Motherboard temperature is high
- Dual inline Memory Module (DIMM) Error Connecting Code (ECC) error
Take these steps:
- Check whether the fan is working.
- Move the device to a location with greater airflow.
- If the system fault indicator light is still on, contact Azure Support.
The top-most light is the disk status indicator. If this light is flashing yellow, this means there is RAID HDD activity. If it is off, there is no RAID HDD activity.
You can track the status of the Data Box order in the Azure portal. When you create the order, you are prompted to provide a notification email. If you provided one, you're notified via email of all status changes for the order.
More information on how to Configure notification emails.
Go to Overview > Download shipping label. Download and print the label, and insert the label in the clear plastic tag on the device where it's clearly visible.
Then drop off the device at your shipping carrier location.
In some regions, you can use self-managed shipping. For eligibility and instructions, see Use self-managed shipping.
Data Box has a usable storage capacity of 80 TB. You can use a single Data Box device for data that ranges in size from 40 TB - 80 TB. For larger data sizes up to 500 TB, you can order multiple Data Box devices.
The maximum sizes are governed by Azure Storage limits. The maximum block blob is roughly 4.768 TiB and the maximum page blob size is 8 TiB. For more information, see Scalability and performance targets for Blob storage.
There are multiple security features implemented to ensure that your Data Box is secure during transit. Some of these include tamper-evident seals, hardware and software tampering detection, and a device unlock password. For more information, go to Azure Data Box security and data protection.
If using an SMB client, you can use an SMB copy tool such as Robocopy, Diskboss, or even Windows File Explorer drag-and-drop to copy data onto the device.
If using an NFS client, you can use rsync, FreeFileSync, Unison, or Ultracopier.
For more information, go to Tutorial: Copy data to Azure Data Box.
To speed up the copy process:
Use multiple streams of data copy. For instance, with
Robocopy, use the multithreaded option. For more information on the exact command used, go to Tutorial: Copy data to Azure Data Box and verify.Use multiple sessions.
Instead of copying over a network share (where network speeds can limit copy speed), store the data locally on the computer to which the Data Box is connected.
Benchmark the performance of the computer used to copy the data. Download and use the
BluestopFIOtool to benchmark the performance of the server hardware. Select the latest x86 or x64 build, select the Artifacts tab, and download the MSI.
Yes. You can import data to a storage account that has private endpoint connections enabled. To let the Data Box service import the data, select "Allow trusted Microsoft services to access this storage account" under the Networking section of the storage account.
Yes. A maximum of 10 storage accounts, general purpose, classic, or blob storage are supported with Data Box. Both hot and cool blob are supported.
Note
Classic storage accounts will not be supported starting August 1, 2023.
During transit, the following features on the Data Box help protect the data.
- The Data Box disks are encrypted with AES 256-bit encryption.
- The device is locked and needs an unlock password to enter and access data. For more information, go to Data Box security features.
I finished Prepare to Ship for my import order and shut down the device. Can I still add more data to the Data Box?
Yes. You can turn on the device and add more data. You'll need to run Prepare to Ship again once you have completed the data copy.
If your device arrived damaged or there is evidence of tampering, do not use the device. Contact Azure Support and return the device as soon as possible. You can also create a new Data Box order for a replacement device. In this case, you won't be charged for the replacement device.
If your device isn't booting, contact Azure Support for help.
Yes. Azure also offers self-managed shipping. When placing the Data Box order, you can choose self-managed shipping option. For more information, see Use self-managed shipping for Data Box.
No. If you have chosen Azure managed shipping, you can't transport the data. Currently, Azure datacenter does not accept delivery of the Data Box from customers or from carriers other than UPS.
If you chose self-managed shipping, then you can pick up or drop off your Data Box from the Azure datacenter.
Once the order status for Data Copy shows as Complete, you can access your data right away.
When you copy the data to Data Box, depending on whether the data is block blob or page blob or Azure files, the data is uploaded to one of the following paths in your Azure Storage account:
https://<storage_account_name>.blob.core.chinacloudapi.cn/<containername>https://<storage_account_name>.file.core.chinacloudapi.cn/<sharename>
Alternatively, you could go to your Azure storage account in the Azure portal and navigate from there.
I just noticed that I did not follow the Azure naming requirements for my containers. Will my data fail to upload to Azure?
If the container names have uppercase letters, those names are automatically converted to lowercase. If the names are not compliant in other ways (special characters, other languages, and so on), the upload will fail. For more guidance for naming shares, containers, and files, go to:
When non-retryable data copy errors prevent any files in your import order from uploading to Azure, the errors are logged in the data copy log and you get a notification. You can't fix the errors. The upload has completed with errors. The notification is sent to make sure you know that the files didn't upload so you can fix any configuration errors before you try again. When you confirm that you're ready to proceed, the data will be secure erased from the device. If you don't respond, the order completes automatically after 14 days.
For error information and steps to proceed with your order, see Review copy errors in uploads from Azure Data Box devices.
If the CreateTime or LastWriteTime field for a file exceeds the allowable size during an upload, "Fri, 31 Dec 9999 23:59:59" replaces the original date in the Azure file property. The file upload succeeds, and no error is raised.
Once the data upload to Azure is complete, the data from the disks on the Data Box is securely erased as per the NIST SP 800-88 Revision 1 guidelines. For more information, go to Erasure of data from Data Box.
Azure Data Box service natively provides reports that you can use for your chain of custody documentation. The audit and copy logs are available in your storage account in Azure and you can download the order history in the Azure portal after the order is complete.
Following reporting is available to support chain of custody:
- Transport logistics from UPS.
- Logging of powering on and user share access.
- BOM or manifest file with a 64-bit cyclic redundancy check (CRC-64) or checksum for each file ingested successfully into the Data Box.
Carrier tracking logs are captured in the Data Box order history. This report is available to you after the device has returned to Azure datacenter and the data on device disks is cleaned up. For immediate need, you can also go directly to the carrier's website with the order tracking number and get the tracking information.
- Review the Data Box system requirements.
- Understand the Data Box limits.
- Quickly deploy Data Box in the Azure portal.