Release notes for Azure File Sync

  • Article

Azure File Sync enables centralizing your organization's file shares in Azure Files, while keeping the flexibility, performance, and compatibility of a Windows file server. While some users may opt to keep a full copy of their data locally, Azure File Sync additionally has the ability to transform Windows Server into a quick cache of your Azure file share. You can use any protocol that's available on Windows Server to access your data locally, including SMB, NFS, and FTPS. You can have as many caches as you need across the world.

This article provides the release notes for Azure File Sync. It's important to note that major releases of Azure File Sync include service and agent improvements (for example, 17.0.0.0). Minor releases of Azure File Sync are typically for agent improvements (for example, 17.2.0.0).

Supported versions

The following Azure File Sync agent versions are supported:

Milestone Agent version number Release date Status
V19 Release - KB5040924 19.1.0.0 September 3, 2024 Supported - Flighting
V18.2 Release - KB5023059 18.2.0.0 July 9, 2024 Supported
V18.1 Release - KB5023057 18.1.0.0 June 11, 2024 Supported - Security Update
V17.3 Release - KB5039814 17.3.0.0 June 11, 2024 Supported - Security Update
V18 Release - KB5023057 18.0.0.0 May 8, 2024 Supported
V17.2 Release - KB5023055 17.2.0.0 February 28, 2024 Supported
V17.1 Release - KB5023054 17.1.0.0 February 13, 2024 Supported - Security Update
V16.2 Release - KB5023052 16.2.0.0 February 13, 2024 Supported - Security Update - Agent version will expire on October 7, 2024
V17.0 Release - KB5023053 17.0.0.0 December 6, 2023 Supported
V16.0 Release - KB5013877 16.0.0.0 January 30, 2023 Supported - Agent version will expire on October 7, 2024

Unsupported versions

The following Azure File Sync agent versions have expired and are no longer supported:

Milestone Agent version number Release date Status
V15 Release 15.0.0.0 - 15.2.0.0 N/A Not Supported - Agent versions expired on March 19, 2024
V14 Release 14.0.0.0 N/A Not Supported - Agent versions expired on February 8, 2024
V13 Release 13.0.0.0 N/A Not Supported - Agent versions expired on August 8, 2022
V12 Release 12.0.0.0 - 12.1.0.0 N/A Not Supported - Agent versions expired on May 23, 2022
V11 Release 11.1.0.0 - 11.3.0.0 N/A Not Supported - Agent versions expired on March 28, 2022
V10 Release 10.0.0.0 - 10.1.0.0 N/A Not Supported - Agent versions expired on June 28, 2021
V9 Release 9.0.0.0 - 9.1.0.0 N/A Not Supported - Agent versions expired on February 16, 2021
V8 Release 8.0.0.0 N/A Not Supported - Agent versions expired on January 12, 2021
V7 Release 7.0.0.0 - 7.2.0.0 N/A Not Supported - Agent versions expired on September 1, 2020
V6 Release 6.0.0.0 - 6.3.0.0 N/A Not Supported - Agent versions expired on April 21, 2020
V5 Release 5.0.2.0 - 5.2.0.0 N/A Not Supported - Agent versions expired on March 18, 2020
V4 Release 4.0.1.0 - 4.3.0.0 N/A Not Supported - Agent versions expired on November 6, 2019
V3 Release 3.1.0.0 - 3.4.0.0 N/A Not Supported - Agent versions expired on August 19, 2019
Pre-GA agents 1.1.0.0 - 3.0.13.0 N/A Not Supported - Agent versions expired on October 1, 2018

Azure File Sync agent update policy

The Azure File Sync agent is updated on a regular basis to add new functionality and to address issues. We recommend updating the Azure File Sync agent as new versions are available.

Major vs. minor agent versions

  • Major agent versions often contain new features and have an increasing number as the first part of the version number. For example: 17.0.0.0
  • Minor agent versions are also called "patches" and are released more frequently than major versions. They often contain bug fixes and smaller improvements but no new features. For example: 17.2.0.0

Upgrade paths

There are five approved and tested ways to install the Azure File Sync agent updates.

  1. Use Azure File Sync agent auto-upgrade feature to install agent updates. The Azure File Sync agent will auto-upgrade. You can select to install the latest agent version when available or update when the currently installed agent is near expiration. To learn more, see Automatic agent lifecycle management.
  2. Configure Microsoft Update to automatically download and install agent updates. We recommend installing every Azure File Sync update to ensure you have access to the latest fixes for the server agent. Microsoft Update makes this process seamless by automatically downloading and installing updates for you.
  3. Use AfsUpdater.exe to download and install agent updates. The AfsUpdater.exe is located in the agent installation directory. Double-click the executable to download and install agent updates. Depending on the release version, you might need to restart the server.
  4. Patch an existing Azure File Sync agent by using a Microsoft Update patch file, or a .msp executable. The latest Azure File Sync update package can be downloaded from the Microsoft Update Catalog. Running an .msp executable will upgrade your Azure File Sync installation with the same method used automatically by Microsoft Update. Applying a Microsoft Update patch will perform an in-place upgrade of an Azure File Sync installation.
  5. Download the newest Azure File Sync agent installer from the Microsoft Download Center. To upgrade an existing Azure File Sync agent installation, uninstall the older version and then install the latest version from the downloaded installer. The server registration, sync groups, and any other settings are maintained by the Azure File Sync installer.

Note

The downgrade of Azure File Sync agent isn't supported. The new versions often include breaking changes when compared to the old versions, making the downgrade process unsupported. In case you encounter any problems with your current agent version, reach out to support or upgrade to the latest available release.

Automatic agent lifecycle management

The Azure File Sync agent will auto-upgrade. You can select either of two modes and specify a maintenance window in which the upgrade shall be attempted on the server. This feature is designed to help you with the agent lifecycle management by either providing a guardrail preventing your agent from expiration or allowing for a no-hassle, stay current setting.

  1. The default setting will attempt to prevent the agent from expiration. Within 21 days of the posted expiration date of an agent, the agent will attempt to self-upgrade. It will start an attempt to upgrade once a week within 21 days prior to expiration and in the selected maintenance window. This option doesn't eliminate the need for taking regular Microsoft Update patches.
  2. Optionally, you can select that the agent will automatically upgrade itself as soon as a new agent version becomes available (currently not applicable to clustered servers). This update will occur during the selected maintenance window and allow your server to benefit from new features and improvements as soon as they become generally available. This is the recommended, worry-free setting that will provide major agent versions as well as regular update patches to your server. Every agent released is at GA quality. If you select this option, Microsoft will flight the newest agent version to you. Clustered servers are excluded. Once flighting is complete, the agent will also become available on Microsoft Update and Microsoft Download Center.
Changing the auto-upgrade setting

The following instructions describe how to change the settings after you've completed the installer, if you need to make changes.

Open a PowerShell console and navigate to the directory where you installed the sync agent, then import the server cmdlets. By default this would look something like this:

cd 'C:\Program Files\Azure\StorageSyncAgent'
Import-Module -Name .\StorageSync.Management.ServerCmdlets.dll

You can run Get-StorageSyncAgentAutoUpdatePolicy to check the current policy setting and determine if you want to change it.

To change the current policy setting to the delayed update track, you can use:

Set-StorageSyncAgentAutoUpdatePolicy -PolicyMode UpdateBeforeExpiration

To change the current policy setting to the immediate update track, you can use:

Set-StorageSyncAgentAutoUpdatePolicy -PolicyMode InstallLatest -Day <day> -Hour <hour>

Note

If flighting has already completed for the latest agent version and the agent auto update policy is changed to InstallLatest, the agent will not auto-upgrade until the next agent version is flighted. To update to an agent version that has completed flighting, use Microsoft Update or AfsUpdater.exe. To check if an agent version is currently flighting, check the supported versions section in the release notes.

Agent lifecycle and change management guarantees

Azure File Sync is a cloud service which continuously introduces new features and improvements. This means that a specific Azure File Sync agent version can only be supported for a limited time. To facilitate your deployment, the following rules guarantee you have enough time and notification to accommodate agent updates/upgrades in your change management process:

  • Major agent versions are supported for at least six months from the date of initial release.
  • We guarantee there is an overlap of at least three months between the support of major agent versions.
  • Warnings are issued for registered servers using a soon-to-be expired agent at least three months prior to expiration. You can check if a registered server is using an older version of the agent under the registered servers section of a Storage Sync Service.
  • The lifetime of a minor agent version is bound to the associated major version. For example, when agent version 17.0.0.0 is set to expire, agent versions 17.*.*.* will all be set to expire together.

Note

Installing an agent version with an expiration warning will display a warning but succeed. Attempting to install or connect with an expired agent version isn't supported and will be blocked.

Windows Server 2012 R2 agent support will end on March 4, 2025

Windows Server 2012 R2 reached end of support on October 10, 2023. Azure File Sync will continue to support Windows Server 2012 R2 until the v17.x agent is expired on March 4, 2025. Once the v17 agent is expired, Windows Server 2012 R2 servers will stop syncing to your Azure file shares.

Action Required

Perform one of the following options for your Windows Server 2012 R2 servers prior to v17 agent expiration on March 4, 2025:

Note

Azure File Sync agent v17.3 is the last agent release currently planned for Windows Server 2012 R2. To continue to receive product improvements and bug fixes, upgrade your servers to Windows Server 2016 or later.

Version 19.1.0.0

The following release notes are for Azure File Sync version 19.1.0.0 (released September 3, 2024). This release contains improvements for the Azure File Sync service and agent.

Improvements and issues that are fixed

Faster server provisioning and improved disaster recovery for Azure File Sync server endpoints.

We have reduced the time it takes for the new server endpoint to be ready to use. Prior to the v19 release, when a new server endpoint is provisioned, it could take hours and sometime days for the server to be ready to use. With our latest improvements, we've substantially shortened this duration, ensuring a faster setup process.

The improvement applies to the following scenarios, when the server endpoint location is empty (no files or directories):

  • Creating the first server endpoint of new sync topology after data is copied to the Azure File Share.
  • Adding a new empty server endpoint to an existing sync topology.

This improvement will be gradually enabled in all regions within the next month. Once the improvement is enabled in your region, you will see a Provisioning steps tab in the portal after server endpoint creation which allows you to easily determine when the server endpoint is ready for use. For more information, see Create an Azure File Sync server endpoint documentation.

Preview: Managed Identity support for Azure File Sync service and servers
Azure File Sync support for managed identities eliminates the need for shared keys as a method of authentication by utilizing a system-assigned managed identity provided by Microsoft Entra ID.

When you enable this configuration, the system-assigned managed identities will be used for the following scenarios:

  • Storage Sync Service authentication to Azure file share
  • Registered server authentication to Azure file share
  • Registered server authentication to Storage Sync Service

Azure File Sync support for system-assigned managed identities will be in preview soon. More details will be provided once this feature is enabled in all regions.

Sync performance improvements
Sync performance has significantly improved for file share migrations and when metadata-only is changed (for example, ACL changes). Performance numbers will be posted when they are available.

Miscellaneous reliability and telemetry improvements for cloud tiering and sync

Evaluation Tool

Before deploying Azure File Sync, you should evaluate whether it's compatible with your system using the Azure File Sync evaluation tool. This tool is an Azure PowerShell cmdlet that checks for potential issues with your file system and dataset, such as unsupported OS version. For installation and usage instructions, see Evaluation Tool section in the planning guide.

Agent installation and server configuration

For more information on how to install and configure the Azure File Sync agent with Windows Server, see Planning for an Azure File Sync deployment and How to deploy Azure File Sync.

  • The agent installation requires a restart for servers that have an existing Azure File Sync agent installation if the agent version is older than 18.2.0.0.
  • The agent installation package must be installed with elevated (admin) permissions.
  • The agent isn't supported on Nano Server deployment option.
  • The agent is supported only on Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2022 and Windows Server 2025.
  • The agent installation package is for a specific operating system version. If a server with an Azure File Sync agent installed is upgraded to a newer operating system version, the existing agent must be uninstalled. Restart the server and then install the agent for the new server operating system (Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2022 or Windows Server 2025).
  • The agent requires at least 2 GiB of memory. If the server is running in a virtual machine with dynamic memory enabled, the VM should be configured with a minimum 2048 MiB of memory. See Recommended system resources for more information.
  • The agent uses TLS 1.2 or 1.3 (Windows Server 2022 or newer) by default and TLS 1.0 and 1.1 are not supported.
  • The Storage Sync Agent (FileSyncSvc) service doesn't support server endpoints located on a volume that has the system volume information (SVI) directory compressed. If the SVI directory is compressed, the Storage Sync Agent (FileSyncSvc) service will fail to start.

Interoperability

  • Antivirus, backup, and other applications that access tiered files can cause undesirable recall unless they respect the offline attribute and skip reading the content of those files. For more information, see Troubleshoot Azure File Sync.
  • File Server Resource Manager (FSRM) file screens can cause endless sync failures when files are blocked because of the file screen.
  • Running sysprep on a server that has the Azure File Sync agent installed isn't supported and can lead to unexpected results. The Azure File Sync agent should be installed after deploying the server image and completing sysprep mini-setup.

Sync limitations

The following items don't sync, but the rest of the system continues to operate normally:

  • Azure File Sync supports all characters that are supported by the NTFS file system except invalid surrogate pairs. See Troubleshooting guide for more information.
  • Paths that are longer than 2,048 characters.
  • The system access control list (SACL) portion of a security descriptor that's used for auditing.
  • Extended attributes.
  • Alternate data streams.
  • Reparse points.
  • Hard links.
  • Compression (if it's set on a server file) isn't preserved when changes sync to that file from other endpoints.
  • Any file that's encrypted with EFS (or other user mode encryption) that prevents the service from reading the data.

Note

Azure File Sync always encrypts data in transit. Data is always encrypted at rest in Azure.

Server endpoint

  • A server endpoint can be created only on an NTFS volume. ReFS, FAT, FAT32, and other file systems aren't currently supported by Azure File Sync.
  • Cloud tiering isn't supported on the system volume. To create a server endpoint on the system volume, disable cloud tiering when creating the server endpoint.
  • Failover Clustering is supported only with clustered disks, but not with Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs).
  • A server endpoint can't be nested. It can coexist on the same volume in parallel with another endpoint.
  • Don't store an OS or application paging file within a server endpoint location.

Cloud endpoint

  • Azure File Sync supports making changes to the Azure file share directly. However, any changes made on the Azure file share first need to be discovered by an Azure File Sync change detection job. A change detection job is initiated for a cloud endpoint once every 24 hours. To immediately sync files that are changed in the Azure file share, use the Invoke-AzStorageSyncChangeDetection PowerShell cmdlet to manually initiate the detection of changes in the Azure file share.
  • The storage sync service and/or storage account can be moved to a different resource group, subscription, or Microsoft Entra (formerly Azure AD) tenant. After moving the storage sync service or storage account, you need to give the Microsoft.StorageSync application access to the storage account (see Ensure Azure File Sync has access to the storage account).

Note

When creating the cloud endpoint, the storage sync service and storage account must be in the same Microsoft Entra ID tenant. After you create the cloud endpoint, you can move the storage sync service and storage account to different Microsoft Entra ID tenants.

Cloud tiering

  • If a tiered file is copied to another location by using Robocopy, the resulting file isn't tiered. The offline attribute might be set because Robocopy incorrectly includes that attribute in copy operations.
  • When copying files using Robocopy, use the /MIR option to preserve file timestamps. This will ensure older files are tiered sooner than recently accessed files.

Version 18.2.0.0

The following release notes are for Azure File Sync version 18.2.0.0 (released July 9, 2024). This release contains improvements for the Azure File Sync agent. These notes are in addition to the release notes listed for version 18.0.0.0 and 18.1.0.0.

Improvements and issues that are fixed

  • Rollup update for Azure File Sync agent v18 and v18.1 releases.
  • This release also includes sync reliability improvements.

Version 18.1.0.0 (Security Update)

The following release notes are for Azure File Sync version 18.1.0.0 (released June 11, 2024). This release contains a security update for servers that have v18 agent version installed. These notes are in addition to the release notes listed for version 18.0.0.0.

Improvements and issues that are fixed

Fixes an issue that might allow unauthorized users to delete files in locations they don't have access. This is a security-only update. For more information about this vulnerability, see CVE-2024-35253.

Version 17.3.0.0 (Security Update)

The following release notes are for Azure File Sync version 17.3.0.0 (released June 11, 2024). This release contains a security update for servers that have v16.x or v17.x agent versions installed. These notes are in addition to the release notes listed for version 17.0.0.0.

Improvements and issues that are fixed

Fixes an issue that might allow unauthorized users to delete files in locations they don’t have access. This is a security-only update. For more information about this vulnerability, see CVE-2024-35253.

Version 18.0.0.0

The following release notes are for Azure File Sync version 18.0.0.0 (released May 8, 2024). This release contains improvements for the Azure File Sync service and agent.

Improvements and issues that are fixed

Faster server provisioning and improved disaster recovery for Azure File Sync server endpoints We're reducing the time it takes for the new server endpoint to be ready to use. When a new server endpoint is provisioned, it could take hours and sometime days for the server to be ready to use. With our latest improvements, we've substantially shortened this duration for a more efficient setup process.

The improvement applies to the following scenarios, when the server endpoint location is empty (no files or directories):

  • Creating the first server endpoint of new sync topology after data is copied to the Azure File Share.
  • Adding a new empty server endpoint to an existing sync topology.

How to get started: Sign up for the public preview here.

Sync performance improvements
Sync upload performance has improved, and performance numbers will be posted when they are available. This improvement will mainly benefit file share migrations (initial upload) and high churn events on the server in which a large number of files need to be uploaded, for example ACL changes.

Miscellaneous reliability and telemetry improvements for cloud tiering and sync

Evaluation Tool

Before deploying Azure File Sync, you should evaluate whether it's compatible with your system using the Azure File Sync evaluation tool. This tool is an Azure PowerShell cmdlet that checks for potential issues with your file system and dataset, such as unsupported OS version. For installation and usage instructions, see Evaluation Tool section in the planning guide.

Agent installation and server configuration

For more information on how to install and configure the Azure File Sync agent with Windows Server, see Planning for an Azure File Sync deployment and How to deploy Azure File Sync.

  • The agent installation package must be installed with elevated (admin) permissions.
  • The agent isn't supported on Nano Server deployment option.
  • The agent is supported only on Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016 and Windows Server 2022.
  • The agent installation package is for a specific operating system version. If a server with an Azure File Sync agent installed is upgraded to a newer operating system version, the existing agent must be uninstalled. Restart the server and then install the agent for the new server operating system (Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, or Windows Server 2022).
  • The agent requires at least 2 GiB of memory. If the server is running in a virtual machine with dynamic memory enabled, the VM should be configured with a minimum 2048 MiB of memory. See Recommended system resources for more information.
  • The Storage Sync Agent (FileSyncSvc) service doesn't support server endpoints located on a volume that has the system volume information (SVI) directory compressed. This configuration will lead to unexpected results.
  • All supported Azure File Sync agent versions use TLS 1.2 by default and TLS 1.0 and 1.1 are not supported. Starting with v18 agent version TLS 1.3 will be supported for Windows Server 2022.

Interoperability

  • Antivirus, backup, and other applications that access tiered files can cause undesirable recall unless they respect the offline attribute and skip reading the content of those files. For more information, see Troubleshoot Azure File Sync.
  • File Server Resource Manager (FSRM) file screens can cause endless sync failures when files are blocked because of the file screen.
  • Running sysprep on a server that has the Azure File Sync agent installed isn't supported and can lead to unexpected results. The Azure File Sync agent should be installed after deploying the server image and completing sysprep mini-setup.

Sync limitations

The following items don't sync, but the rest of the system continues to operate normally:

  • Azure File Sync v17 agent and later supports all characters that are supported by the NTFS file system except invalid surrogate pairs. See Troubleshooting guide for more information.
  • Paths that are longer than 2,048 characters.
  • The system access control list (SACL) portion of a security descriptor that's used for auditing.
  • Extended attributes.
  • Alternate data streams.
  • Reparse points.
  • Hard links.
  • Compression (if it's set on a server file) isn't preserved when changes sync to that file from other endpoints.
  • Any file that's encrypted with EFS (or other user mode encryption) that prevents the service from reading the data.

Note

Azure File Sync always encrypts data in transit. Data is always encrypted at rest in Azure.

Server endpoint

  • A server endpoint can be created only on an NTFS volume. ReFS, FAT, FAT32, and other file systems aren't currently supported by Azure File Sync.
  • Cloud tiering isn't supported on the system volume. To create a server endpoint on the system volume, disable cloud tiering when creating the server endpoint.
  • Failover Clustering is supported only with clustered disks, but not with Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs).
  • A server endpoint can't be nested. It can coexist on the same volume in parallel with another endpoint.
  • Don't store an OS or application paging file within a server endpoint location.

Cloud endpoint

  • Azure File Sync supports making changes to the Azure file share directly. However, any changes made on the Azure file share first need to be discovered by an Azure File Sync change detection job. A change detection job is initiated for a cloud endpoint once every 24 hours. To immediately sync files that are changed in the Azure file share, use the Invoke-AzStorageSyncChangeDetection PowerShell cmdlet to manually initiate the detection of changes in the Azure file share.
  • The storage sync service and/or storage account can be moved to a different resource group, subscription, or Microsoft Entra (formerly Azure AD) tenant. After moving the storage sync service or storage account, you need to give the Microsoft.StorageSync application access to the storage account (see Ensure Azure File Sync has access to the storage account).

Note

When creating the cloud endpoint, the storage sync service and storage account must be in the same Microsoft Entra tenant. After you create the cloud endpoint, you can move the storage sync service and storage account to different Microsoft Entra tenants.

Cloud tiering

  • If a tiered file is copied to another location by using Robocopy, the resulting file isn't tiered. The offline attribute might be set because Robocopy incorrectly includes that attribute in copy operations.
  • When copying files using Robocopy, use the /MIR option to preserve file timestamps. This will ensure older files are tiered sooner than recently accessed files.

Version 17.2.0.0

The following release notes are for Azure File Sync version 17.2.0.0 (released February 28, 2024). This release contains improvements for the Azure File Sync service and agent.

Improvements and issues that are fixed

The Azure File Sync v17.2 release is a rollup update for the v17.0 and v17.1 releases:

Evaluation tool

Before deploying Azure File Sync, you should evaluate whether it's compatible with your system using the Azure File Sync evaluation tool. This tool is an Azure PowerShell cmdlet that checks for potential issues with your file system and dataset, such as unsupported characters or an unsupported OS version. For installation and usage instructions, see Evaluation Tool section in the planning guide.

Agent installation and server configuration

For more information on how to install and configure the Azure File Sync agent with Windows Server, see Planning for an Azure File Sync deployment and How to deploy Azure File Sync.

  • The agent installation package must be installed with elevated (admin) permissions.
  • The agent isn't supported on Nano Server deployment option.
  • The agent is supported only on Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012 R2, and Windows Server 2022.
  • The agent installation package is for a specific operating system version. If a server with an Azure File Sync agent installed is upgraded to a newer operating system version, you must uninstall the existing agent, restart the server, and install the agent for the new server operating system (Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, or Windows Server 2022).
  • The agent requires at least 2 GiB of memory. If the server is running in a virtual machine with dynamic memory enabled, the VM should be configured with a minimum 2048 MiB of memory. See Recommended system resources for more information.
  • The Storage Sync Agent (FileSyncSvc) service doesn't support server endpoints located on a volume that has the system volume information (SVI) directory compressed. This configuration will lead to unexpected results.

Interoperability

  • Antivirus, backup, and other applications that access tiered files can cause undesirable recall unless they respect the offline attribute and skip reading the content of those files. For more information, see Troubleshoot Azure File Sync.
  • File Server Resource Manager (FSRM) file screens can cause endless sync failures when files are blocked because of the file screen.
  • Running sysprep on a server that has the Azure File Sync agent installed isn't supported and can lead to unexpected results. The Azure File Sync agent should be installed after deploying the server image and completing sysprep mini-setup.

Sync limitations

The following items don't sync, but the rest of the system continues to operate normally:

  • Files with unsupported characters. See Troubleshooting guide for a list of unsupported characters.
  • Files or directories that end with a period.
  • Paths that are longer than 2,048 characters.
  • The system access control list (SACL) portion of a security descriptor that's used for auditing.
  • Extended attributes.
  • Alternate data streams.
  • Reparse points.
  • Hard links.
  • Compression (if it's set on a server file) isn't preserved when changes sync to that file from other endpoints.
  • Any file that's encrypted with EFS (or other user mode encryption) that prevents the service from reading the data.

Note

Azure File Sync always encrypts data in transit. Data is always encrypted at rest in Azure.

Server endpoint

  • A server endpoint can be created only on an NTFS volume. ReFS, FAT, FAT32, and other file systems aren't currently supported by Azure File Sync.
  • Cloud tiering isn't supported on the system volume. To create a server endpoint on the system volume, disable cloud tiering when creating the server endpoint.
  • Failover Clustering is supported only with clustered disks, but not with Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs).
  • A server endpoint can't be nested. It can coexist on the same volume in parallel with another endpoint.
  • Don't store an OS or application paging file within a server endpoint location.

Cloud endpoint

  • Azure File Sync supports making changes to the Azure file share directly. However, any changes made on the Azure file share first need to be discovered by an Azure File Sync change detection job. A change detection job is initiated for a cloud endpoint once every 24 hours. To immediately sync files that are changed in the Azure file share, you can use the Invoke-AzStorageSyncChangeDetection PowerShell cmdlet to manually initiate the detection of changes in the Azure file share.
  • The storage sync service and/or storage account can be moved to a different resource group, subscription, or Azure AD tenant. After the storage sync service or storage account is moved, you need to give the Microsoft.StorageSync application access to the storage account (see Ensure Azure File Sync has access to the storage account).

Note

When creating the cloud endpoint, the storage sync service and storage account must be in the same Azure AD tenant. Once the cloud endpoint is created, the storage sync service and storage account can be moved to different Azure AD tenants.

Cloud tiering

  • If a tiered file is copied to another location by using Robocopy, the resulting file isn't tiered. The offline attribute might be set because Robocopy incorrectly includes that attribute in copy operations.
  • When copying files using Robocopy, use the /MIR option to preserve file timestamps. This will ensure that older files are tiered sooner than recently accessed files.

Version 17.1.0.0 (Security Update)

The following release notes are for Azure File Sync version 17.1.0.0 (released February 13, 2024). This release contains a security update for the Azure File Sync agent. These notes are in addition to the release notes listed for version 17.0.0.0.

Improvements and issues that are fixed

Fixes an issue that might allow unauthorized users to create new files in locations they aren't allowed to. This is a security-only update. For more information about this vulnerability, see CVE-2024-21397.

Version 16.2.0.0 (Security Update)

The following release notes are for Azure File Sync version 16.2.0.0 (released February 13, 2024). This release contains security updates for the Azure File Sync agent. These notes are in addition to the release notes listed for version 16.0.0.0.

Improvements and issues that are fixed

Fixes an issue that might allow unauthorized users to create new files in locations they aren't allowed to. This is a security-only update. For more information about this vulnerability, see CVE-2024-21397.

Version 17.0.0.0

The following release notes are for Azure File Sync version 17.0.0.0 (released December 6, 2023). This release contains improvements for the Azure File Sync service and agent.

Improvements and issues that are fixed

Sync upload performance improvements
Sync upload performance has improved (performance numbers to be posted in the near future). This improvement will mainly benefit file share migrations (initial upload) and high churn events on the server in which a large number of files need to be uploaded.

Expanded character support for file and directory names
Azure File Sync now supports an expanded list of characters. This expansion allows for users to create and sync SMB file shares with file and directory names on par with NTFS file system, for valid Unicode characters. For more information on unsupported characters, refer to the documentation here.

New cloud tiering low disk space mode metric
You can now configure an alert if a server is in low disk space mode. To learn more, see Monitor Azure File Sync.

Fixed an issue that caused the agent upgrade to hang

Fixed a bug that caused the ESE database engine (also known as JET) to generate logs under C:\Windows\System32 directory

Miscellaneous reliability and telemetry improvements for cloud tiering and sync

Evaluation Tool

Before deploying Azure File Sync, you should evaluate whether it's compatible with your system using the Azure File Sync evaluation tool. This tool is an Azure PowerShell cmdlet that checks for potential issues with your file system and dataset, such as unsupported characters or an unsupported OS version. For installation and usage instructions, see Evaluation Tool section in the planning guide.

Agent installation and server configuration

For more information on how to install and configure the Azure File Sync agent with Windows Server, see Planning for an Azure File Sync deployment and How to deploy Azure File Sync.

  • The agent installation package must be installed with elevated (admin) permissions.
  • The agent isn't supported on Nano Server deployment option.
  • The agent is supported only on Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012 R2, and Windows Server 2022.
  • Windows Server 2012 R2 requires .NET Framework version 4.6.2 or higher.
  • The agent installation package is for a specific operating system version. If a server with an Azure File Sync agent installed is upgraded to a newer operating system version, the existing agent must be uninstalled. Restart the server and then install the agent for the new server operating system (Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, or Windows Server 2022).
  • The agent requires at least 2 GiB of memory. If the server is running in a virtual machine with dynamic memory enabled, the VM should be configured with a minimum 2048 MiB of memory. See Recommended system resources for more information.
  • The Storage Sync Agent (FileSyncSvc) service doesn't support server endpoints located on a volume that has the system volume information (SVI) directory compressed. This configuration will lead to unexpected results.

Interoperability

  • Antivirus, backup, and other applications that access tiered files can cause undesirable recall unless they respect the offline attribute and skip reading the content of those files. For more information, see Troubleshoot Azure File Sync.
  • File Server Resource Manager (FSRM) file screens can cause endless sync failures when files are blocked because of the file screen.
  • Running sysprep on a server that has the Azure File Sync agent installed isn't supported and can lead to unexpected results. The Azure File Sync agent should be installed after deploying the server image and completing sysprep mini-setup.

Sync limitations

The following items don't sync, but the rest of the system continues to operate normally:

  • Azure File Sync v17 agent supports all characters that are supported by the NTFS file system except invalid surrogate pairs. See Troubleshooting guide for more information.
  • Paths that are longer than 2,048 characters.
  • The system access control list (SACL) portion of a security descriptor that's used for auditing.
  • Extended attributes.
  • Alternate data streams.
  • Reparse points.
  • Hard links.
  • Compression (if it's set on a server file) isn't preserved when changes sync to that file from other endpoints.
  • Any file that's encrypted with EFS (or other user mode encryption) that prevents the service from reading the data.

Note

Azure File Sync always encrypts data in transit. Data is always encrypted at rest in Azure.

Server endpoint

  • A server endpoint can be created only on an NTFS volume. ReFS, FAT, FAT32, and other file systems aren't currently supported by Azure File Sync.
  • Cloud tiering isn't supported on the system volume. To create a server endpoint on the system volume, disable cloud tiering when creating the server endpoint.
  • Failover Clustering is supported only with clustered disks, but not with Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs).
  • A server endpoint can't be nested. It can coexist on the same volume in parallel with another endpoint.
  • Don't store an OS or application paging file within a server endpoint location.

Cloud endpoint

  • Azure File Sync supports making changes to the Azure file share directly. However, any changes made on the Azure file share first need to be discovered by an Azure File Sync change detection job. A change detection job is initiated for a cloud endpoint once every 24 hours. To immediately sync files that are changed in the Azure file share, use the Invoke-AzStorageSyncChangeDetection PowerShell cmdlet to manually initiate the detection of changes in the Azure file share.
  • The storage sync service and/or storage account can be moved to a different resource group, subscription, or Microsoft Entra (formerly Azure AD) tenant. After moving the storage sync service or storage account, you need to give the Microsoft.StorageSync application access to the storage account (see Ensure Azure File Sync has access to the storage account).

Note

When creating the cloud endpoint, the storage sync service and storage account must be in the same Microsoft Entra tenant. After you create the cloud endpoint, you can move the storage sync service and storage account to different Microsoft Entra tenants.

Cloud tiering

  • If a tiered file is copied to another location by using Robocopy, the resulting file isn't tiered. The offline attribute might be set because Robocopy incorrectly includes that attribute in copy operations.
  • When copying files using Robocopy, use the /MIR option to preserve file timestamps. This will ensure older files are tiered sooner than recently accessed files.

Version 16.0.0.0

The following release notes are for Azure File Sync version 16.0.0.0 (released January 30, 2023). This release contains improvements for the Azure File Sync service and agent.

Improvements and issues that are fixed

Improved Azure File Sync service availability
Azure File Sync is now a zone-redundant service, which means an outage in a zone has limited impact while improving the service resiliency to minimize customer impact. To fully use this improvement, configure your storage accounts to use zone-redundant storage (ZRS) or Geo-zone redundant storage (GZRS) replication. To learn more about different redundancy options for your storage accounts, see Azure Files redundancy.

Immediately run server change enumeration to detect files changes that were missed on the server
Azure File Sync uses the Windows USN journal feature on Windows Server to immediately detect files that were changed and upload them to the Azure file share. If files changed are missed due to journal wrap or other issues, the files won't sync to the Azure file share until the changes are detected. Azure File Sync has a server change enumeration job that runs every 24 hours on the server endpoint path to detect changes that were missed by the USN journal. If you don't want to wait until the next server change enumeration job runs, you can now use the Invoke-StorageSyncServerChangeDetection PowerShell cmdlet to immediately run server change enumeration on a server endpoint path.

To immediately run server change enumeration on a server endpoint path, run the following PowerShell commands:

Import-Module "C:\Program Files\Azure\StorageSyncAgent\StorageSync.Management.ServerCmdlets.dll"
Invoke-StorageSyncServerChangeDetection -ServerEndpointPath <path>

Note

By default, the server change enumeration scan will only check the modified timestamp. To perform a deeper check, use the -DeepScan parameter.

Bug fix for the PowerShell script FileSyncErrorsReport.ps1

Miscellaneous reliability and telemetry improvements for cloud tiering and sync

Evaluation Tool

Before deploying Azure File Sync, you should evaluate whether it's compatible with your system using the Azure File Sync evaluation tool. This tool is an Azure PowerShell cmdlet that checks for potential issues with your file system and dataset, such as unsupported characters or an unsupported OS version. For installation and usage instructions, see Evaluation Tool section in the planning guide.

Agent installation and server configuration

For more information on how to install and configure the Azure File Sync agent with Windows Server, see Planning for an Azure File Sync deployment and How to deploy Azure File Sync.

  • The agent installation package must be installed with elevated (admin) permissions.
  • The agent isn't supported on Nano Server deployment option.
  • The agent is supported only on Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012 R2, and Windows Server 2022.
  • The agent installation package is for a specific operating system version. If a server with an Azure File Sync agent installed is upgraded to a newer operating system version, you must uninstall the existing agent, restart the server, and install the agent for the new server operating system (Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, or Windows Server 2022).
  • The agent requires at least 2 GiB of memory. If the server is running in a virtual machine with dynamic memory enabled, the VM should be configured with a minimum 2048 MiB of memory. See Recommended system resources for more information.
  • The Storage Sync Agent (FileSyncSvc) service doesn't support server endpoints located on a volume that has the system volume information (SVI) directory compressed. This configuration will lead to unexpected results.

Interoperability

  • Antivirus, backup, and other applications that access tiered files can cause undesirable recall unless they respect the offline attribute and skip reading the content of those files. For more information, see Troubleshoot Azure File Sync.
  • File Server Resource Manager (FSRM) file screens can cause endless sync failures when files are blocked because of the file screen.
  • Running sysprep on a server that has the Azure File Sync agent installed isn't supported and can lead to unexpected results. The Azure File Sync agent should be installed after deploying the server image and completing sysprep mini-setup.

Sync limitations

The following items don't sync, but the rest of the system continues to operate normally:

  • Files with unsupported characters. See Troubleshooting guide for a list of unsupported characters.
  • Files or directories that end with a period.
  • Paths that are longer than 2,048 characters.
  • The system access control list (SACL) portion of a security descriptor that's used for auditing.
  • Extended attributes.
  • Alternate data streams.
  • Reparse points.
  • Hard links.
  • Compression (if it's set on a server file) isn't preserved when changes sync to that file from other endpoints.
  • Any file that's encrypted with EFS (or other user mode encryption) that prevents the service from reading the data.

Note

Azure File Sync always encrypts data in transit. Data is always encrypted at rest in Azure.

Server endpoint

  • A server endpoint can be created only on an NTFS volume. ReFS, FAT, FAT32, and other file systems aren't currently supported by Azure File Sync.
  • Cloud tiering isn't supported on the system volume. To create a server endpoint on the system volume, disable cloud tiering when creating the server endpoint.
  • Failover Clustering is supported only with clustered disks, but not with Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs).
  • A server endpoint can't be nested. It can coexist on the same volume in parallel with another endpoint.
  • Don't store an OS or application paging file within a server endpoint location.

Cloud endpoint

  • Azure File Sync supports making changes to the Azure file share directly. However, any changes made on the Azure file share first need to be discovered by an Azure File Sync change detection job. A change detection job is initiated for a cloud endpoint once every 24 hours. To immediately sync files that are changed in the Azure file share, the Invoke-AzStorageSyncChangeDetection PowerShell cmdlet can be used to manually initiate the detection of changes in the Azure file share.
  • The storage sync service and/or storage account can be moved to a different resource group, subscription, or Azure AD tenant. After the storage sync service or storage account is moved, you need to give the Microsoft.StorageSync application access to the storage account (see Ensure Azure File Sync has access to the storage account).

Note

When creating the cloud endpoint, the storage sync service and storage account must be in the same Azure AD tenant. Once the cloud endpoint is created, the storage sync service and storage account can be moved to different Azure AD tenants.

Cloud tiering

  • If a tiered file is copied to another location by using Robocopy, the resulting file isn't tiered. The offline attribute might be set because Robocopy incorrectly includes that attribute in copy operations.
  • When copying files using Robocopy, use the /MIR option to preserve file timestamps. This will ensure older files are tiered sooner than recently accessed files.