Create and Restore File Share Snapshots in Azure
Pluralsight Hands-On Lab — Storage
At a Glance
| Platform | Pluralsight |
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| Category | Azure Storage |
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| Lab Type | Guided + Challenge Mode |
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| Environment | Azure Portal, Windows VM via Remote Desktop, PowerShell |
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| Completed | 2026 |
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Overview
Azure File Share snapshots provide point-in-time backups of file share contents, enabling file versioning and recovery without full backup infrastructure. In this lab, I created a storage account and file share, connected it to a Windows VM as a mapped drive using a PowerShell script, created a test file, took a snapshot, modified the file, and then restored the original version from the snapshot — confirming the full backup and restore cycle for Azure Files.
What I Did
- Created a Standard storage account and a file share named fileshare1 in the Azure portal
- Connected to the lab Windows VM via Remote Desktop, disabled Windows Firewall to allow file share connectivity, and opened PowerShell as Administrator
- Used the Connect script from the Azure portal's file share blade to mount fileshare1 as a network drive on the VM via PowerShell
- Created a text file (test.txt) in the mounted file share containing "hello hello" and confirmed it appeared in the Azure portal's Browse view
- Took a file share snapshot named TestSnapshot from the Snapshots blade in the Azure portal
- Modified test.txt on the VM by adding random text and saving it, simulating an unintended file change
- Located TestSnapshot in the Azure portal, found test.txt inside it, and restored it using Overwrite original file
- Reopened test.txt on the VM and confirmed it reverted to the original "hello hello" content, validating the snapshot restore
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