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What is Azure Container Storage enabled by Azure Arc?

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Azure Container Storage enabled by Azure Arc is a first-party storage system designed for Arc-connected Kubernetes clusters. This Arc extension can be deployed to write files to a ReadWriteMany persistent volume claim (PVC) where they can be stored locally, or transferred to Azure Blob Storage destinations in the cloud. Azure Container Storage offers a range of features to support various workloads, such as Azure IoT Operations, and other Arc services. With high availability and fault-tolerance options available, this Arc extension is ready for production workloads.

Diagram of Azure Container Storage enabled by Azure Arc solution architecture.

To download architecture diagrams in high resolution, visit Jumpstart Gems.

What does Azure Container Storage do?

Azure Container Storage serves as a native persistent storage system for Arc-connected Kubernetes clusters. Its primary role is to provide a flexible, reliable, fault-tolerant file system that allows data to be kept safely at the edge and/or to be tiered to Azure. For Azure IoT Operations and other Arc Services, Azure Container Storage is crucial in making Kubernetes clusters stateful. Key features of Arc-connected clusters running this extension include:

  • Tolerance to node failures: When configured as a three node cluster, Azure Container Storage replicates data between nodes to ensure high availability and tolerance to single node failures.
  • Storage Local to your cluster: With a Local Shared Edge Volume, the user can store data local to their edge deployment with a ReadWriteMany access model.
  • Data synchronization to Azure: Azure Container Storage is configured with a storage target, so data written to volumes is automatically tiered to Azure Blob (block blob, Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2, or OneLake) in the cloud.
  • Simple connection: Customers can easily connect to a configured volume using a CSI driver to start making persistent volume claims against their storage.
  • Observable: Supports industry standard Kubernetes monitoring logs and metrics facilities, and supports Azure Monitor Agent observability.
  • Platform neutrality: Azure Container Storage is a Kubernetes storage system that can run on any Arc Kubernetes supported platform. Validation was done for specific platforms, including Ubuntu + CNCF K3s/K8s, Windows IoT + AKS Edge Essentials, and Azure Local.

Supported Azure regions

Azure Container Storage enabled by Azure Arc is available in the following Azure regions:

  • East US
  • East US 2
  • West US
  • West US 2
  • West US 3
  • North Europe
  • West Europe

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