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Azure Local SOFS for FSLogix

Under Active Development

This repository is a work in progress. Scripts, templates, and automation are not guaranteed to work at this time. Use at your own risk and expect breaking changes.

Automation and Infrastructure-as-Code for deploying a Scale Out File Server (SOFS) on Azure Local to host FSLogix profile containers for Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) session hosts.

Sister repo: AzureLocal/azurelocal-avd — AVD session host deployment on Azure Local.

Architecture at a Glance

SOFS Architecture — Three Volume Triple layout

Three Windows Server VMs form a guest Storage Spaces Direct cluster on Azure Local. An anti-affinity rule keeps each VM on a separate physical node for host-level resiliency. The guest S2D cluster presents a Scale-Out File Server role with continuously available SMB shares that FSLogix uses to store user profile VHDXs.

Section Description
Architecture Design decisions, storage layout, capacity planning, AVD considerations, and worked scenarios
Deployment Prerequisites, variables, tool-specific guides (Terraform, Bicep, ARM, PowerShell, Ansible), and validation
Configuration FSLogix registry settings, NTFS/SMB permissions, and antivirus exclusions
Operations Troubleshooting, CI/CD pipelines, runner setup, and secrets management

How Deployment Works

Deploying a SOFS on Azure Local spans two domains that require different tools:

Domain What It Does Tools
Azure-side provisioning Resource group, cloud witness, NICs, Arc VMs, data disks, domain join extension All five tools
Guest OS configuration Anti-affinity, failover clustering, S2D, SOFS role, SMB shares, NTFS permissions PowerShell or Ansible (via WinRM)

Domain join is an Azure resource deployment (JsonADDomainExtension on Microsoft.HybridCompute/machines/extensions) — any tool that deploys Azure resources can do this.

Tool Capabilities

What each tool can do (technology capability):

Tool Azure Resources Domain Join Guest Config End-to-End
PowerShell ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Terraform ✅ ✅ Delegates —
Bicep ✅ ✅ Delegates —
ARM ✅ ✅ Delegates —
Ansible ✅ ✅ ✅ Partial

Current Code Status

What this repo's automation does today:

Tool Azure Domain Join Guest Config Status
PowerShell Full ✅ Full Tested
Terraform Full Not yet Delegates In Progress
Bicep Full Not yet Delegates In Progress
ARM Partial — Delegates Untested
Ansible Full Not yet Phases 5–11 Untested

Domain join gaps are implementation TODOs, not tool limitations. See Deployment Paths for valid combinations.

Quick Start

1. Configure Variables

cp config/variables.example.yml config/variables.yml

See Variables Reference for every parameter.

2. Deploy Azure Infrastructure

Choose one tool to create resource group, VMs, NICs, data disks, and cloud witness:

Tool Path Status
Terraform src/terraform/ In Progress
Bicep src/bicep/ In Progress
ARM src/arm/ Untested
PowerShell src/powershell/ Tested
Ansible src/ansible/ Untested

3. Configure Guest Cluster (Phases 3–11)

.\src\powershell\Configure-SOFS-Cluster.ps1 -ConfigFile .\config\variables.yml

See PowerShell Deployment for the full walkthrough.

4. Validate

.\tests\Test-SOFSDeployment.ps1 `
    -SOFSAccessPoint "FSLogixSOFS" `
    -ShareNames @("FSLogix") `
    -ClusterName "sofs-cluster"

See Validation for the full checklist.

Repository Structure

├── src/                   # Automation code by tool
│   ├── terraform/         #   Terraform (azapi + azurerm)
│   ├── bicep/             #   Bicep (subscription-scope)
│   ├── arm/               #   ARM JSON templates
│   ├── powershell/        #   PowerShell scripts (all phases)
│   └── ansible/           #   Ansible playbooks (WinRM/Kerberos)
├── config/                # Central variables.yml — single source of truth
├── docs/                  # This documentation site (MkDocs)
│   ├── architecture/      #   Design decisions & capacity planning
│   ├── deployment/        #   Prerequisites, tool guides, validation
│   ├── configuration/     #   FSLogix, permissions, antivirus
│   ├── operations/        #   Troubleshooting, CI/CD, secrets
│   └── reference/         #   Deployment guide, variables reference
├── tests/                 # Deployment validation scripts
├── scripts/               # Standalone utilities
└── examples/              # Pipeline examples & sample configs

Prerequisites

  • An existing Azure Local cluster registered with Azure Arc
  • Azure subscription with Contributor RBAC
  • Windows Server 2025 Datacenter: Azure Edition Core (Gen2) gallery image
  • PowerShell 7+ with RSAT-Clustering tools
  • AD domain with permissions to create computer objects
  • For full prerequisites, see Prerequisites