General availability: Azure NetApp Files support for large volumes up to 500TiB in size

We are announcing the general availability of Azure NetApp Files large volumes feature, allowing the creation of new volumes between 50TiB to 500TiB in size. Regular Azure NetApp Files volumes are limited to 100TiB in size. Large volumes enable a variety of use cases and workloads that require larger volumes with a single namespace, like High-Performance Computing (HPC) in the EDA and O&G space.

Azure NetApp Files large volumes is now also supported with cross-zone and cross-region replication. This capability is particularly beneficial for HPC, AI/ML, and large file content repositories, ensuring data resilience and business continuity across various scenarios.

For HPC workloads, which are essential for simulating processes and electronic design automation, this feature enhances data protection and availability, crucial for maintaining uninterrupted operations. AI/ML workloads, especially those involving large datasets for training complex models, will benefit from the added security and recovery options, ensuring data integrity for critical applications. Content repositories with large files, which often remain unchanged for extended periods but require immediate access, can now leverage the benefits of cross-zone and cross-region replication to safeguard against data loss while optimizing for cost and scale. 

Large volumes feature is currently enabled in the select regions, this is subject to available capacity at creation time. 

Note: Existing regular volumes created cannot be converted to large volumes and cannot be increased beyond 100TiB.  

In the future, this feature is planned to be rolled out to other regions.  

Learn more: 

• What's new in Azure NetApp Files 

• Storage hierarchy of Azure NetApp Files

• Requirements and considerations for large volumes