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Azure Data Box system requirements

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This article describes important system requirements for your Microsoft Azure Data Box and for clients that connect to the Data Box. We recommend you review the information carefully before you deploy your Data Box and then refer to it when you need to during deployment and operation.

The system requirements include:

  • Software requirements: For hosts that connect to the Data Box, describes supported operating systems, file transfer protocols, storage accounts, storage types, and browsers for the local web UI.
  • Networking requirements: For the Data Box, describes requirements for network connections and ports for best operation of the Data Box.

Software requirements

The software requirements include supported operating systems, file transfer protocols, storage accounts, storage types, and browsers for the local web UI.

Supported operating systems for clients

Here is a list of the supported operating systems for the data copy operation via the clients connected to your device.

Operating system Versions Notes
Windows Server 2016 RS1 and later
2019 RS5 and later		 With earlier editions of these operating systems, you can't use RoboCopy in Backup mode (robocopy /B) to copy files that contain Alternate Data Streams (ADS) or use Extended Attributes (EAs) in their Access Control Lists (ACLs).
Windows 7, 8, 10, 11
Linux

Supported file transfer protocols for clients

Protocol Versions Notes
SMB 3.0 and 2.0
NFS All versions up to and including 4.1 For NFS shares, copying data into Data Box from an Advanced Interactive Executive (AIX) host using the IBM Database 2 (DB2) Export tool is not supported.

Important

Connection to Data Box shares is not supported via REST for export orders. Transporting data from on-premises NFS clients into Data Box using NFSv4 is supported. However, to copy data from Data Box to Azure, Data Box supports only REST-based transport. Azure file share with NFSv4.1 does not support REST for data access/transfer.

Supported storage accounts

Note

Classic storage accounts will not be supported starting August 1, 2023.

Here's a list of the supported storage accounts and storage types for a Data Box device. For a complete list of all capabilities for all types of storage accounts, see Types of storage accounts.

Supported storage accounts for imports

For import orders, following table shows the supported storage accounts.

Storage account / Supported storage types Block blob Page blob1 Azure files Supported access tiers
Classic Standard Y Y Y
General-purpose v1 Standard Y Y Y Hot, Cool
General-purpose v1 Premium Y
General-purpose v2 Standard2 Y Y Y Hot, Cool
General-purpose v2 Premium Y
Azure Premium FileStorage Y
Blob storage Standard Y Hot, Cool
Block Blob storage Premium Y Hot, Cool

1 Data uploaded to page blobs must be 512 bytes aligned such as VHDs.

2 Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 is supported for imports but not for exports.

Supported storage accounts for exports

For export orders, following table shows the supported storage accounts.

Storage account / Supported storage types Block blob Page blob* Azure files Supported access tiers
Classic Standard Y Y Y
General-purpose v1 Standard Y Y Y Hot, Cool
General-purpose v1 Premium Y
General-purpose v2 Standard Y Y Y Hot, Cool
General-purpose v2 Premium Y
Azure Premium FileStorage Y
Blob storage Standard Y Hot, Cool
Block Blob storage Premium Y Hot, Cool
Page Blob storage Premium Y

Caveats for storage accounts

  • For General-purpose accounts:
    • For import orders, Data Box doesn't support Queue, Table, and Disk storage types.
    • For export orders, Data Box doesn't support Queue, Table, Disk, and Azure Data Lake Gen2 storage types.
  • Data Box doesn't support append blobs for Blob Storage and Block Blob Storage accounts.
  • Data uploaded to page blobs must be 512 bytes aligned such as VHDs.
  • For exports:
    • A maximum of 80 TB can be exported.
    • File history and blob snapshots aren't exported.
    • Archive blobs aren't supported for export. Rehydrate the blobs in archive tier before exporting. For more information, see Rehydrate an archived blob to an online tier.
    • Data Box only supports block blobs with Azure Data Lake Gen2 Storage accounts. Page blobs are not allowed and should not be uploaded over REST. If page blobs are uploaded over REST, these blobs would fail when data is uploaded to Azure.

Supported storage types

Here is a list of the supported storage types for the Data Box device.

File format Notes
Azure block blob
Azure page blob The data should be 512 bytes aligned.
Azure Files

Supported web browsers

Here is a list of web browsers supported for the local web UI.

Browser Versions Additional requirements/notes
Google Chrome Latest version Tested with Chrome
Microsoft Edge Latest version
FireFox Latest version Tested with FireFox
Internet Explorer Latest version If you cannot sign in, check if cookies and JavaScript are enabled. To enable the UI access, add the device IP to Privacy Actions so that the device can access cookies.

Networking requirements

Your datacenter needs to have high-speed network. We strongly recommend you have at least one 10-GbE connection. If a 10-GbE connection isn't available, you can use a 1-GbE data link to copy data, but the copy speeds are affected.

Port requirements

The following table lists the ports that need to be opened in your firewall to allow for SMB or NFS traffic. In this table, In (inbound) refers to the direction from which incoming client requests access to your device. Out (or outbound) refers to the direction in which your Data Box device sends data externally, beyond the deployment. For example, data might be outbound to the Internet.

Port no. In or out Port scope Required Notes
TCP 80 (HTTP) In LAN Yes This port is used to connect to Data Box Blob storage REST APIs over HTTP. If not connecting to REST APIs, this automatically redirects to local web UI over 8443.
TCP 443 (HTTPS) In LAN Yes This port is used to connect to Data Box Blob storage REST APIs over HTTPS. If not connecting to REST APIs, this automatically redirects to local web UI over 8443.
TCP 8443 (HTTPS-Alt) In LAN Yes This is an alternative port for HTTPS and is used when connecting to local web UI for device management.
TCP 445 (SMB) Out/In LAN In some cases
See notes		 This port is required only if you're connecting via SMB.
TCP 2049 (NFS) Out/In LAN In some cases
See notes		 This port is required only if you're connecting via NFS.
TCP 111 (NFS) Out/In LAN In some cases
See notes		 This port is used for rpcbind/port mapping and required only if you're connecting via NFS.

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