I'm trying to mount an Azure Files storage account as a shared drive on Debian virtual machines (VMs).

```
uname -v
#1 SMP Debian 3.16.7-ckt20-1+deb8u2 (2016-01-02)

```

I installed cifs-utils

```
sudo /sbin/mount.cifs -V
mount.cifs version: 6.4

sudo smbd -V
Version 4.1.17-Debian

```

and samba is running

```
ps aux | grep smbd
root      2442  0.0  0.3 270248 12516 ?        Ss   12:54   0:00/usr/sbin/smbd -D
root      2566  0.0  0.1 270248  6840 ?        S    12:54   0:00 /usr/sbin/smbd -D

```

Now, according to the [documentation](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/storage-how-to-use-files-linux/), one should just go with:

```
sudo mount -t cifs //whatever.file.core.windows.net/shared /mnt/shared --verbose -o -vers=3.0,username=whatever,password=MyKeyEndingIn==,dir_mode=0777,file_mode=0777

```

The trouble is that this yields without more information.

```
mount.cifs kernel mount options: ip=40.118.73.220,unc=\\whatever.file.core.windows.net\shared,-vers=3.0,dir_mode=0777,file_mode=0777,user=whatever,pass=********
mount error(22): Invalid argument

```

Checking the man page did not give more information except that "user=" is an alias for "username=" parameter. Whichever I use gives the same result.

Help is very appreciated.