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Storage Account

  • Storage account name must be unique
  • One can use the Azure Storage Explorer to browse, read, write, upload data to a SA

Storage types

  • Blob storage

  • Object level storage. E.g., videos, images, etc

  • Blobs are stored in storage containers (not docker containers)
  • Blob data is stored as a binary object
  • VM disks are stored as blob storage (Virtual Hard Disk (VHD))
  • The blob storage size increases automatically on demand

  • Types of blobs

    • Block blob: text and binary
    • Append blob: logging data
    • Page blob: virtual hard disk files (Standard or Premium). Can be managed or unmanaged

  • Table storage

  • Simple table structure

  • Quick access for the data in the table

  • File storage

  • File shares that can be accessed by different users and/or VMs

  • Access and create under File Shares tab
  • Connect using Server Message Block (SMB) protocol

  • Snapshots of the file share can be created

  • Queue storage

  • Store messages & events

Storage account types

  • General purpose v2 (gpv2): blob (block, append, page), table, file & queue
  • For premium performance block blob,page blob and files only
  • General purpose v1 (gpv1): blob (block, append, page), table, file & queue
  • For premium performance block blob,page blob and files only
  • BlockBlobStorage: premium performance block blob or append blob
  • FileStorage: premium performance file storage
  • BlobStorage: legacy blob storage account

Replication techniques

  • Locally-redundant storage (LRS): Data is replicated 3x within a physical location in the primary region. 3 replicas in the same data center/
  • Zone-redundant storage (ZRS): Data is replicated 3x across availability zones in the primary region. 3 replicas across data centers (availability zone) in primary region.
  • Geo-redundant storage (GRS): Data is replicated 3x in the primary region and asynchronously replicated to the secondary region. 3 replicas across data centers (non-availability zone) in primary region + 1 replica to secondary region.
  • Read access Geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS): GRS + the data in secondary region is available for read-only purposes
  • Geo-zone-redundant storage (GZRS): Data is replicated 3x across availability zones in the primary region and asynchronously replicated to the secondary region. 3 replicas across data centers (availability zone) in primary region + 1 replica to secondary region
  • Read Access Geo-zone-redundant storage (RA-GZRS): GZRS + the data in secondary region is available for read-only purposes

The replication strategy can be upgraded/downgraded

Service Endpoint

  • Use service endpoint to limit access onto a SA from a VNet
  • On the VM the server endpoint must be configured (Service endpoint tab)
  • ON the SA the access must be restricted to certain networks (Firewalls and vnets tab)
  • Allow only machines in certain IP or VNets to access the SA

Transfer data to Storage Account

# Create container
azcopy make "https://hvitoi.blob.core.windows.net/container?sv={sas-token}"

# Upload file/folder to container
azcopy copy `
  "image.png" `
  "https://hvitoi.blob.core.windows.net/container/image.png?sv={sas-token}"
azcopy copy `
  "directory/*" `
  "https://hvitoi.blob.core.windows.net/container/directory?sv={sas-token}"
azcopy copy `
  "directory/*" `
  "https://hvitoi.blob.core.windows.net/container/directory?sv={sas-token}" `
  --recursive # Include subfolders

# Download file/folder from container
azcopy copy `
  "https://hvitoi.blob.core.windows.net/container/image.png?sv={sas-token}" `
  "image.png"

# Copy file/folder between storage accounts
azcopy copy `
  "https://hvitoi.blob.core.windows.net/container/image.png?sv={sas-token}" `
  "https://hvitoi2.blob.core.windows.net/container/image.png?sv={sas-token}"

  • Azure Import/Export service

  • Download the WAImportExport tool to copy the data to HDD (needs to be encrypted with BitLocker)

  • Create a import job in Azure. Associate the job with the SA

  • Ship your HDD to Azure datacenter and they will upload it to Azure Blob or File Storage

  • Azure Data Box

  • Similar to Azure Import/Export, but the HDD is sent to you

Data Box

  • Azure Data Factory
  • Cloud service to perform ETL/ELT
  • Import data from a dataset (SQL database)
  • Additionally clean the data