📁 Blob Storage

Introduction

Azure Blob Storage is a service for storing large amounts of unstructured data like documents, images, and videos.

Key Learning Outcomes

By the end of this lesson, you'll understand:

• Creating storage accounts and containers

• Uploading and downloading blobs

• Access control and permissions

• Lifecycle management

• Performance optimization

• Cost management

Creating Storage Account

# Create storage account
az storage account create \
  --name mystorageaccount \
  --resource-group myResourceGroup \
  --location eastus \
  --sku Standard_LRS

# Create container
az storage container create \
  --account-name mystorageaccount \
  --name mycontainer

Uploading and Downloading

# Upload file
az storage blob upload \
  --account-name mystorageaccount \
  --container-name mycontainer \
  --name myfile.txt \
  --file ./myfile.txt

# Download file
az storage blob download \
  --account-name mystorageaccount \
  --container-name mycontainer \
  --name myfile.txt \
  --file downloaded.txt

Access Control

# Generate SAS token
az storage blob generate-sas \
  --account-name mystorageaccount \
  --container-name mycontainer \
  --name myfile.txt \
  --permissions r \
  --expiry 2024-12-31

# Get blob URL
az storage blob url \
  --account-name mystorageaccount \
  --container-name mycontainer \
  --name myfile.txt

Lifecycle Management

# Create lifecycle policy
az storage account management-policy create \
  --account-name mystorageaccount \
  --resource-group myResourceGroup \
  --policy @lifecycle.json

lifecycle.json:

{
  "rules": [
    {
      "name": "archive-old-blobs",
      "type": "Lifecycle",
      "definition": {
        "actions": {
          "baseBlob": {
            "tierToArchive": {
              "daysAfterModificationGreaterThan": 90
            },
            "delete": {
              "daysAfterModificationGreaterThan": 365
            }
          }
        },
        "filters": {
          "blobTypes": ["blockBlob"]
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Key Takeaways

• **Blob Storage** stores unstructured data at scale

• **Containers** organize blobs

• **Tiers** (Hot, Cool, Archive) optimize costs

• **SAS tokens** provide temporary access

• **Lifecycle policies** automate data management

Next Steps

Learn about Azure SQL Database for relational data, or explore Cosmos DB for NoSQL.