The Beginner Guide to Azure Data Storage
Published: 2024-04-12 04:21:31

## Introduction

Azure Data Storage is a cloud-based storage solution offered by Microsoft Azure that allows businesses to store and manage large amounts of data securely and efficiently. It provides highly available, scalable, and durable storage options for a wide range of data types.

Components of Azure Data Storage:

i.	Blob storage: This component is designed for storing large amounts of unstructured data, such as text or binary data. It is a good solution for storing media files, documents, backups, and logs. Blob storage offers tiered storage options for cost optimization, high availability, and data retrieval speeds.

ii.	File storage: This is a fully managed file service that enables businesses to store and share files from the cloud, similar to a traditional file server. It supports both structured and unstructured data, making it suitable for storing application files, virtual machine images, and other shared files.

iii.	Queue storage: This component is used to manage and store messages that need to be processed asynchronously. It is ideal for building decoupled applications and helps in reducing processing time and increasing scalability.

iv.	Table storage: This is a NoSQL key-value store that can store large amounts of structured data. It is a cost-effective solution for managing structured data such as web application settings, user preferences, and device data.

Comparison with other cloud storage services:

a.	AWS S3: Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) is a cloud storage service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS). It is similar to Azure Blob storage and also offers tiered storage options for cost optimization. However, Azure Blob storage has a more user-friendly interface and supports a larger variety of data types. Azure Blob storage also offers more comprehensive data access security options compared to S3.

b.	Google Cloud Storage: Google Cloud Storage is a cloud storage service offered by Google Cloud Platform. Like Azure Blob storage and AWS S3, it supports object storage. However, Azure Blob storage offers better hybrid connectivity options, such as Azure File Sync and Azure StorSimple, which allow businesses to seamlessly integrate their on-premises storage with the cloud.

Use cases and examples of how businesses can utilize Azure Data 
Storage:

A.	Backup and Disaster Recovery: Azure Blob storage and File storage are the most suitable options for backing up and restoring data in case of system failures or disasters. Data can be automatically replicated to different regions for disaster recovery purposes.

B.	Web and Mobile Applications: Azure Blob storage, File storage, and Table storage can be used to store and retrieve data in web and mobile applications. This allows for seamless scalability and performance as the traffic to the application grows.

C.	Media and Content Storage: Blob storage is ideal for storing and delivering media files such as images, audio, and video. It supports high-throughput access, reducing the time taken to load media files.

D.	Internet of Things (IoT): With the increasing number of connected devices and sensors generating large amounts of data, Azure Data Storage can be used to store and process this data in real-time, ensuring high availability and scalability.

E.	Big Data: Azure Data Lake Storage can be used for storing and analyzing large amounts of structured and unstructured data for big data analytics tasks such as data mining, machine learning, and business intelligence.

## Getting Started with Azure Data Storage

Setting up an Azure Data Storage account is a simple process that allows you to store, access, and manage your data in the cloud. This guide will walk you through the steps of setting up a storage account, creating containers and blobs, and transferring data to your Azure storage.

Step 1: Creating an Azure Data Storage account

1.	Log in to your Azure portal and click on “Create a resource” in the top-left corner.

2.	In the search bar, type “Storage account” and select the “Storage account” option from the results.

3.	Click “Create” to start the process of creating a new storage account.

4.	In the “Basics” tab, choose your subscription, resource group, and storage account name. Select the location where you want your data to be stored, and choose your preferred performance option.

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5.	In the “Account kind” section, select the type of storage account you want: General-purpose v2, General-purpose v1, Blob storage, or File storage. General-purpose v2 is recommended for most use cases.

6.	In the “Replication” section, choose the type of replication you want for your data. Geo-redundant storage (GRS) and Read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS) are recommended for more reliable data protection.

7.	In the “Access tier” section, select the access tier for your data. Hot is recommended for frequently accessed data, while Cool is more suitable for infrequently accessed data.

8.	Click “Review + create” to validate your configuration and then click “Create” to create your storage account.

Step 2: Creating containers and blobs

1.	Once your storage account is created, go to the “Overview” tab and click on your storage account name.

2.	In the storage account overview, click on the “Containers” option in the left menu.

3.	Click on the “+ Container” button to create a new container.

4.	Name your container and choose the access level (Private, Blob, Container, or Public).

5.	Click “Create” to create your container.

6.	To upload data to your container, click on the container 
name. In the container overview, click on the “Upload” button, browse for the file or files you want to upload, and click “Upload”.

7.	To create a blob within a container, click on the container name, and then click on the “+ Blob” button. Give your blob a name, select the access level, and click “Upload” to upload the file to your blob.

Step 3: Transferring data to Azure storage

i.	There are several options for transferring your data to your Azure storage account:

ii.	Azure portal: You can upload individual files or folders directly through the Azure portal, as described in Step 2.

iii.	Azure Storage Explorer: You can download the Azure Storage Explorer tool, which is a free, standalone tool that allows you to easily transfer data between your local machine and your Azure storage account. It also allows you to manage your containers, blobs, and files.

iv.	Azure Data Box: For large amounts of data (over 10 TB), you can use the Azure Data Box service. This involves ordering a physical data transfer device, such as a hard drive or solid-state drive, which will be shipped to you. Once you have transferred your data onto the device, you ship it back to Azure, and they will upload the data to your storage account.

v.	Data transfer over the network: You can transfer data over a network connection using Azure File Sync or Azure Data Factory.

vi.	Understanding Blob Storage

vii.	Blob storage is a type of cloud storage offered by Azure that is optimized for storing unstructured data such as images, videos, documents, and other files. It is designed for high availability, scalability, and durability, allowing users to store large amounts of data in the cloud without having to manage the underlying infrastructure.

Characteristics:

i.	Scalability: Blob storage is highly scalable, allowing users to store and access large amounts of data without any limitations.

ii.	High Availability: It provides high availability, ensuring that the stored data is always accessible.

iii.	Durability: Blobs are stored in virtual containers called containers, which are replicated to ensure durability and data availability.

iv.	Low Cost: Blob storage is a cost-effective solution for storing large amounts of data in the cloud.

v.	Global Access: Blob storage can be accessed from anywhere in the world using a secure HTTPS endpoint.

Types of Blobs:

i.	Block Blob: It is optimized for storing large amounts of data, up to 4.75 TB in size. It is suitable for storing images, videos, documents, and other unstructured data.

ii.	Append Blob: It is intended for scenarios where data needs to be added to an existing blob without overwriting the existing data. It is suitable for storing logs or other streaming data.

iii.	Page Blob: It is designed for storing random access files up to 8 TB in size. It is commonly used for virtual hard disks in Azure Virtual Machines.

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Blob Storage Features:

i.	Lifecycle Management: This feature allows users to define rules for automatically moving blobs between different access tiers based on their age. This can help reduce storage costs by moving infrequently accessed data to a lower-cost tier.

ii.	Tiering: Blob storage supports three access tiers — Hot, Cool, and Archive. The hotaccess tier is for frequently accessed data, the cool tier is for infrequently accessed data, and the archive tier is for rarely accessed data. This tiering mechanism allows users to optimize storage costs based on the usage pattern of their data.

iii.	Versioning: Users can enable versioning for a container in blob storage, which allows them to keep a history of changes made to blobs within that container. This helps in recovering overwritten or deleted blobs.

iv.	Security Options: Blob storage provides various security options to ensure that the stored data is secure. This includes integration with Azure Active Directory for secure access control, role-based access control (RBAC) for fine-grained access control, and Azure Key Vault for managing encryption keys.

## Exploring File Storage

Azure Data Storage is a collection of cloud storage services provided by Microsoft Azure, which enables businesses and organizations to store and access data in the cloud. One of the services offered in Azure Data Storage is File Storage, which provides a fully managed file share that can be accessed using standard Server Message Block (SMB) protocol. In this guide, we will discuss the basics of File Storage in Azure Data Storage, how to create file shares and directories, and how to access and manage files from different platforms.

i.	Creating File Shares and Directories: To create a file share in Azure Data Storage, follow the steps below:

ii.	Log in to the Azure portal and navigate to the storage account where you want to create the file share.

iii.	Click on “File shares” in the left-hand menu and then click on the “New file share” button.

iv.	Give a name to your file share and optionally provide a quota size. Click on “Create” to create the file share.

v.	Once the file share is created, you can create directories inside it by clicking on the “Add directory” button.


Accessing and Managing files from Windows:

Azure File storage can be accessed from Windows machines like any other network shared folders. Follow the steps below to access and manage files from a Windows machine:

i.	Open “File Explorer” on the Windows machine.

ii.	In the address bar, type “\\<storage-account-name>.file.core.windows.net\<file-share-name>” and press Enter. You will be prompted to enter your Azure storage account credentials.

iii.	Once you are connected, you can access and manage files in the file share just like any other folder on your local machine.
Accessing and Managing files from Linux: To access and manage files from a Linux machine, you can use the SMB protocol or mount the Azure file share as a file system using the “mount” command. 

Here’s how:

i.	Install the “cifs-utils” package on your Linux machine.

ii.	Create a mount point directory using the command “mkdir <mount-point-directory>”.

iii.	Mount the file share using the command “mount -t cifs //storage-account-name.file.core.windows.net/<file-share-name> <mount-point-directory> -o vers=3.0,username=<storage-account-name>,password=<storage-account-key>,dir_mode=0555,file_mode=0555”.

iv.	You can now access and manage files in the file share from the mount point directory.

Accessing and Managing files from macOS:

To access and manage files from a macOS machine, you can use the SMB protocol or mount the Azure file share as a file system using the “mount_smbfs” command. Here’s how:

i.	Open “Finder” on your macOS machine.

ii.	In the menu bar, go to “Go” and click on “Connect to Server”.

iii.	In the server address field, enter “smb://<storage-account-name>.file.core.windows.net/<file-share-name>”.

iv.	Select “Registered User” and enter your Azure storage account credentials.

v.	Once connected, you can access and manage files in the file share just like any other folder on your local machine.

## Utilizing Queue Storage

Azure Queue storage is a service provided by Microsoft Azure for storing and retrieving large numbers of messages. It is a cloud-based message queuing service that allows you to store messages for a short period of time before processing them. The messages can be used to communicate between different components of an application or between different applications. Queue storage is a highly reliable and scalable service that is designed to handle high volumes of messages while maintaining low latency and high availability.

Azure Queue storage can be used in a variety of scenarios, such as:

i.	Decoupling Components: Queue storage is commonly used to decouple different components of an application. For example, an application that needs to process large data sets can use Queue storage to store the data before processing it. This allows for a more efficient and scalable architecture as the processing component can be scaled independently from the component that generates the data.

ii.	Asynchronous Communication: Queue storage can also be used for asynchronous communication between different components of an application or different applications. This can help improve the performance of the application as it eliminates the need for synchronous communication between components.

iii.	Event Driven Processing: Queue storage can be used for event-driven processing. For example, a web application can store requests from users in a queue and process them later, allowing for a smoother user experience and increased scalability.

iv.	Message Logging: In certain applications, it may be necessary to store logs for auditing purposes. Queue storage can be used to store these logs before they are processed, ensuring they are not lost in case of application failures.

Creating Queues and Adding Messages:

Creating a queue in Azure is a simple process. It can be done through either the Azure portal or through programming interfaces such as REST, .NET SDK, Java SDK, etc. Following are the steps to create a queue using the Azure portal:

i.	Log into Azure portal and select the preferred subscription and resource group.

ii.	Click on the ‘+ Create a Resource’ button and search for ‘Storage Queue’ in the Marketplace.

iii.	Select ‘Storage Queue’ from the list of available services and click on ‘Create’.

iv.	Give your queue a unique name, choose the storage account, and select the preferred location.

v.	Click on ‘Create’ to create the queue.

Once the queue is created, you can start adding messages to it. This can be done using the Azure portal or through code. Following are the steps to add messages using the Azure portal:

i.	Navigate to your queue under the storage account.

ii.	Click on the ‘Add Message’ button.

iii.	Enter the message content and click on ‘Save’.

iv.	You can also specify a time to live value for the message, after which it will be automatically deleted from the queue. You can add multiple messages to the queue at once, making it efficient for batch processing.

Retrieving, Updating, and Deleting Messages:

Retrieving messages from a queue can also be done using the Azure portal or through code. Following are the steps to retrieve messages using the Azure portal:

Navigate to your queue under the storage account.

i.	Click on the ‘Peek’ button to view the content of the message without removing it from the queue.

ii.	Click on the ‘Get Messages’ button to retrieve and remove the message from the queue.

iii.	The message will be returned with a ‘pop receipt’ that is used to identify that particular message in the queue.

iv.	To update a message, you can retrieve the message using the pop receipt and then add a modified version of the message back to the queue. This will replace the existing message in the queue with the updated one. To delete a message, you can again use the pop receipt to identify and delete the message from the queue. If the message is not deleted within a certain time frame, it will automatically reappear in the queue.

## Working with Table Storage

Table storage is a NoSQL data storage service in Microsoft Azure that enables structured data to be stored in a key-value format. It is a cost-effective, highly scalable, and durable storage solution for applications that require large-scale data storage. Table storage is ideal for storing structured data such as user information, customer data, product catalogs, and sensor data. It also offers features such as global availability, serverless computing, and easy integration with other Azure services.

## Benefits of Table Storage:

A.	Cost-effective: Table storage is a budget-friendly option for storing large amounts of structured data. Its pay-as-you-go pricing model ensures that you only pay for what you use, making it a cost-effective choice for both small and large businesses.

B.	Highly Scalable: Table storage can handle massive amounts of data with ease. It can store terabytes of structured data, and its auto-scale feature allows it to dynamically adjust storage capacity based on demand.

C.	Durable and Highly Available: Table storage is designed for high availability and durability. It automatically replicates data to three different locations within the same region to ensure data redundancy and disaster recovery.

D.	Flexible Data Model: Table storage offers a flexible data model, allowing you to store different types of data in the same table. You can add or remove columns without affecting the existing data, making it easier to adapt to changing business needs.


Creating Tables, Entities, and Partitions:

To start using Table storage, you first need to create a storage account in Azure. Once your storage account is set up, you can create a table, which is a collection of entities (rows) that share a common partition key. A partition key is a unique identifier that groups related data together, making it easier to retrieve data efficiently.

To add data to your table, you need to create entities. Entities can have up to 255 properties, and each entity must have a partition key and a row key, which together form a unique identifier. You can also add custom properties to your entities as needed.

Exploring Querying and Indexing Options:

i.	Table storage offers different options for querying and indexing data to improve data retrieval performance. These include the following:

ii.	OData Support: Table storage supports querying using the Open Data Protocol (OData), which allows you to filter and sort data based on specific criteria.

iii.	LINQ to Azure Table Storage: This feature allows you to use LINQ (Language-Integrated Query) expressions to query and manipulate data in your table.

iv.	Table Indexes: By default, table storage only indexes the partition and row keys, which are used for unique identification of entities. However, you can add additional indexes on specific properties to improve query performance.

v.	Secondary Indexes: In addition to table indexes, table storage also allows you to create secondary indexes on custom properties. These indexes are useful for queries that do not use the partition or row key.