Storage Account
It’s a Service on Azure which contains all kinds of storage
data objects. You can think it like a container where you can upload your data. Lets check what all kind of data we have and what all services Storage Account provides to deal with it -
Blobs – This is unstructured data. We have 3 types
of blobs
· Block blobs – this is made up of
blocks of data that can be managed individually upto 4.7TB. It stores text and
binary data.
· Append Blobs – this is also made up
of block as block blob but are optimized for append operations. This is ideal
for scenarios such as logging data from virtual machines.
· Page Blobs – This is for random
access files up to 8 TB in size. Page blobs store virtual hard drive (VHD)
files and serve as disks for Azure virtual machines
Files – This is for Azure file share which is fully managed
file shares in the cloud that are accessible via the industry standard SMB
protocol. Azure file shares can be mounted concurrently by cloud or on-premises
deployments of Windows, Linux, and macOS.
Tables - Azure Table storage stores large amounts of
structured data. The service is a NoSQL datastore which accepts authenticated
calls from inside and outside the Azure cloud. Azure tables are ideal for
storing structured, non-relational data.
Queue - Azure Queue
storage service enables storing large numbers of messages that can be accessed
from anywhere via authenticated calls using HTTP or HTTPS. Azure Storage Queue
is a type of message queuing services provided by Azure that provides queue
storage infrastructure for a REST-based interface, within and between different
applications and services.
Storage Account has various properties that is very imp to
understand as per an architect perspective –
- Account Kind
- Performance
- Access Tier
- Replication Type
Account Kind
·
General Purpose v2 – Basic Storage account type
for blob, files, queues and tables
·
General Purpose V1 – Legacy account type for
blob, files, queues and tables
·
Blob – Legacy blob-only storage accounts. Use
general purpose-v2 instead when possible
Performance tiers
·
A standard performance backed by magnetic
drives & provide low cost storage
·
A premium performance backed by SSD with high
performance and low latency.
Premium storage only used by VM disks &
suitable for DB servers with high I/O applications.
VM uses Premium storage qualify for 99.9%
uptime/connectivity SLA, even when running as a single instance.
Premium Storage limitations:
- Only VM disk can be stored
- Only page blob can be created in Premium
storage
- Only LRS will be configured.
Access Tier
Each access tier in Azure Storage is optimized for a
particular pattern of data usage.
Hot - optimized for frequent access of objects in the storage
account means accessing is most cost-effective, while storage costs are higher.
New storage accounts are created in the hot tier by default.
Cool - optimized for storing large amounts of data that is
infrequently accessed and stored for at least 30 days. Storing data in the cool
tier is more cost-effective, but accessing that data may be more expensive than
accessing data in the hot tier.
Archive - tier is available only for individual block blobs.
The archive tier is optimized for data that can tolerate several hours of
retrieval latency and that will remain in the Archive tier for at least 180
days. The archive tier is the most cost-effective option for storing data.
However, accessing that data is more expensive than accessing data in the hot
or cool tiers.
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Replication
Replication options for a storage account include:
·
Locally-redundant storage (LRS): A simple, low-cost
replication strategy. Data is replicated synchronously three times within the
primary region.
·
Zone-redundant storage (ZRS): Replication for scenarios
requiring high availability. Data is replicated synchronously across three
Azure availability zones in the primary region.
·
Geo-redundant storage (GRS): Cross-regional replication to
protect against regional outages. Data is replicated synchronously three times
in the primary region, then replicated asynchronously to the secondary region.
For read access to data in the secondary region, enable read-access
geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS).
·
Geo-zone-redundant storage (GZRS) (preview): Replication for
scenarios requiring both high availability and maximum durability. Data is
replicated synchronously across three Azure availability zones in the primary
region, then replicated asynchronously to the secondary region. For read access
to data in the secondary region, enable read-access geo-zone-redundant storage
(RA-GZRS).
Storage account endpoints
A storage account provides a unique namespace in Azure for
your data. Every object that you store in Azure Storage has an address that
includes your unique account name. The combination of the account name and the
Azure Storage service endpoint forms the endpoints for your storage account.
·
Blob storage: http://mystorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net
·
Table storage: http://mystorageaccount.table.core.windows.net
·
Queue storage: http://mystorageaccount.queue.core.windows.net
·
Azure Files: http://mystorageaccount.file.core.windows.net
Azure Storage provides a layered security model. This model
enables you to secure and control the level of access to your storage accounts
that your applications and enterprise environments demand, based on the type
and subset of networks used. When network rules are configured, only
applications requesting data over the specified set of networks can access a
storage account. You can limit access to your storage account to requests
originating from specified IP addresses, IP ranges or from a list of subnets in
an Azure Virtual Network (VNet).
