Provision Of Storage For A Public Website

Hello readers! I'm glad you're here. Ever imagined creating a storage account for an organization?

Storage as the name implies is the action or method of keeping or storing things for future use. Hence, storage accounts are very necessary for any public websites as this is needed to save all the items such as pdf files, pictures, data etc to be uploaded on the websites.

It is very important to note that access to these storage items are not enabled, but restricted. In this article, I will describe the step by step process of setting up storage for public websites. Lets do this together.

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Create a storage account to support the public website

• In the portal, search for and select Storage accounts

• Select + Create
• For resource group select new. Give your resource group a name and select OK.
• Set the Storage account name to publicwebsite.Make sure the storage account name is unique by adding an identifier.

-Select Review and then Create

• Wait for the storage account to deploy, and then select Go to resource.

For public websites to be readily available, the storage will require high availability or backup should there be a regional outage.

• In the storage account, in the Data management section, select the Redundancy blade.

• Ensure Read-access Geo-redundant storage is selected.Review the primary and secondary location information.

Information on Public websites should be accessible without customers login in

• In the storage account, in the Settings section, select the Configuration blade

• Ensure the Allow blob anonymous access setting is Enabled.
• Save your changes.

Create a blob storage container with anonymous read access

There may be some situations where the public website has various images and documents.Here is how to proceed.

• In your storage account, in the Data storage section, select the Containers blade. Select + Container.Ensure the Name of the container is public. Select Create.

In a public website, customers are allowed to access images without being authenticated

• Select your public container.On the Overview blade, select Change access level.Ensure the Public access level is Blob (anonymous read access for blobs only). Select OK.

Practice uploading files and testing access

• Ensure you are viewing your container public >> Select Upload >> Browse to files and select a file>> Browse to a file of your choice >> Select Upload

• Close the upload window, Refresh the page and ensure your file was uploaded.

• Verify the URL for your uploaded file. Open a browser and test the URL. Select your uploaded file>>On the Overview tab, copy the URL>> Paste the URL into a new browser tab. (If you have uploaded an image file it will display in the browser).

Configure soft delete

Configuration of soft delete for websites is very important to enable recovery if necessary once an item is mistakenly deleted as the records still remains stored in the database.

• Go to the Overview blade of the storage account.On the Properties page, locate the Blob service section.Select the Blob soft delete setting.

Ensure the Enable soft delete for blobs is checked>>
Change the Keep deleted blobs for (in days) setting to 21>>
Notice you can also Enable soft delete for containers>>
Save your changes.

If something gets deleted, you need to practice using soft delete to restore the files

• Navigate to your container where you uploaded a file>> Select the file you uploaded and then select Delete>> Select OK to confirm deleting the file.

• On the container Overview page, toggle the slider Show deleted blobs This toggle is to the right of the search box.

• Select your deleted file, and use the ellipses on the far right to Undelete the file
• Refresh the container and confirm the file has been restore

It is important to keep track of the different website product document versions

• Go to the Overview blade of the storage account >>In the Properties section, locate the Blob service section. Select the Versioning setting.
• Ensure the Enable versioning for blobs checkbox is checked>> Notice your options to keep all versions or delete versions after >>Save your changes.

Conclusively,I have been able to show how we can make provision for storage accounts for public websites by ensuring we have storage accounts that are readily available incase of any regional outage.I also looked into ensuring there is a containerwith anonymous read access only while I demostrated uploading of files and testing its access. Soft delete configuration was also done for recovery purposes when needed and also tracking of various versions that might exist.