DEV Community: samuel eze

How to Secure access to the storage account with a key vault and key using managed identities and rbac.

samuel eze — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 09:54:56 +0000

Securing access to the storage account with a key vault and key” usually means protecting a cloud storage account by using a managed encryption key stored in a secure key-management service. with this few steps we will learn how to secure a storage account with a key vault and a key.

- step 1 first as usual we create a storage account. on your azure portal, search and click on storage account, click on +create

- step 2 Provide a Storage account name. Ensure the name is unique and meets the naming requirements, click on review + create. move to the encryption tab, Check the box for Enable infrastructure encryption, click on review + create, after validation click on create.

- step 4 we are going to Provide a managed identity for the web app to use. click on Goto resource, on the portal bar bar, search and click on managed identities. create, Select your resource group, Give your managed identity a name, Select Review and create, and then after validation click on create.

- step 5 search on the storage account earlier created, on the overview page, click on the access control blade, Select +Add

- step 6 On the Job functions roles page, search for and select the search for and select the Storage Blob Data Reader role.

- On the Members page, select Managed identity

- Select Select members, in the Managed identity drop-down select User-assigned managed identity, Select your managed identity, Click Select and then Review + assign, Select Review + assign a second time to add the role.

- step 7 In the portal, search for and select Resource groupsSelect your resource group, and then the Access Control blade, On the Job functions roles page, search for and select the Key Vault Administrator, On the Members page, select User, group, or service principal.
Select Select members.
Search and select your user account. Your user account is shown in the top right of the portal.
Click Select and then Review + assign.
Select Review + assign a second time to add the role assignment.

- step 8 we are going to create the key vault to store the access key. In the azure portal, search for and select Key vaults, Select Create, Select your resource group you already created, Provide the name for the key vault, The name must be unique globally.

- ensure both Soft-delete and Purge protection are enabled.

- make sure on the Access configuration tab that Azure role-based access control (recommended) is selected. select review + create

after validation click on create

After the deployment, select Go to resource.

- step 9 In your key vault, in the Objects section, select the Keys blade, select Generate/Import and Name the key, take the defaults for the rest of the parameters, and Create the key.

now we still don t have the authorization to view the content until we create the RBAC,

- step 10 In the portal, search for and select Resource groups.
Select your resource group, and then the Access Control (IAM) blade.
Select Add role assignment
On the Job functions roles page, search and select the Key Vault Crypto Service Encryption User role.
On the Members page, select Managed identity. Select members, in the Managed identity drop-down select User-assigned managed identity.
Select your managed identity.
Click Select and then Review + assign.
Select Review + assign again to add the role assignment.

- step 11 Return to your the storage account.
In the Security + networking section, select the Encryption blade.
Select Customer-managed keys.
Select a key vault and key. Select your key vault and key.
Select to confirm your choices.
Ensure the Identity type is User-assigned.
Select an identity.
Select your managed identity then select Add.
Save your changes.
If you receive an error that your identity does not have the correct permissions, wait some minutes and try again.

- step 12 we will configure a time-based retention policy and an encryption scope

Navigate to your storage account.
In the Data storage section, select the Containers blade.
Create a container called hold. Take the defaults. Be sure to Create the container.
Upload a file to the container.
In the Settings section, select the Access policy blade.
In the Immutable blob storage section, select + Add policy.
For the Policy type, select time-based retention.
Set the Retention period to 5 days.
Be sure to Save your changes.

- step 13 Navigate back to your storage account.
In the Security + networking blade, select Encryption.
In the Encryption scopes tab, select Add.
Give your encryption scope a name.
The Encryption type is Microsoft-managed key.
Set Infrastructure encryption to Enable.
Create the encryption scope.
Return to your storage account and create a new container
see in the Advanced section you can select the Encryption scope you created and apply it to all blobs in the container.

How to secure storage for azure files and azure blob storage.

samuel eze — Tue, 19 May 2026 14:40:31 +0000

Securing storage for Azure Files and Azure Blob Storage means protecting your data from unauthorized access, leaks, deletion, or attacks while it’s stored in Microsoft Azure cloud services provided by Microsoft Azure.
With this steps we will learn how to secure storage for azure files and azure blob storage.

- step 1 first we create a storage account, in the azure portal search for storage account and press enter.

- step 2 select +create

- step 3 fill in the basic tab and click review + create

- note this basic form will be filled differently from the normal storage basic form, jus because we are working on file share, there must be changes. if you check the performance section we chose premium why because we are creating a file share, that is because we are creating something that has low latency also in the redundancy section we chose zone redundancy storage because choosing Zone-Redundant Storage (ZRS) means your files are stored in multiple Azure availability zones instead of just one location, lastly premium type we chose file share because obviously we are creating a file share storage.

- step 4 after basic form validation click on create

- step 5 go to resource

- step 6 on the overview page, click on the data storage blade, select file share

- step 7 on the file share page, click on + file share

- step 8 create a name and click on review + create

- step 9 click on create

we have successfully created a file share.

now we are going to add a directory to the file share

- step 10 on the overview page of the file share click on add directory give it a name and click on ok.

- step 11 on the overview page, click on browse, and select the directory we just created, click on upload after inserting the document you want to upload, you can go ahead and click on upload.

- step 12 now we should create a snapshot. what is a snapshot and why is it important? A snapshot is a read-only copy of your data at a specific point in time, and its important because In Azure File Shares, snapshots help you save the state of your files so you can restore them later if something goes wrong. on the overview page, on the browse blade, under operations select and click on snapshots, click on add snapshots add a comment if you want and click ok.

we just created snapshot.

- step 13 lets practice using the snapshot to restore a file. return to the file share and click on the browse blade on the overview page to find the file directory, click on the uploaded file, locate the hamburger icon, click on it and click on delete.

- step 14 now lets try and restore the already deleted file. select the snapshot blade, and then select your snapshot, select the file and click on the hamburger icon to find restore, give it a name and click ok.

lets configure the already created file to a selected virtual network.

what is a virtual network? A Virtual Network (VNet) in Azure is a private network created in the cloud that allows Azure resources to communicate securely with each other.

- step 15 on the azure portal, search and select virtual network.

click on +create

- step 16 select the resource group you created for the file, give it a name and click on review + create

after validation click on create.

- go to resource

- step 17 on the overview page of the virtual network created, click on submit under the settings blade choose the default submit and click on it. in the service end point choose Microsoft storage and save.

-now lets configure our file to a private network

- step 18 in your azure portal, search for storage account, select the storage account created earlier, click on it, on the overview page in the security + networking section, select networking

change the public network access to enable from selected virtual networks and IP address. on the overview page under public access, click on manage.

click on enable from selected network, click on add virtual network choose already created network, on the subnet, just because we used default earlier, we have to select default, click on add and save.

- step 19 now lets go back to our storage account to ascertain that the file is just for a selected virtual network. so go back to the storage account, click on the file,

in the overview page click on the file share blade

click on the file,

click on the browse blade

after clicking on the browse blade this is wat we got.

we got a no access notification, this goes to show we have successfully configured our file to a private virtual network.

How to create a linux virtual machine.

samuel eze — Fri, 15 May 2026 11:42:03 +0000

This article is about the simple steps to create a Linux virtual machine.

what is a Linux virtual machine? A Linux virtual machine (VM) is a computer that runs Linux as its operating system, but instead of being a physical machine, it exists inside another computer using virtualization software. think of it this way
- Your real computer = the host
- The virtual machine = a computer inside your computer
- Linux = the operating system running inside that virtual computer.
with the following steps we will create a Linux virtual machine.

- step 1 on your azure portal, search and click on virtual machines.

- step 2 click on +create

- step 3 on the project details, select your subscription, resource group, virtual machine name, the region, and on the availability option select no infrastructure redundancy required, on the security type select standard.

- step 4 still on the project details, on the image, just because its a Linux vm select ubuntu pro or any of the ubuntu options available, select the size or you click on see all and select the one that suites your computer.

- step 5 still on the project details, on the authentication type, select password select a username, confirm password.

- step 5 on the inbound port, select hTTP(80), SSH(22) select review + create

- step 6 after validation is passed click on create

- step 7 after deployment, click on resource

- step 9 on the overview page, you will see that our vm has an IP address, click on the IP address.

- step 10 after clicking on the IP address, increase the idle timeout minutes to 30 and click apply
- note the reason why we increase the idle timeout is because In an Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine, the idle timeout is increased so your connection doesn’t disconnect too quickly when there’s no activity.

- step 11 connect the VM

- step 12 check access

- step 13 copy username

- step 14 open up your Command Line Interface (cli).
what is a cli? It is a way of interacting with a computer by typing commands instead of clicking buttons with a mouse. on the cli, paste the username of the vm you created and press enter.

- step 15 the command ask if you want to continue? type yes insert your vm password and press enter.
- note password will be invisible when inserting so you have to be sure and confident.

- this shows we have connected our vm to linux. as you can see the name of our vm previously created.

- step 16 so before you run a command as an administrator or you want to update anything on cli you have to be in root . so have to login in as root. type sudo su and press enter.

as you can see from the image we jus switched to root

- step 17 to update the package index, in the cli, type apt update and press enter.

what does apt update do? it is used to refresh the package list on systems like Ubuntu and also it updates the Linux vm to the latest version.

- step 17 let us install something into the Linux vm, for example let us install nginx. so in the cli, type apt install nginx and press enter. make sure it is spaced out when typing a command on the cli.

- type yes when asked if you want to continue

- step 18 to confirm you have installed nginx, go back to the vm and copy the IP address, paste it on a browser and press enter.

this shows we have successfully installed nginx on linux.

How to deployed a virtual machine on azure.

samuel eze — Tue, 12 May 2026 07:40:53 +0000

This article is all about the simple steps to take when deploying a virtual machine in azure. virtual machines are useful because it lets you use a computer inside the cloud instead of depending only on a physical laptop or desktop. so lets get this done with the following steps

step 1 first we must create a resource group, so on your azure portal, search and select resource group.

step 2 click on +create

step 3 select a subscription, create a unique resource group name, select your region and click on review + create

step 4 after validation is done ,click on create

we jus created a resource group now we can proceed to creating a virtual machine.

step 5 now lets create virtual machine, firstly on your azure portal, search for virtual machines.

step 6 click on +create

step 7 select the resource group earlier created, give the virtual machine a name, select your region, on availability options select no infrastructure redundancy required select windows 11 for security type.

step 8 check the run with azure spot for available discount, navigate through to check for sizes and select a suitable size for your pc, create an administrator username, create a password and confirm it.

step 9 on the inbound port select HTTP(80), RDP(3389) click on review + create

step 9 after it has been validated click on create

-step 10 after deployment Goto resource

step 11 on the overview page, click on the IP address

step 11 navigate the idle timeout minute and increase it to 30 minutes and click apply.

why did we increase the idle timeout? In an Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine, the idle timeout is increased so your connection doesn’t disconnect too quickly when there’s no activity.

- how to associate and disassociate public IP addresses

step 12 on your azure portal, search for public IP addresses

step 13 already the vm has an IP address, click on the vm.

step 14 on this overview page you can choose to dissociate the it by just clicking on disassociate and confirm.

step 15 you can choose to associate it by jus clicking on the associate icon, for the resource type select network interface, then for the interface select the already created vm and click OK.

step 16 go back to the vm, click on the connect icon,

step 17 you can confirm access by clicking on the check access button. go ahead to download RDP file

step 18 download file and connect

- step 19 fill in your credentials and click OK

step 20 click on YES to connect

- you will get a new interface as shown on the image below, and that is how we successfully deployed a vm in azure.

With this few steps we were able to create a virtual machine in azure, we dissociated and associated our IP addresses without any difficulty.

Hosting a public website using azure blob storage

samuel eze — Mon, 04 May 2026 12:08:59 +0000

Setting up a public website using azure blob storage can be easy with the following steps.

what is azure blob account? An Azure Blob Storage account is just a cloud space from Microsoft where you can store files of any type—like documents, pictures, or videos—so you can access them anytime, anywhere. with the following steps we will create a public website using azure blob storage.

step 1 on azure portal search bar, type and click on storage account.
step 2 click on +create

-** step 3** create a resource group also create a unique storage name

-** step 4** click on the review + create icon

wait on it to validate then...

-step 5 after validation is done to make sure everything is correct, click on the create icon.

step 6 after storage has been deployed, click on the resource icon.

step 7 on the overview page, click on the bob soft delete icon ** and enable it for 21 days. now what does **blob soft delete mean? blob soft delete is like a recycle bin for your cloud files. When you delete or overwrite a blob (that’s just Azure’s word for a file), it doesn’t vanish right away. Instead, Azure quietly tucks it away for a set number of days that you choose (anywhere from 1 to 365). During that time, you can bring it back if you realize you made a mistake. Once that grace period runs out, the blob is gone for good.

afteer enabling for 21 days, click on the save icon

-step 8 on the overview page, click on redundancy blade and make sure it is on** read-access geo-redundant storage ** now what is redundancy in azure? Redundancy in cloud computing means duplicating critical systems, data, and infrastructure to ensure reliability and availability even if part of the system fails. In practice, it prevents downtime and data loss by automatically switching to backup resources when a failure occurs.

step 9 on the overview page, click on the configuration blade, you will see allow blob anonymous access go ahead and click on enable the click on save

step 10 on the overview page, click on the** data storage blade** under the data storage blade, click on containers then go ahead to click on + add container

-** step 11*create a unique name for the **container* and click on the create icon below

step 12 after creating the container, on the overview page, click on the container you created and click on the** change access level** icon

step 12 after clicking on the change access level icon, click on the space bar and make sure it is on blobs(anonymous read access for blobs only) click on the ok icon

congratulation we just hosted a public website using azure blob storage