DEV Community: Biola Lawaljr

Provide Storage for the Public Website

Biola Lawaljr — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 13:01:41 +0000

Introduction

The public website is a key asset for any company. It is where the company displays product images, promotional videos, marketing copy, customer success stories, and many more.

In Azure, these types of unstructured non-relational data are referred to as blob (binary large objects).

Company growth will probably translate to more site visits. Therefore, it is essential that the website content remains highly available, loads quickly, and supports features like version control and easy recovery.

In this guided exercise from Microsoft, we will create and configure an Azure Storage account specifically for hosting this public content.

We will make it high available, and the contents open for public read access. We will set up a blob container, practice uploading and testing files, enable soft delete to recover accidentally deleted items, and activate versioning to track changes to documents.

Consider the architectural diagram below:

A. Create a Storage Account with High Availability

Step 1: Create a storage account for the public website

1.1 Go to portal.azure.com

1.2 In the search bar, type storage accounts. Select Storage Accounts(Classic) from the drop down suggestions

1.3 Click + Create

1.4 Click Create new to create a new resource group. Give it a name and click OK

1.5 In the Storage account name field, type a globally unique account name

1.6 Maintain default selections for other settings

1.7 Scroll to the bottom of the page, click Review + create. On the next page, click Create

1.8 Wait for the deployment to be completed. Click Go to resource.

Step 2: Configure the storage account for high availability

2.1 In the storage account, navigate to the left pane. Click Data Management

2.2 Click Redundancy

2.3 Make sure Read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS) is selected

2.4 Confirm two(2) locations are shown, indicating RA-GRS is successfully deployed.

Step 3: Make information stored in the storage account open for public access

3.1. Go to left pane of the storage account. Click Settings

3.2. Click Configuration

3.3. Enable Allow Blob anonymous access

3.4. Save Changes

B. Create a Blob Storage Container with Anonymous Read Access

Step 4: Create a container to store website blob such as documents and pictures

4.1 Still on the storage account, on the left pane, click Data storage

4.2 Click Containers

4.3 Click + Add container

4.4 Give the container a name. Type public in the Name field.

4.5 Click Create

Step 5: Set anonymous read access so customers can view information stored in the container without authenticating

5.1 Select the public container you just created

5.2 Go to Overview. Click Change access level

5.3 Set Anonymous access level to Blob (anonymous read access for blobs only). Click Ok

C. Practice uploading files and testing access

Step 6: Upload a file to the public container for testing purpose

6.1 In the public container, click Upload

6.2 Click *Browse for files in the new window. Upload any file type, preferably a small sized text or image

6.3 Click Upload

6.4 Ensure test file is successfully uploaded (you may have to refresh the page)

Step 7: Get file URL and test in browse

7.1 Click uploaded test file

7.2 A file window opens up to the right. In the Overview tab, copy shown URL to clipboard

7.3 Open a new browser tab. Paste copied URL in the address bar and hit enter. If test file is an image, it will be dispayed in the browser. Other file types are downloaded.

D. Configure Soft Delete

Step 8: Set a 21-day soft delete duration. Files deleted within this period can be restored (similar to a desktop recycle bin)

8.1 Go to the storage account. Click Overview

8.2 In the properties tab, find Blob soft delete. Notice the default setting is Enabled (7 days). Click to change.

8.3 Ensure Enable soft delete for blobs is checked.

8.4 In the Keep deleted blobs for (in days) field, change the value to 21.

8.5 Save Changes

Step 9: Practice how to restore deleted files using soft delete

9.1 Go to the public container - Storage accounts > Data storage > Containers > public

9.2 Select uploaded file. Click Delete

9.3 Notice the file is deleted. Locate the Only show active blobs drop down beside the search box. Toggle and select Show active and deleted bl

9.4 Select file. Locate the context menu far right. Click and select Undelete

9.5 Confirm deleted file is restored.

E. Configure Versioning

Step 10: Set Blob versioning to retain versions of website documents as you update them

10.1 Go to storage account

10.2 Click Overview

10.3 Under Blob service, locate Versioning. Click Disabled

Blob service versioning

10.4 Check Enable versioning for blobs

10.5 Save Changes

Step 11: Experiment with restoring previous version of your blob file

11.1 Go to the public container. In Overview, upload another version of the test file you uploaded earlier. Notice the alert the following files already exist

11.2 Check Overwrite if file already exist. Click Upload. Once successfully uploaded, the previous version is deleted.

11.4 Click View versions

11.5 Beside the Filter versions field, toggle Show deleted versions

Wrapping Up

Now that we have successfully provisioned and configured a highly available Azure Storage solution for the company’s public website, we are rest assured the content on the public-facing website is resilient, recoverable, and globally accessible with low latency.

Provide Storage for IT Department Testing and Training

Biola Lawaljr — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 10:48:50 +0000

'Providing Storage for the IT department testing and training.'

Storage Account:

Naming
Redundancy
Network access
Secure transfer
Transport layer security Requirements: 'The IT department needs to prototype different storage scenarios and to train new personnel. The content isn’t important enough to back up and doesn’t need to be restored if the data is overwritten or removed.'

To fulfill these requirements, we must create a storage account and apply appropriate settings.

Here's the step by step process:
Step 1: Create a resource group.

In Azure, every project requires a resource group. Resource groups are a useful tool that helps you categorize your project resources.

Go to Azure portal, search for resource groups, select Resource groups in the drop down suggestions.

Note: The + Create a resource button provides a navigation option to the Search bar, but it links to marketplace where products from third party vendors are also listed. Making use of the search bar takes you to Microsoft's own products, which is our focus.

In the Basics tab, give the resource group a name and select region.

Hit Review and Create, then Create. Wait for notice of successful resource group deployment.

Step 2: Create a Storage Account.

In the search bar, type storage accounts and select Storage accounts from the drop down suggestions.

Step 3: Configure Storage Account Settings per Requirements

Recall: 'The content isn’t important enough to back up and doesn’t need to be restored if the data is overwritten or removed.'

Bearing these policies in mind, we have to configure cost minimal settings.

Redundancy:

On the left pane, select Data management > Redundancy, select Locally-redundant storage (LRS), then Save

A locally-redundant storage costs less to implement compared to geo-redundant storage. In the case, data is replicated for redundancy, but within same data center.

Wait for redundancy change completion.

Notice a single location is shown after page refresh (you may have to refresh page)

Network Access:

A. Allow only secure connections to storage account - On the left pane, select Settings > Configuration, enable Secure transfer required

B. Disallow connections until access to storage account is needed - Disable Allow storage account key access.

C. Set storage account to use Transport Layer Security version 1.2 at the minimum - Set Minimal TLS version to Version 1.2.

D. Finally, to allow connections to the storage account from all networks - Go to Security + networking in the left pane, select the Networking, set Public network access to Enabled from all networks

Wrapping Up

And that's it. We have successfully created and provisioned storage for IT testing and training, with the right level of configuration.

Also, we achieved cost-efficiency, security, and made it fit for purpose. No backups, no unnecessary redundancy.

Just a simple setup that aligns with the project scope.

Fundamental Concepts In Cloud Computing.

Biola Lawaljr — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 16:42:28 +0000

What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud Computing is a concept of delivering of IT resources on-demand like server, database, networking etc, over the internet with pay-as-you-go. Meaning, you pay for what you use only.

Benefits:

Access to global resources.
Scalability of services.
No payments for maintenance and hardware.

Service providers:

AWS.
Azure.
GCP.

What is virtualization?
Virtualization is a concept of creating virtual versions of physical hardware such as:

Virtual Servers.
Virtual Networks.
Virtual Storage.

How it Works:
The concept of Hypervisor
Hypervisor like Vmware ESXi, KVM ,Hyper-V, Proxmox. They allow multiple virtual machines to run on a physical server, sharing resources.

Importance of hypervisor:

Saves hardware cost.
Provides isolation between systems.
Aids deployment and testing.

Scalability:
The concept of Scalability is the system's ability to handle increased workload or user demand by adding resources when needed to accommodate traffic.

Types:
There are two main concepts

Vertical Scaling; it means to scale up: Adding CPU/RAM to the a server.
Horizontal Scaling; it means to scale out: Adding more servers to a pool.

Goal:
This handles more traffic or data without system failure.

Agility:
The concept of Agility refers to the ability to rapidly develop, test and deploy new services or changes in response to business needs.

In cloud computing:

Experiment and innovate without long setup times.
Respond faster to market changes.
Quickly launch new servers or databases.

High Availability:
The concept of High Availability means the system is designed to be operational and accessible amlost all the time with minimal downtime. At least 99.9999 percent uptime.

Methods to Achieve HA:

Load balancing.
Redundant servers and databases.
Multi-region deployment.

Goal:
TO avoid outages or downtime.

Fault Tolerance:
The concept of Fault Tolerance is the ability of a system to continue operating even when parts of it fails. For example: If one server crashes, traffic automatically switches to a backup server without affecting users.

Difference between HA and FT:

HA minimizes downtime.
FT allows the system to keep running despite failures, usually with no downtime at all.

Global Reach:
The concept of Global Reach means you can deploy applications and services in multiple geographic regions worldwide, close to users.

Reason It Matters:

Reduces latency.
Meets compliance and data residency requirements.
Improves user experience globally.

Elasticity:
The concept Elasticity in cloud computing means automatically adjusting resources to match the current workload demand.

Key idea:
When demand increases, the system adds more resources. It scales out.
When demand decreases decreases, the system removes unneeded resources. It scales in.

Real-Life Elastic Services:

Aws Auto scaling.
Azure VM scale sets.
Google Cloud Compute Autoscaler.
Serverless Functions (AWS Lambda)

Scalability:
The Concept Scalability is the ability of a system to handle increasing workloads or growing demand by adding more resources.
Either hardware , software or infrastructure capacity without degrading performance.

Types of Scalability:
Vertical Scalability - Scale up

Adding more power to an existing machine.
Example:
Upgrade a server's CPU, RAM, or storage.
Use Case:
Useful for database or monolithic apps that run best on one big machine.

Horizontal Scalability - Scale Out

Adding more machines or instances to distribute the workload.

Example:
Adding more web servers behind the load balancer to handle more users.

Use Case: Cloud-native applications, microservices or stateless apps.

Why Scalability Is Important:

Performance Scalability - Handles traffic spikes without crashing.
Growth Support - Easily expand your system as your user base grows.
Cost Control - Start small, grow gradually based on demand.

Key Benefits Of Scalability:

Handles growth gracefully.
Supports business continuity.
Prevents downtime during expansion.