DEV Community: Noble

How to Manage MS Azure Resources using, Resource groups and Storage Accounts, Virtual Machines and Virtual Networks

Noble — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 13:13:38 +0000

In this scenario, we will be managing Microsoft Azure resources, we will do this by first creating a resource group which houses everything, then create a storage account and create a virtual networks.
Step 1: Create a free Microsoft azure account(portal.azure.com). After the account has been created, Azure gives you $200 free credits which last for one month, so its advice to use it wisely because if its exhausted, you would have to opt for pay as you go and that cost is what you might not want to incur now, so after creating what you intend to create, delete everything so you can save credits.
Step 2: Look up Resource group on the search bar

Next up we select the +Create as seen in the image below which enables us to create a new resource group.

-For the name of the resource group we will be using **guilded-project-rg0

after finishing the naming convention, select Review + Create right at the bottom and create your resource group.
-Now go Home and look up virtual networks

We are to select +Create which enables us to create a new virtual network

-The virtual network also has a naming convention, we are to name it guilded-project-vnett after that, select Review + Create at the bottom so the Vnet can be created.

Then click Create.
-We go back Home and look up Virtual Machines.

Select guided-project-rg0 for the Resource group.
Enter guided-project-vmm for the Virtual machine name.
For the Image, select one of the Ubuntu Server options. (For example, Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS - x64 Gen2)
Continue further on the Basics page to the Administrator account section.
Select Password for authentication type.
Enter guided-project-admin for the admin Username.
Enter a password for the admin account.
Confirm the password for the admin account.
Leave the rest of the settings as default settings. You can review the settings if you like, but shouldn’t change any.
Select Review + create

Select Create to confirm the resource cost and create the virtual machine.

Select Home to return to the Azure portal home page.

Look up storage account and select +Create

Select Create.
Wait for the screen to refresh and show Your deployment is complete.
Select Home to return to the Azure portal home page.

Secure-storage-for-Azure-Files-and-Azure-Blob-Storage Using Managed Identities and RBAC

Noble — Sun, 31 May 2026 12:20:09 +0000

In today's world, cloud applications require more safety and security so that it's storage resources can not be fully accessed by just anyone and this safety measures are made possible through access keys, managed identities roles, Roles Based Access Control RBAC and immutable storage policies.

In this exercise, we will configure secure Azure storage access while exploring identity -based authentication and protected immutable storage.
By the end of this exercise, you'll have learned how to:

1)Configure secure Azure Storage access
2)Use Managed Identities for authentication
3)Implement Azure RBAC
4)Configure immutable blob storage policies

One might wonder what is Managed Identities and RBAC.
Managed Identities is an Azure resources that securely authenticate to other Azure services without storing credentials inside application code.
and;
RBAC which is Role Base Access Control is another Azure resources that helps mange who or what can have access to azure resource, what they can perform, when they can perform it and how long they can perform it.
These two features, help eliminate hardcoded credentials, control access permissions in a centralized way, improve overall cloud security and supports least-privilege access principles.
So let's get started.
Believing you have an Azure account, log into your portal and look up storage account

Next step we select +Create

Then we create a new resource group, choose a name that is globally unique, and go to the review and create at the bottom

we move to the Encryption page and make some edits there

Then review and create.
Step 2: Next we create Managed Identities
to do this we look up for managed identity on the search bar.

Search for and select Managed identities.
Select Create.
Select your resource group.
Give your managed identity a name.
Select Review and create, and then Create.

Step 3: This step involves assigning the correct permissions to the managed identity we just created, the identity only needs to read and list containers and blobs. To begin, lets go back to the storage account.
Search for storage account

In your recent storage account earlier created, mines is "may30thstorageacct", in yours , search for the IAM blade and select add role assignment(at the center of the page)

Then we look up and move to the members page and follow the annotated image

Then we review and create.
Your storage account can now be accessed by a managed identity with the storage blob reader permissions.

Step 4: This step entails us securing access to the storage account with a key that will be kept in our key vault.

In the portal, search for and select Resource groups.
Select your resource group, and then the Access Control (IAM) blade.
Select Add role assignment (center of the page).

Search for key vault administrator role just like we did in the last one, move to the members page and click on user, group or principal.

Step 5:In the portal, search for and select Key vaults.

Select Create.
Select your resource group.
Provide the name for the key vault. The name must be unique.
Ensure on the Access configuration tab that Azure role-based access control (recommended) is selected.
Select Review + create.
Wait for the validation checks to complete and then select Create.
After the deployment, select Go to resource.
On the Overview blade ensure both Soft-delete and Purge protection are enabled.
Create a customer-managed key in the key vault.

It's now time to create a customer-managed key in the key vault

Now we have to configure the storage account so the customer can use the customer managed key in the key vault.

In the portal, search for and select Resource groups.
Select your resource group, and then the Access Control (IAM) blade.
Select Add role assignment (center of the page).
On the Job functions roles page, search for and select the Key Vault Crypto Service Encryption User 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 assignment.
Step 5 continued

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 a minute and try again.

Step 6:

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.
Try to delete the file in the container.
Verify you are notified failed to delete blobs due to policy.

Step 7 : We need to enable infrastructure encryption as a security measure.

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.
Notice on the New container page, there is the Name and Public access level.

Notice in the Advanced section you can select the Encryption scope you created and apply it to all blobs in the container.

Cleanup your resources
If you are working with your own subscription and have completed these labs, take a minute to delete the lab resources. This will ensure resources are freed up and cost is minimized. The easiest way to delete the lab resources is to delete the lab resource group.

In the Azure portal, select the resource group, select Delete the resource group, Enter resource group name, and then click Delete.

Using Azure PowerShell, Remove-AzResourceGroup -Name resourceGroupName.
Using the CLI, az group delete --name resourceGroupName.

Conclusion
Congratulations on successfully configuring secure Azure Storage access using Managed Identities, RBAC, and immutable storage policies.

In this lab, we explored how Azure security features can help organizations protect storage resources while simplifying authentication and access management.

Some key takeaways from this lab include:

Managed Identities eliminate the need for hardcoded credentials
Azure RBAC enables centralized access management
Immutable storage helps protect critical data from modification or deletion
Identity-based authentication improves cloud security posture
By completing this exercise, you have taken another important step in building practical Azure security and cloud administration skills.

Azure Blob Storage for Beginners: Private Access, SAS Tokens & Cost Savings Explained

Noble — Tue, 26 May 2026 17:16:11 +0000

What is a Microsoft Azure Blob storage?
A Microsoft Azure blob storage is a object storage for files, images, backups, videos, logs, static websites, etc. Think of it as "cloud hard drives accessible over HTTP".
What is Private Access?
Private access simply relates to permissions. To buttress further, it means files can not be accessed unless the requester is authenticated or explicitly authorized.

What is SAS Tokens?
A SAS (shared Access Signature) token in MS Azure is a secure, temporary permission token for accessing storage resources ie files, images, videos, etc as explained in blob storage above. The lifecycle of the token can last for 1hour, 24hours, it can last as long as you want them to have access to your blob.

What is Cost Savings?
As the title says, it simply means achieving desired results without spending too much.
What is GRS Redundancy?
It is a replication option that protects your data by copying it to another Azure region automatically, it keeps data safe across regions.

What we will build:
•Using GRS redundancy, we will build a private storage account.
•A restricted blob container for internal documents.
•A time-limited SAS token for partner access.
•Automated lifecycle rules to move blobs to Cool tier after 30 days.
•Cross-account object replication for public website backup.

Step1 login in to your Azure portal and use the search bar to look up storage accounts.
,
select +Create so you can start

-Create a new resource group
-Choose a storage name that is globally unique and let all letters be lowercase
-Performance should be standard.
-Review and create

The moment your storage account has been deployed, go to resource so you can have an overview of the storage account and make adjustments when due.

Next step is to select geo-redundancy storage and the image below will guide us

In the Storage Account, navigate to the Data Storage section and select Containers. Click +Container to create a new container.
Configure the container with the following settings:
Container name: Private
Public access level: Private (no anonymous access)
Why use a private container?
Setting the container access level to Private prevents unauthorized users from viewing or downloading files through a direct URL. Access is only possible through authorized methods such as an account key or a Shared Access Signature (SAS) token. This helps protect internal company files from being exposed to the public internet.
For testing, upload a file to the private container. The type of file doesn’t matter. A small image or text file is a good choice. Test to ensure the file isn’t accessible to everyone

Select the container.
Select Upload.
Browse to files and select a file.
Upload the file.
Select the uploaded file.
Paste the URL into a new browser tab.

Verify the file doesn’t display and you receive an error. You should see a Resource Not Found or 403 (Forbidden) error message, this is correct! It confirms your container is very very safe and secure from prying eyes.

Configure and Test a SAS Token

An external partner requires access to the file for the next 24 hours. To configure and test a Shared Access Signature (SAS), follow these steps:
Select the uploaded blob file and navigate to the Generate SAS tab.
Click Generate SAS token and URL.
Copy the generated Blob SAS URL immediately. Azure will not display it again after you close the panel.
Treat the SAS URL like a password and do not share it publicly.
In the Permissions section, grant only the required access permissions, such as Read or Write, based on the partner’s needs.
Verify that the Start date/time and Expiry date/time are configured for the next 24 hours (or the requested duration).
Test the SAS URL
Copy the Blob SAS URL and open it in a new browser tab.
Confirm that the file is accessible:
If the file is an image, it will display directly in the browser.
Other file types may automatically download instead.

Now copy this new URL and paste on your browser and you would see it now reads, it will be able to be visible to the general public for the next 24hrs after that no more.

Configure Storage Access Tiers and Content Replication
To reduce storage costs, configure a lifecycle management rule that automatically moves blobs from the Hot access tier to the Cool access tier after 30 days.
Create a new storage account and name it publicwebbsite
To achieve this, inside the publicwebbsite storage account let us create another container and call it backup

Hot vs. Cool Storage

Azure storage pricing is based on how frequently data is accessed:
Hot tier – Designed for data that is accessed frequently. It offers faster access but at a higher storage cost.
Cool tier – Intended for data that is accessed infrequently. It is more cost-effective but may have slightly slower access times.
Lifecycle management rules automate this transition, eliminating the need to manually move files between tiers.
Configure a Lifecycle Management Rule
Return to the Storage Account.
In the Overview section> Properties> Blob service , verify that the Default access tier is set to Hot.
Under the Data Management section, select Lifecycle management.
Click Add a rule.
Configure the rule with the following settings:
Rule name: movetocool
Rule scope: Apply rule to all blobs in the storage account
Select Next.
Ensure Last modified is selected.
Set More than (days ago) to 30.
From the action drop-down menu, select Move to cool storage.
Review any additional lifecycle management options if desired.
Select Add a rule to create the rule.
Content Replication Requirement
The public website files should also be replicated and backed up to another storage account to improve redundancy and ensure data protection, to do that follow the steps in the annotated images below.

then adjust the settings as seen in the annotated image below

This is what is involved in creating a redundant storage account.

Your Welcome!

How to Deploy a Virtual Machine in Azure

Noble — Wed, 20 May 2026 21:35:31 +0000

A virtual machine is a mini computer inside another computer in the cloud. Now we are deploying this virtual machine in an operating system called Linux. Linux is a free, open sourced operating system family used on computers, servers, smartphones and even supercomputers. Let me give you a hint, the very popular Android is built on the Linux Kernel.
Okay that's enough intro for now, let's get started.

Step 1: Login in to the[(https://portal.azure.com/#home)]

Step 2: Look up for virtual machine on the search bar just atop and start creating your Linux virtual machine.

select the +create icon which enables you to create a new VM

Step 3:I am assuming this is your first time creating a Linux virtual machine, it is best to create a new "resource group" as seen in the image below , one might wonder what a resource group is?. A resource group is the container that will be holding the virtual machine, so in layman terms the resource group is just like the "pot" and the Linux virtual machine is what we are cooking inside this pot.
so you create a new resource group, in my case I create one called "mylinuxvirtualmachinegroup" and I selected it, so create yours and select it.
Step 4: Configuring instance details
a: create a name for your VM that suits you
b: select a location that befits you
c: I chose the first option for the zone options, you can use the drop down and choose 'no infrastructure redundancy" required if you are on a free trial account. _
_ d: for security type; I used the Trusted launch virtual machine as this is basic security for Linux VM.
e: for Image; Ubuntu is encouraged as that is the operating system Linux works on so everything rhymes.

Step 5: Login method and Network access configuration

Secure Safe Shell SSH Key (More Secure)
Password (Simpler for first timers) The choice is yours, personally I would use password as its easier and not so demanding. Create a username (like azureadmin) Create a strong password (write it down!) Public inbound ports: Select Allow selected ports Select inbound ports: Choose HTTP (80) and SSH (22) scroll back to the monitoring tab to disable diagnostics after that click review and create

go to Resource to see, learn and understand everything about the Linux VM you just created

Step 6:Open the public IP address as shown

then click connect and click check access

Step 7: Now open Powershell on Windows or Terminal on Mac to connect to Linux with your IP address you just copied in image@9 above

click enter after pasting your IP address
after that a question pops up, are you sure you want to continue connecting? type in YES,
then the next prompt is to type in the password you used for your azure admin access, Linux wont show the normal asterisk ***** for password, don't be restless its working in the background, this is a security measure to protect you, if your password is type correctly, hit enter and you would see the your IP address and port 22

type in sudo su to run command as root. Becoming a root user makes our commands run smoothly.
next step is to run apt update, (Advanced Package Tool) is a command-line utility for managing software on Debian-based Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu and Linux Mint, Kali Mint, etc. It handles installation, removal, upgrading, and dependency management of .deb packages by automating retrieval from online repositories. It also tells you the status of your Linux Virtual Machine and if everything is running very well.

next install nginx which is a high performance web server software used to host websites, serve web applications, act as reverse proxy, load balance traffic, and improve overall performance and security, nginx is one of the most widely used servers in the world.

when prompted, confirm with a Y
Although optional, you can also install Vim which is a text editor used in Linux and Unix systems which makes your layout more colorful, developers and system administrators use it to edit configuration, write code, manage servers and also modify scripts directly from terminal.
when prompted, confirm with a Y

Finally copy your IP address in image number 9 above.
load it on your browser and paste.

Voila, if you see the image above, you did everything correctly.

This is a beautiful introduction to Linux, the operating system that hosts most tech products you are using everyday like open AI, LinkedIN, YouTube etcetera.

Mr LINUX says welcome!

How to Deploy a Virtual Machine in Azure.

Noble — Thu, 14 May 2026 02:22:58 +0000

What is a virtual machine?

A virtual machine is a software that runs inside another computer, more like a simulation or guest machine, this machine will have its own operating system, storage, memory, applications, and network settings.
A virtual machine has a layer called hypervisor which manages virtual machines and shares the host computer's hardware resources.
now lets proceed to deploying one.

Step 1:log-in to your Microsoft azure portal(portal.azure.com)

Step 2:On the search bar at the top, look up "virtual machines"

Step 3:Select the highlighted one and click +create

Step 4:visit image

Step 5:This phase involves the proper configuration so as to deploy the virtual machine successfully and more cost efficiently, please follow the images as they will help you get it right.
a: for the virtual machine name, choose your name added with any number
b: for the location, select a location that applies to where you are, it could be US, Europe, Canada, or China.
c: for the image, based on my computer OS, I would use Windows 10,select the OS applicable to your PC

d: input your administrator details, something that secures the virtual machine from outsiders, for the "inbound ports" please select HTTP(80) because it helps with security of your virtual machine.
e: select Review and create
after selecting review and create, the deployment process starts as seen in the next images.

Conclusion: With this article, we can be able to deploy a virtual machine which we could use to carry out tasks, use for personal use or delve into more advanced features. The cloud is the present and the future, I hope you enjoy making use of the cloud.

Thank you for reading my article, I hope it serves its purpose.

hi

Noble — Tue, 12 May 2026 14:30:39 +0000