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EMMANUEL
EMMANUEL

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How to create a private storage for internal company documents.

A Storage Account in Azure is a cloud-based service that provides scalable, secure, and highly available storage for different types of data, such as files, blobs, queues, and tables. It is a fundamental component of Azure’s storage infrastructure.

Key Features of a Storage Account:
A.Multiple Storage Services – Supports Blob Storage, File Shares, Queues, Tables, and Disk Storage.
B.Highly Scalable – Can handle large amounts of data with auto-scaling capabilities.
C.Redundancy & High Availability – Offers replication options like LRS (Locally Redundant Storage), ZRS (Zone Redundant Storage), GRS (Geo-Redundant Storage), and RA-GRS (Read-Access Geo-Redundant Storage).
D.Security & Access Control – Provides encryption, role-based access control (RBAC), and private endpoints.
E.Performance Tiers – Supports Standard and Premium tiers for different workload needs.

Types of Storage Accounts:
1.General-Purpose v2 (GPv2) – Supports all Azure storage services and is the most commonly used type.
2.Block Blob Storage – Optimized for storing large volumes of unstructured data like images, videos, and backups.
3.File Storage – Provides SMB file shares for cloud or hybrid environments.
4.Queue Storage – Used for message queuing in distributed applications.
5.Table Storage – NoSQL key-value storage for structured data.

Steps on how to Provide private storage for internal company documents

Architecture diagram

Step 1
Login to your Azure portal.

Login details

Step 2
Go the 'Search resources' and type in storage account ,hit 'Enter' and click on the grayed out storage account.

Search resources

Step 3
Click on '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.
Take the defaults for other settings.Select Review and then Create.Wait for the storage account to deploy, and then select Go to resource.

Create

Resource group

Storage account name

Review+create

Create

Deployment in progress

Complete deployment+Go to resource

publicwebsiteemmanuel storage account

Step 4
This storage requires high availability if there’s a regional outage. Additionally, enable read access to the secondary region.
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.

Data management

Redundancy

Read-access Geo-redundant storage

Primary and secondary location information.

Step 5
Information on the public website should be accessible without requiring customers to login.

In the storage account, in the Settings section, select the Configuration blade.
Ensure the Allow blob anonymous access setting is Enabled.
Be sure to Save your changes.

Settings+Configuration

Enabling Allow blob anonymous access

Successful update

Step 6
*Create a blob storage container with anonymous read access
*

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.

Data storage

Create container

Public container

Created container

Step 7
Customers should be able to view the images without being authenticated. Configure anonymous read access for the public container blobs.

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.

Created public container

Change access level

Anonymous read access for blobs only

Saved and updated

Step 8
For testing, upload a file to the public container. The type of file doesn’t matter. A small image or text file is a good choice.

Ensure you are viewing your container.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.

Public container

Upload

Selected file

Successfully uploaded file

Step 9
Determine 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. Other file types should be downloaded.

Uploaded file

Copy URL

Paste URL in a new browser

Uploaded image display

Step 10
Configure soft delete
It’s important that the website documents can be restored if they’re deleted. Configure blob soft delete for 21 days.

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 is 21.Notice you can also Enable soft delete for containers.Don’t forget to Save your changes.

Blob soft delete

21 days setting

Updated successfully

Image showing changed 21 days settings

Step 11
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 click on the Undelete the file.Refresh the container and confirm the file has been restored.

Uploaded file

Delete

Confirm delete

Delete successfully

Toggle the slidder

Deleted uploaded image

Undelete

Restored file

Step 12
Configure blob versioning
It’s 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.Don’t forget to Save your changes.

Versioning section

Enable versioning for blobs check

Successfully updated

Step 13
As you have time experiment with restoring previous blob versions.

Upload another version of your container file. This overwrites your existing file.Your previous file version is listed on Show deleted blobs page.

overwrites uploaded uploads

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