Step-by-Step Guide: How to Create an Azure Storage Account for Public Website Assets

This step-by-step guide will walk you through:

• Create a storage account with high availability.
• Create a blob storage container with anonymous read access
• Practice uploading files and testing access.
• Configure soft delete
• Configure blob versioning

Step 1 Create a storage account with high availability.
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.
• Take the defaults for other settings.
• Select Review and then Create.

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

• Storage account created successfully

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.

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.

Step 2 Create a blob storage container with anonymous read access
*The public website has various images and documents. Create a blob storage container for the content.
*

• 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.

• Container is created succesfully

*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.

Step 3 Practice uploading files and testing access.

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.

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.

Step 4 Configure soft delete
*Configure blob soft delete for 21 days so that if the website documents are deleted it can be restored. *

• 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.

*Practice soft delete to restore the files if something get deleted *

• 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.

• files are deleted in the container

• 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.

• file status as changed from deleted to *current version *

• Refresh the container and confirm the file has been restored.

Step 5 Configure blob versioning

*Bob versioning helps you 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.

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.

Conclusion
This step-by-step guide demonstrated how to configure Azure Blob Storage for a public website, ensuring high availability, security, and data recovery. By creating a geo-redundant storage account, enabling anonymous read access, and configuring soft delete and blob versioning, we established a resilient and flexible storage solution. These features help prevent data loss, allow easy file recovery, and maintain version history critical for business continuity.