Azure Blobs Archives

How to find Azure BLOB files that haven’t been accessed

by Mark | Oct 26, 2020 | Azure, Azure Blobs, How To, Storage Accounts

Azure Blob storage has provided companies with a way to store almost limitless amount of data. But just like kids in a candy store this can get out of hand, and expensive. Being able to store as much data as you want is great, however it is something that can grow to a point where you are spending more on storage than you actually need.

Azure does provide a nice method of automatically shifting old or unused files to a lower access tier to save on cost, but this still means you are potentially holding onto files you don’t really need. I mean do you really need files you haven’t accessed in over 12 months? Sure there are certain industries that require files that are kept for 7+ years, but they are a special case.

If you don’t know how to create an Azure lifecycle policy to automatically move unused files to a lower access tier, check out our other post here: https://www.smikar.com/create-azure-storage-lifecycle-policy/

OK, so do I go about finding these files that haven’t been accessed in the last 3, 6, 12 or 36 months (3 years) without having to browse through each and every Azure Storage Account and Container?

So how do you find your Azure Blobs that havent been accessed in 3 months or more?

Azure Blob Storage Consumption Reports

Simple, use Cloud Storage Manager, and run one of the many usage reports.

Cloud Storage Manager has a number of reports you can run to get a better insight into exactly where all your Azure Blob Storage is being consumed, but let’s focus on the specific 4 reports that will tell us which Azure BLOB files haven’t been accessed in the last 3, 6, 12 or 36 months (3 years).

Once you’ve installed Cloud Storage Manager and allowed it some time to scan your Azure environment, browse to the Reports tab as shown here.

Azure Blobs not accessed within

First let’s run the Files not access in the last 12 months or longer report.

Right click on the report and select Run Report.

Azure Blobs not used Report

Once the report finishes, you will be shown a list of files that have not been accessed in the last 3 months or longer.

The report will show you which Subscription, Storage Account and Container the Azure BLOB file resides in. Not only that, but it will also tell you the object tier of the blob, whether that be hot or cool (archive files are excluded), the size of the file, the last time it was modified and of course the name of the file.

Here is an example of the report.

You can also export the report to Excel in order to adjust the report or present the information to others.

The same report may be executed to provide similar results but extending the criteria further out to search for files that haven’t been accessed in a longer timeframe, such as 6 months, 12 months or 3 years.

Using these reports, you can decide whether or not these files need to be retained, in which case you would move them to a lower access tier, either Cool or Archive for long-term retention, or even delete them if they are deemed unnecessary.

These reports are a great way to find files that haven’t been accessed in a long time and could provide an immediate cost saving associated with your Azure Storage consumption.

Cloud Storage Manager has free to trial. Start seeing insights in to your Azure Blob Storage consumption today.

Download a Free Trial and test it for yourself.

Free

Database size is limited to a maximum of 5MB.

Typically for small or personal environments usually consisting of 3 or less Azure Subscriptions and consuming under 30TB of Azure Blob Storage.

Advanced

Database size is limited to a maximum of 1GB.

For medium sized environments typically consisting of less than 10 Azure Subscriptions and consuming under 500TB of Azure Blob Storage.

Enterprise

Unlimited database size.

For use in large environments typically consisting of more than 10 Subscriptions and consuming more than 1PB of Azure Blob Storage.

Cloud Storage Manager is licensed based on the size of it’s database which includes information of each of your Azure Subscriptions, Azure Storage Accounts, Containers and finally each Blob.

Each version has the same great functions including scheduled scans of your Azure Blob Storage and reporting.

FREE DOWNLOAD

Send download link to:

Azure Storage Cost Saving FAQs

What is Azure Blob storage?

Azure Blob storage is a cloud-based storage solution provided by Microsoft Azure that allows users to store large amounts of unstructured data such as text or binary data.

Why is it important to manage Azure Blob storage?

While Azure Blob storage can store almost limitless amounts of data, it can also become expensive to maintain as data accumulates over time. Proper management of Azure Blob storage can help reduce storage costs and improve overall efficiency.

How can Cloud Storage Manager help manage Azure Blob storage?

Cloud Storage Manager provides a number of usage reports that can be used to identify which Azure Blob files haven’t been accessed in a certain period of time, such as 3, 6, 12 or 36 months. These reports allow users to make informed decisions about whether to retain, move to a lower access tier, or delete unnecessary files, which can help reduce storage costs.

What are the benefits of using Cloud Storage Manager?

By using Cloud Storage Manager, users can gain insights into their Azure Blob storage consumption and identify areas where they can optimize storage costs. The usage reports provided by Cloud Storage Manager are easy to use and allow users to quickly identify which files haven’t been accessed in a certain period of time, which can save time and effort compared to manually browsing through each Azure Storage Account and Container.

How can I try Cloud Storage Manager for myself?

Cloud Storage Manager offers a free trial that can be downloaded and installed. This allows users to see the insights provided by the software and determine if it is a good fit for their needs.

Azure Blob Storage Consumption Reports are an excellent way to find Azure BLOB files that haven’t been accessed in a long time, and they can provide immediate cost savings associated with your Azure Storage consumption. By using Cloud Storage Manager, you can run reports and gain insights into your Azure Blob Storage consumption, allowing you to make informed decisions on how to optimize your Azure storage.

In summary, using Azure Blob Storage Consumption Reports can help you find unused Azure BLOB files and reduce storage costs, providing a cost-effective solution for storing your data in Azure. Start using Cloud Storage Manager today to see insights into your Azure Blob Storage consumption and start saving costs.

How to find the largest Azure Blobs

by Mark | Oct 21, 2020 | Azure, Azure Blobs, Blob Storage, Cloud Computing, Storage Accounts

If you are looking to optimize their storage costs on Azure Blob storage. With the increasing amount of data being stored in the cloud, it’s important to keep track of the size of each Blob and identify which ones are taking up the most storage. This is where the guide comes in – it provides a step-by-step process on how to use Cloud Storage Manager to find the largest Azure Blobs in your environment.

By identifying the largest Blobs, you can take steps to optimize your storage costs, such as deleting unnecessary data or moving data to a more cost-effective storage tier. Whether you’re new to Azure Blob storage or an experienced user, this guide is a helpful resource for optimizing your storage costs.

Recently we had one of our clients inform us that he used Cloud Storage Manager to find which were the largest Blobs in his Azure Storage Containers.

Here is a quick run down to show one of the many reports on your Azure Blob consumption that you can run with Cloud Storage Manager.

Which are my largest Azure Blobs?

See all your Azure Blob Sizes

If you want to find out which BLOBs in your environment are the largest, or consuming the most storage, the easiest and simplest method by far is to use Cloud Storage Manager.

Once you’ve allowed Cloud Storage Manager to scan your environment, you have a few options to get this information.

The Top 100 BLOBs tab will give you a list of the top 100 largest BLOBs in your environment. It will also show you which Subscription, Storage Account, Container the BLOB resides in and of course its name. Not only that but it will tell you the object tier, whether that is hot, cool or archive, the size of the Azure BLOB, when it was created and when it was last modified.

Have a look at the screenshot to get a clearer picture.

Your largest Azure Blob Sizes

In the bottom right corner you will also see how much overall storage your largest 100 BLOBs are consuming. In our example, we can see that our largest 100 BLOBs are consuming 102GB. Of course, this is just our lab environment so in a real production environment this could be hundreds of TB or PB!

You may also export this data into a spreadsheet by selecting the Reports tab and selecting the “List the top 100 BLOBs” report.

Azure Blob Storage Size Report

Right click on the report and select “Run Report” to view the data in an exportable table format that you can see in Microsoft Excel.

The export includes all relevant information including the Azure Subscription, Azure Storage Account, the Container the Blob resides in, the name of the Azure Blob itself, what storage tiering the Blob is in, the date created, last modified and finally it’s size.

Free

Maximum Azure Storage limited to 30TB.

Typically for small or personal environments usually consisting of 3 or less Azure Subscriptions and consuming under 30TB of Azure Blob Storage.

Free Forever (until over 30TB)

Advanced

Maximum Azure Storage limited to 1PB

For medium sized environments typically consisting of less than 5 Azure Subscriptions.

12 Month License

Enterprise

Unlimited Azure Storage.

For use in large environments typically consisting of more than 10 Subscriptions and consuming more than 1PB of Azure Blob Storage.

12 Month License

Cloud Storage Manager is licensed based on the size of your Azure Subscriptions, Azure Storage Accounts, Containers and finally each Blob.

Each version has the same great functions including scheduled scans of your Azure Blob Storage and reporting.

FREE DOWNLOAD

Send download link to:

FAQs

What is Azure Blob storage?

Azure Blob storage is a cloud-based storage solution offered by Microsoft Azure. It allows users to store and access large amounts of unstructured data, such as text or binary data, through REST-based object storage.

Why is it important to find the largest Azure Blobs?

Identifying the largest Azure Blobs is important for optimizing storage costs. By understanding which Blobs are taking up the most storage, users can take steps to delete unnecessary data or move data to a more cost-effective storage tier.

How can Cloud Storage Manager help me find the largest Azure Blobs?

Cloud Storage Manager provides a step-by-step process to find the largest Azure Blobs in your environment. It offers a Top 100 BLOBs tab that gives users a list of the top 100 largest BLOBs in their environment, along with information on the Subscription, Storage Account, Container, object tier, size, and more. Users can also export this data into a spreadsheet.

How is Cloud Storage Manager licensed?

Cloud Storage Manager is licensed based on the size of your Azure Subscription. There are three versions of Cloud Storage Manager: Free, Advanced, and Enterprise, each with different limits on database size. All versions offer scheduled scans of Azure Blob Storage and reporting.

Who can benefit from using Cloud Storage Manager?

Cloud Storage Manager is useful for anyone who uses Azure Blob storage and wants to optimize their storage costs. It can be helpful for both new and experienced users of Azure Blob storage.

How to Get Azure Blob Container Size

by Mark | Oct 2, 2020 | Azure, Azure Blobs, How To, Storage Accounts

How to get the Size of your Azure Blob Containers

Something we get asked quite often is, how can I see the size of my Containers in each Storage Account? We know that Azure storage is one of the fastest growing aspects of Azure because it offers almost a limitless supply of storage, so companies are consuming more and more storage at an explosive rate. The question of being able to track this consumption is becoming more and more relevant.

OK, so how can I get the size of my containers in a Storage Account? Azure offers a few ways to do this, but each of the methods available are quite time consuming unless you only want to see the size of one or two containers, otherwise you’re in for some effort.

One way of course is good old PowerShell. We love PowerShell but a lot of people don’t want to be using scripts and code, either because they don’t feel comfortable with it or don’t have the time to be changing scripts to suit their specific environment and requirements, so I’m going to skip this aspect.

Why is it’s important to track the size of containers in Azure?

Tracking the size of containers in Azure is important for a number of reasons:

Cost control: Knowing the size of containers helps to control the costs associated with using Azure storage. Azure storage is a pay-as-you-go service and the costs depend on the amount of data stored. By monitoring the size of containers, organizations can ensure they are only paying for the storage they need.
Resource management: By monitoring the size of containers, organizations can determine which containers are growing quickly and need additional resources, such as increased storage capacity, to accommodate the growth.
Compliance: In certain industries, regulations require organizations to keep track of the data they store. Knowing the size of containers helps organizations ensure they are in compliance with these regulations.
Data analysis: The size of containers can provide valuable insights into the growth and usage patterns of the data stored in Azure. This information can be used to make informed decisions about future data storage requirements.

Overall, tracking the size of containers in Azure is important for ensuring the efficient and effective use of storage resources, staying in compliance with regulations, and making informed data management decisions.

No Powershell Required

OK, if we skip PowerShell what other options do I have?

First I’ll show you how to get the size of the Containers using the Azure Portal and then I’ll show you how much easier, quicker and better it is to use our FREE TOOL, Cloud Storage Manager.

*Note: Before we start, when using the Azure Portal to find the size of a Container, you need to know which Storage Account the Container resides in.

How to get the size of a Container in a Storage Account using the Azure portal

1. Log into the Azure portal

2. Select Storage Accounts from the panel or use the search bar at the top

3. Here you will see all your Blob Storage Accounts. Select the Storage Account you want to view.

Blob Container View

4. Select Containers on the left pane next under the Blob Service section.

This will take you to the Storage Container view of that Storage Account you have selected, showing all the containers within.

List all Blob Containers

5. Here you will see a list of all the Containers in that Storage Account.

Select the Container you are interested in.

Blob Container Properties

6. Once inside the Container, select Properties on the left hand side.

Azure Blob Container Size

7. Inside the Properties view you will have a button at the bottom to “Calculate Size”. Click on this button to get the size of the Container.

Azure Blob Container Total Size

8. Now you are presented with the Blob Container Size.

What if you want to see the Consumption of all your Storage Accounts?

So that is how you can get the size of a Container in a Storage Account using the Azure portal. Not too bad if you have one or two Containers you want to see. But what if you have 50 or 5,000? That method is not realistic.

The Azure portal method for determining the size of a container is limited when it comes to multiple containers as it becomes time-consuming and unrealistic. For example, if you have 50 or 5,000 containers, using the Azure portal to manually calculate the size of each container is not a feasible solution. Additionally, if you don’t know which storage account a container is in, it becomes difficult to find the size of that container using the Azure portal method.

Also, what if you don’t know which Storage Account the Container is in? Good luck!

So what is the solution? Glad you asked.

Cloud Storage Manager to the rescue.

Get your Azure Blob Storage Consumption

All you have to do, is launch Cloud Storage Manager. No, seriously that’s it. Once it’s finished scanning your environment, all you have to do is launch it.

Azure Blob Storage Usage Information

On the left side you’ll see a list of all your Subscriptions (with total size), Storage Accounts (with total size) and Azure Storage Containers (with total size).

And if you want even more information, the right hand panel shows you how many Blobs in each Container in Azure, the Container size and what the percentage of total size it’s consuming relative to the Storage Account.

Furthermore you can get historical growth reports on your Azure Blob consumption providing you with great insights in to your Azure Storage growth.

As you can see, Cloud Storage Manager is by far the easier and simpler way of finding out how much storage a Container is consuming in Azure.

Download it for FREE and use it today.

What is Azure Blob Storage?

by Mark | Sep 23, 2020 | Azure, Azure Blobs, Blob Storage, Storage Accounts

Azure Blob Storage

Blobs, Blobs and more Blobs.

If you have ever had the need to store large amounts of files and data, then Azure’s Blob Storage is made for you.

Microsoft’s Azure Cloud provides huge benefits with not only their fantastic services, locations, availability and support, but also in their almost seemingly infinite capacity.

Azure Blob Storage is not only scalable, durable and almost always available it also provides flexibility to scale as your business requirements need.

A huge benefit to using Azure services is the pay as you go service model, that allows you to only pay for the services you consume. No more need to over provision local file servers hard drives for expected capacity, with Azure Blob Storage you upload your files to Azure and only pay for the space you need.

Azure Blob Storage

What is Azure Blob Storage?

Azure Blob Storage Overview

Azure Blob Storage (Blob stands for Binary Large Object) is storage provided by Microsoft’s Azure for unstructured data. Perfect for massive amounts of data. Example use cases are as a target for your log or analytics data, or Blob Storage can be used as a backup and archival location, and even things like files, pictures and music files. Basically Azure Blob Storage is a great dumping ground for huge amounts of your data. A Blob is actually a file which is stored in a directory like structure called a Container, then within an Azure Storage Account, and an Azure Resource Group and finally an Azure Subscription.

Access to each Azure Blob is provided by a HTTPS link directly to the Blob itself, meaning you can access the file from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. Obviously if you dont want the data exposed to the whole world, you can lock this down to meet your security needs.

Azure Blob Storage Hierachy

Concept	Description
Azure Resource Group	Used to contain related resources together for a solution. Logical collection of configuration items within Azure. Can contain Virtual Machines, Virtual Networks, and other items.
Azure Storage Accounts	Top level of Storage Services within Azure. Contains Blobs, Queue Tables, File Shares and Virtual Machine disks. Can be accessed from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. Default limit of 250 Storage Accounts per region and per subscription, with no limits on the number of Azure Storage Containers or Blobs contained within.
Azure Storage Containers	Used like a folder that contains all your blobs. Unlimited amount of Storage Containers per Storage Account.
Azure Blobs	Any type of file that is unstructured and stored within an Azure Storage Container. Can store large amounts of Blobs within each container, and these could be things like document files, images, and other multimedia.

Azure Blob Storage Availability

Additionally when creating your Azure Storage Account you can choose how much redundancy / availability for your Azure Blob Storage. While Microsoft provides an SLA on the uptime of your storage, choosing the correct availability of your Azure Storage Account will ensure your Azure Blobs are accessible in the event of failure.

LRS – Locally Redundant Storage – Keeps a synchronous copy of your Azure Blobs three times within the same Azure Datacentre. This is the least cost option
ZRS – Zone Redundant Storage – Replicates your Azure Blobs synchronous across three Azure Availability Zones in the primary region.
GRS – Geo-Redundant Storage– Copies your Azure Blobs synchronous three times within the same Azure Datacentre, then copies the same Azure Blobs asynchronously across to one other single location in another secondary Azure Region.
GZRS – Geo-Zone-Redundant Storage– Copies your Azure Blobs synchronous across three Azure Availability Zones in the primary region, then copies the same Azure Blobs asynchronously across to one other single location in another secondary Azure Region.

Azure Blob Storage Tiering

Microsoft provides different storage tiering models for the storing of your data.

Each one has a different storage pricing model in Azure (per GB) and access requirements.

Hot – Best for data that is accessed frequently. (most expensive per GB)
Cool – Great for data that is accessed infrequently. (not as expensive as Hot, but no where as cheap as the Archive Tier)
Archive – Perfect for data that is very rarely accessed. (cheapest per GB)

Azure Blob Storage Types

Azure Blob Storage has three different types

These are;

Block Blobs – Perfect for storing documents, text files or even your media files
Append Blobs – cannot be modified and requires you to upload a new blob.
Page Blobs – are used for storing Azure Virtual Machine disks.

Azure Blob Storage Limitations

Although Azure Blob Storage seems limitless, there are always some technical limitations that you should be aware of.

Some of these limitations are;

Service Level Agreement – Microsoft provides an uptime 99.99% on Azure Blob Storage
Maximum size of Storage Account – 500TB
Maximum size of a Single Blob – 5TB
Number of Blocks in a Blob – 50,000 blocks
Maximum size of a block – 100MB
Minimum size of a block – 64KB
Maximum Storage Account Capacity – 5PB
Number of Storage Accounts per Subscription – 200
Tiering – Only the Hot and Cool Access Tiers can be set at the root of the Storage Container. Archive Tier is per individual Blob. (you can select multiple files using Cloud Storage Manager to change to the Archive Tier. This isnt possible using the Azure Portal)
Archive Tier stores the data offline. This requires time to retrieve the Blob from the offline storage. There is additional cost to retrieve this data and the retrieval time can take several hours.
Archive Tier Rehydration – When a Blob is in the Archive Tier the data cannot be modified as it is actually offline. To modify a Blob in this Tier you would first need to rehydrate the Blob to an Online Tier (Hot or Cool)

Azure Blob Storage Unstructured Data

Azure Blob Storage Configurations and Options

Azure Blob Storage Pricing

As with anything cloud-based, be careful which options you select as there will be cost impacts. As an example, Locally Redundant Storage is the cheapest availability option for Microsoft’s Azure Blob Storage, whereas Geo Zone Redundant Storage provides the highest Availability, but costs significantly more.

For Azure Blob Tiering, the Archive Tier is the cheapest at almost a tenth of the cost of Cool and Hot Tiers..

Tiering	LRS – Locally Redundant Storage	ZRS – Zone Redundant Storage	GRS – Geo-Redundant Storage	RA-GRS – Read Access Geo-Redundant Storage	GZRS – Geo Zone Redundant Storage	RA-GZRS – Read Access Geo Zone Redundant Storage
Blob Storage – Archive Tier	0.03 cents for 10GB	Option not available for Archive Tier	0.07 cents for 10GB	0.07 cents for 10GB	Option not available for Archive Tier	Option not available for Archive Tier
Blob Storage – Cool Tier	0.21 cents for 10GB	0.26 cents for 10GB	0.41 cents for 10GB	0.53 cents for 10GB	0.48 cents for 10GB	0.60 cents for 10GB
Blob Storage – Hot Tier	0.28 cents for 10GB	0.35 cents for 10GB	0.56 cents for 10GB	0.70 cents for 10GB	0.66 cents for 10GB	0.82 cents for 10GB

Now while the price does fluctutate at times, and even differentiates between the different Microsoft Azure Datacentres, the pricing table above has been given as a reference to the differences in costs and options on your Azure Storage.

To work out how much the cost differences, you can use the Microsoft Azure Pricing Calculator to work out the cost impacts to your solution

Azure Blob Storage Best Practices

Azure Blob Storage is a highly scalable, durable, and cost-effective object storage solution from Microsoft Azure. It is a great option for storing unstructured data, such as text and binary data, in the cloud. To get the most out of Azure Blob Storage, it’s important to follow some best practices. In this article, we will discuss the key best practices for Azure Blob Storage.

Use appropriate storage tiers:

Azure Blob Storage offers three storage tiers: Hot, Cool, and Archive. Hot storage is optimized for frequent access to data, Cool storage is optimized for infrequent access, and Archive storage is optimized for long-term data retention. Choose the right storage tier based on your data access patterns and the costs associated with each tier.

Enable versioning:

Versioning allows you to keep multiple versions of the same blob, so you can easily recover from accidental deletions or updates. To enable versioning, you can use the Azure portal, Azure CLI, or Azure Storage REST API.

Use a content delivery network (CDN):

A CDN can help distribute your blobs globally and improve the performance and responsiveness of your applications. You can configure a CDN for your Blob Storage account by using the Azure portal or Azure CLI.

Use shared access signatures (SAS) wisely:

SAS is a secure way to grant access to your blobs without exposing your storage account key. However, it’s important to limit the scope of access granted by the SAS and to set an appropriate expiration time.

Enable encryption:

Azure Blob Storage supports encryption of data at rest using Azure Storage Service Encryption. This feature encrypts your data before it is written to disk and automatically decrypts it when you access it.

Use Azure Blob Storage events:

Azure Blob Storage events allow you to trigger serverless functions or logic apps when specific events occur in your storage account. You can use events to implement complex workflows or integrate with other Azure services.

Monitor and manage your storage account:

Regularly monitor the usage and performance of your storage account using Azure Monitor. You can set up alerts to receive notifications when certain thresholds are met, and you can also use Azure Policy to enforce policies and control access to your storage account.

Monitor usage and storage consumption:

Reduce cost by using Cloud Storage Manager to gain insights in to your cloud storage consumption.

Use the right tools for the job:

Azure Blob Storage provides a number of tools and SDKs for working with your blobs, including Azure Portal, Azure CLI, and Azure Storage REST API as well as our own Cloud Storage Manager. Choose the tool that best fits your needs and make sure to follow the best practices for each tool.

In conclusion, following these best practices can help you get the most out of Azure Blob Storage and ensure that your data is secure, scalable, and accessible. Whether you’re storing unstructured data or building applications that rely on Blob Storage, following these best practices can help you maximize your investment and minimize risks.

Do you want information on all your Blobs in Azure?

Azure Blob Storage Insights

Now that you have some background in to what Azure Blob Storage can do for you and are ready to take the jump and start uploading huge amounts of data to your Azure Storage Containers.

Cloud Storage Manager provides you with further insights in to your Azure consumption. Providing you with quick to see capacity information, searching through all your Blob Storage, as well as historical reporting of your Azure Storage Accounts consumption.

If you want to see exactly what is in your Azure Storage Accounts, download Cloud Storage Manager and test it for yourself for free.

Azure Blob Storage Architecture

Azure Blob Storage is designed with a distributed architecture that provides high availability, durability, and scalability. The architecture comprises three layers:

Front-End Layer

The front-end layer handles incoming requests from clients and routes them to the appropriate back-end nodes.

Back-End Layer

The back-end layer consists of multiple storage nodes that store the data in a distributed manner. The data is stored in a redundant manner to ensure high availability and durability.

Blob Service Layer

The Blob Service Layer provides the APIs and SDKs for accessing the Blob Storage service. It also provides features such as authentication and authorization, metadata, and access control for Blob Storage.

How to view the size of all your Azure Storage Accounts

by Mark | Sep 17, 2020 | Azure, Azure Blobs, Cloud Computing, Storage Accounts

Why you should monitor your Azure Storage

Monitoring Azure storage usage is important for businesses because of the cost implications and the impact it can have on operations.

Cost implications: Azure storage is a pay-as-you-go service, meaning businesses are charged based on their usage of storage, data transfer, and the number of storage transactions. Unmonitored storage usage can quickly lead to unexpected and unnecessarily high charges. Monitoring Azure storage usage helps businesses stay aware of their storage consumption and avoid overspending on storage costs.
Impact on operations: Azure storage is a critical component of many business operations and applications. If storage usage is not properly monitored, it can result in a shortage of storage capacity, slow performance, and disruptions to operations. Monitoring storage usage can help prevent these issues by alerting businesses when their storage capacity is reaching its limit and allowing them to take action to prevent outages.

In summary, monitoring Azure storage usage is important for businesses to control costs, ensure adequate storage capacity, and avoid disruptions to operations. By monitoring storage usage, businesses can make informed decisions about their storage requirements and take proactive steps to manage costs and maintain optimal performance.

Do you really know how much Azure Storage you are using?

As more and more organisations dive into Azure, storage consumption continues to grow and so does the cost to businesses. Azure offers almost a limitless supply of storage, but this comes at a cost so it’s important to know exactly where that storage is going.

There are a few ways to get this information, either via the Azure portal, Azure Storage Explorer or even PowerShell. However, all these tools have limitations and to be honest, rather lacking and not that straightforward.

So first I’ll show you how to get this information using the Azure portal and Azure Storage Explorer and then show you how you can get a better picture and experience using our FREE TOOL, Cloud Storage Manager.

How to get the size of all Storage Accounts using the Azure portal

Log into the Azure portal
Select Monitor from the left hand panel or use the search bar at the top
Select Storage Accounts from the left hand pane under the Insights section
Use the Subscriptions drop down list and select which Subscriptions you want to view
Select Capacity on the right pane next to Overview
Use the Storage Accounts drop down list to select which storage accounts you are interested in viewing, or select All.

Here you will see the consumed storage for each of your selected subscriptions and storage accounts.

Azure Storage Capacity View

This view will provide you with a quick overview of the capacity used for each storage account. Although this will tell you how much storage is being consumed, you cannot drill down to see what is consuming the storage. To go any further you need to jump into the Storage Account view, select Containers and then blindly browse each container looking for blobs and in particular the size of each blob to find out where this storage is actually going.

Browsing your Azure Blobs using Azure Storage Explorer.

Another option is to use Azure Storage Explorer which is now built into the Azure portal (preview).

Log into the Azure portal
Select or search for Storage Accounts
Select the Storage Account you are interested in
Select Storage Explorer on the blade on the right

From with the Azure Storage Explorer Application, you can browse the containers of that storage account and view the size of each blob inside each container.

Finding more indepth information on your Azure Blob Usage

However, you are in the same boat as before, blindly searching through Containers looking for the size of blobs not knowing where they are. This may not be an issue if you only have 2 or 3 containers with 10 or less blobs in each. But what if you have 10, 50 or more Containers and hundreds or thousands of blobs?

How would you know which Container or blob is consuming the space? In short, you can’t, at least not easily.

Even with the full blown Azure Storage Explorer, the task is quite tedious because you have to browse each individual Container in each Storage Account and get the statistics to calculate the storage consumed. That is not a fun job.

Azure Storage Consumption Overview

This is where Cloud Storage Manager gives you the easiest, quickest and best experience by far.

With Cloud Storage Manager you can instantly see how much storage each Subscription, Azure Storage Account, Container and blob is consuming. It provides you with a simple explorer like view to browse through each level.

Here you can immediately see how much storage is being consumed at every level.

Azure Container Sizes

And by selecting the Container View tab on the right hand pane also gives you an instant view to see how much storage each Container in Azure is consuming.

A percentage column outlines the overall size of that container relative to its parent Storage Account.

Azure Container Contents

You can also right click on the Container you are interested in and select Jump to Container to expand and select that Azure Container on the tree pane.

Azure Blob Sizes

As you can see, the Container has been selected on the Storage Tree pane on the left. And on the right you can select the BLOB view tab to see the blobs in that container and of course the size of each blob. The Blob view is sorted based on size, so if even if you have hundreds or thousands of blobs, you will see which ones are taking up the most space first.

Azure Blob Information

You can also right click on the Blob to get additional options, such as delete the blob, change the object tier or view the blob properties.

As you can see, Cloud Storage Manager is easily the quickest and simplest way to know where your Azure storage is being consumed, and its all for FREE.

Cloud Storage Manager

Gain insights into your Azure Storage with our FREE to use Tool.

FREE DOWNLOAD

Send download link to:

Download the FREE TOOL and test it for yourself.

Conclusion. Which tool is right for you?

Azure portal is a web-based interface provided by Microsoft Azure to manage cloud resources and services. Although it provides a user-friendly interface for managing storage accounts, it has some limitations. The Azure portal may not provide an intuitive way to manage large amounts of data, as it requires multiple clicks and navigation to access information, and can be slow when working with a large amount of data. Additionally, the Azure portal does not provide the ability to compare data across storage accounts or view data usage trends over time.

Azure Storage Explorer is a standalone app that enables users to manage their Azure storage accounts. While it provides a more comprehensive view of storage accounts compared to the Azure portal, it still has limitations. For example, it does not provide the ability to monitor data usage in real-time, or set alerts for when storage thresholds are reached. Additionally, it does not provide the ability to automate data management tasks such as moving data to lower-cost storage tiers, which can result in higher storage costs for users.

Cloud Storage Manager is a FREE tool that provides a unified view of all cloud storage resources and enables users to manage, monitor, and optimize their cloud storage usage. It provides monitoring of data usage, and also provides a cost-optimization reports that allows users to identify and eliminate unnecessary data, reducing overall storage costs. Additionally, it provides a unified view of data across multiple storage accounts, enabling users to make informed decisions about storage utilization and cost optimization.

In conclusion, while both the Azure portal and Azure Storage Explorer have their uses, Cloud Storage Manager provides a more comprehensive and cost-effective solution for managing cloud storage resources. With its real-time monitoring, alerts, and automation features, it can help users reduce storage costs and improve the overall efficiency of their cloud storage operations.

How to create an Azure storage lifecycle management policy

by Mark | Aug 25, 2020 | Azure, Azure Blobs, Blob Storage, Cloud Computing, How To, Storage Accounts

How to create an Azure storage lifecycle management policy

Whether you are using our Cloud Storage Management software to gain insights into your Azure storage environment, or are just trying to work out how to save costs within Azure, creating a lifecycle management policy is a great idea to help you save in your Azure storage costs.

Why is an Azure Lifecycle Management Policy important?

Azure Storage Lifecycle Management is a feature provided by Microsoft Azure that helps users manage the lifecycle of their data stored in Azure Blob storage. It allows users to transition their data to different storage tiers (Hot, Cool, Archive) based on their data access patterns and save costs in their Azure storage environment. The storage tiers have different costs per gigabyte of data, with the Hot tier being the most expensive and the Archive tier having the most cost savings. It is important because it enables users to save costs on their storage and manage their data effectively based on their business needs. Additionally, it helps ensure that the data is stored in the appropriate tier for its intended usage, improving performance and reducing costs.

Azure Storage Tiering Overview

Azure has three different tiers for your blob storage. These storage tiers are;

Hot – Used for frequently accessed data. Best suited for data that your user base accesses daily, think files and photos etc

Cool – Used for infrequently accessed data. Well suited for data that maybe accessed, but not that often.

Archive – Used for rarely accessed data, like backups or data that you need to keep for historical reasons.

Each of these Storage Tiers has a cost associated that Microsoft will charge you per gigabyte of data. The Hot Tier obviously being the most expensive, the Cool Tier is a little cheaper and the Archive Tier having considerable cost savings.

As an example at the time of writing this page, the cost per gigabyte in US dollars for each Tier is as below. (this may vary depending on your agreement with Microsoft)

Azure Blob Storage Costs

	PREMIUM	HOT	COOL	ARCHIVE
First 50 terabyte (TB) / month	$0.15 per GB	$0.0184 per GB	$0.01 per GB	$0.00099 per GB
Next 450 TB/month	$0.15 per GB	$0.0177 per GB	$0.01 per GB	$0.00099 per GB
Over 500 TB/month	$0.15 per GB	$0.0170 per GB	$0.01 per GB	$0.00099 per GB

As the table above shows, there are considerable savings when you move your blobs down to the lower tiers and creating an Azure Storage Lifecycle Management Policy.

Azure Blob Storage Tiering

Change your Storage Tier

Microsoft Azure provides tiering for your blob data, that you can set as the default level. (either upon creation of the storage account or at a later date). To check the default storage tiering of your storage account go to the Azure Portal, choose configuration, and then the access tier that the blobs default to in that storage account is shown.

It must be noted that only the Hot and Cool tiers can be set as the default and not the Archive tier.

What are some of the benefits of creating an Azure Storage Lifecycle Management Policy?

OK, so now that you see there are some real benefits in changing the tiering of your blob storage, how do I create one you ask?

Well first off let’s look at what you will need to make sure is in place first.

Tiering of blob object storage is only available in Blob Storage and General Purpose v2 (or GPv2) accounts. If you have GPv1 storage you will need to convert that first to GPv2.

Premium storage does not provide any tiering, as this tier is for fast access using SSD based drives. (this maybe coming at a later date)

Changing tiers of storage may incur increased costs. Be very careful when applying the change to your data, as rehydrating blobs from the archive tier can be costly.

How to create your first Azure Storage Lifecycle Management Policy.

Open the Azure Portal

In your Azure portal, go to your storage account that you want the lifecycle policy to apply to and then choose Lifecycle Management.

Create a Azure Storage Lifecycle Policy Rule

Once the right hand side of your browser has populated, choose Add Rule to start the wizard

Add Lifecycle Policy Rule

Now that the new rule has shown up we need to fill in a few details. You will need to give the rule a Name and then choose what you want to happen with your object data.

As an example I have shown in the below rule that the blobs will move to cool storage after not being accessed in 90 days, then to archive storage in 180 days, then finally being deleted in 365 days.

If you are happy with what you have set, just click Review + add and Azure will go on to apply those settings to your storage account, or if you want to be granular and exclude some containers / paths then click on Next: Filter Set.

Azure Storage Lifecycle Policy Exclusions

On this page you can now exclude any containers or paths that you do not want this policy to apply to. Click Next: Review + add.

Azure Lifecycle Management Filter

Azure Storage Lifecycle Validation

If all goes well you should be presented with a screen as below, saying that your Validation Passed.

Click on Add and Azure will now apply those settings to your storage account.

Azure will now go through all your Blobs and set them to the tiering and settings you have specified.

You have successfully created an Azure Storage Lifecycle Management Policy

Azure Lifecycle Management Validation

Reduce your Azure Blob Storage Costs

Now you may ask, how do I know how much storage I’ve consumed or when were my blob files last accessed?

Easy. First run and install our Cloud Storage Manager software, then let it run a scan against your Azure Storage environments. Once the Scan has completed you can then run one of the many reports to understand and optimise your Azure Blob Storage.

Download a Free Trial and test it for yourself.

Free

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Maximum Azure Storage limited to 30TB.

Typically for small or personal environments usually consisting of 3 or less Azure Subscriptions and consuming under 30TB of Azure Blob Storage.

Free Forever (until your Azure storage goes over 30TB).

Advanced

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Maximum Azure Storage limited to 1PB

For medium sized environments typically consisting of less than 5 Azure Subscriptions.

Yearly license subscription of $500 USD per year which includes updates and support.

Enterprise

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Unlimited Azure Storage.

For use in large environments typically consisting of more than 10 Subscriptions and consuming more than 1PB of Azure Blob Storage.

Yearly license subscription of $1000 USD per year which includes updates and support.

Cloud Storage Manager is licensed based on the size of your Azure Subscriptions, Azure Storage Accounts, Containers and finally each Blob.

Each version has the same great functions including scheduled scans of your Azure Blob Storage and reporting.

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FAQ for Azure Lifecycle Management

What is Azure Storage Lifecycle Management?

Azure Storage Lifecycle Management is a feature that allows users to automate the transition of their data to different storage tiers or classes based on the data’s age or access patterns.

How does Azure Storage Lifecycle Management help in reducing costs?

By automatically moving data to the appropriate storage tier based on its age or access patterns, Azure Storage Lifecycle Management helps to reduce storage costs by ensuring that you are only paying for the most expensive storage tier that you actually need.

Can I still access my data after it has been transitioned to a different storage tier?

Yes, you can still access your data even after it has been transitioned to a different storage tier. The only difference is the retrieval time, which may be slower for data stored in the Archive tier compared to the Hot and Cool tiers.

Can I revert a transition made by Azure Storage Lifecycle Management?

Yes, you can revert a transition made by Azure Storage Lifecycle Management, but you may incur additional charges for moving the data back to a more expensive storage tier.

Is Azure Storage Lifecycle Management available for all Azure storage services?

Currently, Azure Storage Lifecycle Management is available for Azure Blob storage.

What are the different storage tiers that can be managed by Azure Storage Lifecycle Management?

Azure Storage Lifecycle Management allows you to manage data across four storage tiers: hot, cool, archive, and deleted. The hot tier is for frequently accessed data, the cool tier is for infrequently accessed data, the archive tier is for rarely accessed data, and the deleted tier is for data that has been marked for deletion.

How does Azure Storage Lifecycle Management work with data protection?

Azure Storage Lifecycle Management integrates with Azure data protection features such as Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery, to ensure that your data is protected even as it transitions between storage tiers.

Can I customize the transition policies for my data in Azure Storage Lifecycle Management?

Yes, you can create custom transition policies in Azure Storage Lifecycle Management that are specific to your data and your business requirements. You can specify the time-based or usage-based triggers for data transitions, and you can also set rules for data retention.

Can I track the data movement and monitor the performance of my storage infrastructure with Azure Storage Lifecycle Management?

Yes, you can use Azure Storage Lifecycle Management to monitor and track the data movement in your storage infrastructure, as well as to measure the performance of your storage tiers. You can also use Azure Monitor to set up alerts and notifications for specific events, such as data movement or storage tier changes.

Is Azure Storage Lifecycle Management supported for all types of data in Azure Storage?

Azure Storage Lifecycle Management is supported for all types of data in Azure Blob Storage, including block blobs, append blobs, and page blobs. It is not currently supported for other types of data in Azure Storage, such as files and queues.

Which storage account or storage accounts can you use lifecycle management?

The Storage Accounts that support Lifecycle Management Policies are Blob Storage Accounts that have block blobs and append blobs in general-purpose v2 and premium block blobs.

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