There are several advantages to using Azure storage irrespective of type. Azure storage is easily scalable, extremely flexible and relatively low in cost depending on the options you choose. Show
There are 4 types of storage in Azure, namely:
For the traditional DBA, this might be a little confusing. In this article, I will explain the different types of storage and when each of them should be used. Disk TypesAzure offers 2 types of disk storage:
And two types of disks:
As shown below, you choose the type of disks you want by selecting either Standard or Premium when creating your storage account. How to create a storage accountIn the Azure portal ➜ click on Storage Accounts ➜ then on Add
Figure 1: Storage Account Fill in all required fields and choose the relevant options:
Figure 2: Create Storage account part 1
The click on Create. And you are all set. The word blob is an acronym which stands for binary large object. Blobs typically include large files that are unstructured, such as images, video, music files, backup files etc. Blob storage can be divided into two access tiers, a hot access tier for data which is accessed frequently and a cold access tier for data which is not accessed very often. The cold access tier is cheaper than the hot access tier and as such you can store more data at a lower cost, it is also slightly less available, like 99% as opposed to the 99.9% of the hot storage tier. It’s also possible to switch between access tiers at any point if you wish to do so. There are essentially 3 different types of blobs (in a nutshell):
You must choose the type of blob when you create the blob and unfortunately once the blob is created it’s not possible to change it to a different type. Create a storage blobClick on the storage account and the select Blobs as the type of service you want.
Figure 4: Blob storage On the Blob service screen:
Then enter the:
Figure 5: Blob service Queue StorageQueue Storage is somewhat like MSMQ. It allows you to decouple your components and have reliable asynchronous communication. In Azure Queue Storage, the number of queues is only limited by the capacity of the storage account. Queues and messages can be created programmatically or using the Storage Explorer tool. Queue storage consists out of the following components:
Figure 6: Queue Storage Table StorageTable storage is used to store semi-structured data in a key-value format in a NoSQL datastore. Azure table storage can store petabytes of data, can scale and is inexpensive. Table storage can be accessed using REST and some of the OData protocols or using the Storage Explorer tool. Table storage has the following components:
The following types are supported for properties:
File StorageAzure file storage makes it easy to move applications which depend on regular file shares to the cloud. File storage uses the SMB 2.1 or 3.0 protocol and can be accessed by multiple applications simultaneously. There are some SMB features which are not currently supported. For a complete list, see this link. File storage encompasses 4 component types:
Create a file shareTo create a file share, click on your storage account and select Files as the type of service you want. On the File service screen:
Then enter the:
Figure 7: File Share You can then proceed to click on the file share and create directories or add files just as you would with a normal file share. Storage Explorer ToolTo manage the objects on your storage you can use the free Storage Explorer tool. Since this tool is open source, you can also download the source code for it. This tool is currently still in preview and new features are added on a regular basis. But I find it quite useful since when you are logged into your Azure account, it shows almost all information regarding the account, including the primary and secondary connection strings for each of your storage accounts. It also allows you to create tables and queues which you cannot do directly in the Azure Portal.
Figure 8: Storage Explorer tool
Minette Steynberg has over 15 years’ experience in working with data in different IT roles including SQL developer and SQL Server DBA to name but a few. Minette enjoys being an active member of the SQL Server community by writing articles and the occasional talk at SQL user groups. Minette currently works as a Data Platform Solution Architect at Microsoft South Africa. View all posts by Minette Steynberg Which of the Azure storage can be used for storing files for distributed access?The answer is Azure Blob Storage. Though this scenario deals with Files, Azure Blob Storage is a good fit due to its off-the-shelf capabilities. Azure Blob Storage contains three types of blobs: Block, Page and Append.
What is Azure blob storage used for?Azure Blob Storage helps you create data lakes for your analytics needs, and provides storage to build powerful cloud-native and mobile apps. Optimise costs with tiered storage for your long-term data, and flexibly scale up for high-performance computing and machine learning workloads.
Which Azure storage is used to store types of data as object?Azure Blob storage is Microsoft's object storage solution for the cloud. Blob storage is optimized for storing massive amounts of unstructured data. Unstructured data is data that doesn't adhere to a particular data model or definition, such as text or binary data.
What are three types of Azure storage?Types of Azure Storage: Blobs, Files, Queues, Tables, & Disks. Cloud-based.. Durable.. Highly available.. Secure.. Scalable.. Managed.. Accessible.. |