We are able to create folders under Azure Blob Storage Container without enabling Hierarchical namespace (HNS).

Question

Using Azure Data Explorer, we are able to create folders under Azure Blob Storage Container without enabling Hierarchical namespace (HNS).

Is it expected?

How HNS is different from creating folders under containers?

Answer 1

@Agrawal, Rishi Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A. I understand that you are having questions with creating folders in Blob storage without HNS.

Azure Blob Storage is organized in a flat paradigm, rather than a hierarchical paradigm (like a classic file system). However, you can organize blobs into virtual directories in order to mimic a folder structure. A virtual directory forms part of the name of the blob and is indicated by the delimiter character. However, please note that these are not actual directories.

On the other hand, enabling Hierarchical Namespace (HNS) in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 organizes objects (files) into a hierarchy of directories and subdirectories in the same way that the file system on your computer is organized. The hierarchical namespace scales linearly and doesn't degrade data capacity or performance.

Refer below information to understand difference between Hierarchical Namespace vs Flat namespaces to further understand the difference-

Hierarchical namespaces organize blob data into directories and stores metadata about each directory and the files within it. They keep the data organized, which yields better storage and retrieval performance for an analytical use case and lowers the cost of analysis. This structure allows operations, such as directory renames and deletes, to be performed in a single atomic operation.
Flat namespaces, by contrast, require several operations proportionate to the number of objects in the structure.

As per- https://medium.com/awesome-azure/azure-difference-between-azure-blob-storage-and-azure-data-lake-storage-comparison-azure-blob-vs-adls-gen2-81af5ef2a6e1

Please also refer to this detailed video regarding differences between Azure Blob vs ADLS Gen2- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHn5GAkvlwg

Hope this helps. Please let us know if you have any more questions and we will be glad to assist you further. Thank you!

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