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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.
Blob Storage is designed for:
Users or client applications can access objects in Blob Storage via HTTP/HTTPS, from anywhere in the world. Objects in Blob Storage are accessible via the Azure Storage REST API, Azure PowerShell, Azure CLI, or an Azure Storage client library. Client libraries are available for different languages, including:
Clients can also securely connect to Blob Storage by using SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) and mount Blob Storage containers by using the Network File System (NFS) 3.0 protocol.
Blob Storage supports Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2, Microsoft's enterprise big data analytics solution for the cloud. Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 offers a hierarchical file system as well as the advantages of Blob Storage, including:
For more information about Data Lake Storage Gen2, see Introduction to Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2.
Blob Storage offers three types of resources:
The following diagram shows the relationship between these resources.
A storage account provides a unique namespace in Azure for your data. Every object that you store in Azure Storage has an address that includes your unique account name. The combination of the account name and the Blob Storage endpoint forms the base address for the objects in your storage account.
For example, if your storage account is named mystorageaccount, then the default endpoint for Blob Storage is:
http://mystorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net
The following table describes the different types of storage accounts that are supported for Blob Storage:
Type of storage account | Performance tier | Usage |
---|---|---|
General-purpose v2 | Standard | Standard storage account type for blobs, file shares, queues, and tables. Recommended for most scenarios using Blob Storage or one of the other Azure Storage services. |
Block blob | Premium | Premium storage account type for block blobs and append blobs. Recommended for scenarios with high transaction rates or that use smaller objects or require consistently low storage latency. Learn more about workloads for premium block blob accounts... |
Page blob | Premium | Premium storage account type for page blobs only. Learn more about workloads for premium page blob accounts... |
To learn more about types of storage accounts, see Azure storage account overview. For information about legacy storage account types, see Legacy storage account types.
To learn how to create a storage account, see Create a storage account.
A container organizes a set of blobs, similar to a directory in a file system. A storage account can include an unlimited number of containers, and a container can store an unlimited number of blobs.
A container name must be a valid DNS name, as it forms part of the unique URI (Uniform resource identifier) used to address the container or its blobs. Follow these rules when naming a container:
The URI for a container is similar to:
https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer
For more information about naming containers, see Naming and Referencing Containers, Blobs, and Metadata.
Azure Storage supports three types of blobs:
For more information about the different types of blobs, see Understanding Block Blobs, Append Blobs, and Page Blobs.
The URI for a blob is similar to:
https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer/myblob
or
https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer/myvirtualdirectory/myblob
Follow these rules when naming a blob:
/
) that corresponds to the directory or virtual directory. The following path segment limitations apply to blob names:
Note
Avoid blob names that end with a dot (.), a forward slash (/), or a sequence or combination of the two. No path segments should end with a dot (.).
For more information about naming blobs, see Naming and Referencing Containers, Blobs, and Metadata.
A number of solutions exist for migrating existing data to Blob Storage:
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