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Discover Blob storage lifecycle policies

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A lifecycle management policy is a collection of rules in a JSON document. Each rule definition within a policy includes a filter set and an action set. The filter set limits rule actions to a certain set of objects within a container or objects names. The action set applies the tier or delete actions to the filtered set of objects:

{
  "rules": [
    {
      "name": "rule1",
      "enabled": true,
      "type": "Lifecycle",
      "definition": {...}
    },
    {
      "name": "rule2",
      "type": "Lifecycle",
      "definition": {...}
    }
  ]
}

A policy is a collection of rules:

Parameter name	Parameter type	Notes
rules	An array of rule objects	At least one rule is required in a policy. You can define up to 100 rules in a policy.

Each rule within the policy has several parameters:

Parameter name	Parameter type	Notes	Required
name	String	A rule name can include up to 256 alphanumeric characters. Rule name is case-sensitive. It must be unique within a policy.	True
enabled	Boolean	An optional boolean to allow a rule to be temporarily disabled. Default value is true if not set.	False
type	An enum value	The current valid type is Lifecycle.	True
definition	An object that defines the lifecycle rule	Each definition is made up of a filter set and an action set.	True

Rules

Each rule definition includes a filter set and an action set. The filter set limits rule actions to a certain set of objects within a container or objects names. The action set applies the tier or delete actions to the filtered set of objects.

The following sample rule filters the account to run the actions on objects that exist inside container1 and start with foo.

• Tier blob to cool tier 30 days after last modification
• Tier blob to archive tier 90 days after last modification
• Delete blob 2,555 days (seven years) after last modification
• Delete blob snapshots 90 days after snapshot creation

{
  "rules": [
    {
      "name": "ruleFoo",
      "enabled": true,
      "type": "Lifecycle",
      "definition": {
        "filters": {
          "blobTypes": [ "blockBlob" ],
          "prefixMatch": [ "container1/foo" ]
        },
        "actions": {
          "baseBlob": {
            "tierToCool": { "daysAfterModificationGreaterThan": 30 },
            "tierToArchive": { "daysAfterModificationGreaterThan": 90 },
            "delete": { "daysAfterModificationGreaterThan": 2555 }
          },
          "snapshot": {
            "delete": { "daysAfterCreationGreaterThan": 90 }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Rule filters

Filters limit rule actions to a subset of blobs within the storage account. If more than one filter is defined, a logical AND runs on all filters. Filters include:

Filter name	Type	Is Required
blobTypes	An array of predefined enum values.	Yes
prefixMatch	An array of strings for prefixes to be match. Each rule can define up to 10 prefixes. A prefix string must start with a container name.	No
blobIndexMatch	An array of dictionary values consisting of blob index tag key and value conditions to be matched. Each rule can define up to 10 blob index tag condition.	No

Rule actions

Actions are applied to the filtered blobs when the run condition is met.

Lifecycle management supports tiering and deletion of blobs and deletion of blob snapshots. Define at least one action for each rule on blobs or blob snapshots.

Action	Base Blob	Snapshot	Version
tierToCool	Supported for blockBlob	Supported	Supported
enableAutoTierToHotFromCool	Supported for blockBlob	Not supported	Not supported
tierToArchive	Supported for blockBlob	Supported	Supported
delete	Supported for blockBlob and appendBlob	Supported	Supported

Note

If you define more than one action on the same blob, lifecycle management applies the least expensive action to the blob. For example, action delete is cheaper than action tierToArchive. Action tierToArchive is cheaper than action tierToCool.

The run conditions are based on age. Base blobs use the last modified time to track age, and blob snapshots use the snapshot creation time to track age.

Action run condition	Condition value	Description
daysAfterModificationGreaterThan	Integer value indicating the age in days	The condition for base blob actions
daysAfterCreationGreaterThan	Integer value indicating the age in days	The condition for blob snapshot actions
daysAfterLastAccessTimeGreaterThan	Integer value indicating the age in days	The condition for a current version of a blob when access tracking is enabled
daysAfterLastTierChangeGreaterThan	Integer value indicating the age in days after last blob tier change time	This condition applies only to tierToArchive actions and can be used only with the daysAfterModificationGreaterThan condition.

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