Create an Azure Storage Account

This guide walks you through the process of creating a new Azure Storage account using the Azure portal. Azure Storage offers a highly available, massively scalable, secure, and durable solution for your data.

Note: A storage account is a prerequisite for using Azure Storage services like Blob, File, Queue, and Table storage.

Prerequisites

Steps to Create a Storage Account

Step 1: Sign in to the Azure Portal

Open your web browser and navigate to the Azure portal. Sign in with your Azure account credentials.

Step 2: Navigate to Storage Accounts

In the Azure portal menu, search for "Storage accounts" or select it from the list of services. You can usually find it under the "Data + Storage" category.

Azure portal search for Storage Accounts

Step 3: Create a New Storage Account

On the Storage accounts page, click the + Create button.

Azure portal create new storage account button

Step 4: Configure Basic Settings

On the "Create storage account" page, under the Basics tab, fill in the following fields:

  • Subscription: Select the Azure subscription under which you want to create the storage account.
  • Resource group: Select an existing resource group or create a new one. Resource groups help you manage related Azure resources.
  • Storage account name: Enter a globally unique name for your storage account. This name must be 3-24 characters long and can only contain lowercase letters and numbers. It will be part of the URI used to access your storage data (e.g., <youraccountname>.blob.core.windows.net).
  • Region: Select the Azure region where you want to deploy your storage account. Choosing a region close to your users can improve performance.
  • Performance: Choose between Standard (general purpose v2) and Premium (optimized for specific workloads). Standard is recommended for most scenarios.
  • Redundancy: Select the data redundancy option. Common options include:
    • Locally-redundant storage (LRS): Cheapest option, 3 copies within a single data center.
    • Geo-redundant storage (GRS): 6 copies across two Azure regions for higher durability.
    • Read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS): GRS with read access to the secondary region.
    Choose based on your availability and durability requirements.
Azure portal create storage account basics tab

Step 5: Configure Advanced Settings (Optional)

Click on the Advanced tab to configure settings such as:

  • Account kind: Typically StorageV2 (general purpose v2).
  • Blob access tier: Default access tier (Hot or Cool).
  • Network rules: Configure firewall and virtual network access.
  • Data Lake Storage Gen2: Enable hierarchical namespace if needed for big data analytics.

Step 6: Review and Create

Click on the Review + create tab. The portal will validate your configuration.

Once validation passes, review the details and click Create.

Azure portal review and create storage account

Step 7: Deployment and Access

Azure will begin deploying your storage account. This usually takes a few minutes. Once deployment is complete, you can navigate to your new storage account's overview page to find access keys, endpoints, and manage your storage services.

You can access your storage account using:

  • The Azure portal.
  • Azure Storage Explorer.
  • Azure SDKs and APIs.
  • Azure CLI or Azure PowerShell.

Congratulations! You have successfully created an Azure Storage account.

Next: Manage Your Storage Account