This document guides you through the process of creating a storage account in Azure using the Azure portal. Azure Storage provides a highly scalable and secure solution for storing various types of data, including blobs, files, queues, and tables.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, ensure you have the following:
- An active Azure subscription. If you don't have one, you can create a free account.
Steps to Create a Storage Account
-
Sign in to the Azure portal
Open your web browser and navigate to the Azure portal at https://portal.azure.com. Sign in with your Azure account credentials.
-
Navigate to Storage Accounts
In the Azure portal search bar at the top, type "Storage accounts" and select "Storage accounts" from the results.
Alternatively, you can find it under the "Storage" section in the Azure portal menu.
-
Create a new Storage Account
On the Storage accounts page, click the + Create button.
-
Configure Basic Settings
On the "Create a storage account" page, under the Basics tab, provide the following information:
- Subscription: Select the Azure subscription to use.
- Resource group: Choose an existing resource group or create a new one by clicking "Create new". A resource group is a logical container for Azure resources.
- Storage account name: Enter a globally unique name for your storage account. This name must be between 3 and 24 characters long and can contain only lowercase letters and numbers.
- Region: Select the Azure region where you want to deploy your storage account.
- Performance: Choose either Standard (for general-purpose use) or Premium (for high-performance scenarios).
- Redundancy: Select a data redundancy option. Common options include:
- Locally-redundant storage (LRS): Lowest cost, replicates data within a single data center.
- Geo-redundant storage (GRS): Replicates data across two Azure regions.
- Zone-redundant storage (ZRS): Replicates data across multiple availability zones within a region.
-
Configure Advanced Settings (Optional)
Click on the Advanced tab to configure additional settings such as:
- Access tier: Set the default access tier for blobs (Hot or Cool).
- Secure transfer required: Enable to enforce HTTPS for all access to the storage account. Recommended.
- Networking: Configure network access rules, such as allowing access from specific virtual networks or IP addresses.
- Data Lake Storage Gen2: Enable if you plan to use hierarchical namespaces for big data analytics.
-
Review and Create
Click on the Review + create tab. Azure will validate your configuration. Once validation passes, review the summary and click Create.
Important Considerations
The storage account name you choose becomes part of the URL for accessing your data. Ensure it's descriptive and adheres to Azure naming conventions.
Choose the appropriate redundancy option based on your data durability and availability requirements.
Next Steps
After your storage account is deployed, you can start using it to store your data. Explore the following resources: