Azure Storage Management with PowerShell

Introduction to Azure Storage Management with PowerShell

Microsoft Azure Storage offers a highly scalable, durable, and secure cloud storage solution for a wide range of data needs. PowerShell, with its powerful scripting capabilities, provides an efficient way to automate and manage these storage resources. This guide will walk you through the essential concepts and commands for managing Azure Storage using PowerShell.

By using Azure PowerShell cmdlets, you can:

Create, configure, and delete storage accounts.
Manage blobs, files, queues, and tables.
Implement access control and security policies.
Monitor storage usage and performance.
Integrate storage management into broader automation workflows.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following:

An active Azure subscription.
The latest version of Azure PowerShell installed. If not installed, you can install it using:

Install-Module -Name Az -Scope CurrentUser -Repository PSGallery -Force

Connect to your Azure account.

Connect-AzAccount

Getting Started: Basic Storage Account Management

Let's start by creating a new storage account.

                        # Define parameters for the new storage account

                        $resourceGroupName = "MyResourceGroup"

                        $storageAccountName = "mystorageaccount" + (Get-Random -Maximum 99999).ToString("00000")

                        $location = "East US"

                        $skuName = "Standard_LRS"

                        # Create the resource group if it doesn't exist

                        New-AzResourceGroup -Name $resourceGroupName -Location $location

                        # Create the storage account

                        New-AzStorageAccount -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName -Name $storageAccountName -Location $location -SkuName $skuName

                        Write-Host "Storage account '$storageAccountName' created successfully in '$location'."

To retrieve information about an existing storage account:

                        Get-AzStorageAccount -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName -Name $storageAccountName
                    

To delete a storage account (use with caution!):

                        Remove-AzStorageAccount -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName -Name $storageAccountName -Force
                    

Common Storage Management Tasks

Managing Blobs

Get the storage account context:

                        $storageAccount = Get-AzStorageAccount -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName -Name $storageAccountName

                        $context = $storageAccount.Context

Create a blob container:

New-AzStorageContainer -Name "mycontainer" -Context $context

Upload a blob:

                        Set-AzStorageBlobContent -Container "mycontainer" -File "path/to/your/local/file.txt" -Blob "remote/blob/name.txt" -Context $context
                    

List blobs:

Get-AzStorageBlob -Container "mycontainer" -Context $context

Managing Files (Azure Files)

Create a file share:

New-AzStorageShare -Name "myfileshare" -Context $context

Upload a file:

                        New-AzStorageFile -ShareName "myfileshare" -Path "myfolder" -FileName "document.pdf" -SourcePath "path/to/local/document.pdf" -Context $context
                    

Advanced Topics

Access Control: Using Shared Access Signatures (SAS) and Access Control Lists (ACLs).
Data Redundancy: Configuring LRS, GRS, RA-GRS, and ZRS.
Networking: Configuring virtual network rules and private endpoints.
Lifecycle Management: Automating data tiering and deletion.
Monitoring: Using Azure Monitor and diagnostic settings.

Azure Storage PowerShell Module Reference

The Az.Storage module provides a comprehensive set of cmdlets for managing Azure Storage. You can find detailed documentation for each cmdlet on the official Microsoft Learn platform.

Key cmdlets include:

New-AzStorageAccount, Get-AzStorageAccount, Remove-AzStorageAccount
New-AzStorageContainer, Get-AzStorageContainer, Remove-AzStorageContainer
Set-AzStorageBlobContent, Get-AzStorageBlob, Remove-AzStorageBlob
New-AzStorageShare, Get-AzStorageShare, Remove-AzStorageShare
New-AzStorageFile, Get-AzStorageFile, Remove-AzStorageFile
New-AzStorageQueue, Get-AzStorageQueue, Remove-AzStorageQueue
New-AzStorageTable, Get-AzStorageTable, Remove-AzStorageTable

To get help on a specific cmdlet, use:

Get-Help New-AzStorageAccount -Full