Domain 2 of 3 · Chapter 3 of 4

Storage Services

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Included in this chapter:

  • The storage account and its four data services
  • Storage account types and what they support
  • Redundancy: single-region versus cross-region
  • Moving and migrating data into Azure

Azure Storage redundancy options compared

OptionCopiesScopeCross-regionBest for
LRS3 in one datacenterSingle datacenterNoLowest cost, non-critical data
ZRS3 across availability zonesSingle regionNoZone-level fault tolerance in one region
GRS6 (LRS + remote LRS)Two regionsYes (async)Disaster recovery across regions
GZRS6 (ZRS + remote LRS)Two regionsYes (async)Highest durability: zone + region protection
RA-GRS / RA-GZRSSame as GRS / GZRSTwo regionsYes + read secondaryDR plus read access to the secondary region

Decision tree

Must survive a full region going down? Yes Need to READ the secondary region? Yes RA-GZRS / RA-GRS read access to secondary No GZRS (or GRS) async copy to paired region No Need to survive one datacenter/zone failing? Yes ZRS 3 copies across availability zones No LRS cheapest, 3 copies one datacenter LRS and ZRS stay in a single region; GRS, GZRS, RA-GRS and RA-GZRS copy asynchronously to the paired region. general-purpose v2 is the recommended account type for all of these options.
Cheat sheet

Cheat sheet

  • A storage account is the container for all four data services
  • Choose general-purpose v2 as the default storage account type
  • Blob Storage is object storage for unstructured data
  • Azure Files gives fully managed SMB/NFS shares you can mount anywhere
  • Queue Storage decouples components for async messaging
  • Table Storage is a schemaless NoSQL key-value store
  • Managed disks are block storage for VMs, managed by Azure
  • Blob Storage has four access tiers from Hot to Archive
  • Use the Hot tier for frequently accessed data
  • Cooler tiers carry rising minimum-retention windows: 30/90/180 days
  • Archive is offline storage that must be rehydrated before reading
  • LRS keeps three copies in one datacenter: cheapest, no DR
  • ZRS spreads copies across availability zones in one region
  • LRS and ZRS are both single-region: no geo protection
  • GRS = LRS plus an async copy to the paired region
  • GZRS combines ZRS in-region with geo-replication
  • Only the RA- variants let you read the secondary before failover
  • Geo-replication is asynchronous, so a regional failure can lose recent writes
  • AzCopy is the command-line tool for scripted bulk transfer
  • Storage Explorer is the free cross-platform desktop GUI
  • Azure File Sync caches an Azure file share on local servers
  • Azure Data Box ships a physical appliance for offline bulk transfer
  • Azure Migrate is the central hub to discover, assess, and migrate
  • AzCopy for online transfers, Data Box for offline shipment
  • Managed disk types range from Ultra (fastest) to Standard HDD (cheapest)
  • Lifecycle management automates tier transitions and deletion
  • Queue messages are up to 64 KB, reached over HTTP/HTTPS

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References

  1. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-account-overview
  2. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/storage-blobs-introduction
  3. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/files/storage-files-introduction
  4. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/queues/storage-queues-introduction
  5. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/tables/table-storage-overview
  6. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/managed-disks-overview
  7. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/access-tiers-overview
  8. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/lifecycle-management-overview
  9. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-redundancy
  10. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-use-azcopy-v10
  11. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/storage-explorer/vs-azure-tools-storage-manage-with-storage-explorer
  12. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/file-sync/file-sync-introduction
  13. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/migrate/migrate-services-overview
  14. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/databox/data-box-overview