How to Manage Azure Storage

Lab scenario

You need to evaluate the use of Azure storage for storing files residing currently in on-premises data stores. While majority of these files are not accessed frequently, there are some exceptions. You would like to minimize cost of storage by placing less frequently accessed files in lower-priced storage tiers. You also plan to explore different protection mechanisms that Azure Storage offers, including network access, authentication, authorization, and replication. Finally, you want to determine to what extent Azure Files service might be suitable for hosting your on-premises file shares.

Objectives

In this lab, you will:

• Task 1: Provision the lab environment
• Task 2: Create and configure Azure Storage accounts
• Task 3: Manage blob storage
• Task 4: Manage authentication and authorization for Azure Storage
• Task 5: Create and configure an Azure Files shares
• Task 6: Manage network access for Azure Storage

Task 1: Provision the lab environment

In this task, you will deploy an Azure virtual machine that you will use later in this lab.

1. Sign in to the https://portal.azure.com.

2. In the Azure portal, open the Azure Cloud Shell by clicking on the icon in the top right of the Azure Portal.

3. If prompted to select either Bash or PowerShell, select PowerShell.

   If this is the first time you are starting Cloud Shell and you are presented with the You have no storage mounted message, select the subscription you are using in this lab, and click Create storage.

4. In the toolbar of the Cloud Shell pane, click the Upload/Download files icon, in the drop-down menu, click Upload and upload the files az104-07-vm-template.json and \Allfiles\Labs\07\az104-07-vm-parameters.json into the Cloud Shell home directory. click here to download the files.

5. From the Cloud Shell pane, run the following to create the resource group that will be hosting the virtual machine (replace the [Azure_region] placeholder with the name of an Azure region where you intend to deploy the Azure virtual machine)

   To list the names of Azure regions, run (Get-AzLocation).Location

   powershell
   $location = '[Azure_region]'
   
   $rgName = 'az104-07-rg0'
   
   New-AzResourceGroup -Name $rgName -Location $location

6. From the Cloud Shell pane, run the following to deploy the virtual machine by using the uploaded template and parameter files:

   powershell
   New-AzResourceGroupDeployment `
     -ResourceGroupName $rgName `
     -TemplateFile $HOME/az104-07-vm-template.json `
     -TemplateParameterFile $HOME/az104-07-vm-parameters.json `
     -AsJob

   Do not wait for the deployments to complete, but proceed to the next task.

7. Close the Cloud Shell pane.

Task 2: Create and configure Azure Storage accounts

In this task, you will create and configure an Azure Storage account.

1. In the Azure portal, search for and select Storage accounts, and then click + New.

2. On the Basics tab of the Create storage account blade, specify the following settings (leave others with their default values):

   Setting	Value
   Subscription	the name of the Azure subscription you are using in this lab
   Resource group	the name of a new resource group az104-07-rg1
   Storage account name	any globally unique name between 3 and 24 in length consisting of letters and digits
   Location	the name of an Azure region where you can create an Azure Storage account
   Performance	Standard
   Redundancy	Geo-redundant storage (GRS)

3. Click Next: Advanced >, on the Advanced tab of the Create storage account blade, review the available options, accept the defaults, and click Next: Networking >.

4. On the Networking tab of the Create storage account blade, review the available options, accept the default option Public endpoint (all networks} and click Next: Data protection >.

5. On the Data protection tab of the Create storage account blade, review the available options, accept the defaults, click Review + Create, wait for the validation process to complete and click Create.

   Wait for the Storage account to be created. This should take about 2 minutes.

6. On the deployment blade, click Go to resource to display the Azure Storage account blade.

7. On the Storage account blade, in the Data management section, click Geo-replication and note the secondary location.

8. On the Storage account blade, in the Settings section, select Configuration, in the Replication drop-down list select Locally redundant storage (LRS) and save the change.

9. Switch back to the Geo-replication blade and note that, at this point, the Storage account has only the primary location.

10. Display again the Configuration blade of the Storage account, set Blob access tier (default) to Cool, and save the change.

    The cool access tier is optimal for data which is not accessed frequently.

Task 3: Manage blob storage

In this task, you will create a blob container and upload a blob into it.

1. On the Storage account blade, in the Data storage section, click Containers.

2. Click + Container and create a container with the following settings:

   Setting	Value
   Name	az104-07-container
   Public access level	Private (no anonymous access)

3. In the list of containers, click az104-07-container and then click Upload.

4. Click here to download the LICENSE file and upload it.

5. On the Upload blob blade, expand the Advanced section and specify the following settings (leave others with their default values):

   Setting	Value
   Authentication type	Account key
   Blob type	Block blob
   Block size	4 MB
   Access tier	Hot
   Upload to folder	licenses

   Access tier can be set for individual blobs.

6. Click Upload.

   Note that the upload automatically created a subfolder named licenses.

7. Back on the az104-07-container blade, click licenses and then click LICENSE.

8. On the licenses/LICENSE blade, review the available options.

   You have the option to download the blob, change its access tier (it is currently set to Hot), acquire a lease, which would change its lease status to Locked (it is currently set to Unlocked) and protect the blob from being modified or deleted, as well as assign custom metadata (by specifying an arbitrary key and value pairs). You also have the ability to Edit the file directly within the Azure portal interface, without downloading it first. You can also create snapshots, as well as generate a SAS token (you will explore this option in the next task).

Task 4: Manage authentication and authorization for Azure Storage

In this task, you will configure authentication and authorization for Azure Storage.

1. On the licenses/LICENSE blade, on the Overview tab, click Copy to clipboard button next to the URL entry.

2. Open another browser window by using InPrivate mode and navigate to the URL you copied in the previous step.

3. You should be presented with an XML-formatted message stating ResourceNotFound or PublicAccessNotPermitted.

   This is expected, since the container you created has the public access level set to Private (no anonymous access).

4. Close the InPrivate mode browser window, return to the browser window showing the licenses/LICENSE blade of the Azure Storage container, and switch to the the Generate SAS tab.

5. On the Generate SAS tab of the licenses/LICENSE blade, specify the following settings (leave others with their default values):

   Setting	Value
   Signing key	Key 1
   Permissions	Read
   Start date	yesterday's date
   Start time	current time
   Expiry date	tomorrow's date
   Expiry time	current time
   Allowed IP addresses	leave blank

6. Click Generate SAS token and URL.

7. Click Copy to clipboard button next to the Blob SAS URL entry.

8. Open another browser window by using InPrivate mode and navigate to the URL you copied in the previous step.

   If you are using Microsoft Edge, you should be presented with the The MIT License (MIT) page. If you are using Chrome, Microsoft Edge (Chromium) or Firefox, you should be able to view the content of the file by downloading it and opening it with Notepad.

   This is expected, since now your access is authorized based on the newly generated the SAS token.

   Save the blob SAS URL. You will need it later in this lab.

9. Close the InPrivate mode browser window, return to the browser window showing the licenses/LICENSE blade of the Azure Storage container, and from there, navigate back to the az104-07-container blade.

10. Click the Switch to the Azure AD User Account link next to the Authentication method label.

    You can see an error when you change the authentication method (the error is "You do not have permissions to list the data using your user account with Azure AD"). It is expected.

    At this point, you do not have permissions to change the Authentication method.

11. On the az104-07-container blade, click Access Control (IAM).

12. In the Add section, click Add a role assignment.

13. On the Add role assignment blade, specify the following settings:

    Setting	Value
    Role	Storage Blob Data Owner
    Assign access to	User, group, or service principal
    Select	the name of your user account

14. Save the change and return to the Overview blade of the az104-07-container container and verify that you can change the Authentication method to (Switch to Azure AD User Account).

    It might take about 5 minutes for the change to take effect.

Task 5: Create and configure an Azure Files shares

In this task, you will create and configure Azure Files shares.

Note: Before you start this task, verify that the virtual machine you provisioned in the first task of this lab is running.

1. In the Azure portal, navigate back to the blade of the storage account you created in the first task of this lab and, in the Data storage section, click File shares.

2. Click + File share and create a file share with the following settings:

   Setting	Value
   Name	az104-07-share
   Quota	1024

3. Click the newly created file share and click Connect.

4. On the Connect blade, ensure that the Windows tab is selected. Below you will find a grey textbox with a script, in the bottom right corner of that box hover over the pages icon and click Copy to clipboard.

5. In the Azure portal, search for and select Virtual machines, and, in the list of virtual machines, click az104-07-vm0.

6. On the az104-07-vm0 blade, in the Operations section, click Run command.

7. On the az104-07-vm0 - Run command blade, click RunPowerShellScript.

8. On the Run Command Script blade, paste the script you copied earlier in this task into the PowerShell Script pane and click Run.

9. Verify that the script completed successfully.

10. Replace the content of the PowerShell Script pane with the following script and click Run:

    powershell
    New-Item -Type Directory -Path 'Z:\az104-07-folder'
    
    New-Item -Type File -Path 'Z:\az104-07-folder\az-104-07-file.txt'

11. Verify that the script completed successfully.

12. Navigate back to the az104-07-share file share blade, click Refresh, and verify that az104-07-folder appears in the list of folders.

13. Click az104-07-folder and verify that az104-07-file.txt appears in the list of files.

Task 6: Manage network access for Azure Storage

In this task, you will configure network access for Azure Storage.

1. In the Azure portal, navigate back to the blade of the storage account you created in the first task of this lab and, in the Security + Networking section, click Networking and then click Firewalls and virtual networks.

2. Click the Selected networks option and review the configuration settings that become available once this option is enabled.

   You can use these settings to configure direct connectivity between Azure virtual machines on designated subnets of virtual networks and the storage account by using service endpoints.

3. Click the checkbox Add your client IP address and save the change.

4. Open another browser window by using InPrivate mode and navigate to the blob SAS URL you generated in the previous task.

5. You should be presented with the content of The MIT License (MIT) page.

   This is expected, since you are connecting from your client IP address.

6. Close the InPrivate mode browser window, return to the browser window showing the licenses/LICENSE blade of the Azure Storage container.

7. In the Azure portal, open the Azure Cloud Shell by clicking on the icon in the top right of the Azure Portal.

8. If prompted to select either Bash or PowerShell, select PowerShell.

9. From the Cloud Shell pane, run the following to attempt downloading of the LICENSE blob from the az104-07-container container of the storage account (replace the [blob SAS URL] placeholder with the blob SAS URL you generated in the previous task):

   powershell
   Invoke-WebRequest -URI '[blob SAS URL]'

10. Verify that the download attempt failed.

    You should receive the message stating AuthorizationFailure: This request is not authorized to perform this operation. This is expected, since you are connecting from the IP address assigned to an Azure VM hosting the Cloud Shell instance.

11. Close the Cloud Shell pane.

Clean up resources

Remember to remove any newly created Azure resources that you no longer use. Removing unused resources ensures you will not see unexpected charges.

1. In the Azure portal, open the PowerShell session within the Cloud Shell pane.

2. List all resource groups created throughout the labs of this module by running the following command:

   powershell
   Get-AzResourceGroup -Name 'az104-07*'

3. Delete all resource groups you created throughout the labs of this module by running the following command:

   powershell
   Get-AzResourceGroup -Name 'az104-07*' | Remove-AzResourceGroup -Force -AsJob

   The command executes asynchronously (as determined by the -AsJob parameter), so while you will be able to run another PowerShell command immediately afterwards within the same PowerShell session, it will take a few minutes before the resource groups are actually removed.

Review

In this lab, you have:

• Provisioned the lab environment
• Created and configured Azure Storage accounts
• Managed blob storage
• Managed authentication and authorization for Azure Storage
• Created and configured an Azure Files shares
• Managed network access for Azure Storage

July 10, 2021 Tags : Azure

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