Blob storage resource types

• Blob storage offers three types of resources:
  • The storage account.
  • A container in the storage account
  • A blob in a container

Storage accounts

• A storage account provides a unique namespace in Azure for your data.
• Every object that you store in Azure Storage has an address that includes your unique account name.
• The combination of the account name and the Azure Storage blob endpoint forms the base address for the objects in your storage account.

http://mystorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net

Containers

• A container organizes a set of blobs, similar to a directory in a file system.
• A storage account can include an unlimited number of containers, and a container can store an unlimited number of blobs.
• A container name must be a valid DNS name, as it forms part of the unique URI (Uniform resource identifier) used to address the container or its blobs.
• Follow these rules when naming a container:
  • Container names can be between 3 and 63 characters long.
  • Container names must start with a letter or number, and can contain only lowercase letters, numbers, and the dash (-) character.
  • Two or more consecutive dash characters aren't permitted in container names.

https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer

Blobs

• Azure Storage supports three types of blobs:
  • Block blobs:
    • Store text and binary data.
    • Block blobs are made up of blocks of data that can be managed individually.
    • Block blobs can store up to about 190.7 TiB.
  • Append blobs:
    • Made up of blocks like block blobs, but are optimized for append operations.
    • Append blobs are ideal for scenarios such as logging data from virtual machines.
  • Page blobs:
    • Store random access files up to 8 TB in size.
    • Page blobs store files and serve as virtual hard drive (VHD) disks for Azure virtual machines.