Getting Started with Azure Blob Storage: A Step-by-Step Guide to Static Web Hosting

This blog comprehensively introduces Azure Blob Storage, Microsoft’s scalable cloud storage solution for managing unstructured data. You can learn about the essential components of Blob Storage, including storage accounts, containers, the different types of blobs, and various access tiers, each designed to optimize storage costs and access times based on your data usage patterns. In addition, it also provides a practical walkthrough for using Azure Blob Storage to host static websites.

What Is Azure Blob Storage?

Azure Blob Storage is Microsoft's object storage solution for the cloud. It is optimized for storing massive amounts of unstructured data, such as text or binary data, that doesn't adhere to a particular data model or definition.

Blob Storage Structure in Azure

Blob Storage offers three types of resources:

  • The storage account
  • A container in the storage account
  • A blob in a container

The following diagram shows the relationship between these resources.

Relationship Between Storage Account, Container, And Blob
Relationship Between Storage Account, Container, And Blob

Storage account

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.

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 is like a drawer where you can manage files. You might use one container to store audio files and another to store video files.

One storage account can include unlimited containers, and a container can keep unlimited blobs.

Azure Storage supports three types of blobs:

  • Block Blobs: Block blobs are used to store text and binary data. They are made up of blocks of data that can be managed individually and can store up to about 190.7 TiB.
  • Append Blobs: They are 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: They store random access files up to 8 TiB in size. Page blobs store virtual hard drive (VHD) files and serve as disks for Azure virtual machines. For more information about page blobs.

Access Tiers For Blob Data

  • Hot Tier: An online tier optimized for storing frequently accessed or modified data. The hot tier has the highest storage costs but the lowest access costs.
  • Cool Tier: An online tier optimized for storing infrequently accessed or modified data. Data in the cool tier should be stored for a minimum of 30 days. The cool tier has lower storage costs and higher access costs than the hot tier.
  • Cold Tier: An online tier optimized for storing rarely accessed or modified data but still requires fast retrieval. Data in the cold tier should be stored for a minimum of 90 days. The cold tier has lower storage costs and higher access costs than the cool tier.
  • Archive Tier: An offline tier optimized for storing rarely accessed data with flexible latency requirements on the order of hours. Data in the archive tier should be stored for a minimum of 180 days.

Why Choose Azure Blob Storage?

Microsoft provides so many storage options, like File, Disk, Archive, etc. Hence, it is necessary to understand when one should opt for Blob Storage. Here are the following instances:

  • Azure Blob Storage is created to store unstructured data. One can opt for Blob Storage to stream audio and video files.
  • Likewise, Blob storage is also used to store data during backup, archiving, restoring, and recovery. Extensive volume data used for analysis by Azure services is also stored here.
  • Similarly, one can use Azure Blob Storage when uploading large files. Azure Blob storage breaks the large files into smaller chunks, which are uploaded individually and then merged into a single initial file.
  • Blob storage is also used to serve images directly to gateways.
  • Azure Blob storage also allows files and document storage to provide distributed access.
  • It can also be used to offload excess content from the servers to minimize the load.
  • It is also used for Big Data analysis by Azure Data Lake, an extension of Azure Blob Storage.

What Are The Limitations Of Azure Blob Storage?

Azure Blob storage is a highly scalable and cost-effective option for storing unstructured data, such as images, videos, audio, and documents. However, it’s important to be aware of the following limits when using Blob storage:

  • Maximum Blob Size: The maximum size for a single Blob in Azure Blob storage is 4 TB.
  • Maximum number of Blobs per container: There is no hard limit to the number of Blobs that can be stored in a container, but there are performance implications for storing large numbers of Blobs in a single container.
  • Maximum number of containers per storage account: A single storage account can contain up to 500 TB of data spread across unlimited containers.

Hosting Static Website In Azure Blob Storage

Prerequisite:

  • Create an Azure Account. If you don’t already have an Azure account, sign up at Microsoft Azure.
  • Prepare your website files. Ensure you have all the static files (HTML, git, font, JavaScript, images, etc.) ready.

Now, let us walk you through a step-by-step guide for hosting a static website in Azure.

Step 1: Create An Azure Storage Account

First, Log in to the Azure Portal and search "Storage Accounts."

Storage Account In Azure
Storage Account In Azure

  The interface has tabs labeled "Create," "Restore," and "Refresh," as shown below. Click on "Create."

Interface With Options To Create The Account
Interface With Options To Create The Account

After you click "Create," you will need to provide information such as "Subscription" and "Resource Group."

You may choose the desired "Region" and fill in other details accordingly.

Creation Of A Storage Account
Creation Of A Storage Account

In the next step, you will be directed to the "Advanced" menu for configuration.

We have to enable public access on the storage account containers to ensure public read access to the container.

Enabling Public Access To Containers
Enabling Public Access To Containers

We will leave the other tabs in the default settings and click "Review + Create."

After validation is successful, you can click the “Create” button.

Successful Creation Of Storage Account
Successful Creation Of Storage Account

We successfully created our storage account. Now, let's move to the next step.

Step 2: Enable Static Website Capability

By default, Azure Storage doesn’t enable the capability of hosting static web pages. You need to enable that feature before uploading your content.

Go to the "Overview" page and select the "Capabilities" tab.

"Capabilities" Tab on the "Overview" Page

You will see that "Static Website" is not configured.

Static Website Hosting Is Not Configured
Static Website Hosting Is Not Configured

Select “Static Website” to enable the setting. Then, enable the Static Website feature and enter the file names of your static pages.

Enabling Static Content Hosting
Enabling Static Content Hosting

After that, click the "Save" button, and the primary endpoint URL will be generated as follows.

The Endpoint URL Is Generated
The Endpoint URL Is Generated

Step 3: Create A Container To Store Your Static Website File

After enabling the static website capability, you will need to upload your static content under the "$web" folder. 

If the folder doesn't exist yet, create a new one.

Go to "Containers" under the "Data Storage" Section and click "+Container."

  • Adjust Container Permissions: Select the container consisting of your website files and modify its access level to ensure public read access to the blobs in the container.
Creating A Container
Creating A Container

Now, upload your website files to the storage account’s container. Ensure that your main HTML file is named according to the index document name you set earlier.

Upload Website's Files Into The Container
Upload Website's Files Into The Container

  Step 4: Access Your Website

Copy the URL into your browser to see the static web content.

Static Webpage Is Successfully Hosted In Azure
Static Webpage Is Successfully Hosted In Azure

Conclusion:

Azure Storage provides an efficient and cost-effective solution for hosting static websites. Following these steps, you can quickly set up and launch your website on Azure, leveraging its scalability and ease of use.

Whether it’s a personal blog, a portfolio site, or a small business page, Azure Storage simplifies the hosting process, allowing you to focus on your content and audience.

Read More:

  1. Azure Logic Apps: Automating Blob Storage with Azure Logic apps
  2. DevOps as a Service and DevOps Solutions
  3. DevOps Outsourcing: How to Do it Successfully
  4. DevOps for Developers | A Comprehensive Guide in 2024
  5. What is CI/CD in DevOps: Process, Definition, Benefits, and Best Practices
  6. Maximizing Efficiency with DevOps Managed Services: Your Guide to Seamless Operations

Getting Started with Azure Blob Storage: A Step-by-Step Guide to Static Web Hosting

Written By Sujata Dahal

Oct 22, 2024

An aspiring cloud engineer passionate about exploring cloud technologies. Currently focused on learning AWS and Azure, I aim to deepen my skills in cloud architecture and deployment. I enjoy sharing my journey and insights through blogging, connecting with fellow tech enthusiasts, and experimenting with new tools in the cloud space.

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