Create a storage account

An Azure storage account contains all of your Azure Storage data objects: blobs, files, queues, and tables. The storage account provides a unique namespace for your Azure Storage data that is accessible from anywhere in the world over HTTP or HTTPS. For more information about Azure storage accounts, see Storage account overview.

In this how-to article, you learn to create a storage account using the Azure portal, Azure PowerShell, Azure CLI, or an Azure Resource Manager template.

Prerequisites

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account before you begin.

Portal

None.

PowerShell

To create an Azure storage account with PowerShell, make sure you have installed the latest Azure Az PowerShell module. See Install the Azure PowerShell module.

Azure CLI

You can sign in to Azure and run Azure CLI commands in one of two ways:

• You can run CLI commands from within the Azure portal, in Azure Cloud Shell.
• You can install the CLI and run CLI commands locally.

Use Azure Cloud Shell

Azure Cloud Shell is a free Bash shell that you can run directly within the Azure portal. The Azure CLI is pre-installed and configured to use with your account. Click the Cloud Shell button on the menu in the upper-right section of the Azure portal:

The button launches an interactive shell that you can use to run the steps outlined in this how-to article:

Install the CLI locally

You can also install and use the Azure CLI locally. If you plan to use Azure CLI locally, make sure you have installed the latest version of the Azure CLI. See Install the Azure CLI.

Bicep

None.

Template

None.

Next, sign in to Azure.

Portal

Sign in to the Azure portal.

PowerShell

Sign in to your Azure subscription with the Connect-AzAccount command and follow the on-screen directions to authenticate.

Connect-AzAccount

Azure CLI

To launch Azure Cloud Shell, sign in to the Azure portal.

To log into your local installation of the CLI, run the az login command:

az login

Bicep

N/A

Template

N/A

Create a storage account

A storage account is an Azure Resource Manager resource. Resource Manager is the deployment and management service for Azure. For more information, see Azure Resource Manager overview.

Every Resource Manager resource, including an Azure storage account, must belong to an Azure resource group. A resource group is a logical container for grouping your Azure services. When you create a storage account, you have the option to either create a new resource group, or use an existing resource group. This how-to shows how to create a new resource group.

Portal

To create an Azure storage account with the Azure portal, follow these steps:

1. From the left portal menu, select Storage accounts to display a list of your storage accounts. If the portal menu isn't visible, click the menu button to toggle it on.

   

2. On the Storage accounts page, select Create.

   

Options for your new storage account are organized into tabs in the Create a storage account page. The following sections describe each of the tabs and their options.

Basics tab

On the Basics tab, provide the essential information for your storage account. After you complete the Basics tab, you can choose to further customize your new storage account by setting options on the other tabs, or you can select Review + create to accept the default options and proceed to validate and create the account.

The following table describes the fields on the Basics tab.

Section	Field	Required or optional	Description
Project details	Subscription	Required	Select the subscription for the new storage account.
Project details	Resource group	Required	Create a new resource group for this storage account, or select an existing one. For more information, see Resource groups.
Instance details	Storage account name	Required	Choose a unique name for your storage account. Storage account names must be between 3 and 24 characters in length and may contain numbers and lowercase letters only.
Instance details	Region	Required	Select the appropriate region for your storage account. For more information, see Regions and Availability Zones in Azure. Not all regions are supported for all types of storage accounts or redundancy configurations. For more information, see Azure Storage redundancy. The choice of region can have a billing impact. For more information, see Storage account billing.
Instance details	Performance	Required	Select Standard performance for general-purpose v2 storage accounts (default). This type of account is recommended by Microsoft for most scenarios. For more information, see Types of storage accounts. Select Premium for scenarios requiring low latency. After selecting Premium, select the type of premium storage account to create. The following types of premium storage accounts are available: Block blobs File shares Page blobs Microsoft recommends creating a general-purpose v2, premium block blob, or premium file share account for most scenarios. To select a legacy account type, use the link provided beneath Instance details. For more information about legacy account types, see Legacy storage account types.
Instance details	Redundancy	Required	Select your desired redundancy configuration. Not all redundancy options are available for all types of storage accounts in all regions. For more information about redundancy configurations, see Azure Storage redundancy. If you select a geo-redundant configuration (GRS or GZRS), your data is replicated to a data center in a different region. For read access to data in the secondary region, select Make read access to data available in the event of regional unavailability.

The following image shows a standard configuration of the basic properties for a new storage account.

Advanced tab

On the Advanced tab, you can configure additional options and modify default settings for your new storage account. Some of these options can also be configured after the storage account is created, while others must be configured at the time of creation.

The following table describes the fields on the Advanced tab.

Section	Field	Required or optional	Description
Security	Require secure transfer for REST API operations	Optional	Require secure transfer to ensure that incoming requests to this storage account are made only via HTTPS (default). Recommended for optimal security. For more information, see Require secure transfer to ensure secure connections.
Security	Enable blob public access	Optional	When enabled, this setting allows a user with the appropriate permissions to enable anonymous public access to a container in the storage account (default). Disabling this setting prevents all anonymous public access to the storage account. For more information, see Prevent anonymous public read access to containers and blobs. Enabling blob public access does not make blob data available for public access unless the user takes the additional step to explicitly configure the container's public access setting.
Security	Enable storage account key access	Optional	When enabled, this setting allows clients to authorize requests to the storage account using either the account access keys or an Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) account (default). Disabling this setting prevents authorization with the account access keys. For more information, see Prevent Shared Key authorization for an Azure Storage account.
Security	Default to Azure Active Directory authorization in the Azure portal	Optional	When enabled, the Azure portal authorizes data operations with the user's Azure AD credentials by default. If the user does not have the appropriate permissions assigned via Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC) to perform data operations, then the portal will use the account access keys for data access instead. The user can also choose to switch to using the account access keys. For more information, see Default to Azure AD authorization in the Azure portal.
Security	Minimum TLS version	Required	Select the minimum version of Transport Layer Security (TLS) for incoming requests to the storage account. The default value is TLS version 1.2. When set to the default value, incoming requests made using TLS 1.0 or TLS 1.1 are rejected. For more information, see Enforce a minimum required version of Transport Layer Security (TLS) for requests to a storage account.
Data Lake Storage Gen2	Enable hierarchical namespace	Optional	To use this storage account for Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 workloads, configure a hierarchical namespace. For more information, see Introduction to Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2.
Blob storage	Enable SFTP	Optional	Enable the use of Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) to securely transfer of data over the internet. For more information, see Secure File Transfer (SFTP) protocol support in Azure Blob Storage.
Blob storage	Enable network file share (NFS) v3	Optional	NFS v3 provides Linux file system compatibility at object storage scale enables Linux clients to mount a container in Blob storage from an Azure Virtual Machine (VM) or a computer on-premises. For more information, see Network File System (NFS) 3.0 protocol support in Azure Blob storage.
Blob storage	Allow cross-tenant replication	Required	By default, users with appropriate permissions can configure object replication across Azure AD tenants. To prevent replication across tenants, deselect this option. For more information, see Prevent replication across Azure AD tenants.
Blob storage	Access tier	Required	Blob access tiers enable you to store blob data in the most cost-effective manner, based on usage. Select the hot tier (default) for frequently accessed data. Select the cool tier for infrequently accessed data. For more information, see Hot, Cool, and Archive access tiers for blob data.
Azure Files	Enable large file shares	Optional	Available only for standard file shares with the LRS or ZRS redundancies.

The following image shows a standard configuration of the advanced properties for a new storage account.

Networking tab

On the Networking tab, you can configure network connectivity and routing preference settings for your new storage account. These options can also be configured after the storage account is created.

The following table describes the fields on the Networking tab.

Section	Field	Required or optional	Description
Network connectivity	Connectivity method	Required	By default, incoming network traffic is routed to the public endpoint for your storage account. You can specify that traffic must be routed to the public endpoint through an Azure virtual network. You can also configure private endpoints for your storage account. For more information, see Use private endpoints for Azure Storage.
Network connectivity	Endpoint type	Required	Azure Storage supports two types of endpoints: standard endpoints (the default) and Azure DNS zone endpoints (preview). Within a given subscription, you can create up to 250 accounts with standard endpoints per region, and up to 5000 accounts with Azure DNS zone endpoints per region. To learn how to view the service endpoints for an existing storage account, see Get service endpoints for the storage account.
Network routing	Routing preference	Required	The network routing preference specifies how network traffic is routed to the public endpoint of your storage account from clients over the internet. By default, a new storage account uses Microsoft network routing. You can also choose to route network traffic through the POP closest to the storage account, which may lower networking costs. For more information, see Network routing preference for Azure Storage.

The following image shows a standard configuration of the networking properties for a new storage account.

Important

Azure DNS zone endpoints are currently in PREVIEW. See the Supplemental Terms of Use for Microsoft Azure Previews for legal terms that apply to Azure features that are in beta, preview, or otherwise not yet released into general availability.

Data protection tab

On the Data protection tab, you can configure data protection options for blob data in your new storage account. These options can also be configured after the storage account is created. For an overview of data protection options in Azure Storage, see Data protection overview.

The following table describes the fields on the Data protection tab.

Section	Field	Required or optional	Description
Recovery	Enable point-in-time restore for containers	Optional	Point-in-time restore provides protection against accidental deletion or corruption by enabling you to restore block blob data to an earlier state. For more information, see Point-in-time restore for block blobs. Enabling point-in-time restore also enables blob versioning, blob soft delete, and blob change feed. These prerequisite features may have a cost impact. For more information, see Pricing and billing for point-in-time restore.
Recovery	Enable soft delete for blobs	Optional	Blob soft delete protects an individual blob, snapshot, or version from accidental deletes or overwrites by maintaining the deleted data in the system for a specified retention period. During the retention period, you can restore a soft-deleted object to its state at the time it was deleted. For more information, see Soft delete for blobs. Microsoft recommends enabling blob soft delete for your storage accounts and setting a minimum retention period of seven days.
Recovery	Enable soft delete for containers	Optional	Container soft delete protects a container and its contents from accidental deletes by maintaining the deleted data in the system for a specified retention period. During the retention period, you can restore a soft-deleted container to its state at the time it was deleted. For more information, see Soft delete for containers (preview). Microsoft recommends enabling container soft delete for your storage accounts and setting a minimum retention period of seven days.
Recovery	Enable soft delete for file shares	Optional	Soft delete for file shares protects a file share and its contents from accidental deletes by maintaining the deleted data in the system for a specified retention period. During the retention period, you can restore a soft-deleted file share to its state at the time it was deleted. For more information, see Prevent accidental deletion of Azure file shares. Microsoft recommends enabling soft delete for file shares for Azure Files workloads and setting a minimum retention period of seven days.
Tracking	Enable versioning for blobs	Optional	Blob versioning automatically saves the state of a blob in a previous version when the blob is overwritten. For more information, see Blob versioning. Microsoft recommends enabling blob versioning for optimal data protection for the storage account.
Tracking	Enable blob change feed	Optional	The blob change feed provides transaction logs of all changes to all blobs in your storage account, as well as to their metadata. For more information, see Change feed support in Azure Blob Storage.
Access control	Enable version-level immutability support	Optional	Enable support for immutability policies that are scoped to the blob version. If this option is selected, then after you create the storage account, you can configure a default time-based retention policy for the account or for the container, which blob versions within the account or container will inherit by default. For more information, see Enable version-level immutability support on a storage account.

The following image shows a standard configuration of the data protection properties for a new storage account.

Encryption tab

On the Encryption tab, you can configure options that relate to how your data is encrypted when it is persisted to the cloud. Some of these options can be configured only when you create the storage account.

Field	Required or optional	Description
Encryption type	Required	By default, data in the storage account is encrypted by using Microsoft-managed keys. You can rely on Microsoft-managed keys for the encryption of your data, or you can manage encryption with your own keys. For more information, see Azure Storage encryption for data at rest.
Enable support for customer-managed keys	Required	By default, customer managed keys can be used to encrypt only blobs and files. Set this option to All service types (blobs, files, tables, and queues) to enable support for customer-managed keys for all services. You are not required to use customer-managed keys if you choose this option. For more information, see Customer-managed keys for Azure Storage encryption.
Encryption key	Required if Encryption type field is set to Customer-managed keys.	If you choose Select a key vault and key, you are presented with the option to navigate to the key vault and key that you wish to use. If you choose Enter key from URI, then you are presented with a field to enter the key URI and the subscription.
User-assigned identity	Required if Encryption type field is set to Customer-managed keys.	If you are configuring customer-managed keys at create time for the storage account, you must provide a user-assigned identity to use for authorizing access to the key vault.
Enable infrastructure encryption	Optional	By default, infrastructure encryption is not enabled. Enable infrastructure encryption to encrypt your data at both the service level and the infrastructure level. For more information, see Create a storage account with infrastructure encryption enabled for double encryption of data.

The following image shows a standard configuration of the encryption properties for a new storage account.

Tags tab

On the Tags tab, you can specify Resource Manager tags to help organize your Azure resources. For more information, see Tag resources, resource groups, and subscriptions for logical organization.

The following image shows a standard configuration of the index tag properties for a new storage account.

Review + create tab

When you navigate to the Review + create tab, Azure runs validation on the storage account settings that you have chosen. If validation passes, you can proceed to create the storage account.

If validation fails, then the portal indicates which settings need to be modified.

The following image shows the Review tab data prior to the creation of a new storage account.

PowerShell

To create a general-purpose v2 storage account with PowerShell, first create a new resource group by calling the New-AzResourceGroup command:

$resourceGroup = "<resource-group>"
$location = "<location>"
New-AzResourceGroup -Name $resourceGroup -Location $location

If you're not sure which region to specify for the -Location parameter, you can retrieve a list of supported regions for your subscription with the Get-AzLocation command:

Get-AzLocation | select Location

Next, create a standard general-purpose v2 storage account with read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS) by using the New-AzStorageAccount command. Remember that the name of your storage account must be unique across Azure, so replace the placeholder value in brackets with your own unique value:

New-AzStorageAccount -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroup `
  -Name <account-name> `
  -Location $location `
  -SkuName Standard_RAGRS `
  -Kind StorageV2

To create an account with Azure DNS zone endpoints (preview), follow these steps:

1. Register for the preview as described in Azure DNS zone endpoints (preview).

2. Make sure you have the latest version of PowerShellGet installed.

   Install-Module PowerShellGet –Repository PSGallery –Force
   

3. Close and reopen the PowerShell console.

4. Install version 4.4.2-preview or later of the Az.Storage PowerShell module. You may need to uninstall other versions of the PowerShell module. For more information about installing Azure PowerShell, see Install Azure PowerShell with PowerShellGet.

   Install-Module Az.Storage -Repository PsGallery -RequiredVersion 4.4.2-preview -AllowClobber -AllowPrerelease -Force
   

Next, create the account, specifying AzureDnsZone for the -DnsEndpointType parameter. After the account is created, you can see the service endpoints by getting the PrimaryEndpoints and SecondaryEndpoints properties for the storage account.

$rgName = "<resource-group>"
$accountName = "<storage-account>"

$account = New-AzStorageAccount -ResourceGroupName $rgName `
          -Name $accountName `
          -SkuName Standard_RAGRS `
          -Location <location> `
          -Kind StorageV2 `
          -DnsEndpointType AzureDnsZone

$account.PrimaryEndpoints
$account.SecondaryEndpoints 

To enable a hierarchical namespace for the storage account to use Azure Data Lake Storage, set the EnableHierarchicalNamespace parameter to $True on the call to the New-AzStorageAccount command.

The following table shows which values to use for the SkuName and Kind parameters to create a particular type of storage account with the desired redundancy configuration.

Type of storage account	Supported redundancy configurations	Supported values for the Kind parameter	Supported values for the SkuName parameter	Supports hierarchical namespace
Standard general-purpose v2	LRS / GRS / RA-GRS / ZRS / GZRS / RA-GZRS	StorageV2	Standard_LRS / Standard_GRS / Standard_RAGRS/ Standard_ZRS / Standard_GZRS / Standard_RAGZRS	Yes
Premium block blobs	LRS / ZRS	BlockBlobStorage	Premium_LRS / Premium_ZRS	Yes
Premium file shares	LRS / ZRS	FileStorage	Premium_LRS / Premium_ZRS	No
Premium page blobs	LRS	StorageV2	Premium_LRS	No
Legacy standard general-purpose v1	LRS / GRS / RA-GRS	Storage	Standard_LRS / Standard_GRS / Standard_RAGRS	No
Legacy blob storage	LRS / GRS / RA-GRS	BlobStorage	Standard_LRS / Standard_GRS / Standard_RAGRS	No

Azure CLI

To create a general-purpose v2 storage account with Azure CLI, first create a new resource group by calling the az group create command.

az group create \
  --name storage-resource-group \
  --location eastus

If you're not sure which region to specify for the --location parameter, you can retrieve a list of supported regions for your subscription with the az account list-locations command.

az account list-locations \
  --query "[].{Region:name}" \
  --out table

Next, create a standard general-purpose v2 storage account with read-access geo-redundant storage by using the az storage account create command. Remember that the name of your storage account must be unique across Azure, so replace the placeholder value in brackets with your own unique value:

az storage account create \
  --name <account-name> \
  --resource-group storage-resource-group \
  --location eastus \
  --sku Standard_RAGRS \
  --kind StorageV2

To create an account with Azure DNS zone endpoints (preview), first register for the preview as described in Azure DNS zone endpoints (preview). Next, install the preview extension for the Azure CLI if it's not already installed:

az extension add -name storage-preview

Next, create the account, specifying AzureDnsZone for the --dns-endpoint-type parameter. After the account is created, you can see the service endpoints by getting the PrimaryEndpoints property of the storage account.

az storage account create \
    --name <account-name> \
    --resource-group <resource-group> \
    --location <location> \
    --dns-endpoint-type AzureDnsZone

After the account is created, you can return the service endpoints by getting the primaryEndpoints and secondaryEndpoints properties for the storage account.

az storage account show \
    --resource-group <resource-group> \
    --name <account-name> \
    --query '[primaryEndpoints, secondaryEndpoints]'

To enable a hierarchical namespace for the storage account to use Azure Data Lake Storage, set the enable-hierarchical-namespace parameter to true on the call to the az storage account create command. Creating a hierarchical namespace requires Azure CLI version 2.0.79 or later.

The following table shows which values to use for the sku and kind parameters to create a particular type of storage account with the desired redundancy configuration.

Type of storage account	Supported redundancy configurations	Supported values for the kind parameter	Supported values for the sku parameter	Supports hierarchical namespace
Standard general-purpose v2	LRS / GRS / RA-GRS / ZRS / GZRS / RA-GZRS	StorageV2	Standard_LRS / Standard_GRS / Standard_RAGRS/ Standard_ZRS / Standard_GZRS / Standard_RAGZRS	Yes
Premium block blobs	LRS / ZRS	BlockBlobStorage	Premium_LRS / Premium_ZRS	Yes
Premium file shares	LRS / ZRS	FileStorage	Premium_LRS / Premium_ZRS	No
Premium page blobs	LRS	StorageV2	Premium_LRS	No
Legacy standard general-purpose v1	LRS / GRS / RA-GRS	Storage	Standard_LRS / Standard_GRS / Standard_RAGRS	No
Legacy blob storage	LRS / GRS / RA-GRS	BlobStorage	Standard_LRS / Standard_GRS / Standard_RAGRS	No

Bicep

You can use either Azure PowerShell or Azure CLI to deploy a Bicep file to create a storage account. The Bicep file used in this how-to article is from Azure Resource Manager quickstart templates. Bicep currently doesn't support deploying a remote file. Download and save the Bicep file to your local computer, and then run the scripts.

$resourceGroupName = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter the Resource Group name"
$location = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter the location (i.e. centralus)"

New-AzResourceGroup -Name $resourceGroupName -Location "$location"
New-AzResourceGroupDeployment -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName -TemplateFile "main.bicep"

echo "Enter the Resource Group name:" &&
read resourceGroupName &&
echo "Enter the location (i.e. centralus):" &&
read location &&
az group create --name $resourceGroupName --location "$location" &&
az deployment group create --resource-group $resourceGroupName --template-file "main.bicep"

Note

This Bicep file serves only as an example. There are many storage account settings that aren't configured as part of this Bicep file. For example, if you want to use Data Lake Storage, you would modify this Bicep file by setting the isHnsEnabled property of the StorageAccountPropertiesCreateParameters object to true.

To learn how to modify this Bicep file or create new ones, see:

• Azure Resource Manager documentation.
• Storage account template reference.
• Additional storage account template samples.

Template

You can use either Azure PowerShell or Azure CLI to deploy a Resource Manager template to create a storage account. The template used in this how-to article is from Azure Resource Manager quickstart templates. To run the scripts, select Try it to open the Azure Cloud Shell. To paste the script, right-click the shell, and then select Paste.

$resourceGroupName = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter the Resource Group name"
$location = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter the location (i.e. centralus)"

New-AzResourceGroup -Name $resourceGroupName -Location "$location"
New-AzResourceGroupDeployment -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName -TemplateUri "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Azure/azure-quickstart-templates/master/quickstarts/microsoft.storage/storage-account-create/azuredeploy.json"

echo "Enter the Resource Group name:" &&
read resourceGroupName &&
echo "Enter the location (i.e. centralus):" &&
read location &&
az group create --name $resourceGroupName --location "$location" &&
az deployment group create --resource-group $resourceGroupName --template-uri "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Azure/azure-quickstart-templates/master/quickstarts/microsoft.storage/storage-account-create/azuredeploy.json"

Note

This template serves only as an example. There are many storage account settings that aren't configured as part of this template. For example, if you want to use Data Lake Storage, you would modify this template by setting the isHnsEnabled property of the StorageAccountPropertiesCreateParameters object to true.

To learn how to modify this template or create new ones, see:

• Azure Resource Manager documentation.
• Storage account template reference.
• Additional storage account template samples.

Delete a storage account

Deleting a storage account deletes the entire account, including all data in the account. Be sure to back up any data you want to save before you delete the account.

Under certain circumstances, a deleted storage account may be recovered, but recovery is not guaranteed. For more information, see Recover a deleted storage account.

If you try to delete a storage account associated with an Azure virtual machine, you may get an error about the storage account still being in use. For help troubleshooting this error, see Troubleshoot errors when you delete storage accounts.

Portal

1. Navigate to the storage account in the Azure portal.
2. Click Delete.

PowerShell

To delete the storage account, use the Remove-AzStorageAccount command:

Remove-AzStorageAccount -Name <storage-account> -ResourceGroupName <resource-group>

Azure CLI

To delete the storage account, use the az storage account delete command:

az storage account delete --name <storage-account> --resource-group <resource-group>

Bicep

To delete the storage account, use either Azure PowerShell or Azure CLI.

$storageResourceGroupName = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter the resource group name"
$storageAccountName = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter the storage account name"
Remove-AzStorageAccount -Name $storageAccountName -ResourceGroupName $storageResourceGroupName

echo "Enter the resource group name:" &&
read resourceGroupName &&
echo "Enter the storage account name:" &&
read storageAccountName &&
az storage account delete --name storageAccountName --resource-group resourceGroupName

Template

To delete the storage account, use either Azure PowerShell or Azure CLI.

$storageResourceGroupName = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter the resource group name"
$storageAccountName = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter the storage account name"
Remove-AzStorageAccount -Name $storageAccountName -ResourceGroupName $storageResourceGroupName

echo "Enter the resource group name:" &&
read resourceGroupName &&
echo "Enter the storage account name:" &&
read storageAccountName &&
az storage account delete --name storageAccountName --resource-group resourceGroupName

Alternately, you can delete the resource group, which deletes the storage account and any other resources in that resource group. For more information about deleting a resource group, see Delete resource group and resources.

Next steps

• Storage account overview
• Upgrade to a general-purpose v2 storage account
• Move a storage account to another region
• Recover a deleted storage account