Efficient Management of Append and Page Blobs Using Azure Storage Actions

outline

Blob lifecycle management (BLM) in Azure Storage lets you automate data management based on rules you define. Lifecycle management policies are supported for block blobs and append blobs in general purpose v2, premium block blob, and blob storage accounts. However, because lifecycle management (BLM) policies are not supported for page blobs, storage operations and actions can effectively manage the lifecycle of page blobs and append blobs. There are solutions such as Logic Apps and Azure Functions that can be used to automate lifecycle management, below are links to references.

Lifecycle Management, Page Blob, Azure Storage, Blob Storage (microsoft.com)

Delete all Azure Storage Blob content older than N days using a logic app – Microsoft Community Hub

The focus of this blog is to demonstrate how to achieve the same goal using built-in repository operations and operations.

memo: Azure Storage Actions is currently in preview and available in the following regions: Please see: About Azure Storage Job Preview – Azure Storage Job Preview | microsoft run

These storage operations allow you to automate the retention, deletion, and archiving of page blobs and append blobs based on user-defined rules, ensuring efficient lifecycle management without relying on external services. This method provides a more direct, storage-centric approach to page blob lifecycle management.

For example, you have both page blobs and append blobs inside a container, and you want to delete them using Azure Storage operations and operations.

In this article, you learn how to create a storage task.

Create a task

Search for storage jobs in the Azure portal. Then select Storage Operations – Azure Storage Operations under Services.

Azure Storage Operations | On the Storage Operations page, select Create.

Basic tab

The Basic tab provides essential information about storage operations.

Conditions Tab

In the Conditions tab, define the conditions that each object (container or blob) must meet and the action to perform on the object.

You must define at least one condition and one action. To add a clause to your terms, select Add new clause. To add a task, select Add new task. In this scenario, we select the Blob types as Page Blob and Append Blob to perform the delete operation.

Assignments tab

An allocation identifies a storage account and a subset of objects in that account to be the target of an operation. Allocations also define when tasks are run and where execution reports are stored.

To add an assignment, select Add assignment. This step is optional. You do not need to add an assignment to create a task.

tag tab

In the Tags tab, you can specify Resource Manager tags to help you organize your Azure resources.

Review + Create tab

When you go to the Review + Create tab, Azure runs a validation check on the selected storage task settings. If validation passes, you can proceed to create the storage task.

If validation fails, the portal displays settings that need to be modified.

After creating a storage task, go to the corresponding storage account and enable storage task assignment.

Enable task assignment

Storage task allocation is disabled by default. Activate the assignment on the Assignments page.

Select Refresh periodically to see updated status.

After the task runs, the In Progress string appears under the Last Run Status column until it completes. When a task is complete, the string Completed appears in that column.

After successfully completing the operation, we see that both the page blob and the extra blobs have been deleted from the container.

View task execution results

Once the task is finished running, you can view the execution results.

To download the report, select the View Report link.

Useful links:

Create a storage action – Preview Azure Storage Actions | microsoft run

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage-actions/overview

Define storage action conditions and actions – Preview Azure Storage Actions | microsoft run