Azure Blob Storage: Access Tiers & Lifecycle Management (Data Management)

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1. Azure Blob Storage Access Tiers (Storage Classes)

Azure Blob Storage offers four access tiers to balance cost and performance based on how frequently data is accessed.

Tier	Description	Access Latency	Min Storage Duration	Best For
Hot	Optimized for frequently accessed data	Milliseconds	None	Active workloads, frequently read/written data
Cool	For infrequently accessed data (at least 30 days)	Milliseconds	30 days	Short-term backups, older data still occasionally accessed
Cold	For rarely accessed data (at least 90 days)	Milliseconds	90 days	Long-term backups, compliance archives rarely accessed
Archive	For offline/rarely accessed data (at least 180 days)	Hours (rehydration)	180 days	Long-term retention, compliance, rarely retrieved data

Tier Characteristics

Hot Tier

• Storage cost: Highest
• Access cost: Lowest
• Use case: Data accessed multiple times per month (e.g., active application data, streaming media)

Cool Tier

• Storage cost: Lower than Hot (~50% less)
• Access cost: Higher than Hot
• Penalty: Early deletion fee if removed before 30 days
• Use case: Monthly backups, data not accessed daily

Cold Tier

• Storage cost: Lower than Cool
• Access cost: Higher than Cool
• Penalty: Early deletion fee if removed before 90 days
• Use case: Quarterly reports, archived project files

Archive Tier

• Storage cost: Lowest (~90% less than Hot)
• Access cost: Highest; requires rehydration (up to 15 hours for Standard, 1 hour for High Priority)
• Penalty: Early deletion fee if removed before 180 days
• Use case: Regulatory compliance, long-term backups, forensic data

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Lifecycle Management Rules

Azure Blob Storage Lifecycle Management lets you automate tier transitions and deletions based on rules evaluated daily. Rules apply at the storage account or container level.

Rule Components

Rule
├── name          → Unique identifier
├── enabled       → true / false
├── type          → Lifecycle
├── definition
│   ├── filters   → Which blobs to target
│   │   ├── blobTypes        → blockBlob, appendBlob
│   │   ├── prefixMatch      → Path prefix filters
│   │   └── blobIndexMatch   → Tag-based filters
│   └── actions   → What to do
│       ├── baseBlob         → Actions on the blob itself
│       │   ├── tierToCool
│       │   ├── tierToCold
│       │   ├── tierToArchive
│       │   └── delete
│       ├── snapshot         → Actions on snapshots
│       └── version          → Actions on blob versions

Supported Actions & Conditions

Action	Condition Property	Description
tierToCool	daysAfterModificationGreaterThan	Move to Cool tier after N days
tierToCold	daysAfterModificationGreaterThan	Move to Cold tier after N days
tierToArchive	daysAfterModificationGreaterThan	Move to Archive tier after N days
delete	daysAfterModificationGreaterThan	Delete blob after N days
enableAutoTierToHotFromCool	daysAfterLastAccessTimeGreaterThan	Auto-tier back to Hot on access

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REF: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage-actions/storage-tasks/storage-task-quickstart-portal#create-a-task

REF2: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage-discovery/create-workspace?tabs=portal

Task azure cli

1. create resource group
2. create storage account
3. create blob storage container
4. upload files & video
5. create storage action rule
   1. 30 days after upload file need to change access tier cool
   2. cool to cold