by Mark | Mar 1, 2021 | Azure, Azure Blobs, Snapshot / Checkpoint, Storage Accounts
Snapshot an Azure VM
Snapshots in Azure is a nice feature that allows you to take a read-only, “point in time” snapshot of a Virtual Machine’s disk. You can take a snapshot of a VM’s OS or data disk. You can use this snapshot to revert the VM to a point in time before an event occurred, or you installed something that didn’t go quite right.
Azure VM Disk Snapshot
The process to take a snapshot of a VM that is using Managed Disks is quite simple, all you have to do is browse to the Disk of the VM and select “Create Snapshot”.
Azure VM Snapshot
Now that we’ve created these Snapshots, where do we find them?
That is where things get a little tricky. If you’ve taken Snapshots of VMs using Managed Disks, all you need to do is search for “Snapshots” and you will see all the Azure snapshots along with information such as the snapshot type, source disk, date and time it was created, the size and a few other items.
OK, great, what’s the problem?
Where are all your Azure VM Managed / Unmanaged Disks?
Well, this view will only show you snapshots of Managed Disks. If you are using unmanaged disks there is no one portal or view where you can see all your snapshots.
Much like everything else in Azure, Snapshots are not free! And if you have numerous VMs using unmanaged disks, you will need to check them one by one through the Storage Account view, locate their VHD and click on the Snapshots menu to see if there is a snapshot associated with the VM.
You could be paying for storage that Snapshots are consuming that were taken months or even years ago that have been forgotten.
OK, so how do you get this information without having to go through each and every VM disk?
Why are leaving Snapshots in Azure a bad thing?
The cost of storing snapshots in Azure depends on several factors, such as the size of the snapshots, the number of snapshots, and the type of storage you use. In Azure, snapshots are stored as page blobs in a storage account, and you are charged for the amount of storage used by the snapshots, as well as any additional features or services you may use, such as data transfer, data management, and data retrieval.
Snapshots stored in Azure are billed based on the size of the snapshots, so the larger the snapshots, the more storage you will be charged for. Additionally, snapshots are billed for the time they are stored, so the longer the snapshots are stored, the more you will be charged for storage.
In addition to storage, you may also incur charges for data retrieval and data transfer. Data retrieval charges apply when you access data stored in a snapshot, and data transfer charges apply when you move data to and from a snapshot.
To reduce the cost of storing snapshots in Azure, it is important to manage your snapshots carefully and only store the snapshots that you need. You can also use features such as automatic snapshot deletion or snapshots compression to reduce the size of your snapshots and reduce the cost of storage.
Overall, the cost of storing snapshots in Azure can be significant, so it is important to plan and manage your snapshots carefully to ensure that you are only paying for the storage that you actually need.
Azure Snapshot Sizes
Easy, just use Cloud Storage Manager and run the report to tell you.
Once you’ve installed Cloud Storage Manager, it will scan your Azure environment and collect a heap of information. Then all you have to do is launch it, and select the “Snapshot” tab to see all your VM snapshots across your Azure environment, including both managed and unmanaged disks.
Of course Cloud Storage Manager doesnt only show how much storage your Snapshots are consuming, it also shows you the capacity of your Storage Accounts, and historical storage growth patterns, and loads more insights in to your Blob Storage within Azure.
Where are all my Azure VM Snapshots?
You may also export these results to a report using the Reports tab.
Select the Reports tab and click on the “List of Azure Snapshots”. You will also have the option to export the report to a CSV file.
Automate Azure VM Snapshot Creation
Now you may want to schedule the creation and deletion of Azure Virtual Machines automatically.
SnapShot Master can do this for you with just a few clicks.
SnapShot Master also shows you all your Azure Cloud and even your VMware or Hyper-V snapshot / checkpoint information and more.
by Mark | Dec 17, 2020 | Azure, Azure Blobs, How To, Storage Accounts
Are you using Azure Blob Storage for storing your data? Do you want to keep track of how much Azure Storage you are consuming, the number of Blobs per storage account, the number of containers, and the Azure Blob Storage capacity used?
If so, you need a reliable tool to monitor and control your Azure Blob Storage usage. In this article, we will show you how to use both the Azure Portal and Cloud Storage Manager to gather insights into your Azure Storage consumption.
Before we dive into how to use Cloud Storage Manager, let’s briefly discuss Azure Blob Storage. It is an online cloud service that provides fast access to large amounts of data at a low cost. However, it’s crucial to monitor and control your Azure Blob Storage usage to optimize costs.
Investigate Your Azure Storage Accounts
Before we dive into how to use Cloud Storage Manager, let’s briefly discuss Azure Blob Storage. It is an online cloud service that provides fast access to large amounts of data at a low cost.
If you are using Azure Blob Storage for storing your data, you need a reliable tool to monitor and control your Azure Blob Storage usage. With Cloud Storage Manager, you can gather insights into your Azure Storage consumption.
What are the benefits?
| Benefit |
Description |
Cost Optimization
|
Understanding your Azure Blob storage usage is crucial for cost optimization, as it helps you monitor and control your usage. By keeping track of the number of Blobs, Containers, and the Azure Blob Storage capacity used, you can ensure that you are not overpaying for storage that you are not using. |
Performance Optimization
|
Monitoring your Azure Blob storage usage can help you optimize the performance of your applications. By analyzing the data usage patterns, you can make informed decisions about how to optimize your storage for faster access times and better performance. |
Improved Security
|
By monitoring your Azure Blob storage usage, you can identify any potential security threats or breaches. You can set up alerts to notify you when unusual activity is detected, enabling you to take action to prevent or mitigate any damage. |
Compliance
|
Monitoring your Azure Blob storage usage can help you ensure that you are meeting any regulatory or compliance requirements. By keeping track of your usage, you can demonstrate compliance and avoid potential penalties or legal issues. |
Resource Planning
|
Understanding your Azure Blob storage usage can help you plan for future resource needs. By analyzing your usage patterns, you can make informed decisions about how much storage you will need in the future and plan accordingly. |
So how do I gather all this information about my Azure Storage?
Scan all your Azure Storage Accounts
Hopefully you have installed and run a full environment scan of all your Azure Subscriptions with Cloud Storage Manager.
(If you havent, download and test it for yourself with a free trial)
Once you have run an environment scan, go to the Reports Tab in Cloud Storage Manager.
Azure Storage Usage Reports
Now that you are in the Reports Tab, you can see all the various reports you can run to gather information and insights in to your Azure Storage Consumption.
For this Blog post, we are focusing on the size of all of your Azure Subscriptions, Storage Accounts, the number of containers, Blobs and their capacity.
Azure Storage Consumption Reports
The fastest way to get an Overview of your Azure Storage Consumption is to run the Environment Overview report.
Simply highlight the report, then right click and choose Run Report.
Azure Storage Usage Overview
When you run the Azure Reports, you are presented with a screen showing the details about your Azure Storage.
As can bee seen in the adjacent screenshot, this report provides you with high level details about your Azure Storage Usage by Subscription, including the number of Containers, the number of Blobs and finally the Azure Storage Capacity used in each subscription.
You can export this information to CSV if you wish and perform further analysis in Excel.
Now what if you require further analysis of your Azure Blob Storage consumption?
Azure Storage Analysis
Now that you have a good overview of the amount of Azure Storage you are consuming, another good report to run for further insights is Storage Consumed per Region.
This report will show you the total amount of storage consumed per Azure Region.
Highlight that report in Cloud Storage Manager and choose Run Report.
Azure Storage Regions
As you can see in the screen shown, here is a list of each Azure Regions and the amount of Azure Blob Storage you are consuming there.
As usual, you can export this to Excel for further analysis.
Unattached Azure Virtual Machines disks.
Another great report to run is All Unattached Disks.
This report will find and show you all the Azure Virtual Machine disks that are not associated with any Azure VM. These disks are costing you money as they arent being used by any Virtual Machines, sitting there dormant and not being used.
Again, Highlight that report and choose Run Report.
See Azure VM disks that are not associated.
As seen in the screenshot here, all these Azure Disks are not associated with any Azure Virtual Machine.
Yet again you can export this information to excel so that you can investigate further.
Download a FREE trial of Cloud Storage Manager today and start saving money, and understanding your Azure Storage Growth and Consumption.
Dont overspend on your Azure Storage
Knowing the size of your Azure Blob storage is crucial for cost optimization as it helps you monitor and control your usage. By keeping track of the number of Blobs, Containers, and the Azure Blob Storage capacity used, you can ensure that you are not overpaying for storage that you are not using. Additionally, by using a report like “All Unattached Disks,” you can identify any dormant disks that are not associated with any virtual machine and cut costs by deleting or resizing them. By regularly monitoring your Azure Blob storage with the help of tools like Cloud Storage Manager, you can make informed decisions about your usage and reduce unnecessary spending on storage.
Free
Database size is limited to a maximum of 5MB.
Typically for small or personal environments usually consisting of 3 or less Azure Subscriptions and consuming under 30TB of Azure Blob Storage.
Advanced
Database size is limited to a maximum of 1GB.
For medium sized environments typically consisting of less than 10 Azure Subscriptions and consuming under 500TB of Azure Blob Storage.
Enterprise
Unlimited database size.
For use in large environments typically consisting of more than 10 Subscriptions and consuming more than 1PB of Azure Blob Storage.
Azure Storage Consumption FAQ
| Question |
Answer |
What is Azure Storage?
|
Azure Storage is a cloud-based storage solution provided by Microsoft Azure that enables users to store and manage data in various forms such as blobs, files, queues, tables, and disks. |
Why is it important to understand how much Azure Storage I consume?
|
Understanding how much Azure Storage you consume is crucial because it helps you optimize your storage usage, control costs, and avoid unexpected charges. |
What are the benefits of optimizing Azure Storage consumption?
|
Optimizing Azure Storage consumption helps reduce costs, improve performance, and enhance security by ensuring that you only pay for the storage you need, and that your data is stored and managed efficiently. |
How can I monitor my Azure Storage consumption?
|
Use Cloud Storage Manager to deep dive in to your Azure Storage, find out how much you are consuming and where you can start saving money |
What are some best practices for optimizing Azure Storage consumption?
|
Some best practices for optimizing Azure Storage consumption include cleaning up unused data, compressing data before storing it, using tiered storage options, and using automation to manage and optimize your storage resources. |
How can I estimate my Azure Storage costs?
|
You can estimate your Azure Storage costs using the Azure Pricing Calculator, which provides an estimated cost based on your storage requirements and usage patterns. |
How can I reduce my Azure Storage costs?
|
You can reduce your Azure Storage costs by optimizing your storage usage, deleting unused data, using tiered storage options, compressing data, and leveraging Cloud Storage Manager manage your costs. |
by Mark | Nov 9, 2020 | Azure, Azure Blobs, How To, Snapshot / Checkpoint, Storage Accounts
Maximizing cost savings on Azure Blob Storage and Files has become increasingly important as more businesses migrate their data to the cloud. In this article, we’ll discuss how utilizing Cloud Storage Manager can help you optimize Azure storage consumption and significantly reduce expenses. We’ll also explore various ways to identify and remove redundant data and manage your virtual machine snapshots effectively.
Uncovering Azure Blob Storage Consumption
A Comprehensive Scan with Cloud Storage Manager
By using Cloud Storage Manager, you can perform a full scan of all your Azure Subscriptions and Blob Storage Accounts, providing a clear overview of your Azure Blob Storage usage. This visibility allows you to identify potential areas where you can cut costs and better allocate resources.
Azure Blob Storage Locations
Not only could they easily see the amount of Azure Blob Storage in use, they could also see all the Microsoft Datacentres where they are using storage from the map tab.
How much blob storage are your VM snapshots consuming?
Azure Blob Storage Reporting
One of the easiest ways to start saving on your Azure Blob Storage is to find often forgotten about Azure Virtual Machine Snapshots.
Often snapshots are created and then forgotten about.
Simply go to the Reports Tab in Cloud Storage Manager and run the LIST OF AZURE SNAPSHOTS report.
From the reports, you can quickly see where you could apply an Azure Storage Lifecycle Management Policy, and move the files that havent been accessed to a lower storage Tier to save you money.
Azure Virtual Machine Snapshots: Out of Sight, Out of Mind
Once the Azure Snapshot report has been generated, simply open it up in excel to see all your Azure VM snapshots.
The report provides you with information including the name of the Azure snapshot, which subscription it resides in, the Azure Storage Account, the relevant Container, size of the Azure VM snapshot, when it was created, if its a managed or unmanaged disk, the Azure Resource Group, type of snapshot created and finally any Azure Tags if you have them.
From this report, we found that they had 1168 Azure VM snapshots lingering in their environment, some well over 3 years old.
Using a simple calculation in Excel using standard Azure storage costs, ($0.02750 per TB using azure blob storage pricing provided by Microsoft – IN $AUS.
Azure Pricing Calculator
Visit the Azure Pricing Calculator for pricing in your currency ) deleting all these snapshots saved the client just under $2,000 per month, an approximate saving of $24,000 a year.
Just running these two simple reports and then taking action on them
saved this client $33,600 in their yearly Azure Blob Storage Costs.
Managing Azure Files Consumption
Gaining Insights with Cloud Storage Manager
As organizations increasingly adopt Azure Files to replace on-premise file servers, it’s crucial to understand exactly how much data resides in your Azure Files.
Cloud Storage Manager can scan all your Azure Files across your tenancy, offering quick and easy insights into Azure Files consumption.
Identifying Cost-Saving Opportunities
With a clear view of your Azure Files consumption, you can identify opportunities to reduce costs by optimizing storage usage and eliminating unnecessary data.
Handling Unattached Azure VM Disks
Finding Unattached Disks with Cloud Storage Manager
Next on the list to reduce their Azure Storage costs, was finding unattached Azure Virtual Machine disks.
Again, this is often overlooked, to delete any disks no longer needed when decommissioning your Azure VMs.
Another standard report is run, this time All Unattached Disks.
Once the report has completed, again open it up in Microsoft Excel, and you can go through this data to see which Azure VM Unattached Disks can be deleted, further reducing your Azure Storage Costs.
Azure VM Storage Cost Savings
Now using the same quick costing formulas from before, we can see an estimated monthly Azure Storage cost for these unattached virtual machine disks.
Estimating Savings with the Azure Pricing Calculator
After running this report and using the Azure Cost Estimator (I used AUD pricing here) to get cloud storage pricing, we found that the client had over 110 unattached Azure Virtual Machine Disks.
Removing all these unattached disks saved them $800 per month, so around $9,600 per year.
Reduce your Microsoft Azure Storage Costs
In a follow-up blog post, we will then dig a little deeper into more Azure Storage cost-saving initiatives (looking to further reduce your Azure Blob and FIles storage pricing and costs) using the insights from Cloud Storage Manager.
Download a free trial of Cloud Storage Manager today and start saving money with your Azure Storage.
Azure Cost Optimisation Conclusion
Azure pricing is based on a pay-as-you-go model, where customers are only charged for the services and resources they consume. This allows for flexible and cost-effective cloud computing. There are a variety of services available in Azure, including computing, storage, networking, and security. The pricing for these services can vary based on factors such as the type of service, the amount of resources used, and the duration of use.
The Azure pricing calculator is a tool that can be used to estimate the cost of using Azure services. The calculator allows you to select the services you want to use, input the details of your usage, and see an estimated cost. This can help you to budget for your cloud computing needs and make informed decisions about which services to use and how much to use them.
In addition to the pricing calculator, there are also a number of pricing options and discounts available to help you save money on your Azure bill. For example, you can use reserved instances to save up to 72% on virtual machine costs, or you can take advantage of Azure Hybrid Benefit to use your existing Windows Server licenses in Azure and save up to 40%.
The Cloud Storage Manager is a tool that helps manage and optimize cloud storage costs for organizations using Azure storage. By providing insights into storage usage patterns, the tool helps organizations make informed decisions about storage capacity planning, tiering, and rightsizing, which can result in cost savings. With its easy-to-use interface and intuitive navigation, the Cloud Storage Manager simplifies the process of managing and optimizing cloud storage costs.
In addition to cost savings, the Cloud Storage Manager also offers benefits such as improved visibility into storage usage, with the ability to view storage costs by usage, users can identify and eliminate redundant, underutilized, or unnecessary storage resources.
Overall, the Cloud Storage Manager is a valuable tool for organizations using Azure storage. By helping to optimize cloud storage costs and streamline management of storage resources, the tool enables organizations to focus on delivering value to their customers, rather than managing storage resources.
by Mark | Oct 26, 2020 | Azure, Azure Blobs, How To, Storage Accounts
Azure Blob storage has provided companies with a way to store almost limitless amount of data. But just like kids in a candy store this can get out of hand, and expensive. Being able to store as much data as you want is great, however it is something that can grow to a point where you are spending more on storage than you actually need.
Azure does provide a nice method of automatically shifting old or unused files to a lower access tier to save on cost, but this still means you are potentially holding onto files you don’t really need. I mean do you really need files you haven’t accessed in over 12 months? Sure there are certain industries that require files that are kept for 7+ years, but they are a special case.
If you don’t know how to create an Azure lifecycle policy to automatically move unused files to a lower access tier, check out our other post here: https://www.smikar.com/create-azure-storage-lifecycle-policy/
OK, so do I go about finding these files that haven’t been accessed in the last 3, 6, 12 or 36 months (3 years) without having to browse through each and every Azure Storage Account and Container?
So how do you find your Azure Blobs that havent been accessed in 3 months or more?
Azure Blob Storage Consumption Reports
Simple, use Cloud Storage Manager, and run one of the many usage reports.
Cloud Storage Manager has a number of reports you can run to get a better insight into exactly where all your Azure Blob Storage is being consumed, but let’s focus on the specific 4 reports that will tell us which Azure BLOB files haven’t been accessed in the last 3, 6, 12 or 36 months (3 years).
Once you’ve installed Cloud Storage Manager and allowed it some time to scan your Azure environment, browse to the Reports tab as shown here.
Azure Blobs not accessed within
First let’s run the Files not access in the last 12 months or longer report.
Right click on the report and select Run Report.
Azure Blobs not used Report
Once the report finishes, you will be shown a list of files that have not been accessed in the last 3 months or longer.
The report will show you which Subscription, Storage Account and Container the Azure BLOB file resides in. Not only that, but it will also tell you the object tier of the blob, whether that be hot or cool (archive files are excluded), the size of the file, the last time it was modified and of course the name of the file.
Here is an example of the report.
You can also export the report to Excel in order to adjust the report or present the information to others.
The same report may be executed to provide similar results but extending the criteria further out to search for files that haven’t been accessed in a longer timeframe, such as 6 months, 12 months or 3 years.
Using these reports, you can decide whether or not these files need to be retained, in which case you would move them to a lower access tier, either Cool or Archive for long-term retention, or even delete them if they are deemed unnecessary.
These reports are a great way to find files that haven’t been accessed in a long time and could provide an immediate cost saving associated with your Azure Storage consumption.
Cloud Storage Manager has free to trial. Start seeing insights in to your Azure Blob Storage consumption today.
Download a Free Trial and test it for yourself.
Free
Database size is limited to a maximum of 5MB.
Typically for small or personal environments usually consisting of 3 or less Azure Subscriptions and consuming under 30TB of Azure Blob Storage.
Advanced
Database size is limited to a maximum of 1GB.
For medium sized environments typically consisting of less than 10 Azure Subscriptions and consuming under 500TB of Azure Blob Storage.
Enterprise
Unlimited database size.
For use in large environments typically consisting of more than 10 Subscriptions and consuming more than 1PB of Azure Blob Storage.
Cloud Storage Manager is licensed based on the size of it’s database which includes information of each of your Azure Subscriptions, Azure Storage Accounts, Containers and finally each Blob.
Each version has the same great functions including scheduled scans of your Azure Blob Storage and reporting.
Azure Storage Cost Saving FAQs
What is Azure Blob storage?
Azure Blob storage is a cloud-based storage solution provided by Microsoft Azure that allows users to store large amounts of unstructured data such as text or binary data.
Why is it important to manage Azure Blob storage?
While Azure Blob storage can store almost limitless amounts of data, it can also become expensive to maintain as data accumulates over time. Proper management of Azure Blob storage can help reduce storage costs and improve overall efficiency.
How can Cloud Storage Manager help manage Azure Blob storage?
Cloud Storage Manager provides a number of usage reports that can be used to identify which Azure Blob files haven’t been accessed in a certain period of time, such as 3, 6, 12 or 36 months. These reports allow users to make informed decisions about whether to retain, move to a lower access tier, or delete unnecessary files, which can help reduce storage costs.
What are the benefits of using Cloud Storage Manager?
By using Cloud Storage Manager, users can gain insights into their Azure Blob storage consumption and identify areas where they can optimize storage costs. The usage reports provided by Cloud Storage Manager are easy to use and allow users to quickly identify which files haven’t been accessed in a certain period of time, which can save time and effort compared to manually browsing through each Azure Storage Account and Container.
How can I try Cloud Storage Manager for myself?
Cloud Storage Manager offers a free trial that can be downloaded and installed. This allows users to see the insights provided by the software and determine if it is a good fit for their needs.
Azure Blob Storage Consumption Reports are an excellent way to find Azure BLOB files that haven’t been accessed in a long time, and they can provide immediate cost savings associated with your Azure Storage consumption. By using Cloud Storage Manager, you can run reports and gain insights into your Azure Blob Storage consumption, allowing you to make informed decisions on how to optimize your Azure storage.
In summary, using Azure Blob Storage Consumption Reports can help you find unused Azure BLOB files and reduce storage costs, providing a cost-effective solution for storing your data in Azure. Start using Cloud Storage Manager today to see insights into your Azure Blob Storage consumption and start saving costs.
by Mark | Oct 21, 2020 | Azure, Azure Blobs, Blob Storage, Cloud Computing, Storage Accounts
If you are looking to optimize their storage costs on Azure Blob storage. With the increasing amount of data being stored in the cloud, it’s important to keep track of the size of each Blob and identify which ones are taking up the most storage. This is where the guide comes in – it provides a step-by-step process on how to use Cloud Storage Manager to find the largest Azure Blobs in your environment.
By identifying the largest Blobs, you can take steps to optimize your storage costs, such as deleting unnecessary data or moving data to a more cost-effective storage tier. Whether you’re new to Azure Blob storage or an experienced user, this guide is a helpful resource for optimizing your storage costs.
Recently we had one of our clients inform us that he used Cloud Storage Manager to find which were the largest Blobs in his Azure Storage Containers.
Here is a quick run down to show one of the many reports on your Azure Blob consumption that you can run with Cloud Storage Manager.
Which are my largest Azure Blobs?
See all your Azure Blob Sizes
If you want to find out which BLOBs in your environment are the largest, or consuming the most storage, the easiest and simplest method by far is to use Cloud Storage Manager.
Once you’ve allowed Cloud Storage Manager to scan your environment, you have a few options to get this information.
The Top 100 BLOBs tab will give you a list of the top 100 largest BLOBs in your environment. It will also show you which Subscription, Storage Account, Container the BLOB resides in and of course its name. Not only that but it will tell you the object tier, whether that is hot, cool or archive, the size of the Azure BLOB, when it was created and when it was last modified.
Have a look at the screenshot to get a clearer picture.
Your largest Azure Blob Sizes
In the bottom right corner you will also see how much overall storage your largest 100 BLOBs are consuming. In our example, we can see that our largest 100 BLOBs are consuming 102GB. Of course, this is just our lab environment so in a real production environment this could be hundreds of TB or PB!
You may also export this data into a spreadsheet by selecting the Reports tab and selecting the “List the top 100 BLOBs” report.
Azure Blob Storage Size Report
Right click on the report and select “Run Report” to view the data in an exportable table format that you can see in Microsoft Excel.
The export includes all relevant information including the Azure Subscription, Azure Storage Account, the Container the Blob resides in, the name of the Azure Blob itself, what storage tiering the Blob is in, the date created, last modified and finally it’s size.
Free
Maximum Azure Storage limited to 30TB.
Typically for small or personal environments usually consisting of 3 or less Azure Subscriptions and consuming under 30TB of Azure Blob Storage.
Free Forever (until over 30TB)
Advanced
Maximum Azure Storage limited to 1PB
For medium sized environments typically consisting of less than 5 Azure Subscriptions.
12 Month License
Enterprise
Unlimited Azure Storage.
For use in large environments typically consisting of more than 10 Subscriptions and consuming more than 1PB of Azure Blob Storage.
12 Month License
Cloud Storage Manager is licensed based on the size of your Azure Subscriptions, Azure Storage Accounts, Containers and finally each Blob.
Each version has the same great functions including scheduled scans of your Azure Blob Storage and reporting.
FAQs
What is Azure Blob storage?
Azure Blob storage is a cloud-based storage solution offered by Microsoft Azure. It allows users to store and access large amounts of unstructured data, such as text or binary data, through REST-based object storage.
Why is it important to find the largest Azure Blobs?
Identifying the largest Azure Blobs is important for optimizing storage costs. By understanding which Blobs are taking up the most storage, users can take steps to delete unnecessary data or move data to a more cost-effective storage tier.
How can Cloud Storage Manager help me find the largest Azure Blobs?
Cloud Storage Manager provides a step-by-step process to find the largest Azure Blobs in your environment. It offers a Top 100 BLOBs tab that gives users a list of the top 100 largest BLOBs in their environment, along with information on the Subscription, Storage Account, Container, object tier, size, and more. Users can also export this data into a spreadsheet.
How is Cloud Storage Manager licensed?
Cloud Storage Manager is licensed based on the size of your Azure Subscription. There are three versions of Cloud Storage Manager: Free, Advanced, and Enterprise, each with different limits on database size. All versions offer scheduled scans of Azure Blob Storage and reporting.
Who can benefit from using Cloud Storage Manager?
Cloud Storage Manager is useful for anyone who uses Azure Blob storage and wants to optimize their storage costs. It can be helpful for both new and experienced users of Azure Blob storage.
by Mark | Oct 2, 2020 | Azure, Azure Blobs, How To, Storage Accounts
How to get the Size of your Azure Blob Containers
Something we get asked quite often is, how can I see the size of my Containers in each Storage Account? We know that Azure storage is one of the fastest growing aspects of Azure because it offers almost a limitless supply of storage, so companies are consuming more and more storage at an explosive rate. The question of being able to track this consumption is becoming more and more relevant.
OK, so how can I get the size of my containers in a Storage Account? Azure offers a few ways to do this, but each of the methods available are quite time consuming unless you only want to see the size of one or two containers, otherwise you’re in for some effort.
One way of course is good old PowerShell. We love PowerShell but a lot of people don’t want to be using scripts and code, either because they don’t feel comfortable with it or don’t have the time to be changing scripts to suit their specific environment and requirements, so I’m going to skip this aspect.
Why is it’s important to track the size of containers in Azure?
Tracking the size of containers in Azure is important for a number of reasons:
- Cost control: Knowing the size of containers helps to control the costs associated with using Azure storage. Azure storage is a pay-as-you-go service and the costs depend on the amount of data stored. By monitoring the size of containers, organizations can ensure they are only paying for the storage they need.
- Resource management: By monitoring the size of containers, organizations can determine which containers are growing quickly and need additional resources, such as increased storage capacity, to accommodate the growth.
- Compliance: In certain industries, regulations require organizations to keep track of the data they store. Knowing the size of containers helps organizations ensure they are in compliance with these regulations.
- Data analysis: The size of containers can provide valuable insights into the growth and usage patterns of the data stored in Azure. This information can be used to make informed decisions about future data storage requirements.
Overall, tracking the size of containers in Azure is important for ensuring the efficient and effective use of storage resources, staying in compliance with regulations, and making informed data management decisions.
No Powershell Required
OK, if we skip PowerShell what other options do I have?
First I’ll show you how to get the size of the Containers using the Azure Portal and then I’ll show you how much easier, quicker and better it is to use our FREE TOOL, Cloud Storage Manager.
*Note: Before we start, when using the Azure Portal to find the size of a Container, you need to know which Storage Account the Container resides in.
How to get the size of a Container in a Storage Account using the Azure portal
1. Log into the Azure portal
2. Select Storage Accounts from the panel or use the search bar at the top
3. Here you will see all your Blob Storage Accounts. Select the Storage Account you want to view.
Blob Container View
4. Select Containers on the left pane next under the Blob Service section.
This will take you to the Storage Container view of that Storage Account you have selected, showing all the containers within.
List all Blob Containers
5. Here you will see a list of all the Containers in that Storage Account.
Select the Container you are interested in.
Blob Container Properties
6. Once inside the Container, select Properties on the left hand side.
Azure Blob Container Size
7. Inside the Properties view you will have a button at the bottom to “Calculate Size”. Click on this button to get the size of the Container.
Azure Blob Container Total Size
8. Now you are presented with the Blob Container Size.
What if you want to see the Consumption of all your Storage Accounts?
So that is how you can get the size of a Container in a Storage Account using the Azure portal. Not too bad if you have one or two Containers you want to see. But what if you have 50 or 5,000? That method is not realistic.
The Azure portal method for determining the size of a container is limited when it comes to multiple containers as it becomes time-consuming and unrealistic. For example, if you have 50 or 5,000 containers, using the Azure portal to manually calculate the size of each container is not a feasible solution. Additionally, if you don’t know which storage account a container is in, it becomes difficult to find the size of that container using the Azure portal method.
Also, what if you don’t know which Storage Account the Container is in? Good luck!
So what is the solution? Glad you asked.
Get your Azure Blob Storage Consumption
All you have to do, is launch Cloud Storage Manager. No, seriously that’s it. Once it’s finished scanning your environment, all you have to do is launch it.
Azure Blob Storage Usage Information
On the left side you’ll see a list of all your Subscriptions (with total size), Storage Accounts (with total size) and Azure Storage Containers (with total size).
And if you want even more information, the right hand panel shows you how many Blobs in each Container in Azure, the Container size and what the percentage of total size it’s consuming relative to the Storage Account.
Furthermore you can get historical growth reports on your Azure Blob consumption providing you with great insights in to your Azure Storage growth.
As you can see, Cloud Storage Manager is by far the easier and simpler way of finding out how much storage a Container is consuming in Azure.
Download it for FREE and use it today.
