Azure Storage Guide

Azure Storage Services

by microsoft · MIT license · ★ 1,572 on GitHub

Azure Storage Services including Blob Storage, File Shares, Queue Storage, Table Storage, and Data Lake. Answers questions about storage access tiers (hot, cool, cold, archive), when to use each tier, and tier comparison.

---
name: azure-storage
description: "Azure Storage Services including Blob Storage, File Shares, Queue Storage, Table Storage, and Data Lake. Answers questions about storage access tiers (hot, cool, cold, archive), when to use each tier, and tier comparison. Provides object storage, SMB file shares, async messaging, NoSQL key-value, and big data analytics. Includes lifecycle management. USE FOR: blob storage, file shares, queue storage, table storage, data lake, upload files, download blobs, storage accounts, access tiers, storage tiers, hot cool cold archive, storage tier comparison, when to use storage tiers, lifecycle management, Azure Storage concepts. DO NOT USE FOR: SQL databases, Cosmos DB (use azure-prepare), messaging with Event Hubs or Service Bus (use azure-messaging)."
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: Microsoft
  version: "1.2.2"
---

# Azure Storage Services

## Services

| Service | Use When | MCP Tools | CLI |
|---------|----------|-----------|-----|
| Blob Storage | Objects, files, backups, static content | `azure__storage` | `az storage blob` |
| File Shares | SMB file shares, lift-and-shift | - | `az storage file` |
| Queue Storage | Async messaging, task queues | - | `az storage queue` |

Overview

If Azure MCP is not enabled: In Copilot CLI or Claude Code, ask the user to run /mcp and enable Azure MCP; in other hosts, ask the user to enable Azure MCP through the host's MCP configuration.

Manual install (npx, ZIP)

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Azure Storage Services

Services

Service	Use When	MCP Tools	CLI
Blob Storage	Objects, files, backups, static content	`azure__storage`	`az storage blob`
File Shares	SMB file shares, lift-and-shift	-	`az storage file`
Queue Storage	Async messaging, task queues	-	`az storage queue`
Table Storage	NoSQL key-value (consider Cosmos DB)	-	`az storage table`
Data Lake	Big data analytics, hierarchical namespace	-	`az storage fs`

MCP Server (Preferred)

When Azure MCP is enabled:

azure__storage with command storage_account_list - List storage accounts
azure__storage with command storage_container_list - List containers in account
azure__storage with command storage_blob_list - List blobs in container
azure__storage with command storage_blob_get - Download blob content
azure__storage with command storage_blob_put - Upload blob content

If Azure MCP is not enabled: In Copilot CLI or Claude Code, ask the user to run /mcp and enable Azure MCP; in other hosts, ask the user to enable Azure MCP through the host's MCP configuration.

CLI Fallback

# List storage accounts
az storage account list --output table

# List containers
az storage container list --account-name ACCOUNT --output table

# List blobs
az storage blob list --account-name ACCOUNT --container-name CONTAINER --output table

# Download blob
az storage blob download --account-name ACCOUNT --container-name CONTAINER --name BLOB --file LOCAL_PATH

# Upload blob
az storage blob upload --account-name ACCOUNT --container-name CONTAINER --name BLOB --file LOCAL_PATH

Storage Account Tiers

Tier	Use Case	Performance
Standard	General purpose, backup	Milliseconds
Premium	Databases, high IOPS	Sub-millisecond

Blob Access Tiers

Tier	Access Frequency	Cost
Hot	Frequent	Higher storage, lower access
Cool	Infrequent (30+ days)	Lower storage, higher access
Cold	Rare (90+ days)	Lower still
Archive	Rarely (180+ days)	Lowest storage, rehydration required

Redundancy Options

Type	Durability	Use Case
LRS	11 nines	Dev/test, recreatable data
ZRS	12 nines	Regional high availability
GRS	16 nines	Disaster recovery
GZRS	16 nines	Best durability

Service Details

For deep documentation on specific services:

Blob storage patterns and lifecycle -> Blob Storage documentation
File shares and Azure File Sync -> Azure Files documentation
Queue patterns and poison handling -> Queue Storage documentation

SDK Quick References

For building applications with Azure Storage SDKs, see the condensed guides:

Blob Storage: Python | TypeScript | Java | Rust
Queue Storage: Python | TypeScript
File Shares: Python | TypeScript
Data Lake: Python
Tables: Python | Java

For full package listing across all languages, see SDK Usage Guide.

Azure SDKs

For building applications that interact with Azure Storage programmatically, Azure provides SDK packages in multiple languages (.NET, Java, JavaScript, Python, Go, Rust). See SDK Usage Guide for package names, installation commands, and quick start examples.

1	---
2	name: azure-storage
3	description: "Azure Storage Services including Blob Storage, File Shares, Queue Storage, Table Storage, and Data Lake. Answers questions about storage access tiers (hot, cool, cold, archive), when to use each tier, and tier comparison. Provides object storage, SMB file shares, async messaging, NoSQL key-value, and big data analytics. Includes lifecycle management. USE FOR: blob storage, file shares, queue storage, table storage, data lake, upload files, download blobs, storage accounts, access tiers, storage tiers, hot cool cold archive, storage tier comparison, when to use storage tiers, lifecycle management, Azure Storage concepts. DO NOT USE FOR: SQL databases, Cosmos DB (use azure-prepare), messaging with Event Hubs or Service Bus (use azure-messaging)."
4	license: MIT
5	metadata:
6	author: Microsoft
7	version: "1.2.2"
8	---
9
10	# Azure Storage Services
11
12	## Services
13
14	\| Service \| Use When \| MCP Tools \| CLI \|
15	\|---------\|----------\|-----------\|-----\|
16	\| Blob Storage \| Objects, files, backups, static content \| `azure__storage` \| `az storage blob` \|
17	\| File Shares \| SMB file shares, lift-and-shift \| - \| `az storage file` \|
18	\| Queue Storage \| Async messaging, task queues \| - \| `az storage queue` \|
19	\| Table Storage \| NoSQL key-value (consider Cosmos DB) \| - \| `az storage table` \|
20	\| Data Lake \| Big data analytics, hierarchical namespace \| - \| `az storage fs` \|
21
22	## MCP Server (Preferred)
23
24	When Azure MCP is enabled:
25
26	- `azure__storage` with command `storage_account_list` - List storage accounts
27	- `azure__storage` with command `storage_container_list` - List containers in account
28	- `azure__storage` with command `storage_blob_list` - List blobs in container
29	- `azure__storage` with command `storage_blob_get` - Download blob content
30	- `azure__storage` with command `storage_blob_put` - Upload blob content
31
32	If Azure MCP is not enabled: In Copilot CLI or Claude Code, ask the user to run `/mcp` and enable Azure MCP; in other hosts, ask the user to enable Azure MCP through the host's MCP configuration.
33
34	## CLI Fallback
35
36	```bash
37	# List storage accounts
38	az storage account list --output table
39
40	# List containers
41	az storage container list --account-name ACCOUNT --output table
42
43	# List blobs
44	az storage blob list --account-name ACCOUNT --container-name CONTAINER --output table
45
46	# Download blob
47	az storage blob download --account-name ACCOUNT --container-name CONTAINER --name BLOB --file LOCAL_PATH
48
49	# Upload blob
50	az storage blob upload --account-name ACCOUNT --container-name CONTAINER --name BLOB --file LOCAL_PATH
51	```
52
53	## Storage Account Tiers
54
55	\| Tier \| Use Case \| Performance \|
56	\|------\|----------\|-------------\|
57	\| Standard \| General purpose, backup \| Milliseconds \|
58	\| Premium \| Databases, high IOPS \| Sub-millisecond \|
59
60	## Blob Access Tiers
61
62	\| Tier \| Access Frequency \| Cost \|
63	\|------\|-----------------\|------\|
64	\| Hot \| Frequent \| Higher storage, lower access \|
65	\| Cool \| Infrequent (30+ days) \| Lower storage, higher access \|
66	\| Cold \| Rare (90+ days) \| Lower still \|
67	\| Archive \| Rarely (180+ days) \| Lowest storage, rehydration required \|
68
69	## Redundancy Options
70
71	\| Type \| Durability \| Use Case \|
72	\|------\|------------\|----------\|
73	\| LRS \| 11 nines \| Dev/test, recreatable data \|
74	\| ZRS \| 12 nines \| Regional high availability \|
75	\| GRS \| 16 nines \| Disaster recovery \|
76	\| GZRS \| 16 nines \| Best durability \|
77
78	## Service Details
79
80	For deep documentation on specific services:
81
82	- Blob storage patterns and lifecycle -> [Blob Storage documentation](https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/storage/blobs/storage-blobs-overview)
83	- File shares and Azure File Sync -> [Azure Files documentation](https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/storage/files/storage-files-introduction)
84	- Queue patterns and poison handling -> [Queue Storage documentation](https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/storage/queues/storage-queues-introduction)
85
86	## SDK Quick References
87
88	For building applications with Azure Storage SDKs, see the condensed guides:
89
90	- Blob Storage: [Python](references/sdk/azure-storage-blob-py.md) \| [TypeScript](references/sdk/azure-storage-blob-ts.md) \| [Java](references/sdk/azure-storage-blob-java.md) \| [Rust](references/sdk/azure-storage-blob-rust.md)
91	- Queue Storage: [Python](references/sdk/azure-storage-queue-py.md) \| [TypeScript](references/sdk/azure-storage-queue-ts.md)
92	- File Shares: [Python](references/sdk/azure-storage-file-share-py.md) \| [TypeScript](references/sdk/azure-storage-file-share-ts.md)
93	- Data Lake: [Python](references/sdk/azure-storage-file-datalake-py.md)
94	- Tables: [Python](references/sdk/azure-data-tables-py.md) \| [Java](references/sdk/azure-data-tables-java.md)
95
96	For full package listing across all languages, see [SDK Usage Guide](references/sdk-usage.md).
97
98	## Azure SDKs
99
100	For building applications that interact with Azure Storage programmatically, Azure provides SDK packages in multiple languages (.NET, Java, JavaScript, Python, Go, Rust). See [SDK Usage Guide](references/sdk-usage.md) for package names, installation commands, and quick start examples.
101