How to Use Azure Storage Explorer Tutorial (Step by Step)

How to Use Azure Storage Explorer Tutorial (Step by Step). Developers, cloud computing professionals and other IT enthusiasts who use Azure Storage for various procedures require a tool to make accessing data easier. With Azure Storage Explorer, you do a range of storage and data functions such as editing, downloading, copying, and deleting data on any of your storage accounts.

In this article, you learn about Azure Storage Explorer, the various storage types, the steps to use Azure Storage Explorer to carry out various storage processes and so on. Well, let’s start with how to Use Azure Storage Explorer Tutorial (Step by Step)

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What is Azure Storage Explorer?

First of all, Azure Storage Explorer is an application that enables you to connect your Azure Storage account with any device on any operating system such as Windows, Mac OS, Linux etc.

Secondly, it is a free GUI-based tool provided by Microsoft that facilitates a seamless connection of your Azure Storage account with any device, enhances your development experience and manages your Azure resources.

Once connected to your account, you easily create or manipulate tables, blobs, queues, and files. You also use this tool to connect to and operate  Azure Data Lake Storage and Azure Cosmos DB Storage.

Benefits

• Easily accessible with a simple and user friendly user interface and design.
• Ability to easily connect and access multiple storage accounts.
• Increase productivity with easy as well as efficient storage management.
• Support for both offline and cloud connections.
• Supports multiple platforms such as Windows, Linux, Mac OS, etc.
• Top notch security for all files and data both on the cloud and offline.

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Steps to Set up Azure Storage Explorer

Setting up and Installing Azure Storage Explorer is an easy task. However, you must ensure you have an Azure Storage account and use a supported version of your operating system (Windows, Mac OS, Ubuntu, Linux etc.)

Below are the simple steps you should follow:

Step 1

Go to the official Microsoft website and download Azure Storage Explorer.

Step 2

Select the appropriate operating system and click “Download now.”

Step 3

Run the StorageExplorer.exe file that downloads automatically.

Step 4

On the agreement popup box, select “I accept the agreement” and click “Install.”

Step 5

Click on “Finish” to complete your installation.

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Steps to Connect your Azure Storage account to Azure Storage Explorer

After downloading Azure Storage Explorer, you need to connect it to your Azure Storage account to enable you to work with it. Follow the steps outlined below:

Step 1

Launch the Azure Storage Explorer application, right click on “Storage accounts”, then click “Connect to Azure Storage.”

Step 2

Select “Subscription” in the “Select Resource” panel.

Step 3

Navigate to the “Select Azure Environment“ panel, choose the Azure environment to sign in to, and then click “Next.”

Step 4

After clicking “Next,” fill in your credentials on the login web page that appears. Then close the webpage and return to Storage Explorer.

Step 5

Once done, you right click on any storage type to perform Azure Portal operations.

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Types of Storage in Azure Storage Explorer

Table Storage

This one stores large amounts of semi structured, non relational data in a key value format. Here, the entities in the table are stored using names and value pairs. Well, it is an inexpensive service, and you easily use a clustered index to access it. Some of the protocols you use to access Azure Storage Explorer include REST and OData.

Blob Storage

Blob (binary large object) storage is used to store large amounts of unstructured data such as images, video files, PDFs, audio files, etc. What makes it possible for it to easily scale to store such large amounts of data is the Content Delivery Network that Blob uses. All in all, blob storage is categorized into two access tiers, a hot access tier for frequently used data and a cold access tier for data that is not frequently used. 

Queue Storage

Next storage is created for messaging where messages are read and processed on a rolling basis (first come, first serve). Definitely, you create queues programmatically or with Azure Storage Explorer. Once the messages are processed, users either recycle them or keep them in storage to do additional work on them in the future.

Queues are effective only as short term storage because the messages on a queue can not last more than seven days. Although the capacity of the storage account limits the number of queues. Hence, users still use HTTP or HTTPS method calls to access messages from anywhere in the world.

File Storage

Additionally, we have file storage. This type stores files in the cloud, which makes it easy to move applications that depend on regular file shares to the cloud. You access the files stored on the cloud through the server message block (SMB) protocol. This file storage type is known to be a more efficient alternative to traditional on premises file server storage.

To explain how Azure Storage Explorer works, we focus on how to use it to create table storage, create a blob container, and upload files to blob storage. 

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Steps to create a Table Storage using Azure Storage Explorer

Basically, table storage is made up of a number of objects with properties known as entities. Each entity is linked to a partition key, row key, and timestamp.

Partition Key

Partition Key is a unique identifier. First part of the primary key used for the partition in a table.

Row key

Row key is known as the second part of the primary key. Every entity has one partition key and one-row key, which is used to construct the clustered index that helps with the first index for the storage.

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Outlined below are the steps to use Azure Storage Explorer to Create a Table:

Step 1

Select the table node, right click on that and click on the “create table link”, or from the “Actions” section, click on the “Create table link.”

Step 2

Create a name for the table

Step 3

Now you need to add the partition key and row key. To do this, go to the menu and click on the “Add” button. Then fill in “employee” as the partition key and “IT” as the row key.

Step 4

Click on the “Add property” button and add “Name” as a new property, fill in the value as “Information Technology”, then click the “Insert” button.

Once this is done, you can see that one record has been successfully added to the table. Repeat the steps above to add more records to the table.

Step 5

Set a filter condition to filter the record

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Steps to Create a Blob Container Using Azure Storage Explorer

The following steps demonstrate how to create a blob container. 

Step 1

Launch Storage Explorer.

Step 2

Navigate to the left pane and expand the storage account you want to use to create the blob container.

Step 3

Right click “Blob Containers,” and select “Create Blob Containers” from the context menu.

Step 4

Enter the name for your blob container in the text box that appears below the “Blob Containers” folder.

Step 5

Press “Enter” when you’re done to create the blob container or the “Esc” key to cancel.

As a result, your newly created blob container is displayed under the Blob Containers folder for the particular storage account you selected.

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Steps to Upload a Document to Azure Blob Storage using Azure Storage Explorer

The following steps demonstrate how to upload a document to Azure Blob Storage with Storage Explorer:

Step 1

On the newly created blob container, click on the “Upload” button at the right side pane.

Step 2

Depending on the data you want to upload, select either option: “Upload folder” or “Upload files.”

Step 3

Select the appropriate blob type, Access tier, destination directories, and tags, if any.

Step 4

Once done, click “Upload” to upload the file to Azure blob storage. To confirm that the file has been successfully uploaded, you find the uploaded file and its details in the blob container pane. 

Thank you for reading How to Use Azure Storage Explorer Tutorial (Step by Step). We will conclude now. 

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How to Use Azure Storage Explorer Tutorial (Step by Step) Conclusion

Certainly, the Azure Storage Explorer makes it possible for users to easily manage, add, adjust, and access their Azure Storage data from any device at any time. Moreover, it makes working with Azure Storage data incredibly flexible and convenient for users. With the rise of remote work, Azure Storage Explorer is a powerful tool for data teams and professionals to work securely and efficiently from different parts of the globe.

Features like multi platform OS support and easy cloud and offline integration give the application an edge over other alternatives. While Microsoft continues to improve the application, e.g., the translation of the user interface into different languages, many individuals, organizations and teams already rely on the application to manage their storage data. With the carefully outlined steps in this article, we hope you will find it easy to set up and use the application easily and perform it more efficiently.

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