storage-powershell-guide-full.md

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Using Azure PowerShell with Azure Storage | Microsoft Docs	Learn how to use the Azure PowerShell cmdlets for Azure Storage to create and manage storage accounts; work with blobs, tables, queues, and files; configure and query storage analytics, and create shared access signatures.	storage	na	robinsh	timlt	f4704f58-abc6-4f89-8b6d-1b1659746f5a	storage	storage	na	na	article	12/06/2016	robinsh

Using Azure PowerShell with Azure Storage

Overview

Azure PowerShell is a module that provides cmdlets to manage Azure through Windows PowerShell. It is a task-based command-line shell and scripting language designed especially for system administration. With PowerShell, you can easily control and automate the administration of your Azure services and applications. For example, you can use the cmdlets to perform the same tasks that you can perform through the Azure portal.

In this guide, we’ll explore how to use the Azure Storage Cmdlets to perform a variety of development and administration tasks with Azure Storage.

This guide assumes that you have prior experience using Azure Storage and Windows PowerShell. The guide provides a number of scripts to demonstrate the usage of PowerShell with Azure Storage. You should update the script variables based on your configuration before running each script.

The first section in this guide provides a quick glance at Azure Storage and PowerShell. For detailed information and instructions, start from the Prerequisites for using Azure PowerShell with Azure Storage.

Getting started with Azure Storage and PowerShell in 5 minutes

This section shows you how to access Azure Storage via PowerShell in 5 minutes.

New to Azure: Get a Microsoft Azure subscription and a Microsoft account associated with that subscription. For information on Azure purchase options, see Free Trial, Purchase Options, and Member Offers (for members of MSDN, Microsoft Partner Network, and BizSpark, and other Microsoft programs).

See Assigning administrator roles in Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) for more information about Azure subscriptions.

After creating a Microsoft Azure subscription and account:

1. Download and install Azure PowerShell.

2. Start Windows PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE): In your local computer, go to the Start menu. Type Administrative Tools and click to run it. In the Administrative Tools window, right-click Windows PowerShell ISE, click Run as Administrator.

3. In Windows PowerShell ISE, click File > New to create a new script file.

4. Now, we’ll give you a simple script that shows basic PowerShell commands to access Azure Storage. The script will first ask your Azure account credentials to add your Azure account to the local PowerShell environment. Then, the script will set the default Azure subscription and create a new storage account in Azure. Next, the script will create a new container in this new storage account and upload an existing image file (blob) to that container. After the script lists all blobs in that container, it will create a new destination directory in your local computer and download the image file.

5. In the following code section, select the script between the remarks #begin and #end. Press CTRL+C to copy it to the clipboard.

   # begin
   # Update with the name of your subscription.
   $SubscriptionName = "YourSubscriptionName"
      
   # Give a name to your new storage account. It must be lowercase!
   $StorageAccountName = "yourstorageaccountname"
      
   # Choose "West US" as an example.
   $Location = "West US"
      
   # Give a name to your new container.
   $ContainerName = "imagecontainer"
      
   # Have an image file and a source directory in your local computer.
   $ImageToUpload = "C:\Images\HelloWorld.png"
      
   # A destination directory in your local computer.
   $DestinationFolder = "C:\DownloadImages"
      
   # Add your Azure account to the local PowerShell environment.
   Add-AzureAccount
      
   # Set a default Azure subscription.
   Select-AzureSubscription -SubscriptionName $SubscriptionName –Default
      
   # Create a new storage account.
   New-AzureStorageAccount –StorageAccountName $StorageAccountName -Location $Location
      
   # Set a default storage account.
   Set-AzureSubscription -CurrentStorageAccountName $StorageAccountName -SubscriptionName $SubscriptionName
      
   # Create a new container.
   New-AzureStorageContainer -Name $ContainerName -Permission Off
      
   # Upload a blob into a container.
   Set-AzureStorageBlobContent -Container $ContainerName -File $ImageToUpload
      
   # List all blobs in a container.
   Get-AzureStorageBlob -Container $ContainerName
      
   # Download blobs from the container:
   # Get a reference to a list of all blobs in a container.
   $blobs = Get-AzureStorageBlob -Container $ContainerName
      
   # Create the destination directory.
   New-Item -Path $DestinationFolder -ItemType Directory -Force  
      
   # Download blobs into the local destination directory.
   $blobs | Get-AzureStorageBlobContent –Destination $DestinationFolder
      
   # end

6. In Windows PowerShell ISE, press CTRL+V to copy the script. Click File > Save. In the Save As dialog window, type the name of the script file, such as "mystoragescript." Click Save.

7. Now, you need to update the script variables based on your configuration settings. You must update the $SubscriptionName variable with your own subscription. You can keep the other variables as specified in the script or update them as you wish.

   • $SubscriptionName: You must update this variable with your own subscription name. Follow one of the following three ways to locate the name of your subscription:

   a. In Windows PowerShell ISE, click File > New to create a new script file. Copy the following script to the new script file and click Debug > Run. The following script will first ask your Azure account credentials to add your Azure account to the local PowerShell environment and then show all the subscriptions that are connected to the local PowerShell session. Take a note of the name of the subscription that you want to use while following this tutorial:

   Add-AzureAccount 
     Get-AzureSubscription | Format-Table SubscriptionName, IsDefault, IsCurrent, CurrentStorageAccountName

   b. To locate and copy your subscription name in the Azure portal, in the Hub menu on the left, click Subscriptions. Copy the name of subscription that you want to use while running the scripts in this guide.

   

   c. To locate and copy your subscription name in the Azure Classic Portal, scroll down and click Settings on the left side of the portal. Click Subscriptions to see a list of your subscriptions. Copy the name of subscription that you want to use while running the scripts given in this guide.

   

   • $StorageAccountName: Use the given name in the script or enter a new name for your storage account. Important: The name of the storage account must be unique in Azure. It must be lowercase, too!
   • $Location: Use the given "West US" in the script or choose other Azure locations, such as East US, North Europe, and so on.
   • $ContainerName: Use the given name in the script or enter a new name for your container.
   • $ImageToUpload: Enter a path to a picture on your local computer, such as: "C:\Images\HelloWorld.png".
   • $DestinationFolder: Enter a path to a local directory to store files downloaded from Azure Storage, such as: “C:\DownloadImages”.

8. After updating the script variables in the "mystoragescript.ps1" file, click File > Save. Then, click Debug > Run or press F5 to run the script.

After the script runs, you should have a local destination folder that includes the downloaded image file. The following screenshot shows an example output:

Note

The "Getting started with Azure Storage and PowerShell in 5 minutes" section provided a quick introduction on how to use Azure PowerShell with Azure Storage. For detailed information and instructions, we encourage you to read the following sections.

Prerequisites for using Azure PowerShell with Azure Storage

You need an Azure subscription and account to run the PowerShell cmdlets given in this guide, as described above.

Azure PowerShell is a module that provides cmdlets to manage Azure through Windows PowerShell. For information on installing and setting up Azure PowerShell, see How to install and configure Azure PowerShell. We recommend that you download and install or upgrade to the latest Azure PowerShell module before using this guide.

You can run the cmdlets in the standard Windows PowerShell console or the Windows PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE). For example, to open Windows PowerShell ISE, go to the Start menu, type Administrative Tools and click to run it. In the Administrative Tools window, right-click Windows PowerShell ISE, click Run as Administrator.

How to manage storage accounts in Azure

Let's take a look at managing storage accounts in Azure with PowerShell

How to set a default Azure subscription

To manage Azure Storage using Azure PowerShell, you need to authenticate your client environment with Azure via Azure Active Directory authentication or certificate-based authentication. For detailed information, see How to install and configure Azure PowerShell tutorial. This guide uses the Azure Active Directory authentication.

1. In Windows PowerShell ISE, type the following command to add your Azure account to the local PowerShell environment:

   Add-AzureAccount

2. In the “Sign in to Microsoft Azure” window, type the email address and password associated with your account. Azure authenticates and saves the credential information, and then closes the window.

3. Next, run the following command to view the Azure accounts in your local PowerShell environment, and verify that your account is listed:

   Get-AzureAccount

4. Then, run the following cmdlet to view all the subscriptions that are connected to the local PowerShell session, and verify that your subscription is listed:

   Get-AzureSubscription | Format-Table SubscriptionName, IsDefault, IsCurrent, CurrentStorageAccountName`

5. To set a default Azure subscription, run the Select-AzureSubscription cmdlet:

   $SubscriptionName = 'Your subscription Name'
   Select-AzureSubscription -SubscriptionName $SubscriptionName –Default

6. Verify the name of the default subscription by running the Get-AzureSubscription cmdlet:

   Get-AzureSubscription -Default

7. To see all the available PowerShell cmdlets for Azure Storage, run:

   Get-Command -Module Azure -Noun *Storage*`

How to create a new Azure storage account

To use Azure storage, you will need a storage account. You can create a new Azure storage account after you have configured your computer to connect to your subscription.

1. Run the Get-AzureLocation cmdlet to find all the available datacenter locations:

   Get-AzureLocation | Format-Table -Property Name, AvailableServices, StorageAccountTypes

2. Next, run the New-AzureStorageAccount cmdlet to create a new storage account. The following example creates a new storage account in the "West US" datacenter.

   $location = "West US"
   $StorageAccountName = "yourstorageaccount"
   New-AzureStorageAccount –StorageAccountName $StorageAccountName -Location $location

Important

The name of your storage account must be unique within Azure and must be lowercase. For naming conventions and restrictions, see About Azure Storage Accounts and Naming and Referencing Containers, Blobs, and Metadata.

How to set a default Azure storage account

You can have multiple storage accounts in your subscription. You can choose one of them and set it as the default storage account for all the storage commands in the same PowerShell session. This enables you to run the Azure PowerShell storage commands without specifying the storage context explicitly.

1. To set a default storage account for your subscription, you can run the Set-AzureSubscription cmdlet.

   $SubscriptionName = "Your subscription name"
   $StorageAccountName = "yourstorageaccount"  
   Set-AzureSubscription -CurrentStorageAccountName $StorageAccountName -SubscriptionName $SubscriptionName

2. Next, run the Get-AzureSubscription cmdlet to verify that the storage account is associated with your default subscription account. This command returns the subscription properties on the current subscription including its current storage account.

   Get-AzureSubscription –Current

How to list all Azure storage accounts in a subscription

Each Azure subscription can have up to 100 storage accounts. For the most up-to-date information on limits, see Azure Subscription and Service Limits, Quotas, and Constraints.

Run the following cmdlet to find out the name and status of the storage accounts in the current subscription:

Get-AzureStorageAccount | Format-Table -Property StorageAccountName, Location, AccountType, StorageAccountStatus

How to create an Azure storage context

Azure storage context is an object in PowerShell to encapsulate the storage credentials. Using a storage context while running any subsequent cmdlet enables you to authenticate your request without specifying the storage account and its access key explicitly. You can create a storage context in many ways, such as using storage account name and access key, shared access signature (SAS) token, connection string, or anonymous. For more information, see New-AzureStorageContext.

Use one of the following three ways to create a storage context:

• Run the Get-AzureStorageKey cmdlet to find out the primary storage access key for your Azure storage account. Next, call the New-AzureStorageContext cmdlet to create a storage context:

   $StorageAccountName = "yourstorageaccount"
   $StorageAccountKey = Get-AzureStorageKey -StorageAccountName $StorageAccountName
   $Ctx = New-AzureStorageContext $StorageAccountName -StorageAccountKey $StorageAccountKey.Primary

• Generate a shared access signature token for an Azure storage container and use it to create a storage context:

   $sasToken = New-AzureStorageContainerSASToken -Container abc -Permission rl
   $Ctx = New-AzureStorageContext -StorageAccountName $StorageAccountName -SasToken $sasToken

  For more information, see New-AzureStorageContainerSASToken and Using Shared Access Signatures (SAS).

• In some cases, you may want to specify the service endpoints when you create a new storage context. This might be necessary when you have registered a custom domain name for your storage account with the Blob service or you want to use a shared access signature for accessing storage resources. Set the service endpoints in a connection string and use it to create a new storage context as shown below:

   $ConnectionString = "DefaultEndpointsProtocol=http;BlobEndpoint=<blobEndpoint>;QueueEndpoint=<QueueEndpoint>;TableEndpoint=<TableEndpoint>;AccountName=<AccountName>;AccountKey=<AccountKey>"
   $Ctx = New-AzureStorageContext -ConnectionString $ConnectionString

For more information on how to configure a storage connection string, see Configuring Connection Strings.

Now that you have set up your computer and learned how to manage subscriptions and storage accounts using Azure PowerShell, go to the next section to learn how to manage Azure blobs and blob snapshots.

How to retrieve and regenerate Azure storage keys

An Azure Storage account comes with two account keys. You can use the following cmdlet to retrieve your keys.

Get-AzureStorageKey -StorageAccountName "yourstorageaccount"

Use the following cmdlet to retrieve a specific key. Valid values are Primary and Secondary.

(Get-AzureStorageKey -StorageAccountName $StorageAccountName).Primary
	
(Get-AzureStorageKey -StorageAccountName $StorageAccountName).Secondary

If you would like to regenerate your keys, use the following cmdlet. Valid values for -KeyType are "Primary" and "Secondary"

New-AzureStorageKey -StorageAccountName $StorageAccountName -KeyType “Primary”
	
New-AzureStorageKey -StorageAccountName $StorageAccountName -KeyType “Secondary”

How to manage Azure blobs

Azure Blob storage is a service for storing large amounts of unstructured data, such as text or binary data, that can be accessed from anywhere in the world via HTTP or HTTPS. This section assumes that you are already familiar with the Azure Blob Storage Service concepts. For detailed information, see Get started with Blob storage using .NET and Blob Service Concepts.

How to create a container

Every blob in Azure storage must be in a container. You can create a private container using the New-AzureStorageContainer cmdlet:

$StorageContainerName = "yourcontainername"
New-AzureStorageContainer -Name $StorageContainerName -Permission Off

Note

There are three levels of anonymous read access: Off, Blob, and Container. To prevent anonymous access to blobs, set the Permission parameter to Off. By default, the new container is private and can be accessed only by the account owner. To allow anonymous public read access to blob resources, but not to container metadata or to the list of blobs in the container, set the Permission parameter to Blob. To allow full public read access to blob resources, container metadata, and the list of blobs in the container, set the Permission parameter to Container. For more information, see Manage anonymous read access to containers and blobs.

How to upload a blob into a container

Azure Blob Storage supports block blobs and page blobs. For more information, see Understanding Block Blobs, Append BLobs, and Page Blobs.

To upload blobs in to a container, you can use the Set-AzureStorageBlobContent cmdlet. By default, this command uploads the local files to a block blob. To specify the type for the blob, you can use the -BlobType parameter.

The following example runs the Get-ChildItem cmdlet to get all the files in the specified folder, and then passes them to the next cmdlet by using the pipeline operator. The Set-AzureStorageBlobContent cmdlet uploads the local files to your container:

Get-ChildItem –Path C:\Images\* | Set-AzureStorageBlobContent -Container "yourcontainername"

How to download blobs from a container

The following example demonstrates how to download blobs from a container. The example first establishes a connection to Azure Storage using the storage account context, which includes the storage account name and its primary access key. Then, the example retrieves a blob reference using the Get-AzureStorageBlob cmdlet. Next, the example uses the Get-AzureStorageBlobContent cmdlet to download blobs into the local destination folder.

#Define the variables.
$ContainerName = "yourcontainername"
$DestinationFolder = "C:\DownloadImages"

#Define the storage account and context.
$StorageAccountName = "yourstorageaccount"
$StorageAccountKey = "Storage key for yourstorageaccount ends with =="
$Ctx = New-AzureStorageContext -StorageAccountName $StorageAccountName -StorageAccountKey $StorageAccountKey

#List all blobs in a container.
$blobs = Get-AzureStorageBlob -Container $ContainerName -Context $Ctx

#Download blobs from a container.
New-Item -Path $DestinationFolder -ItemType Directory -Force
$blobs | Get-AzureStorageBlobContent -Destination $DestinationFolder -Context $Ctx

How to copy blobs from one storage container to another

You can copy blobs across storage accounts and regions asynchronously. The following example demonstrates how to copy blobs from one storage container to another in two different storage accounts. The example first sets variables for source and destination storage accounts, and then creates a storage context for each account. Next, the example copies blobs from the source container to the destination container using the Start-AzureStorageBlobCopy cmdlet. The example assumes that the source and destination storage accounts and containers already exist.

#Define the source storage account and context.
$SourceStorageAccountName = "yoursourcestorageaccount"
$SourceStorageAccountKey = "Storage key for yoursourcestorageaccount"
$SrcContainerName = "yoursrccontainername"
$SourceContext = New-AzureStorageContext -StorageAccountName $SourceStorageAccountName -StorageAccountKey $SourceStorageAccountKey

#Define the destination storage account and context.
$DestStorageAccountName = "yourdeststorageaccount"
$DestStorageAccountKey = "Storage key for yourdeststorageaccount"
$DestContainerName = "destcontainername"
$DestContext = New-AzureStorageContext -StorageAccountName $DestStorageAccountName -StorageAccountKey $DestStorageAccountKey

#Get a reference to blobs in the source container.
$blobs = Get-AzureStorageBlob -Container $SrcContainerName -Context $SourceContext

#Copy blobs from one container to another.
$blobs| Start-AzureStorageBlobCopy -DestContainer $DestContainerName -DestContext $DestContext

Note that this example performs an asynchronous copy. You can monitor the status of each copy by running the Get-AzureStorageBlobCopyState cmdlet.

How to copy blobs from a secondary location

You can copy blobs from the secondary location of a RA-GRS-enabled account.

#define secondary storage context using a connection string constructed from secondary endpoints.
$SrcContext = New-AzureStorageContext -ConnectionString "DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=***;AccountKey=***;BlobEndpoint=http://***-secondary.blob.core.windows.net;FileEndpoint=http://***-secondary.file.core.windows.net;QueueEndpoint=http://***-secondary.queue.core.windows.net; TableEndpoint=http://***-secondary.table.core.windows.net;"
Start-AzureStorageBlobCopy –Container *** -Blob *** -Context $SrcContext –DestContainer *** -DestBlob *** -DestContext $DestContext

How to delete a blob

To delete a blob, first get a blob reference and then call the Remove-AzureStorageBlob cmdlet on it. The following example deletes all the blobs in a given container. The example first sets variables for a storage account, and then creates a storage context. Next, the example retrieves a blob reference using the Get-AzureStorageBlob cmdlet and runs the Remove-AzureStorageBlob cmdlet to remove blobs from a container in Azure storage.

#Define the storage account and context.
$StorageAccountName = "yourstorageaccount"
$StorageAccountKey = "Storage key for yourstorageaccount ends with =="
$ContainerName = "containername"
$Ctx = New-AzureStorageContext -StorageAccountName $StorageAccountName -StorageAccountKey $StorageAccountKey

#Get a reference to all the blobs in the container.
$blobs = Get-AzureStorageBlob -Container $ContainerName -Context $Ctx

#Delete blobs in a specified container.
$blobs| Remove-AzureStorageBlob

How to manage Azure blob snapshots

Azure lets you create a snapshot of a blob. A snapshot is a read-only version of a blob that's taken at a point in time. Once a snapshot has been created, it can be read, copied, or deleted, but not modified. Snapshots provide a way to back up a blob as it appears at a moment in time. For more information, see Creating a Snapshot of a Blob.

How to create a blob snapshot

To create a snaphot of a blob, first get a blob reference and then call the ICloudBlob.CreateSnapshot method on it. The following example first sets variables for a storage account, and then creates a storage context. Next, the example retrieves a blob reference using the Get-AzureStorageBlob cmdlet and runs the ICloudBlob.CreateSnapshot method to create a snapshot.

#Define the storage account and context.
$StorageAccountName = "yourstorageaccount"
$StorageAccountKey = "Storage key for yourstorageaccount ends with =="
$ContainerName = "yourcontainername"
$BlobName = "yourblobname"
$Ctx = New-AzureStorageContext -StorageAccountName $StorageAccountName -StorageAccountKey $StorageAccountKey

#Get a reference to a blob.
$blob = Get-AzureStorageBlob -Context $Ctx -Container $ContainerName -Blob $BlobName

#Create a snapshot of the blob.
$snap = $blob.ICloudBlob.CreateSnapshot()

How to list a blob's snapshots

You can create as many snapshots as you want for a blob. You can list the snapshots associated with your blob to track your current snapshots. The following example uses a predefined blob and calls the Get-AzureStorageBlob cmdlet to list the snapshots of that blob.

#Define the blob name.
$BlobName = "yourblobname"

#List the snapshots of a blob.
Get-AzureStorageBlob –Context $Ctx -Prefix $BlobName -Container $ContainerName  | Where-Object  { $_.ICloudBlob.IsSnapshot -and $_.Name -eq $BlobName }

How to copy a snapshot of a blob

You can copy a snapshot of a blob to restore the snapshot. For detailed information and restrictions, see Creating a Snapshot of a Blob. The following example first sets variables for a storage account, and then creates a storage context. Next, the example defines the container and blob name variables. The example retrieves a blob reference using the Get-AzureStorageBlob cmdlet and runs the ICloudBlob.CreateSnapshot method to create a snapshot. Then, the example runs the Start-AzureStorageBlobCopy cmdlet to copy the snapshot of a blob using the ICloudBlob object for the source blob. Be sure to update the variables based on your configuration before running the example. Note that the following example assumes that the source and destination containers, and the source blob already exist.

#Define the storage account and context.
$StorageAccountName = "yourstorageaccount"
$StorageAccountKey = "Storage key for yourstorageaccount ends with =="
$Ctx = New-AzureStorageContext -StorageAccountName $StorageAccountName -StorageAccountKey $StorageAccountKey

#Define the variables.
$SrcContainerName = "yoursourcecontainername"
$DestContainerName = "yourdestcontainername"
$SrcBlobName = "yourblobname"
$DestBlobName = "CopyBlobName"

#Get a reference to a blob.
$blob = Get-AzureStorageBlob -Context $Ctx -Container $SrcContainerName -Blob $SrcBlobName

#Create a snapshot of a blob.
$snap = $blob.ICloudBlob.CreateSnapshot()

#Copy the snapshot to another container.
Start-AzureStorageBlobCopy –Context $Ctx -ICloudBlob $snap -DestBlob $DestBlobName -DestContainer $DestContainerName

Now that you have learned how to manage Azure blobs and blob snapshots with Azure PowerShell, go to the next section to learn how to manage tables, queues, and files.

How to manage Azure tables and table entities

Azure Table storage service is a NoSQL datastore, which you can use to store and query huge sets of structured, non-relational data. The main components of the service are tables, entities, and properties. A table is a collection of entities. An entity is a set of properties. Each entity can have up to 252 properties, which are all name-value pairs. This section assumes that you are already familiar with the Azure Table Storage Service concepts. For detailed information, see Understanding the Table Service Data Model and Get started with Azure Table storage using .NET.

In the following subsections, you’ll learn how to manage Azure Table storage service using Azure PowerShell. The scenarios covered include creating, deleting, and retrieving tables, as well as adding, querying, and deleting table entities.

How to create a table

Every table must reside in an Azure storage account. The following example demonstrates how to create a table in Azure Storage. The example first establishes a connection to Azure Storage using the storage account context, which includes the storage account name and its access key. Next, it uses the New-AzureStorageTable cmdlet to create a table in Azure Storage.

#Define the storage account and context.
$StorageAccountName = "yourstorageaccount"
$StorageAccountKey = "Storage key for yourstorageaccount ends with =="
$Ctx = New-AzureStorageContext $StorageAccountName -StorageAccountKey $StorageAccountKey

#Create a new table.
$tabName = "yourtablename"
New-AzureStorageTable –Name $tabName –Context $Ctx

How to retrieve a table

You can query and retrieve one or all tables in a Storage account. The following example demonstrates how to retrieve a given table using the Get-AzureStorageTable cmdlet.

#Retrieve a table.
$tabName = "yourtablename"
Get-AzureStorageTable –Name $tabName –Context $Ctx

If you call the Get-AzureStorageTable cmdlet without any parameters, it gets all storage tables for a Storage account.

How to delete a table

You can delete a table from a storage account by using the Remove-AzureStorageTable cmdlet.

#Delete a table.
$tabName = "yourtablename"
Remove-AzureStorageTable –Name $tabName –Context $Ctx

How to manage table entities

Currently, Azure PowerShell does not provide cmdlets to manage table entities directly. To perform operations on table entities, you can use the classes given in the Azure Storage Client Library for .NET.

How to add table entities

To add an entity to a table, first create an object that defines your entity properties. An entity can have up to 255 properties, including 3 system properties: PartitionKey, RowKey, and Timestamp. You are responsible for inserting and updating the values of PartitionKey and RowKey. The server manages the value of Timestamp, which cannot be modified. Together the PartitionKey and RowKey uniquely identify every entity within a table.

• PartitionKey: Determines the partition that the entity is stored in.
• RowKey: Uniquely identifies the entity within the partition.

You may define up to 252 custom properties for an entity. For more information, see Understanding the Table Service Data Model.

The following example demonstrates how to add entities to a table. The example shows how to retrieve the employee table and add several entities into it. First, it establishes a connection to Azure Storage using the storage account context, which includes the storage account name and its access key. Next, it retrieves the given table using the Get-AzureStorageTable cmdlet. If the table does not exist, the New-AzureStorageTable cmdlet is used to create a table in Azure Storage. Next, the example defines a custom function Add-Entity to add entities to the table by specifying each entity’s partition and row key. The Add-Entity function calls the New-Object cmdlet on the Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Table.DynamicTableEntity class to create an entity object. Later, the example calls the Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Table.TableOperation.Insert method on this entity object to add it to a table.

#Function Add-Entity: Adds an employee entity to a table.
function Add-Entity() {
    [CmdletBinding()]
    param(
       $table,
       [String]$partitionKey,
       [String]$rowKey,
       [String]$name,
       [Int]$id
    )

  $entity = New-Object -TypeName Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Table.DynamicTableEntity -ArgumentList $partitionKey, $rowKey
  $entity.Properties.Add("Name", $name)
  $entity.Properties.Add("ID", $id)

  $result = $table.CloudTable.Execute([Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Table.TableOperation]::Insert($entity))
}

#Define the storage account and context.
$StorageAccountName = "yourstorageaccount"
$StorageAccountKey = Get-AzureStorageKey -StorageAccountName $StorageAccountName
$Ctx = New-AzureStorageContext $StorageAccountName -StorageAccountKey $StorageAccountKey.Primary
$TableName = "Employees"

#Retrieve the table if it already exists.
$table = Get-AzureStorageTable –Name $TableName -Context $Ctx -ErrorAction Ignore

#Create a new table if it does not exist.
if ($table -eq $null)
{
   $table = New-AzureStorageTable –Name $TableName -Context $Ctx
}

#Add multiple entities to a table.
Add-Entity -Table $table -PartitionKey Partition1 -RowKey Row1 -Name Chris -Id 1
Add-Entity -Table $table -PartitionKey Partition1 -RowKey Row2 -Name Jessie -Id 2
Add-Entity -Table $table -PartitionKey Partition2 -RowKey Row1 -Name Christine -Id 3
Add-Entity -Table $table -PartitionKey Partition2 -RowKey Row2 -Name Steven -Id 4

How to query table entities

To query a table, use the Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Table.TableQuery class. The following example assumes that you’ve already run the script given in the How to add entities section of this guide. The example first establishes a connection to Azure Storage using the storage context, which includes the storage account name and its access key. Next, it tries to retrieve the previously created “Employees” table using the Get-AzureStorageTable cmdlet. Calling the New-Object cmdlet on the Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Table.TableQuery class creates a new query object. The example looks for the entities that have an ‘ID’ column whose value is 1 as specified in a string filter. For detailed information, see Querying Tables and Entities. When you run this query, it returns all entities that match the filter criteria.

#Define the storage account and context.
$StorageAccountName = "yourstorageaccount"
$StorageAccountKey = Get-AzureStorageKey -StorageAccountName $StorageAccountName
$Ctx = New-AzureStorageContext –StorageAccountName $StorageAccountName -StorageAccountKey $StorageAccountKey.Primary
$TableName = "Employees"

#Get a reference to a table.
$table = Get-AzureStorageTable –Name $TableName -Context $Ctx

#Create a table query.
$query = New-Object Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Table.TableQuery

#Define columns to select.
$list = New-Object System.Collections.Generic.List[string]
$list.Add("RowKey")
$list.Add("ID")
$list.Add("Name")

#Set query details.
$query.FilterString = "ID gt 0"
$query.SelectColumns = $list
$query.TakeCount = 20

#Execute the query.
$entities = $table.CloudTable.ExecuteQuery($query)

#Display entity properties with the table format.
$entities  | Format-Table PartitionKey, RowKey, @{ Label = "Name"; Expression={$_.Properties["Name"].StringValue}}, @{ Label = "ID"; Expression={$_.Properties["ID"].Int32Value}} -AutoSize

How to delete table entities

You can delete an entity using its partition and row keys. The following example assumes that you’ve already run the script given in the How to add entities section of this guide. The example first establishes a connection to Azure Storage using the storage context, which includes the storage account name and its access key. Next, it tries to retrieve the previously created “Employees” table using the Get-AzureStorageTable cmdlet. If the table exists, the example calls the Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Table.TableOperation.Retrieve method to retrieve an entity based on its partition and row key values. Then, pass the entity to the Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Table.TableOperation.Delete method to delete.

#Define the storage account and context.
$StorageAccountName = "yourstorageaccount"
$StorageAccountKey = Get-AzureStorageKey -StorageAccountName $StorageAccountName
$Ctx = New-AzureStorageContext –StorageAccountName $StorageAccountName -StorageAccountKey $StorageAccountKey.Primary

#Retrieve the table.
$TableName = "Employees"
$table = Get-AzureStorageTable -Name $TableName -Context $Ctx -ErrorAction Ignore

#If the table exists, start deleting its entities.
if ($table -ne $null) 
{
    #Together the PartitionKey and RowKey uniquely identify every  
    #entity within a table.
    $tableResult = $table.CloudTable.Execute([Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Table.TableOperation]::Retrieve("Partition2", "Row1"))
    $entity = $tableResult.Result
    if ($entity -ne $null)
    {
        #Delete the entity.
        $table.CloudTable.Execute([Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Table.TableOperation]::Delete($entity))
    }
}

How to manage Azure queues and queue messages

Azure Queue storage is a service for storing large numbers of messages that can be accessed from anywhere in the world via authenticated calls using HTTP or HTTPS. This section assumes that you are already familiar with the Azure Queue Storage Service concepts. For detailed information, see Get started with Azure Queue storage using .NET.

This section will show you how to manage Azure Queue storage service using Azure PowerShell. The scenarios covered include inserting and deleting queue messages, as well as creating, deleting, and retrieving queues.

How to create a queue

The following example first establishes a connection to Azure Storage using the storage account context, which includes the storage account name and its access key. Next, it calls New-AzureStorageQueue cmdlet to create a queue named ‘queuename’.

#Define the storage account and context.
$StorageAccountName = "yourstorageaccount"
$StorageAccountKey = Get-AzureStorageKey -StorageAccountName $StorageAccountName
$Ctx = New-AzureStorageContext –StorageAccountName $StorageAccountName -StorageAccountKey $StorageAccountKey.Primary
$QueueName = "queuename"
$Queue = New-AzureStorageQueue –Name $QueueName -Context $Ctx

For information on naming conventions for Azure Queue Service, see Naming Queues and Metadata.

How to retrieve a queue

You can query and retrieve a specific queue or a list of all the queues in a Storage account. The following example demonstrates how to retrieve a specified queue using the Get-AzureStorageQueue cmdlet.

#Retrieve a queue.
$QueueName = "queuename"
$Queue = Get-AzureStorageQueue –Name $QueueName –Context $Ctx

If you call the Get-AzureStorageQueue cmdlet without any parameters, it gets a list of all the queues.

How to delete a queue

To delete a queue and all the messages contained in it, call the Remove-AzureStorageQueue cmdlet. The following example shows how to delete a specified queue using the Remove-AzureStorageQueue cmdlet.

#Delete a queue.
$QueueName = "yourqueuename"
Remove-AzureStorageQueue –Name $QueueName –Context $Ctx

How to insert a message into a queue

To insert a message into an existing queue, first create a new instance of the Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Queue.CloudQueueMessage class. Next, call the AddMessage method. A CloudQueueMessage can be created from either a string (in UTF-8 format) or a byte array.

The following example demonstrates how to add message to a queue. The example first establishes a connection to Azure Storage using the storage account context, which includes the storage account name and its access key. Next, it retrieves the specified queue using the Get-AzureStorageQueue cmdlet. If the queue exists, the New-Object cmdlet is used to create an instance of the Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Queue.CloudQueueMessage class. Later, the example calls the AddMessage method on this message object to add it to a queue. Here is code which retrieves a queue and inserts the message 'MessageInfo':

#Define the storage account and context.
$StorageAccountName = "yourstorageaccount"
$StorageAccountKey = Get-AzureStorageKey -StorageAccountName $StorageAccountName
$Ctx = New-AzureStorageContext –StorageAccountName $StorageAccountName -StorageAccountKey $StorageAccountKey.Primary

#Retrieve the queue.
$QueueName = "queuename"
$Queue = Get-AzureStorageQueue -Name $QueueName -Context $ctx

#If the queue exists, add a new message.
if ($Queue -ne $null) {
   # Create a new message using a constructor of the CloudQueueMessage class.
   $QueueMessage = New-Object -TypeName Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Queue.CloudQueueMessage -ArgumentList MessageInfo

   # Add a new message to the queue.
   $Queue.CloudQueue.AddMessage($QueueMessage)
}

How to de-queue at the next message

Your code de-queues a message from a queue in two steps. When you call the Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Queue.CloudQueue.GetMessage method, you get the next message in a queue. A message returned from GetMessage becomes invisible to any other code reading messages from this queue. To finish removing the message from the queue, you must also call the Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Storage.Queue.CloudQueue.DeleteMessage method. This two-step process of removing a message assures that if your code fails to process a message due to hardware or software failure, another instance of your code can get the same message and try again. Your code calls DeleteMessage right after the message has been processed.

# Define the storage account and context.
$StorageAccountName = "yourstorageaccount"
$StorageAccountKey = Get-AzureStorageKey -StorageAccountName $StorageAccountName
$Ctx = New-AzureStorageContext –StorageAccountName $StorageAccountName -StorageAccountKey $StorageAccountKey.Primary

# Retrieve the queue.
$QueueName = "queuename"
$Queue = Get-AzureStorageQueue -Name $QueueName -Context $ctx

$InvisibleTimeout = [System.TimeSpan]::FromSeconds(10)

# Get the message object from the queue.
$QueueMessage = $Queue.CloudQueue.GetMessage($InvisibleTimeout)
# Delete the message.
$Queue.CloudQueue.DeleteMessage($QueueMessage)

How to manage Azure file shares and files

Azure File storage offers shared storage for applications using the standard SMB protocol. Microsoft Azure virtual machines and cloud services can share file data across application components via mounted shares, and on-premises applications can access file data in a share via the File storage API or Azure PowerShell.

For more information on Azure File storage, see Get started with Azure File storage on Windows and File Service REST API.

How to set and query storage analytics

You can use Azure Storage Analytics to collect metrics for your Azure storage accounts and log data about requests sent to your storage account. You can use storage metrics to monitor the health of a storage account, and storage logging to diagnose and troubleshoot issues with your storage account. By default, storage metrics are not enabled for your storage services. You can enable monitoring using the Azure portal or Windows PowerShell, or programmatically using the storage client library. Storage logging happens server-side and enables you to record details for both successful and failed requests in your storage account. These logs enable you to see details of read, write, and delete operations against your tables, queues, and blobs as well as the reasons for failed requests.

To learn how to enable and view Storage Metrics data using PowerShell, see How to enable Storage Metrics using PowerShell.

To learn how to enable and retrieve Storage Logging data using PowerShell, see How to enable Storage Logging using PowerShell and Finding your Storage Logging log data. For detailed information on using Storage Metrics and Storage Logging to troubleshoot storage issues, see Monitoring, Diagnosing, and Troubleshooting Microsoft Azure Storage.

How to manage Shared Access Signature (SAS) and Stored Access Policy

Shared access signatures are an important part of the security model for any application using Azure Storage. They are useful for providing limited permissions to your storage account to clients that should not have the account key. By default, only the owner of the storage account may access blobs, tables, and queues within that account. If your service or application needs to make these resources available to other clients without sharing your access key, you have three options:

• Set a container's permissions to permit anonymous read access to the container and its blobs. This is not allowed for tables or queues.
• Use a shared access signature that grants restricted access rights to containers, blobs, queues, and tables for a specific time interval.
• Use a stored access policy to obtain an additional level of control over shared access signatures for a container or its blobs, for a queue, or for a table. The stored access policy allows you to change the start time, expiry time, or permissions for a signature, or to revoke it after it has been issued.

A shared access signature can be in one of two forms:

• Ad hoc SAS: When you create an ad hoc SAS, the start time, expiry time, and permissions for the SAS are all specified on the SAS URI. This type of SAS may be created on a container, blob, table, or queue and it is non-revocable.
• SAS with stored access policy: A stored access policy is defined on a resource container a blob container, table, or queue - and you can use it to manage constraints for one or more shared access signatures. When you associate a SAS with a stored access policy, the SAS inherits the constraints - the start time, expiry time, and permissions - defined for the stored access policy. This type of SAS is revocable.

For more information, see Using Shared Access Signatures (SAS) and Manage anonymous read access to containers and blobs.

In the next sections, you will learn how to create a shared access signature token and stored access policy for Azure tables. Azure PowerShell provides similar cmdlets for containers, blobs, and queues as well. To run the scripts in this section, download the Azure PowerShell version 0.8.14 or later.

How to create a policy-based Shared Access Signature token

Use the New-AzureStorageTableStoredAccessPolicy cmdlet to create a new stored access policy. Then, call the New-AzureStorageTableSASToken cmdlet to create a new policy-based shared access signature token for an Azure Storage table.

$policy = "policy1"
New-AzureStorageTableStoredAccessPolicy -Name $tableName -Policy $policy -Permission "rd" -StartTime "2015-01-01" -ExpiryTime "2016-01-01" -Context $Ctx
New-AzureStorageTableSASToken -Name $tableName -Policy $policy -Context $Ctx

How to create an ad hoc (non-revocable) Shared Access Signature token

Use the New-AzureStorageTableSASToken cmdlet to create a new ad hoc (non-revocable) Shared Access Signature token for an Azure Storage table:

New-AzureStorageTableSASToken -Name $tableName -Permission "rqud" -StartTime "2015-01-01" -ExpiryTime "2015-02-01" -Context $Ctx

How to create a stored access policy

Use the New-AzureStorageTableStoredAccessPolicy cmdlet to create a new stored access policy for an Azure Storage table:

$policy = "policy1"
New-AzureStorageTableStoredAccessPolicy -Name $tableName -Policy $policy -Permission "rd" -StartTime "2015-01-01" -ExpiryTime "2016-01-01" -Context $Ctx

How to update a stored access policy

Use the Set-AzureStorageTableStoredAccessPolicy cmdlet to update an existing stored access policy for an Azure Storage table:

Set-AzureStorageTableStoredAccessPolicy -Policy $policy -Table $tableName -Permission "rd" -NoExpiryTime -NoStartTime -Context $Ctx

How to delete a stored access policy

Use the Remove-AzureStorageTableStoredAccessPolicy cmdlet to delete a stored access policy on an Azure Storage table:

Remove-AzureStorageTableStoredAccessPolicy -Policy $policy -Table $tableName -Context $Ctx

How to use Azure Storage for U.S. government and Azure China

An Azure environment is an independent deployment of Microsoft Azure, such as Azure Government for U.S. government, AzureCloud for global Azure, and AzureChinaCloud for Azure operated by 21Vianet in China. You can deploy new Azure environments for U.S government and Azure China.

To use Azure Storage with AzureChinaCloud, you need to create a storage context that is associated with AzureChinaCloud. Follow these steps to get you started:

1. Run the Get-AzureEnvironment cmdlet to see the available Azure environments:

   Get-AzureEnvironment

2. Add an Azure China account to Windows PowerShell:

   Add-AzureAccount –Environment AzureChinaCloud

3. Create a storage context for an AzureChinaCloud account:

   $Ctx = New-AzureStorageContext -StorageAccountName $AccountName -StorageAccountKey $AccountKey> -Environment AzureChinaCloud

To use Azure Storage with U.S. Azure Government, you should define a new environment and then create a new storage context with this environment:

1. Run the Get-AzureEnvironment cmdlet to see the available Azure environments:

   Get-AzureEnvironment

2. Add an Azure US Government account to Windows PowerShell:

   Add-AzureAccount –Environment AzureUSGovernment

3. Create a storage context for an AzureUSGovernment account:

   $Ctx = New-AzureStorageContext -StorageAccountName $AccountName -StorageAccountKey $AccountKey> -Environment AzureUSGovernment

For more information, see:

• Microsoft Azure Government Developer Guide.
• Overview of Differences When Creating an Application on China Service

Next Steps

In this guide, you've learned how to manage Azure Storage with Azure PowerShell. Here are some related articles and resources for learning more about them.

• Azure Storage Documentation
• Azure Storage PowerShell Cmdlets
• Windows PowerShell Reference