Windows Azure Storage Services

1. Storage Services
Pavlo Revenkov
EPAM Cloud Computing Competency Center
Email: pavlo_revenkov@epam.com
Skype: rp_risingstar

2. Data management services
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Web-role Worker-role
Worker-role
Worker-role
Web-role
Drive
SQL Azure
Blobs
Tables
Queues

3. Common information
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• Access via REST API:
• http://<storage account>.table.core.windows.net/<table>
• http://<storage account>.queue.core.windows.net/<queue>
• http://<storage account>.blob.core.windows.net/<container>/<blob>
• Replication:
• Automatic triplication
• Emulation:
• Emulation is possible with some restrictions
• CDN support

4. Windows Azure Subscription
Subscription
Message size:
64 KB.
Two types:
• Block;
• Page.
Cloud services
SQL Azure
Databases
Storage Account
(200 TB)
Record size:
1 MB
Block blob max size:
200 GB
Properties count:
252
Page blob max size:
1 TB
Tables
Queues
Blobs
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5. Tables
• NoSQL storage for structured non-relational data
• Table records (entities) are not described by predefined schema
• Mandatory fields:
• PartitionKey
• RowKey
• Timestamp
• Two types of entity declaration:
• ITableEntity interface
• TableEntity class
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6. Queues
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• Message queue accessible via REST API
• Frequent usages examples:
• Asynchronous messages processing
• Roles interaction
Worker-role
Web-role
Queue
Worker-role
Web-role
Worker-role

7. Blobs
• Object-oriented storage
• Two types:
• Block (max size – 200 GB)
• Page (max size – 1 TB)
• Blobs are stored in containers:
• Each storage account can have unlimited count of containers
• Each container can have unlimited count of blobs
• MIME-type definition support
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8. Workflow
var storageAccount = CloudStorageAccount.Parse(
ConfigurationManager
.ConnectionStrings[ConnectionStringSetting]
.ConnectionString);
var tableClient = storageAccount.CreateCloudTableClient();
var queueClient = storageAccount.CreateCloudQueueClient();
var blobClient
= storageAccount.CreateCloudBlobClient();
Tables:
var table
var context
= tableClient.GetTableReference(tableName);
= tableClient.GetTableServiceContext();
Queues:
var queue
= queueClient.GetQueueReference(queueAddress);
Blobs:
var container = blobClient.GetContainerReference(containerName);
var pageBlob = container.GetPageBlobReference(blobName);
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9. Demo
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10. References
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How to Use the Table/Queue/Blob Storage Service
 https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/net/how-to-guides/table-services/
 https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/net/how-to-guides/queue-service/
 https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/net/how-to-guides/blob-storage/
Differences between the Storage Emulator and Windows
Azure Storage Services
 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/gg433135

11. Questions?
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