Provide storage for the public website

Table of contents

Step 1: Create a storage account with high availability.
Step 2: Create a blob storage container with anonymous read access
Step 3: Practice uploading files and testing access.
Step 4: Configure soft delete
Step 5: Configure blob versioning

This is a step guide with screen grabs on how to easily set up storage for a public website.

Step 1: Create a storage account with high availability.

1. Create a storage account for the internal private company documents.

• In the portal, search for and select Storage accounts.

• Select + Create.

• For resource group select new. Give your resource group a name and select OK.
• Set the Storage account name to publicwebsite. Make sure the storage account name is unique by adding an identifier.
• Take the defaults for other settings.
• Select Review and then Create.

• Wait for the storage account to deploy, and then select Go to resource.

1. This storage requires high availability if there’s a regional outage. Additionally, enable read access to the secondary region.

• In the storage account, in the Data management section, select the Redundancy blade.
• Ensure Read-access Geo-redundant storage is selected.
• Review the primary and secondary location information.

1. Information on the public website should be accessible without requiring customers to login.

• In the storage account, in the Settings section, select the Configuration blade.
• Ensure the Allow blob anonymous access setting is Enabled.
• Be sure to Save your changes.

Step 2: Create a blob storage container with anonymous read access

1. The public website has various images and documents. Create a blob storage container for the content.

• In your storage account, in the Data storage section, select the Containers blade.
• Select + Container.

• Ensure the Name of the container is public.
• Select Create.

1. Customers should be able to view the images without being authenticated. Configure anonymous read access for the public container blobs.

• Select your public container.
• On the Overview blade, select Change access level.

• Ensure the Public access level is Blob (anonymous read access for blobs only). -Select OK.

Step 3: Practice uploading files and testing access.

1. For testing, upload a file to the public container. The type of file doesn’t matter. A small image or text file is a good choice.

• Ensure you are viewing your container.
• Select Upload.
• Browse to files and select a file. Browse to a file of your choice.

• Select Upload.
• Close the upload window, Refresh the page and ensure your file was uploaded.

1. Determine the URL for your uploaded file. Open a browser and test the URL.

• Select your uploaded file.
• On the Overview tab, copy the URL.

• Paste the URL into a new browser tab.
• If you have uploaded an image file it will display in the browser. Other file types should be downloaded.

Step 4: Configure soft delete

1. It’s important that the website documents can be restored if they’re deleted. Configure blob soft delete for 21 days.

• Go to the Overview blade of the storage account.
• On the Properties page, locate the Blob service section.

• Select the Blob soft delete setting.
  

• Ensure the Enable soft delete for blobs is checked.

• Change the Keep deleted blobs for (in days setting is 21).

• Notice you can also Enable soft delete for containers.

• Save your changes.

1. If something gets deleted, you need to practice using soft delete to restore the files.

• Navigate to your container where you uploaded a file.
• Select the file you uploaded and then select Delete.
• Select OK to confirm deleting the file.

• On the container Overview page, toggle the slider Show deleted blobs. This toggle is to the right of the search box.

• Select your deleted file, and use the ellipses on the far right, to Undelete the file.
• Refresh the container and confirm the file has been restored.

Step 5: Configure blob versioning

1. It’s important to keep track of the different website product document versions.

• Go to the Overview blade of the storage account.
• In the Properties section, locate the Blob service section.
• Select the Versioning setting.

• Ensure the Enable versioning for blobs**** checkbox is checked.
• Notice your options to keep all versions or delete versions after.
• Don’t forget to Save your changes.

1. As you have time experiment with restoring previous blob versions.

• Upload another version of your container file. This overwrites your existing file.
• Your previous file version is listed on Show deleted blobs page.