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Managing Blob Containers on Azure VM

Requirements​

The Nautilus DevOps team needs to set up an Azure Virtual Machine (VM) to interact with an Azure Blob Storage container for storing and retrieving data. The team must create a private storage account, configure Blob Storage, and test the functionality.

Task​

  1. Azure Virtual Machine Setup:
  • The VM named xfusion-vm already exists in the East US region.
  1. Create a Private Storage Account and Blob Container:
  • Create a storage account named xfusionstor26890 in the East US region with Locally-redundant storage (LRS).
  • Create a private Blob container named xfusion-container26890.
  1. Retrieve Storage Account Key:
  • Get the storage account's access key to configure access for the application.
  1. Create a Test File:
  • SSH into the VM and create a file named testfile.txt in the /home/azureuser directory with content: "this is a test file".
  1. Upload the File to Blob Storage:

  • Upload the testfile.txt file to the Blob container xfusion-container26890 using the Azure CLI command:

    az storage blob upload --account-name xfusionstor26890 --account-key <access-key> --container-name xfusion-container26890 --name testfile.txt --file /home/azureuser/testfile.txt

Note

This workflow uses account key-based auth because it matches the exact task validation behavior.

Prerequisites​

  • Azure CLI installed and logged in.
  • Existing VM xfusion-vm with SSH access.
  • Resource group available in East US.

Steps​

RG=$(az group list --query "[?contains(name, 'kml')].name" --output tsv)
STORAGE_ACCOUNT="xfusionstor26890"
CONTAINER_NAME="xfusion-container26890"
LOCATION="eastus"
VM_NAME="xfusion-vm"
VM_USER="azureuser"

az storage account create \
  --name "$STORAGE_ACCOUNT" \
  --resource-group "$RG" \
  --location "$LOCATION" \
  --sku Standard_LRS \
  --kind StorageV2

az storage container create \
  --name "$CONTAINER_NAME" \
  --account-name "$STORAGE_ACCOUNT" \
  --public-access off

KEY=$(az storage account keys list \
  --resource-group "$RG" \
  --account-name "$STORAGE_ACCOUNT" \
  --query "[0].value" -o tsv)

PUBLIC_IP=$(az vm show --show-details \
  --name "$VM_NAME" \
  --resource-group "$RG" \
  --query publicIps -o tsv)

echo "ssh ${VM_USER}@${PUBLIC_IP}"
echo "echo 'this is a test file' > /home/azureuser/testfile.txt"

echo "az storage blob upload --account-name ${STORAGE_ACCOUNT} --account-key <key> --container-name ${CONTAINER_NAME} --name testfile.txt --file /home/azureuser/testfile.txt"

Verification​

  • Verify storage account exists:
    • az storage account show --name "$STORAGE_ACCOUNT" --resource-group "$RG" --query name -o tsv
  • Verify container exists:
    • az storage container show --name "$CONTAINER_NAME" --account-name "$STORAGE_ACCOUNT" --account-key "$KEY" --query name -o tsv
  • Verify blob upload:
    • az storage blob list --account-name "$STORAGE_ACCOUNT" --account-key "$KEY" --container-name "$CONTAINER_NAME" --query "[?name=='testfile.txt'].name" -o tsv

Resources​