Blob, File, Queue and Table storage: which one to use

Open PowerShell and load your storage account name from Lesson 21:

$st = (Get-Content C:\azure-lab\storage.txt)
$id = az storage account show --resource-group rg-saat-data --name $st --query id -o tsv
$me = az ad signed-in-user show --query id -o tsv

1Blob: add an append blob for a log

Run this:

Set-Content -Path C:\azure-lab\app.log -Value 'start'
az storage blob upload --account-name $st --auth-mode login --container-name lab --name app.log --file C:\azure-lab\app.log --type append -o none
az storage blob list --account-name $st --auth-mode login --container-name lab --query "[].{name:name, type:properties.blobType, bytes:properties.contentLength}" -o table

You should see this:

Name       Type        Bytes
---------  ----------  -------
app.log    AppendBlob  7
hello.txt  BlockBlob   22

2Files: create a share and upload a file

Run this:

az storage share-rm create --resource-group rg-saat-data --storage-account $st --name share-lab --quota 5 -o none
az storage file upload --account-name $st --share-name share-lab --source C:\azure-lab\hello.txt -o none
az storage file list --account-name $st --share-name share-lab --query "[].name" -o tsv

You should see something like this:

WARNING: 
There are no credentials provided in your command and environment, we will query for account key for your storage account.
It is recommended to provide --connection-string, --account-key or --sas-token in your command as credentials.
...
hello.txt

share-rm works through Azure Resource Manager, so your Owner role is enough. The file commands fell back to the account key, which the warning tells you. Lesson 25 sets up identity-based access instead.

3Queue and Table: add the data roles

Run this, then wait two minutes:

foreach ($r in 'Storage Queue Data Contributor', 'Storage Table Data Contributor') {
    az role assignment create --assignee $me --role $r --scope $id -o none
}
Start-Sleep -Seconds 120

4Queue: send, peek, receive and delete

Run this:

az storage queue create --account-name $st --auth-mode login --name q-orders -o none
az storage message put --account-name $st --auth-mode login --queue-name q-orders --content 'order 1001' -o none
az storage message peek --account-name $st --auth-mode login --queue-name q-orders --query "[].{content:content, dequeueCount:dequeueCount}" -o table
$m = az storage message get --account-name $st --auth-mode login --queue-name q-orders | ConvertFrom-Json
az storage message delete --account-name $st --auth-mode login --queue-name q-orders --id $m.id --pop-receipt $m.popReceipt
az storage message peek --account-name $st --auth-mode login --queue-name q-orders -o tsv

You should see this:

Content     DequeueCount
----------  --------------
order 1001  0

Peek only looks; get takes the message and hides it; delete removes it for good. The last peek prints nothing because the queue is empty.

5Table: insert and query rows

Run this:

az storage table create --account-name $st --auth-mode login --name orders -o none
az storage entity insert --account-name $st --auth-mode login --table-name orders --entity PartitionKey=pune RowKey=1001 status=packed -o none
az storage entity insert --account-name $st --auth-mode login --table-name orders --entity PartitionKey=pune RowKey=1002 status=shipped -o none
az storage entity insert --account-name $st --auth-mode login --table-name orders --entity PartitionKey=delhi RowKey=2001 status=packed -o none
az storage entity query --account-name $st --auth-mode login --table-name orders --filter "PartitionKey eq 'pune'" -o table

You should see this:

PartitionKey    RowKey    Status
--------------  --------  --------
pune            1001      packed
pune            1002      shipped

A query on PartitionKey goes straight to one partition, which is fast. A filter on status alone would scan every row, which gets slow and costly as the table grows. Design keys around how you’ll look data up.

✅ Checkpoint: Your account now holds an append blob, a share with hello.txt, an empty q-orders queue and an orders table with three rows.