| title | titleSuffix | description | author | ms.service | ms.topic | ms.date | ms.author | ms.custom |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Quickstart - Create a blob with Azure Storage Explorer |
Azure Storage |
Learn how to use Azure Storage Explorer to create a container and a blob, download the blob to your local computer, and view all of the blobs in the container. |
stevenmatthew |
azure-blob-storage |
quickstart |
10/28/2021 |
shaas |
mode-other |
In this quickstart, you learn how to use Azure Storage Explorer to create a container and a blob. Next, you learn how to download the blob to your local computer, and how to view all of the blobs in a container. You also learn how to create a snapshot of a blob, manage container access policies, and create a shared access signature.
[!INCLUDE storage-quickstart-prereq-include]
This quickstart requires that you install Azure Storage Explorer. To install Azure Storage Explorer for Windows, Macintosh, or Linux, see Azure Storage Explorer.
On first launch, the Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer - Connect to Azure Storage dialog is shown. Several resource options are displayed to which you can connect:
- Subscription
- Storage account
- Blob container
- Azure Data Lake Storage container or directory
- File share
- Queue
- Table
- Local storage emulator
In the Select Resource panel, select Subscription.
:::image type="content" source="media/quickstart-storage-explorer/storage-explorer-connect-sml.png" alt-text="Screenshot that shows the Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer - Select Resource pane" lightbox="media/quickstart-storage-explorer/storage-explorer-connect-lrg.png":::
In the Select Azure Environment panel, select an Azure environment to sign in to. You can sign in to global Azure, a national cloud or an Azure Stack instance. Then select Next.
:::image type="content" source="media/quickstart-storage-explorer/storage-explorer-select-sml.png" alt-text="Screenshot that shows the Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer - Connect window" lightbox="media/quickstart-storage-explorer/storage-explorer-select-lrg.png":::
Storage Explorer will open a webpage for you to sign in.
After you successfully sign in with an Azure account, the account and the Azure subscriptions associated with that account appear under ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT. Select the Azure subscriptions that you want to work with, and then select Open Explorer.
:::image type="content" source="media/quickstart-storage-explorer/storage-explorer-account-panel-sml.png" alt-text="Select Azure subscriptions" lightbox="media/quickstart-storage-explorer/storage-explorer-account-panel-lrg.png":::
After Storage Explorer finishes connecting, it displays the Explorer tab. This view gives you insight to all of your Azure storage accounts as well as local storage configured through the Azurite storage emulator or Azure Stack environments.
:::image type="content" source="media/quickstart-storage-explorer/storage-explorer-main-page-sml.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing Storage Explorer main page" lightbox="media/quickstart-storage-explorer/storage-explorer-main-page-lrg.png":::
To create a container, expand the storage account you created in the proceeding step. Select Blob Containers, right-click and select Create Blob Container. Enter the name for your blob container. See the Create a container section for a list of rules and restrictions on naming blob containers. When complete, press Enter to create the blob container. Once the blob container has been successfully created, it is displayed under the Blob Containers folder for the selected storage account.
:::image type="content" source="media/quickstart-storage-explorer/storage-explorer-create-container-sml.png" alt-text="Screenshot that shows how to create a container in Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer" lightbox="media/quickstart-storage-explorer/storage-explorer-create-container-lrg.png":::
Blob storage supports block blobs, append blobs, and page blobs. VHD files used to back IaaS VMs are page blobs. Append blobs are used for logging, such as when you want to write to a file and then keep adding more information. Most files stored in Blob storage are block blobs.
On the container ribbon, select Upload. This operation gives you the option to upload a folder or a file.
Choose the files or folder to upload. Select the blob type. Acceptable choices are Append, Page, or Block blob.
If uploading a .vhd or .vhdx file, choose Upload .vhd/.vhdx files as page blobs (recommended).
In the Upload to folder (optional) field either a folder name to store the files or folders in a folder under the container. If no folder is chosen, the files are uploaded directly under the container.
:::image type="content" source="media/quickstart-storage-explorer/storage-explorer-upload-blob-sml.png" alt-text="Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer - upload a blob" lightbox="media/quickstart-storage-explorer/storage-explorer-upload-blob-lrg.png":::
When you select Upload, the files selected are queued to upload, each file is uploaded. When the upload is complete, the results are shown in the Activities window.
In the Azure Storage Explorer application, select a container under a storage account. The main pane shows a list of the blobs in the selected container.
:::image type="content" source="media/quickstart-storage-explorer/storage-explorer-list-blobs-sml.png" alt-text="Screenshot that shows how to view blobs within a container in Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer" lightbox="media/quickstart-storage-explorer/storage-explorer-list-blobs-lrg.png":::
To download blobs using Azure Storage Explorer, with a blob selected, select Download from the ribbon. A file dialog opens and provides you the ability to enter a file name. Select Save to start the download of a blob to the local location.
:::image type="content" source="media/quickstart-storage-explorer/storage-explorer-download-sml.png" alt-text="Screenshot that shows how to download blobs in Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer" lightbox="media/quickstart-storage-explorer/storage-explorer-download-lrg.png":::
Azure Storage Explorer provides the capability to take and manage snapshots of your blobs. To take a snapshot of a blob, right-click the blob and select Create Snapshot. To view snapshots for a blob, right-click the blob and select Manage history and Manage Snapshots. A list of the snapshots for the blob are shown in the current tab.
:::image type="content" source="media/quickstart-storage-explorer/storage-explorer-manage-snapshots-sml.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing how to take and manage blob snapshots" lightbox="media/quickstart-storage-explorer/storage-explorer-manage-snapshots-lrg.png":::
You can use Storage Explorer to generate a shared access signatures (SAS). Right-click a storage account, container, or blob and choose Get Shared Access Signature.... Choose the start and expiry time, and permissions for the SAS URL and select Create. Storage Explorer generates the SAS token with the parameters you specified and displays it for copying.
:::image type="content" source="media/quickstart-storage-explorer/storage-explorer-shared-access-signature.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing how to generate a SAS":::
When you create a SAS for a storage account, Storage Explorer generates an account SAS. For more information about the account SAS, see Create an account SAS.
When you create a SAS for a container or blob, Storage Explorer generates a service SAS. For more information about the service SAS, see Create a service SAS.
Note
When you create a SAS with Storage Explorer, the SAS is always assigned with the storage account key. Storage Explorer does not currently support creating a user delegation SAS, which is a SAS that is signed with Microsoft Entra credentials.
In this quickstart, you learned how to transfer files between a local disk and Azure Blob storage using Azure Storage Explorer. To learn more about working with Blob storage, continue to the Blob storage overview.
[!div class="nextstepaction"] Introduction to Azure Blob Storage