Storage Flashcards
3 storage account options are:
GPv1, GPv2, Blob
Three tiers for Blob storage
Hot, Cool, Archive
Maximum number of storage accounts per subscription
200
For most scenarios, Microsoft recommends: GPv2 or Blob?
GPv2
Two performance tiers for storage
Premium, Standard
Type of disk for Standard performance tier
Magnetic (HDD)
Type of disk for Premium performance tier
SSD
Can you switch between Standard and Premium performance tiers?
No
What is the only usage for the Premium performance tier?
Azure VMs
Is there any storage data that is not replicated?
No - data is always replicated at least three times
What are the four replication options for a storage account?
Locally Redundant Storage (LRS), Zone-Redundant Storage (ZRS), Geo-Redundant Storage (GRS), Read Access Geo-Redundant Storage (RA-GRS)
Which type of replication option cannot be altered to another type?
ZRS
How many times is LRS replicated, and where?
3 times within a single facility in a single region
How many times is ZRS replicated, and where?
3 times across two or three facilities, in either one or two regions
How many times is GRS replicated, and where?
3 times in primary region and 3 times in second region
What is difference between RA-GRS and GRS?
RA-GRS provides read access to your data in the second region
What is AzCopy?
Command-line utility to copy files to and from Blob, Table and File storage
What are common parameters of AzCopy?
/Source: /Dest: /SourceKey: /DestKey: /SourceSAS: /DestSAS: /Pattern:
For which type of container is AzCopy case-sensitive?
Blob
What replication scheme is the default?
RA-GRS
Aside from user credentials, what are the two options to manage storage resources in a different Azure subscription?
Account name and key, Shared access signature
Virtual machines have at least how many disks?
two - OS and temporary disks
On a Windows VM, the OS drive is registered as what type of disk and on what drive letter?
SATA and C:\
The temporary disk on a Windows VM is used for storing what (specifically) and under what drive letter by default?
pagefile.sys and d:\
What storage is used for Data disks on a VM?
They are persisted as a blob in an Azure Storage Acct
What determines the size of the temporary disk and the number of disks you can attach to a VM?
The size you choose for the VM
What is the max IOPS per storage account for standard storage?
50,000
What is the maximum number of disks per storage account for standard storage?
100
What is the maximum IOPS for premium storage for a storage account?
unlimited
What is the maximum number of disks per storage account for premium storage
unlimited
What is the total disk capacity and maximum number of disks at max capacity for a storage account with premium storage?
35 TB total, 35 disks
What is the max bandwidth for a storage account with premium storage?
50 Gbps
What is the total snapshot capacity for premium storage in a storage account?
10 TB
What is the difference between using a managed and unmanaged disk for a VM?
Disks that are unmanaged must explicitly define a separate storage account.
When using premium disk for a VM, do you have access to the underlying storage account?
No
True or false - you can upload a VHD file and attach it to an existing VM in Azure?
true
When detaching a managed disk from a VM, does it impact the underlying disk object?
No. It is the equivalent of unplugging the hard drive from the computer.
When converting an unmanaged disk to a managed disk for a VM, what is the potential issue with performing the process?
You must power off the VM
File storage uses what protocol?
SMB 3.0
What command would you use to map a file share on your Windows VM?
net use
The quota on a file share could also be referred to as what?
Size
If you have a mapped or mounted file share, what action will likely break the mount?
Rotating or changing the access key for the file share. The access key is the password used to connect.
To mount a file share in Linux, what must be true of your Linux machine?
It must be running in Azure in the same region as the file share.
What is the maximum size for a file share?
5 TB
What two series of VMs support premium storage?
DS and FS
True or false - the file share quota cannot be changed after creation
False - you can change the size (quota) of the file share
What drive type is used for new data disks for a VM?
SCSI
What are the three main types of blobs?
Block blobs, Append blobs, Page blobs
Which blob type is the best choice for a large number of IOT sensors / devices writing data to a blob, but not needing to read data from it?
Append blob
Which type of blob would be most useful as the persistence for a VHD?
Page blob
What are the three types of access for a blob service, and which is the default?
Private (default), Blob, Container
Can a blob storage account use Premium performance?
No - only standard
True or false: you can use Powershell to upload or download a VHD file
True - Add-AzureRmVHD, Save-AzureRmVHD
What is the name of the service by which you can ship a physical hard drive to Azure instead of uploading the data?
Azure Import/Export service
Which type of blob is optimized for sequential I/O?
Block blobs
Which type of blob is most cost effective?
Block blob
What is the maximum size for a single queue message in Queue Storage?
64 KB
What is the upper bound in overall size of a queue?
The amount of space available in the storage account
How long can a message remain on a queue?
7 days
What is the maximum number of properties an entry in table storage can have?
255
True or false - PrimaryKey is a required entry for an Azure table entry
False
What are the required fields for an Azure table entry?
PartitionKey, Timestamp, RowKey
What is the name of the service that will automatically encrypt a storage account?
Storage Service Encryption (SSE)
What is a URI that grants restricted access rights to Azure Storage resources?
Shared Access Signature (SAS)
What are two types of Shared Access Signatures?
Ad Hoc and Policy
If I want to allow a user to read and delete from a specific type of storage, would I use a storage key or a shared access signature?
Shared Access Signature allows discrete access to individual resources
When creating a Recovery Services vault, what is the default replication?
Geo-redundant
Is Azure Site Recovery heterogeneous or homogeneous and why?
Heterogeneous because it supports multiple types of servers / VMs such as Hyper-V, VMWare and physical servers
True or false: Azure Site Recovery cannot be used to assist with a surge in demand on your existing site
False - Site Recovery is able to help deal with traffic surges and extend capacity
True or false: Azure Site Recovery can monitor and facilitate failover for two on-prem data centers
True
Storage Analytics metrics are available for what four types of storage objects? Which of these four does NOT have Storage Analytics logging available?
metrics - blobs, files, tables, queues
logging is not supported for files
Are write operations performed by Storage Analytics billable?
Yes
What is the maximum retention policy for Storage Analytics?
explicitly defined - 365 days implicitly defined (0 days) - indefinite
What is the default retention policy for Storage Analytics?
0 days (meaning, indefinite)
Can your Azure Backup be recovered if you lose the passphrase?
No
The software you install locally to backup files to Azure as part of Azure Backup is called what?
Azure Backup Agent
When you create a storage account, Azure creates ___ storage keys, each of them being ___ bits
2, 512
If you believe your storage account key to have been compromised, what should you do?
regenerate it
By default, a new storage account is created in which access tier?
Hot
What are the two primary considerations when estimating the cost of a blob GPv2 storage account?
How much data will be stored, and how will you normally access that data?
LRS is designed to provide how many “9s” in durability?
11 9s (99.999999999)
A write request to LRS storage only returns successfully after what is true?
Only after the data has been written to all replicas
What is a storage scale unit?
A collection of racks of storage nodes
What is a Fault Domain in the context of LRS?
A group of nodes representing a physical unit of failure and can be considered to belong to the same physical rack
What is an Upgrade Domain in the context of LRS?
A group of nodes that are upgraded together during the process of a service upgrade (rollout)
If a datacenter-level disaster occurs, which type of storage may lose all replicas?
LRS
ZRS offers how many “9s” in durability?
12 9s (99.9999999999)
GRS offers how many “9s” in durability?
16 9s (99.99999999999999)
When you enable RA-GRS, your data is available on a secondary endpoint. How does the URL change to access that secondary endpoint?
Add “-secondary” to the account name
True or false - when using RA-GRS, your application must manage the endpoint it is interacting with
True - because there is a “-secondary” endpoint available
When using RA-GRS, if you want to know whether your data has been fully replicated yet, what should you check?
Last Sync Time
Under what circumstance would you obtain read and write access to your secondary region with RA-GRS?
After completion of a Microsoft-initiated failover to the secondary region
What is the SLA on GRS?
There is none currently
What is the RPO for GRS?
Typically under 15 minutes, but there is no SLA
Are you able to choose the secondary region for GRS?
No - it is determined automatically based on the primary region you choose
Which storage tier cannot be set at the account level and must be set on a blob?
Archive
GPv1 accounts do or do not support tiering (Hot, Cool, Archive)?
They do not
As compared hot storage tier, cool storage has ____ storage costs and _____ access costs
Lower storage cost, Higher access cost
If you have media content that is not viewed frequently, but is expected to be available immediately, which storage tier is appropriate?
Cool
Historical medical images would be a good candidate for which storage tier?
Archive
You are gathering large scientific data sets. If you break up your data-gathering process into accumulation and processing, when should you use hot and cool storage tiers?
Accumulation and stage for processing in hot storage, storage of the data after processing (which gathering more) in cool storage
Archive data is intended for data that can tolerate ____ ____ of retrieval latency and will remain in the archive tier for at least ____ days
several hours of latency, 180 days
What must you do to read data in archive storage, what is the process called and how long can it take to complete?
You must change the tier of the blob to hot or cool, the process is called rehydration and it can take up to 15 hours to complete
What should you check to see if your rehydration of archive tier data is complete?
Archive Status - it will read “rehydrate-pending-to-hot” or “rehydrate-pending-to-cool” and will be removed entirely upon completion
What operation do you use to change the storage tier for an individual blob?
Set Blob Tier
What property would you check to see if a blob storage tier is inferred from the storage account?
Access Tier Inferred
When a blob is moved to a warmer storage tier, how is the operation billed?
As a read from the source (cooler) tier
When a blob is moved to a cooler storage tier, how is the operation billed?
As a write against the destination (cooler) tier
You will be charged an early deletion fee if you delete it or move to a warmer tier prior to ___ days in the cool tier and ___ days in the archive tier. Is the fee prorated?
30 (cool), 180 (archive), yes it is prorated
Azure Storage events are pushed / published through what?
Azure Event Grid
True or false: asynchronous file uploads are a great fit for events
True
You can identify a blob storage event because the event type start with what?
Microsoft.Storage
What is the maximum request rate per storage account?
20,000 req / sec
Maximum number of blocks in a block blob or append blob
50,000
Max size of a block in a block blob
100 MiB
Max size of a block in an append blob
4 MiB
Max size of a page blob
8 TiB
Max number of stored access policies per blob container or file share
5
Maximum size of a file in a file share
1 TiB
Target throughput for a single file share
up to 60 MiB
File Share - Max open handles per file
200
File Share - Maximum number of open snapshots
200
Page blobs are made up of ___ byte pages, up to a total size of ___
512 byte pages up to a total of 8 TB
What type of strength and algorithm is used for Azure Storage encryption?
256 bit AES
True or false: You can disable Storage Service Encryption
False - it is applied to all new and existing storage accounts and cannot be disabled
If you’re creating a custom domain name for a blob storage account, and you have an SLA and want to avoid downtime, what method should you use?
Intermediary mapping with asverify (instead of direct CNAME mapping)