Storing Data

Question 1

Identity and briefly explain the 3 different data types

Answer 1

Structured Data
* Relational containings sames fields and properties
* Updates can be difficult due to constriaints

Semi-Structured
* Non-relational
* More key values
* NoSQL and data serialization into XML, JSON, YAML

Unstructured Data
* Media Files
* Microsoft 365 files
* Text Files
* Log files

Question 2

Determine Operational Needs, questions to consider

Answer 2

• Doing simple lookups?
• Query for one or more fields?
• Number of create, update and delete operations
• Queries run complex analytical operations?
• How quickly do these operations need to be processed?

Some examples include Product Catelog, Photos and Videos, and Business Data (All 3 needing have different operational needs)

Question 3

Identity and briefly explain ACID prinicpals?

Answer 3

• Atomicity => means a transaction must execute once and it must be atomic (all of it completed or none at all)
• Consistency => data is consistent before and after the transaction
• Isolation => ensures each transaction is not affected by other transactions
• Durability => changes made as a result of the trasnaction are permantly saved in the system

Question 4

What is OLTP?

Answer 4

Online Transaction Processing

High usages and volumes of data, short transactions

Question 5

What is OLAP?

Answer 5

Online Analytics Processing

Less users, longer response times, large volume of data

Question 6

Regarding the Product Catalog, Identity the following:
* Data Classification
* Operations
* Latency and Throughput
* Transaction Support
* Recommendation

Answer 6

NOTE: Could have used Azure SQL, however products may not have similar properties

Question 7

Regarding storage and transaction needs of Photos and Videos, Identity the following:
* Data Classification
* Operations
* Latency and Throughput
* Transaction Support
* Recommendation

Answer 7

Question 8

Regarding storage and transaction needs of Business Data, what would be the recommendation?

Answer 8

Can use Azure SQL Database but could also consider Azure Analysis Services

Question 9

What are the considerations when determining the number of storage accounts?

Answer 9

Data Diverisity
* Data specific to country or region?

Costs
* Geo-redunancy more that local redundant
* Premium vs Standard Tier
* Hot access increases costs (access tier)
* You could split storage accounts and put critical data in geo-redundant and less critical use local redundant

Management Overhead
* Requires time to create and maintain

Question 10

Three things to consider when choosing Account Settings

Answer 10

• Name => 3 - 24 characters and must be unique
• Deployment Model => Resource Manager (recommended) or Classic (Azure Service Manager API)
• Account Kind => Storage V2, Storage V1, and Blob Storage

Question 11

Identity the various Account Creation Tools

Answer 11

• Azure Portal
• Azure CLI
• Azure PowerShell
• Management Client Libraries

Question 12

Identity the 4 terms that define Microsoft Azure Storage

Answer 12

• Managed
• Durable => redundant
• Secure
• Scalable

Question 13

How many Storage Accounts can a subscription have PER REGION

Answer 13

250

Question 14

What are the 4 types of data supported by Azure Storage

Answer 14

• Blobs
• Fileshares
• Queues
• Table Storage

Question 15

What are the 3 Blob Types?

Answer 15

• Block Blob
• Page Blob
• Append Blob

Question 16

What are the features of the File Share?

Answer 16

• Enables you to set up highly available network file shares that can be accesed the the Server Message Block (SMB) Protocol
• REST interface
• Storage Client Libraries
• Uses (Configuration Files, Log Files)

Question 17

Az Command to create a Storage Account

Answer 17

az storage account create
–resource-group
–location
–sku
–name

Question 18

HTML to list all blobs in a container

Answer 18

GET https://[mystorageaccount]/?comp=list&include=metadata

Shows results in XML

Question 19

Basic Example using the client libraries

Answer 19

string containerName = “mycontainer”;
BlobContainerClient container = new BlobContainerClient(connectionString, containerName);
var blobs = container.GetBlobs();
foreach (var blob in blobs)
Console.WriteLine($”{blob.Name}”);

Question 20

Basic API Endpoints

Answer 20

• https://{name}.blobs.core.windows.net
• https://{name}.queue.core.windows.net
• https://{name}.table.core.windows.net
• https://{name}.file.core.windows.net

Question 21

Whats the difference between Access Keys and SAS

Answer 21

Access Keys
* Similar to user name and password
* Rotate Keys
* Shouldn’t put in configuration files or hard coded in application

** SAS**
* Limited permissions to a particular resource

Question 22

Az Command to show your Storage Account connection String

Answer 22

az storage account show-connection-string
–resource-group
–query connectionString
–name

Shows results in XML

Question 23

Storage Account Security Considerations

Answer 23

• Protect data at rest (this is automatic and cannot be disabled)
• Protected data in transit (use HTTPS)
• Support browser cross-domain access
• Use RBAC
• Audit storage files (logs)

Question 24

Embed the SAS in an HTML header

Answer 24

Authorization: SharedKey myaccount:cY49k44BimLToTWiloX44ldfas0pi833Ppxda

Question 25

What two type of SAS are provided?

Answer 25

* Service Level SAS * Account Level SAS ## Footnote For untrusted clients, use SAS

Question 26

Two typical designed to get SAS keys

Answer 26

* Front End Proxy Service * SAS Provider Service

Question 27

What are the options when selecting network access?

Answer 27

* Enable from all networks * Enable from selected networks and IP Address * Disable

Question 28

What are the features of Microsoft Defender?

Answer 28

* Provides an extra layer of security * Available for blob and files General Purpose V2 * Not available to foreign governments * Send alerts to administrators

Question 29

What are some of the details in an event notification from Defender?

Answer 29

* Nature of anomaly * Storage Account Name * Event Time * Storage Type * Protection causes * Investigation Steps * Remediation stps * Also includes details about possible causes and recommended actions to investigate and mitigate the potential threat

Question 30

Azure Data Lake Storage

Answer 30

* Provides first-class data lake solution than enables enterprises to consolidate their data (its built on Azure Blob Storage) * RBAC, Access Control List * Authenticates through AD OAuth 2.0 bearer tokens and can include MFA * End to End encryptions