Storage Account Workflow

Introduction

Automating file purging and blob access tier changes helps optimize storage usage by removing outdated data and transitioning infrequently accessed blobs to lower-cost tiers. This ensures consistent enforcement of data lifecycle policies while reducing manual effort.

Workflow is a set of background tasks that runs based on a predefined configuration to optimize the Azure cost. Workflow can either be manually triggered as needed or scheduled to execute at specific hours of a day.

Storage account Workflow

The Workflow feature in Cost Analyzer offers three different options for storage accounts such as:

• Purge blobs from storage blob container
• Change access tier of blobs in Storage blob container
• Purge files from Storage file share

Setting up a workflow for the provided tasks automates the process of clearing storage data from storage services and optimizes the storage size of blob data.

Create a workflow

1. Go to Optimization -> Workflows section in a Cost group.
2. Click New configuration drop down and select the required task type.

Purge blobs from storage blob container

• The workflow tasks streamline the automated deletion of blobs from a storage container, following the specified configuration.

Change access tier of blobs in Storage blob container

• The workflow tasks automate the process of changing the access tier of the blob as per the provided workflow configuration.

Purge files from Storage file share

• The workflow tasks streamline the automated deletion of files from a storage file share, following the specified configuration.

3. Enter the name of the workflow and Click Next

Workflow Design

4. The next step involves selecting the subscription, storage account, and the respective blob container/file share that requires processing.

5. Define the configurations that will enable the action to be executed according to the provided condition.

6. Control the timing and frequency of the workflow execution

7. Choose the desired notification channels to receive alerts on workflow executions.

By checking one or both the options under Advanced settings, users can authorize the workflow's notifications to be received in specific situations.

8. The user is displayed with a brief overview of the workflow configuration. Click the Save button to complete workflow setup.

The workflow runs according to the specified time zone and configuration.

Run history

The "View Runs" section offers details of both processed runs and scheduled runs awaiting processing.

On demand runs

In order to run a configured workflow manually, select Run from the context menu of the workflow configuration.