‘22124, 5:10 PM Quickstart: Upload, download, and list blobs - Azure CLI Azure Storage | Microsoft Learn
Quickstart: Create, download, and list
blobs with Azure CLI
Article + 10/12/2023
The Azure CLI is Azure's command-line experience for managing Azure resources. You can
use it in your browser with Azure Cloud Shell. You can also install it on macOS, Linux, or
Windows and run it from the command line. In this quickstart, you learn to use the Azure
CLI to upload and download data to and from Azure Blob storage.
Prerequisites
To access Azure Storage, you'll need an Azure subscription. If you don't already have a
subscription, create a free account _ before you begin
All access to Azure Storage takes place through a storage account. For this quickstart,
create a storage account using the Azure portal, Azure PowerShell, or Azure CLI. For help
creating a storage account, see Create a storage account.
Prepare your environment for the Azure CLI
* Use the Bash environment in Azure Cloud Shell. For more information, see Quickstart
for Bash in Azure Cloud Shell.
* Ifyou prefer to run CLI reference commands locally, install the Azure CLI. If you're
running on Windows or macOS, consider running Azure CLI in a Docker container. For
more information, see How to run the Azure CLI in a Docker container,
© Ifyou're using a local installation, sign in to the Azure CL by using the az login
command. To finish the authentication process, follow the steps displayed in your
terminal, For other sign-in options, see Sign in with the Azure CLI,
© When you're prompted, install the Azure CLI extension on first use. For more
information about extensions, see Use extensions with the Azure CLI.
© Run az version to find the version and dependent libraries that are installed, To
upgrade to the latest version, run az upgrade,
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\
--location
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--resource-group \
--location \
--sku Standard_ZRS \
--encryption-services blob
Create a container
Blobs are always uploaded into a container. You can organize groups of blobs in containers
similar to the way you organize your files on your computer in folders. Create a container
for storing blobs with the az storage container create command.
The following example uses your Microsoft Entra account to authorize the operation to
create the container. Before you create the container, assign the Storage Blob Data
Contributor role to yourself, Even if you are the account owner, you need explicit
permissions to perform data operations against the storage account. For more information
about assigning Azure roles, see Assign an Azure role for access to blob data,
Remember to replace placeholder values in angle brackets with your own values:
azure CLI
az ad signed-in-user show --query id -o tsv | az role assignment create \
=-role "Storage Blob Data Contributor" \
--assignee @- \
--scope "/subscriptions//resourceGroups//providers/Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts /
az storage container create \
--account-name \
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--auth-mode login
© Important
Azure role assignments may take a few minutes to propagate.
You can also use the storage account key to authorize the operation to create the
container. For more information about authorizing data operations with Azure CLI, see
‘Authorize access to blob or queue data with Azure CLI.
Upload a blob
Blob storage supports block blobs, append blobs, and page blobs. The examples in this
quickstart show how to work with block blobs.
First, create a file to upload to a block blob. If you're using Azure Cloud Shell, use the
following command to create a file
Bash
vi helloworld
When the file opens, press insert. Type Hello world, then press Esc. Next, type -x, then press
Enter.
In this example, you upload a blob to the container you created in the last step using the az
storage blob upload command. It's not necessary to specify a file path since the file was
created at the root directory. Remember to replace placeholder values in angle brackets
with your own values:
‘Azure CLI
az storage blob upload \
--account-name \
--container-name \
--name myFile.txt \
--file myFile.txt \
--auth-mode login
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‘container-name \
--output table \
auth-mode login
Download a blob
Use the az storage blob download command to download the blob you uploaded earlier.
Remember to replace placeholder values in angle brackets with your own values:
Azure CLI
az storage blob download \
--account-name \
container-name \
name myFile.txt \
File <+/destination/path/for/File> \
auth-mode login
Data transfer with AzCopy
The AzCopy command-line utility offers high-performance, scriptable data transfer for
‘Azure Storage. You can use AzCopy to transfer data to and from Blob storage and Azure
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Next steps
In this quickstart, you learned how to transfer files between a local file system and a
container in Azure Blob storage. To learn more about working with Blob storage by using
Azure CLI, select an option below.
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