# Microsoft Azure Blob Container

One of the ways to back up a [GitHub repository](https://docs.cloudback.it/managing-backups/automated-daily-backups) using customer managed storage is to use your own Azure Container. Azure Blob Storage is Microsoft's object storage solution for the cloud. Blob storage is optimized for storing massive amounts of unstructured data, therefore it can be used as a storage for GitHub repository backups created by Cloudback.

This page describes how to set up your own Azure Blob Container as a customer managed storage for Cloudback backups of your GitHub repositories. To be able to use your Azure Blob Container as customer managed storage, you need to have an existing Azure storage or create a new one. Also, you should create a new shared access signature for that storage.

## About Microsoft Azure Blob Containers

Azure Blob storage is Microsoft's object storage solution for the cloud that is optimized for storing massive amounts of unstructured data. Unstructured data is data that doesn't adhere to a particular data model or definition, such as text or binary data. Azure Storage is a Microsoft-managed service that provides highly available, secure, durable, and scalable cloud storage.

## Set up Microsoft Azure Blob Container as a customer managed storage

To set up Microsoft Azure Blob Container as a storage for your backups, follow the steps below.

### Create a new Microsoft Azure Blob Container

* Open the [Cloudback Dashboard](https://app.cloudback.it/)
* Navigate to the `Storages` page by clicking on the `Storages` link in the left-side navigation pane
* Click on the `Add a new storage` button:

![Add new storage](https://2781059148-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FQEI7SjBF2CddqNXZpCoE%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-48c773c5876576956efc547df9c59cfec230772b%2Fcustomer-managed-storages.png?alt=media)

* Type a storage name in the `Storage name` field. Use a name that will help you identify this storage in the future.
* Select `Microsoft Azure Blob Containers` from a Storage Provider dropdown:

![Microsoft Azure Blob Containers storage settings](https://2781059148-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FQEI7SjBF2CddqNXZpCoE%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-a42bb7e43b8a299de54e9bd7ac78d7ac5b0f9169%2Fcreate-new-storage-microsoft-azure-blob-container.png?alt=media)

### Set up storage settings

Choose the settings for the storage:

* **Deduplication type** - enable or disable data deduplication. For more details, please refer to the [Deduplication](https://docs.cloudback.it/managing-backups/data-deduplication) documentation
* **Archive type** - enable or disable archive password protection. For more details, please refer to the [Password-Protected Archives](https://docs.cloudback.it/security-and-compliance/password-protected-archives) documentation
* **Archive name pattern** - configure the archive name pattern, which is used to generate the name of the backup archive. For more details, please refer to the [Archive Name Pattern](https://docs.cloudback.it/managing-backups/archive-name-pattern) documentation

### Create new Azure Storage Container

To upload backups to Azure Blob Storage, you need to have a container. You can find more information on how to create a container in the [Azure Blob Storage documentation](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/blob-containers-portal). If you already have a container, you can skip this step.

### Create new Shared Access Signature

The Shared Access Signature (SAS) is a URI that grants restricted access rights to Azure Storage resources. You can create a new SAS in the Azure Portal using the instructions provided in the [Azure documentation](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-sas-overview). When creating a new SAS, make sure to grant the following permissions:

* **Create** and **Read**
* **Write** - this permission is required by Azure for multipart uploads of large archives
* **Delete** - this permission is required by Cloudback to delete old backups by retention policy. Grant this permission for the retention policy to work correctly.

![Microsoft Azure Blob Container SAS](https://2781059148-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FQEI7SjBF2CddqNXZpCoE%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-b3f09eb50fb3879abe972ffe1d0f6329d929280d%2Fazure-container-shared-access-signature.png?alt=media)

### Provide Blob SAS URL

In the `Step 3` field, provide the Blob SAS URL of the SAS created in the previous step. Use a **Container SAS** (generated from your storage account's container settings), which grants scoped access to the specific container where backups will be stored. The SAS URL is required so Cloudback can upload backups to the correct container.

### Save storage

Click on `Save` button to save the new storage. You can also use a `Test` button to check if the storage is configured correctly. After saving the storage, you can use it for storing backups of your repositories.

All storage settings can be changed later in the `Storages` page. To edit the storage settings, click on the `Edit` button next to the storage you want to edit.

## Change the storage for a repository

You can change the storage for a particular repository in the [Repository Details](https://docs.cloudback.it/dashboard/repository-details) page. Also, you can assign it to multiple repositories through the [Bulk Operations](https://docs.cloudback.it/managing-backups/bulk-operations).

## Learn More

* [Customer Managed Storages](https://docs.cloudback.it/storage-configuration/customer-managed-storages)
* [Dashboard Overview](https://docs.cloudback.it/dashboard/dashboard-overview)
* [Repository Details](https://docs.cloudback.it/dashboard/repository-details)
* [Bulk Operations](https://docs.cloudback.it/managing-backups/bulk-operations)
* [Replicating Backups](https://docs.cloudback.it/storage-configuration/replicating-backups)