Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator AssociateImplement and manage storageHard
A company has an Azure storage account configured with a default access tier of Cool. They have a new requirement to store archived financial records that will be accessed very rarely, perhaps once a year, and can tolerate retrieval times of several hours. To minimize costs, which action should the administrator take?
- ACreate a new storage account with the Archive default access tier for these records.
- BChange the default access tier of the storage account to Archive.
- CImplement a lifecycle management policy to move blobs to the Archive tier after 30 days.
- DManually move the financial record blobs to the Archive tier.
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: D. Manually move the financial record blobs to the Archive tier.
Manually moving specific blobs to the Archive tier is the most direct way to minimize costs for existing, rarely accessed data when the storage account's default is Cool. Changing the default would affect all new blobs, and a lifecycle policy would be for future automation, not immediate cost reduction for existing specific blobs.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Creating a new storage account adds management overhead and is unnecessary if the existing storage account can accommodate the Archive tier for specific blobs.
- B. Changing the default access tier to Archive would apply to all *new* blobs by default, but existing blobs would remain in their current tier (Cool). This doesn't address the existing financial records directly.
- C. A lifecycle management policy would automate the tiering process, but it would only apply after 30 days, not immediately reduce costs for the existing records that need to be archived now.
Azure Blob Tiering
Azure Blob storage offers Hot, Cool, and Archive access tiers to optimize costs based on data access frequency and retention requirements.
- Hot: frequent access, low access cost, higher storage cost.
- Cool: infrequent access, higher access cost, lower storage cost.
- Archive: rare access, highest access cost/latency, lowest storage cost.
- Blobs can be re-tiered manually or automatically with lifecycle management.
Memory trick: Tiering: Hot, Cool, Archive for Cost-Effective Storage.