Azure Table Storage is a highly scalable, NoSQL data store engineered by Microsoft as part of the Azure cloud platform. Essentially, it’s a service designed to store structured, non-relational data in the cloud in the form of tables, providing a key-attribute store that’s perfect for storing, retrieving and managing large amounts of data. Given its capacity to store petabytes of data, Azure Table Storage is ideal for applications that require flexible datasets like user data for web applications, address books, device information, or other types of metadata.
Structure of Azure Table Storage
In terms of its structure, Azure Table Storage heavily resembles a typical relational database where you have ‘tables’ that contain ‘rows’ of data. Unlike relational databases, however, these tables don’t necessarily enforce a schema which means that different rows in the same table do not need to share the same structure. Each row in the table has a unique key that is used for quick access to data.
Azure Table Storage uses a non-relational data model which employs a partitioning system to handle data. In Azure Table Storage, a table has a partition key and a row key which are used as unique identifiers. The partition key serves as a logical partition for the data and denotes the method of distributing entities across multiple partitions for scalability and performance. The row key identifies the specific entity instance within a partition.
Simple Example
public class CustomerEntity : TableEntity
{
public CustomerEntity(string lastName, string firstName)
{
this.PartitionKey = lastName;
this.RowKey = firstName;
}
public CustomerEntity() { }
public string Email { get; set; }
public string PhoneNumber { get; set; }
}
In this C# example, a customer’s information can be easily stored and retrieved using the customer’s last name as the partition key and first name as the row key.
Azure Table Storage and Azure’s Framework
Azure Table Storage is deeply integrated into Azure’s framework, enabling you to make use of Azure’s inherent security, management, and high availability capabilities. Its auto-manageable features enable users to focus more on designing and implementing their applications rather than managing the infrastructure.
Comparison to Other Data Storage Options in Azure
Compared to other data storage options in Azure, such as Cosmos DB, SQL Database, or Blob storage, the Azure Table storage service offers a secure and cost-effective service for applications with large data that require flexible, schemaless design. However, unlike Cosmos DB, it doesn’t support global distribution, in-depth analytics, or real-time operational analytics.
Conclusion
To summarize, Azure Table Storage provides a cost-effective option for applications that require massive amounts of table-like data. It’s adaptable, scalable and, thanks to the absence of a schema, allows developers a great deal of flexibility in terms of data management. Due to these qualities, along with its capacity for high availability, Azure Table storage can be the perfect solution for adapting to changing business needs and scaling applications over time.
Practice Test
True or False: Azure Table storage is a NoSQL datastore which allows for fast access to large amounts of structured, non-relational data.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Azure Table storage is a service that stores structured NoSQL data in the cloud, providing a key/attribute store with a schemaless design.
Azure Table storage is designed to store:
- a) Structured, non-relational data
- b) Structured, relational data
- c) Unstructured, non-relational data
- d) Unstructured, relational data
Answer: a) Structured, non-relational data
Explanation: Azure Table storage is a NoSQL data storage type so it is specifically designed to store structured, non-relational data.
True or False: Each entity in Azure Table storage contains an automatically generated timestamp that the Azure Table service uses to track when an entity was last modified.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Each entity in Azure Table service automatically includes two system properties: Timestamp and PartitionKey. The server-managed Timestamp property is used to track when an entity was last modified.
In Azure Table storage, a table is partitioned to support _____ and the partition key is used to ________ within a partition.
- a) Load balancing, group data
- b) Load balancing, separate data
- c) Performance optimization, separate data
- d) Performance optimization, group data
Answer: d) Performance optimization, group data
Explanation: Azure tables are partitioned to support performance optimization and the partition key is used to group data within a partition.
True or False: Azure Table Storage offers read-write storage with strong consistency across multiple Azure regions.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Azure Table Service provides a NoSQL key-value store, which means it offers eventual consistency, not strong consistency.
In Azure Table storage, the data is:
- a) Automatically indexed
- b) Not indexed by default and needs manual indexing
- c) Partially indexed by default and needs further manual indexing
- d) Not indexed at all
Answer: a) Automatically indexed
Explanation: In Azure Table storage, the data is automatically indexed which can enhance performance.
True or False: Azure Table storage uses SQL for querying data.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Azure Table Storage uses a LINQ-based syntax and not SQL for querying data.
Which among the following is a valid system property in Azure Table storage?
- a) PartitionKey
- b) ColumnKey
- c) RowKey
- d) Both a and c
Answer: d) Both a and c
Explanation: The system properties of a table entity are PartitionKey, RowKey, and Timestamp.
Azure Table storage can store entities of size up to:
- a) 1MB
- b) 2MB
- c) 4MB
- d) 8MB
Answer: a) 1MB
Explanation: An entity in Azure Table storage can be up to 1MB in size.
True or False: In Azure Table storage, partition keys are used to distribute the entities across multiple storage nodes.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: The partition key is used to distribute entities across different partitions for scalability and load balancing.
Interview Questions
What is Azure Table Storage?
Azure Table Storage is a service that stores structured NoSQL data in the cloud, providing a key/attribute store with a schemaless design.
What type of data does Azure Table Storage hold?
Azure Table Storage can hold structured and unstructured data, such as text or binary data.
What is the maximum size for an Azure Table Storage account?
The maximum size for an Azure Table Storage account is 500 TB.
What are the main components of Azure Table Storage?
The main components of Azure Table Storage are tables, entities, and properties. A table is a collection of entities, which are similar to rows. Each entity has properties, which are like columns.
What types of queries can be performed in Azure Table Storage?
You can perform point queries, range queries, and table scan operations in Azure Table Storage.
How is data stored in Azure Table Storage?
Data in Azure Table Storage is stored in key-value pairs, with each entity having a unique key.
Can you have foreign key constraints in Azure Table Storage?
No, Azure Table Storage does not support foreign key constraints because it’s a NoSQL database service
Is Azure Table Storage a relational database?
No, Azure Table Storage is not a relational database. It is a NoSQL data store that accepts authenticated calls from inside and outside the Azure cloud.
What is the access level for Azure Table Storage?
Azure Table Storage supports three levels of access: private (only the account owner can have access), blob (public read access for blobs), and container (public read and list access to the entire container).
How is data accessed in Azure Table Storage?
Data in Azure Table Storage is accessed through URIs that include specific instructions for interacting with the tables and their data.
What are the advantages of using Azure Table Storage?
Azure Table Storage offers a cost-effective solution for massive-scale applications in a schemaless design that allows for agile development and fast access.
Can Azure Table Storage data be encrypted?
Yes, data in Azure Table Storage is encrypted at rest and during transmission.
How is the performance of Azure Table Storage?
Azure Table Storage is designed to provide high performance functionality with significant throughput capacity.
What kind of replication does Azure Table Storage support?
Azure Table Storage supports both locally redundant storage (LRS) and globally redundant storage (GRS).
How can you import or export data from Azure Table Storage?
You can import or export data from Azure Table Storage using Azure Storage Explorer or Azure Data Factory.
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