Online blob tier that is cheaper than Hot to store data in but dearer to access.
Also called tier.
Read more: Microsoft Learn
In the Ultra Transcenders books
Each book explains Cool in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- Online management group
Workloads that may talk directly to or from the internet, or that need no virtual network at all, go in this management group. It is a sibling of Corp and Local beneath Landing zones.
- BLOB
Short for binary large object: raw binary data, like pictures, audio, video or documents, that only an application can make sense of. Azure keeps these files as blobs in Blob Storage.
- Archive
Offline access tier for blobs, cheapest to store yet dearest to access. Reading a blob means rehydrating it first, which can take as long as 15 hours.
- Hot
The online blob access tier where storing data costs the most but accessing it costs the least.
Related terms
- Access tier
Setting for block blobs in standard accounts (Hot, Cool, Cold or Archive). Cooler tiers cost less to store but more to access.
- Archive tier
An offline blob access tier offering the cheapest storage, meant for data that is hardly ever read. Archived blobs must first be rehydrated to the Hot, Cool or Cold tier, which may take as long as 15 hours, before you can read or change them, and ZRS, GZRS and RA-GZRS accounts can't use this tier.
- Cold
Online access tier for blobs that costs less to store than Cool but more to read, while data stays instantly available.
- Early deletion
A fee charged when a blob leaves the cool, cold or archive tier (whether deleted, overwritten or moved) before staying the minimum 30, 90 or 180 days. It is worked out pro rata on the days still outstanding.
- Page blob
Used to store VM disks (VHDs), this blob type is made of 512-byte pages, allows random reads and writes and grows up to 8 TiB. Cool and Archive tiers do not apply to it.
- Rehydration
Making an archived blob readable again by moving it to the hot, cool or cold tier, either by changing its tier or copying it. At standard priority this may take as long as 15 hours.
- Smart tier
Lets Azure decide whether each block blob sits in hot, cool or cold according to usage, with no charges for retrieval, early deletion or tier moves. Archive isn't involved, and the account must be standard general-purpose v2 with zone redundancy.