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Subchapter 4.7
references/services/storage.mdMarkdown4 KBView on GitHub
Reference guide for identifying cost savings opportunities in Azure Storage accounts through tier analysis, lifecycle policies, and orphaned resource detection.
Resolve subscription names to subscription scope paths. For cross-subscription requests, process no more than ten accessible subscriptions per batch. Tenant IDs are not Cost Management scopes.
AdvisorResources for Cost recommendations whose resource ID belongs
to a storage account or managed disk.Resources for matching configuration such as SKU, redundancy, kind,
access tier, location, attachment state, management-policy presence when
exposed, and ownership tags.An unattached disk, missing policy, SKU, redundancy choice, or resource tag is an inventory fact, not proof of waste. Do not classify storage as idle, underutilized, or safe to tier, resize, or delete without an authoritative recommendation or matching observed usage evidence.
Quantify opportunities with actual usage, current cost, and live prices. Do not use generic savings ranges.
When Advisor or observed access evidence supports tiering analysis, load Lifecycle guidance.
Find storage accounts without lifecycle policies:
Lifecycle policy contents are not queryable through Resource Graph. Use the applicable ARM MCP storage operation. If unavailable, use the Storage Resource Provider API through the fallback process.
Find Premium storage accounts in non-production:
Resources
| where type =~ 'microsoft.storage/storageaccounts'
| where sku.name contains 'Premium'
| where tags.environment in~ ('dev', 'test', 'staging', 'sandbox')
| project name, resourceGroup, sku=sku.name, tagsFind GRS/GZRS accounts in dev/test (redundancy downgrade candidates):
Resources
| where type =~ 'microsoft.storage/storageaccounts'
| where sku.name contains 'GRS' or sku.name contains 'GZRS'
| where tags.environment in~ ('dev', 'test', 'staging')
| project name, resourceGroup, sku=sku.name, location, tagsFind classic (v1) storage accounts:
Resources
| where type =~ 'microsoft.storage/storageaccounts'
| where kind =~ 'Storage'
| project name, resourceGroup, location, kindFind orphaned managed disks (unattached):
Resources
| where type =~ 'microsoft.compute/disks'
| where isempty(managedBy)
| project name, resourceGroup, location, diskSizeGb=properties.diskSizeGB, sku=sku.nameInclude: subscription name/ID, total monthly storage cost, account count by SKU/tier, total data stored (TB), top issues found.
Include: account name, resource group, SKU/redundancy, kind, monthly cost, capacity (GB), access tier distribution (%), lifecycle policy status, and optimization recommendations.
Use Azure Resource Graph (ARG) operations for inventory and configuration. Use ARM MCP storage operations for management policies and access tracking, and ARM MCP monitoring operations for capacity and transaction metrics. Use the Storage Resource Provider or Azure Monitor API fallback when needed, and report an evidence gap if neither source returns the required data.
Use get_retail_prices for the requested region, redundancy, tier, and
currency. Include storage, transaction, retrieval, early-deletion, and
rehydration costs when relevant; never rely on embedded rates.