| title | Configure a lifecycle management policy |
|---|---|
| titleSuffix | Azure Blob Storage |
| description | Configure a lifecycle management policy to automatically move data between hot, cool, cold, and archive tiers during the data lifecycle. |
| author | normesta |
| ms.author | normesta |
| ms.date | 06/13/2025 |
| ms.service | azure-blob-storage |
| ms.topic | concept-article |
| ms.reviewer | yzheng |
| ms.custom | devx-track-azurepowershell, devx-track-azurecli, copilot-scenario-highlight |
| ms.devlang | azurecli |
This article shows you how to create or manage an Azure Blob Storage lifecycle management policy.
You can use lifecycle management policies to transition blobs to cost-efficient access tiers based on their use patterns or delete them entirely at the end of their lifecycle. To learn more, see Azure Blob Storage lifecycle management overview.
Note
A lifecycle management policy must be read or written in full. Partial updates are not supported.
Tip
You can use Azure Copilot to help author lifecycle management policies. For more information, see Manage and migrate storage accounts using Azure Copilot.
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In the Azure portal, navigate to your storage account.
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Under Data management, select Lifecycle Management to view or change lifecycle management policies.
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Select the List View tab.
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Select Add a rule and name your rule on the Details form. You can also set the Rule scope, Blob type, and Blob subtype values. The following example sets the scope to filter blobs. This causes the Filter set tab to be added.
:::image type="content" source="media/lifecycle-management-policy-configure/lifecycle-management-details.png" alt-text="Screenshot of the lifecycle management add a rule details page in Azure portal":::
- Select Base blobs to set the conditions for your rule. In the following example, blobs are moved to cool storage if they haven't been modified for 30 days.
:::image type="content" source="media/lifecycle-management-policy-configure/lifecycle-management-base-blobs.png" alt-text="Screenshot of the lifecycle management base blobs page in Azure portal":::
The Last accessed option is available only if you have enabled access time tracking and you've selected Block blobs as the blob type. See Enable access time tracking.
- If you selected Limit blobs with filters on the Details page, select Filter set to add an optional filter. The following example filters on blobs whose name begins with log in a container called sample-container.
:::image type="content" source="media/lifecycle-management-policy-configure/lifecycle-management-filter-set.png" alt-text="Screenshot of the lifecycle management filter set page in Azure portal":::
If you encounter unexpected results, see the following FAQ entry: The blob prefix match string didn't apply the policy to the expected blobs.
- Select Add to add the new policy.
You can also define a policy by adding JSON code directly in the Code View tab.
The following screenshot shows JSON in the Code View tab. This JSON defines a lifecycle policy that moves a block blob whose name begins with log to the cool tier if it has been more than 30 days since the blob was modified.
[!div class="mx-imgBorder"]
To add a lifecycle management policy with PowerShell, use these commands:
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Call the Add-AzStorageAccountManagementPolicyAction command to define the actions that comprise a rule.
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Call the New-AzStorageAccountManagementPolicyFilter command to specify one or more filters for a rule.
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Call the New-AzStorageAccountManagementPolicyRule command to create a policy rule that includes actions and optional filters.
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Call the Set-AzStorageAccountManagementPolicy command to create the policy on the storage account.
The following example shows how to use each of these commands to create a lifecycle policy. Remember to replace placeholder values in angle brackets with your own values:
# Initialize the following variables with your values.
$rgName = "<resource-group>"
$accountName = "<storage-account>"
# Create a new action object.
$action = Add-AzStorageAccountManagementPolicyAction -BaseBlobAction Delete `
-daysAfterModificationGreaterThan 180
Add-AzStorageAccountManagementPolicyAction -InputObject $action `
-BaseBlobAction TierToArchive `
-daysAfterModificationGreaterThan 90
Add-AzStorageAccountManagementPolicyAction -InputObject $action `
-BaseBlobAction TierToCool `
-daysAfterModificationGreaterThan 30
Add-AzStorageAccountManagementPolicyAction -InputObject $action `
-SnapshotAction Delete `
-daysAfterCreationGreaterThan 90
Add-AzStorageAccountManagementPolicyAction -InputObject $action `
-BlobVersionAction TierToArchive `
-daysAfterCreationGreaterThan 90
# Create a new filter object.
$filter = New-AzStorageAccountManagementPolicyFilter -PrefixMatch ab,cd `
-BlobType blockBlob
# Create a new rule object.
$rule1 = New-AzStorageAccountManagementPolicyRule -Name sample-rule `
-Action $action `
-Filter $filter
# Create the policy.
Set-AzStorageAccountManagementPolicy -ResourceGroupName $rgName `
-StorageAccountName $accountName `
-Rule $rule1To add a lifecycle management policy with Azure CLI, write the policy to a JSON file, then call the az storage account management-policy create command to create the policy.
The following example shows how to use each of these commands to create a lifecycle policy. Remember to replace placeholder values in angle brackets with your own values:
az storage account management-policy create \
--account-name <storage-account> \
--policy @policy.json \
--resource-group <resource-group>
To define a lifecycle management policy with an Azure Resource Manager template, include the Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/managementPolicies object in your template. For configuration details, see Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/managementPolicies 2021-02-01 - Bicep & ARM template reference. The Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/managementPolicies object is available in the Azure Storage Resource Provider REST API for versions 2018-11-01 and later.
Enable access tracking if you want to include an action based on the time that the blob was last accessed with a read or write operation. To learn about the behavior of this capability, see Access time tracking.
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Navigate to your storage account in the Azure portal.
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In the Data management section, select Lifecycle management.
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Check the checkbox "Enable access tracking"
[!div class="mx-imgBorder"]
[!INCLUDE azure-storage-set-last-access-time-powershell]
[!INCLUDE azure-storage-set-last-access-time-azure-cli]
[!INCLUDE azure-storage-set-last-access-time-template]