Clarification on Required Upgrade from Blob Storage V1 to V2

Hi DJ,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A and thank you for posting your query here!

It's a great question, and many customers are facing this transition with Azure Blob Storage V1 accounts. Microsoft is indeed requiring an upgrade from Blob Storage V1 (also known as general-purpose v1 or GPv1) to Blob Storage V2 (general-purpose v2 or GPv2) by 2026. Here's a detailed explanation and step-by-step guidance to help you understand why this is needed and how to approach it.

Why upgrade from Blob Storage V1 to V2?

Service Retirement:

• Microsoft is retiring GPv1 and Blob Storage V1 accounts by October 13, 2026. After this date, these accounts will no longer be supported or receive new features. New GPv1 accounts cannot be created after Q1 2026. This retirement ensures that all customers benefit from the latest Azure Storage innovations. Upgrade overview docs

2.Access to New Features:

GPv2 accounts support modern features that V1 does not, including:

Multiple access tiers (Hot, Cool, Archive) to optimize costs based on data usage patterns.

Lifecycle management policies to automate data tiering and retention.

Enhanced performance and security improvements.

More granular monitoring and analytics.

3.Non-Disruptive Upgrade:

• The upgrade is a resource manager operation in Azure that is seamless—you won’t experience downtime or data loss. The process is irreversible, so it’s good to plan ahead but no service interruptions will happen during the upgrade. Upgrade details

How to upgrade your Blob Storage V1 to V2 step by step

Preparation:

Review your storage account types: confirm which accounts are GPv1 or Blob Storage V1.

• Evaluate your current usage patterns to estimate costs after upgrade, as GPv2 has different pricing models. Use the Azure Pricing Calculator for this.

Check Prerequisites:

Ensure your account is in a subscription and region that supports the upgrade. Almost all public Azure regions support GPv2.

Backup important data if needed, though the upgrade does not delete or affect your data.

Perform the Upgrade:

• Navigate to the Azure Portal.

Go to your Storage Account blade.

Under Configuration, find the option to upgrade the account to General Purpose v2.

Click the Upgrade button and confirm.

Post-Upgrade Tasks:

Verify the account type is now GPv2 in the portal under the Overview tab.

Review and configure new access tiers and any lifecycle management policies to optimize costs.

Update any scripts or automation if they rely on specific V1 features or settings.

• For the full official guide with screenshots and detailed steps, see Microsoft's documentation here: Upgrade to a general-purpose v2 storage account

Cost Considerations:

While Blob Storage V1 may seem cheaper due to its cost structure, GPv2 offers more pricing flexibility with access tiers that can save costs if data is infrequently accessed.

Pricing for storage capacity in GPv2 is usually lower or comparable, but transaction and operation charges might be higher depending on usage intensity.

• Use the Azure Blob Storage pricing page and the Azure Pricing Calculator to estimate costs based on your specific workload.

i hope this helps, please do let me know if you have any questions on this!

Thanks,

Harish.

Hi DJ,

Greetings for the day!

Just checking to see if you have a chance to check my previous response and helped, do let me know if you have any further questions on this.

Thanks,

Harish.

@Harish Peddapally

We plan to look into upgrading in early 2026.

As GPv2 has multiple tiers, could you please advise which tier should be used for the Function App?

Regarding the cost, it appears that my current Blob account is experiencing a high number of transactions. I presume this might be because the Function App is being triggered by IoT messages, unless there’s something else occurring that I’m unaware of.

Is there a way to confirm whether these are actual transactions and not unnecessary logs or similar activity?

Hi DJ,

Good day, i hope you are great!

Thanks for your follow-up questions and your plan to upgrade early next year.

For your Azure Function App running on Blob Storage V2 (GPv2), the recommended access tier is the Hot tier. This tier is optimized for frequent data access and low latency, which fits well with use cases where the Function App is triggered frequently, such as processing IoT messages. While the Hot tier has higher storage costs, it carries the lowest access and transaction costs, which helps when you have a high volume of read/write operations. If you later identify data that is infrequently accessed, you can transition those blobs to the Cool or Archive tiers to save cost, but these tiers come with higher access fees and latency, so they are generally not suitable as defaults for active function workloads.​

Regarding your high number of transactions, which you suspect come from IoT-triggered Function App activity, you can confirm whether these are actual data transactions and not redundant or unexpected logs by leveraging Azure Storage monitoring features. The Azure Monitor Storage Insights and Storage Analytics tools allow you to track blob storage transaction metrics, such as API calls (GetBlob, PutBlob). You can use Azure Monitor metrics and Azure Log Analytics to analyze detailed transaction logs and filter by operation types to understand the source of transaction spikes. This will help you differentiate between legitimate function-driven activity and excessive or unnecessary operations like polling or logging. Monitoring these metrics before and after your upgrade will also help optimize costs based on actual usage patterns.​

For detailed monitoring, you can refer to Microsoft’s documentation on monitoring Azure Blob Storage and using Storage Analytics.

Please let me know if you have any questions on this.

Thanks,

Harish

Hi DJ,

Greetings for the day!

Just checking to see if you have a chance to check my previous response and helped, do let me know if you have any further questions on this.

Thanks,

Harish.