Dashboard Images in Azure Blob Storage - a solution

[joglidden2]

This post is in the interest of helping my colleagues, as well as everyone using PBI Service (PBIS). As many of you know, in order to pin dashboard images on your awesome dashboards, you must have the images in a web-facing storage location (where you provide the URL to the image). And as many of you have discovered, one of the bestest and quickest solutions to this problems is Google Sites (sites.google.com). But what if you are a Microsoft shop and you have been directed to store all your images where your data is, which is in a subscription/resource group in MS Azure? Well, then it's not quite as clear. I've posted here in the Community before looking for step-by-step instructions on doing this and have recieved no useful responses. Therefore, I started a ticket with MS Support, and they offered me a solution that appears to work. It's called Blob Storage, and here's how it works.

1. Go into your Azure portal, and create a new resource.

2. You'll need to specify the subscription, resource group, and details thusly (names of the innocent have been redacted)

3. Security and Network settings. (BTW, I'm trying to set up the cheapest adequate storage solution here).

4. Hopefully you get to this point.

5. Nexting, and if all goes well, your deployment will be underway...

6. And finally...

7. At this point you need to create a "container" for your blob storage resource. I like to name a container after my dashboard that I'll be pinning images to, because I try to be organized like that. Actually I have to be organized like that because I'm a scatterbrain, but that's another story. 

8. When creating the container, note the public access level. 

9. Here, I've uploaded a .jpg image file for my dashboard.

10. Finally, if you look at the properties of your blob file, you can use the handy-dandy Azure copy button to get your URL that you will paste into the image URL field when building your dashboard in PBIS. 

See how easy that was? (Ok, I'm kidding.) Keep using Google Sites for your image storage solution if it doesn't matter. But if you must use an MS Azure solution, this is one possibility.

Last thing I'll mention is there is a tool available called Azure Storage Explorer (https://www.storageexplorer.com/)  which can make things more efficient, but if you create containers using this tool, keep in mind Step 8 (hint: Public access level). 

[ericOnline]

How is this done from a NON-anonymous read access Storage Container?

[joglidden2]

Basically, you would have to add a custom domain to the storage container. I've done this with Azure web apps, and I'll bet it's approximately the same process for a storage container. That's my suggestion. 

[ericOnline]

What is the process? Docs?

[v-yulgu-msft]

Hi @joglidden2,

Thanks for your kindly sharing! 

Regards,

Yuliana Gu