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azlin storage list

List all Azure Files NFS storage accounts in your resource group.

Description

The azlin storage list command displays all NFS-enabled storage accounts with their key information:

  • Storage account names
  • Size and tier
  • Number of connected VMs
  • Monthly cost estimates
  • Creation dates and status

This provides a quick overview of all storage resources in your environment.

Usage

azlin storage list [OPTIONS]

Options

Option Description
--resource-group, --rg TEXT Azure resource group
-h, --help Show help message

Examples

List All Storage

azlin storage list

Output: 

Azure Files NFS Storage Accounts (azlin-rg)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Name              Size    Tier      VMs    Monthly Cost    Created
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
team-shared       200 GB  Premium    3     $30.60         2025-11-22
ml-training      1000 GB  Premium    1    $153.00         2025-11-20
backups          2000 GB  Standard   0     $36.80         2025-11-15
project-archive   500 GB  Standard   0     $ 9.20         2025-11-01

Total: 4 storage accounts
Total Monthly Cost: $229.60
Total Capacity: 3.7 TB

List with Different Resource Group

azlin storage list --rg azlin-prod-rg

Get Storage Names for Scripting

# Get just the names
azlin storage list --format names

# Output:
# team-shared
# ml-training
# backups
# project-archive

Check Storage Across Multiple Resource Groups

# List storage in all resource groups
for rg in azlin-dev-rg azlin-staging-rg azlin-prod-rg; do
    echo "=== $rg ==="
    azlin storage list --rg $rg
    echo ""
done

Common Use Cases

Audit Storage Resources

# Review all storage accounts
azlin storage list

# Identify unused storage (0 VMs)
# Check high costs
# Find old storage accounts

Cost Analysis

# Calculate total storage costs
azlin storage list | grep "Total Monthly Cost"

# Find most expensive storage
azlin storage list | sort -k6 -rn

Find Storage for VM

# List storage to find which to mount
azlin storage list

# Mount on VM
azlin storage mount vm team-shared --vm my-dev-vm

Cleanup Old Storage

# List all storage
azlin storage list

# Delete storage with 0 VMs that's over 30 days old
azlin storage delete project-archive

Monitor Storage Growth

# Save current state
azlin storage list > storage-$(date +%Y%m%d).txt

# Compare weekly to track growth
# Compare monthly for cost trending

Output Columns

Column Description
Name Storage account name
Size Provisioned capacity in GB/TB
Tier Premium or Standard performance tier
VMs Number of VMs with mounted storage
Monthly Cost Estimated monthly cost
Created Creation date (YYYY-MM-DD)

Understanding the Output

VM Count Column

  • 0 VMs: Storage not currently mounted (may contain data)
  • 1-5 VMs: Typical team usage
  • 5+ VMs: Large shared workspace

Note: 0 VMs doesn't mean empty - check with azlin storage status <name>

Cost Column

Costs are based on provisioned capacity: - Premium: $0.153/GB/month - Standard: $0.0184/GB/month

Actual bill may vary by region and Azure discounts.

Tier Selection

Use Premium for: - Active development - Shared team workspaces - Database storage - High-frequency access

Use Standard for: - Backups and archives - Infrequent access - Cost-sensitive workloads - Long-term storage

Filtering and Sorting

Filter by Tier

# Show only Premium storage
azlin storage list | grep Premium

# Show only Standard storage
azlin storage list | grep Standard

Sort by Cost

# Sort by monthly cost (highest first)
azlin storage list | tail -n +4 | sort -k6 -rn

Find Large Storage

# Find storage > 500 GB
azlin storage list | awk '$2 + 0 > 500'

Find Unused Storage

# Find storage with 0 connected VMs
azlin storage list | awk '$4 == 0'

Troubleshooting

No Storage Accounts Found

Output: "No NFS storage accounts found in resource group"

Possible causes: 1. No storage created yet 2. Wrong resource group 3. Storage in different region

Solutions: 

# Create first storage
azlin storage create myteam --size 100 --tier Premium

# Check different resource group
azlin storage list --rg azlin-dev-rg

# Verify current resource group
azlin context show

Permission Denied

Error: "Insufficient permissions to list storage accounts"

Solution: Ensure you have Reader role: 

# Test authentication
azlin auth test

# Re-authenticate
az login

# Verify permissions
az role assignment list --assignee $(az account show --query user.name -o tsv)

Incomplete Information

Warning: "Some storage information unavailable"

Cause: Storage account in different subscription or region

Solution: Ensure storage is in current subscription: 

# Check current subscription
az account show

# Switch if needed
az account set --subscription "My Subscription"

Cost Optimization Tips

Review Monthly

# Monthly storage audit
azlin storage list

# Check for:
# - Unused storage (0 VMs)
# - Over-provisioned storage (check usage with status)
# - Duplicate storage (similar names)

Consolidate Storage

Instead of many small storage accounts, use fewer large ones:

# Bad: Multiple small storage accounts
# team-alice-dev (50 GB) = $7.65/mo
# team-bob-dev (50 GB) = $7.65/mo
# team-carol-dev (50 GB) = $7.65/mo
# Total: $22.95/mo

# Good: One shared storage
# team-shared (200 GB) = $30.60/mo (saves ~$2/mo)
# Bonus: Better collaboration

Right-Size Capacity

# Check actual usage
azlin storage status team-shared | grep "Used:"

# If using < 50%, consider reducing size
# (requires data migration)

Use Standard Tier When Possible

# Don't use Premium for backups
# Premium 1TB = $153/mo
# Standard 1TB = $18.84/mo
# Savings: $134.16/mo (87% cheaper)

azlin storage create backups --size 1000 --tier Standard

See Also