Azure Storage Blob Rename

Question

Is is possible to rename an Azure Storage Blob using the Azure Storage API from a Web Role? The only solution I have at the moment is to copy the blob to a new blob with the correct name and delete the old one.

Answer 1

UPDATE:

I updated the code after @IsaacAbrahams comments and @Viggity's answer, this version should prevent you from having to load everything into a MemoryStream, and waits until the copy is completed before deleting the source blob.

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For anyone getting late to the party but stumbling on this post using Azure Storage API V2, here's an extension method to do it quick and dirty (+ async version):

public static class BlobContainerExtensions 
{
   public static void Rename(this CloudBlobContainer container, string oldName, string newName)
   {
      //Warning: this Wait() is bad practice and can cause deadlock issues when used from ASP.NET applications
      RenameAsync(container, oldName, newName).Wait();
   }

   public static async Task RenameAsync(this CloudBlobContainer container, string oldName, string newName)
   {
      var source = await container.GetBlobReferenceFromServerAsync(oldName);
      var target = container.GetBlockBlobReference(newName);

      await target.StartCopyFromBlobAsync(source.Uri);

      while (target.CopyState.Status == CopyStatus.Pending)
            await Task.Delay(100);

      if (target.CopyState.Status != CopyStatus.Success)
          throw new Exception("Rename failed: " + target.CopyState.Status);

      await source.DeleteAsync();
    }
}

Update for Azure Storage 7.0

    public static async Task RenameAsync(this CloudBlobContainer container, string oldName, string newName)
    {
        CloudBlockBlob source =(CloudBlockBlob)await container.GetBlobReferenceFromServerAsync(oldName);
        CloudBlockBlob target = container.GetBlockBlobReference(newName);


        await target.StartCopyAsync(source);

        while (target.CopyState.Status == CopyStatus.Pending)
            await Task.Delay(100);

        if (target.CopyState.Status != CopyStatus.Success)
            throw new Exception("Rename failed: " + target.CopyState.Status);

        await source.DeleteAsync();            
    }

Disclaimer: This is a quick and dirty method to make the rename execute in a synchronous way. It fits my purposes, however as other users noted, copying can take a long time (up to days), so the best way is NOT to perform this in 1 method like this answer but instead:

• Start the copy process
• Poll the status of the copy operation
• Delete the original blob when the copy is completed.