Connect Azure Subscriptions

Cloud Storage Manager needs read access to your Azure subscriptions before it can scan storage accounts. This guide walks the first-time sign-in and subscription-selection flow.

What permissions are required

You need an Azure account with at least the Reader role on each subscription you want to scan. Reader is sufficient — Cloud Storage Manager does not need write access for its core inspection and reporting functions.

For tiering changes and blob deletions (optional actions described in tiering and storage account explorer), the account needs Storage Blob Data Contributor on the affected storage accounts. Many admins use one account for read-only scanning and a second elevated account for the occasional write action.

Step 1: Launch and sign in

Open Cloud Storage Manager. On first launch, the sign-in prompt opens automatically. Click Sign in to Azure.

A Microsoft sign-in window opens. Enter the credentials of the Azure account you want to use. Complete any multi-factor authentication.

Step 2: Pick subscriptions

After sign-in, Cloud Storage Manager lists every subscription the account has access to. Tick the subscriptions you want to scan. You can return to this dialog at any time via Settings → Subscriptions to add or remove subscriptions later.

For first-run, picking just one or two subscriptions is sensible — you'll see results faster and can scope up once you have a sense of how long full-tenancy scans take.

Click Save. The first scan kicks off automatically.

Step 3: Wait for the first scan

The scan visits every storage account in every selected subscription, pulls account-level metadata, then enumerates containers and blobs at the depth Cloud Storage Manager needs for the views. Timing depends on tenancy size:

• A handful of storage accounts with light usage — minutes.
• Hundreds of storage accounts spanning many subscriptions — hours.

You can use other views (the world map populates as accounts are discovered) before the deep blob enumeration completes.

Step 4: Confirm results

When the scan completes, the Storage Account Explorer shows your subscriptions, storage accounts, and containers in a tree view. Use it as your starting point.

Re-authenticating later

Azure access tokens expire periodically. Cloud Storage Manager prompts for re-authentication when needed — click through the same sign-in flow. The subscription selection is remembered between sessions, so you only re-pick subscriptions if you want to change which ones are scanned.

Multi-tenant scenarios

If your organisation has multiple Azure tenants (multiple Microsoft 365 / Entra ID tenancies), sign in once per tenant. Cloud Storage Manager treats each tenant separately — switch between them via Settings → Tenants.

See also

• Install Cloud Storage Manager — what runs before this step.
• Storage Account Explorer — what to do after the first scan completes.
• Search across the tenancy — find a specific account fast.

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