Use Azure Cloud Shell without a storage account
For years Cloud Shell insisted on mounting a file share before it would give you a prompt. It no longer does. There is a no-storage option now — and it is the right one more often than you would guess.
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Yes — you can run Azure Cloud Shell without a storage account. When it prompts you to mount storage, choose the ephemeral option, labelled something like "No storage account required." You get a full shell with the az and PowerShell tooling and no file share mounted. The trade: nothing persists — files, scripts, and your home directory vanish when the session ends.
That prompt used to be a wall. Open Cloud Shell for the first time, and it would not hand you a prompt until you either let it create a storage account or pointed it at an existing one. In a locked-down subscription, or one where you had no rights to create resources, that was the end of the road. The ephemeral session removes the wall. You trade persistence for zero setup and zero cleanup.
Launch an ephemeral session
The exact wording drifts between the portal, shell.azure.com, and the mobile app, so treat these as the shape of it rather than a script to follow to the letter.
- Open Cloud Shell — the
>_icon in the portal top bar, or go straight toshell.azure.com. - Pick your shell, Bash or PowerShell. Either works the same way here.
- At the storage prompt, look for the choice that skips the mount — "No storage account required," "ephemeral session," or a similar phrase that makes clear nothing will be saved. Take it.
- The prompt appears. You are in a working shell with no file share behind it.
If you had already mounted storage on a previous visit, Cloud Shell may just reconnect you to it silently. To force the choice again, use the settings or the "reset user settings" action to clear the mount, then reconnect.
An ephemeral session is a real container with the full toolset — az, Azure PowerShell, kubectl, terraform, git, Python, and the rest. Your identity is already signed in, so az account show works immediately. The only thing missing is the mounted Azure Files share at ~/clouddrive. Everything else behaves normally, right up until the session ends and the disk is wiped.
What "no persistence" really costs you
Be clear-eyed about the trade, because it bites people who skimmed past it. With no file share mounted, there is no durable $HOME. Anything you create lives only in the running container.
- A script you write and save is gone on timeout, disconnect, or close.
- A repo you
git cloneis gone with it — clone it again next time. - Shell history, dotfiles, and any tool you installed by hand do not carry over.
- The
~/clouddrivepath other Cloud Shell docs reference simply is not there.
Cloud Shell also times out on its own after about 20 minutes of no input, and that timeout is a full stop for an ephemeral session, not a nap. So if you write something worth keeping, get it out of the box before you walk away — push it to a git repo, or paste it somewhere. The shell will not remember it for you.
Ephemeral is not a lesser Cloud Shell. It is the same shell with the memory switched off.
Ephemeral or the persistent mount — which to pick
Neither is the "right" one in the abstract. It depends entirely on whether you will come back to what you build.
| Ephemeral (no storage) | Persistent (mounted share) | |
|---|---|---|
| Your files after the session | Deleted | Still there next time |
| Storage account | None created | One required, holds an Azure Files share |
| Cost | Nothing to store, nothing to bill | Standard Azure Files rates — usually cents a month |
| Cleanup | None; the box disappears | The storage account lingers until you delete it |
| Best for | One-off commands, throwaway labs, locked-down subs | Daily driver, saved scripts, cloned repos, dotfiles |
Reach for ephemeral when you want to run a handful of az commands and leave no trace: check a resource, rotate a key, kick off a deployment, then close the tab. It is also the clean choice in a shared or heavily governed subscription where dropping a storage account you will forget about is its own small liability.
Keep the persistent mount when Cloud Shell is where you work. If you are iterating on a Bicep file, keeping a set of helper scripts, or cloning the same repo every day, paying a few cents a month to have your home directory survive is the obvious call. As of 2026 the backing Azure Files share is billed at standard rates for what it holds — for a typical Cloud Shell home directory that is a rounding error, but check the Azure pricing calculator, since rates move.
If you keep losing work to the timeout, stop treating Cloud Shell as the place your scripts live. Keep them in a git repo, clone on entry, commit on exit. That works identically in an ephemeral session and a persistent one, it survives Cloud Shell entirely, and it is the habit you want anyway once you are scripting for real. The mounted share is convenient; version control is the actual answer.
Where this fits in the job
Cloud Shell is a browser terminal, not the only way to run az. On your own machine the CLI has no storage prompt at all — you install it, sign in, and your files are just your files. The storage-account question is unique to Cloud Shell, and it exists only because a browser tab has no disk of its own to hang a home directory on. Understanding that is the difference between memorizing a button and knowing why the button is there — which is the line this bootcamp keeps drawing between passing a cert and being trusted to run the thing.
Common questions
Can I use Azure Cloud Shell without a storage account?
Yes. When Cloud Shell prompts you to mount storage, choose the option for a session with no storage account — labelled something like "No storage account required" or "ephemeral session." You get a full shell with the az and Azure PowerShell tooling, but no file share is mounted, so nothing you create survives the session.
What happens to my files in an ephemeral Cloud Shell session?
They are deleted when the session ends. There is no mounted file share and no persistent home directory, so scripts you write, files you download, and shell history all disappear on timeout, disconnect, or close. If you need to keep something, push it to a git repo or copy it out before you leave.
Does an ephemeral Cloud Shell session cost anything?
There is no storage cost, because no file share is provisioned. The persistent option backs Cloud Shell with a small Azure Files share in a storage account, and you pay standard Azure Files rates for what it holds — usually a few cents a month. The ephemeral session skips that entirely.
When should I use a persistent Cloud Shell instead of ephemeral?
Use the persistent mount when you want your scripts, cloned repos, dotfiles, and home directory to still be there next time. It is the right default for anyone who lives in Cloud Shell day to day. Reach for ephemeral for a one-off command, a throwaway lab, or a shared or locked-down subscription where you do not want to leave a storage account behind.