Move File rather than copy in Azure Data factory

Question

In Data Factory you can copy a file but Im thinking, is data factory the best thing to use if you are going to move a file from one area to another?

Is Logic Apps a better solution to go for if you are going to simply move a file?

Answer 1

Hi @DebbieEdwards-1726,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A Platform.

With the delete activity in Azure data factory, this can be added to copy activity and once file is copied, it can be deleted from source. The same can be achieved in Logic App using a trigger. The option to use depends on use case. If it is simply moving a file without any transformations, loading and reporting of the data in it and it needs to be automated, logic app would be good to use.

Hope this helps! Do let us know for further questions.

Answer 2

I think, it is only available for binary files. But this would not matter, if you only want to move the file.

Answer 3

Hi @Vaibhav Chaudhari I was looking at this response because I need to move files also and used this create a new file and delete the old file approach. I don't need to read the file so thought copying like this be fine.

The only problem with this approach I am seeing is that I am losing the timestamp of the file because of creating a new file and deleting it.

Is there no way in ADF that we can move the original file without reading it and thus able to maintain the timestamp of the file? This is the last step in my pipeline and I really don't want to take this step to logic app. Unless there is a way for me to call the logic app within ADF?

Thanks