Copy and transform data in Azure Blob storage by using Azure Data Factory
This article outlines how to use Copy Activity in Azure Data Factory to copy data from and to Azure Blob storage, and use Data Flow to transform data in Azure Blob storage. To learn about Azure Data Factory, read the introductory article.
Note
This article has been updated to use the new Azure PowerShell Az module. You can still use the AzureRM module, which will continue to receive bug fixes until at least December 2020. To learn more about the new Az module and AzureRM compatibility, see Introducing the new Azure PowerShell Az module. For Az module installation instructions, see Install Azure PowerShell.
Supported capabilities
This Azure Blob connector is supported for the following activities:
- Copy activity with supported source/sink matrix
- Mapping data flow
- Lookup activity
- GetMetadata activity
- Delete activity
For Copy activity, this Blob storage connector supports:
- Copying blobs to and from general-purpose Azure storage accounts and hot/cool blob storage.
- Copying blobs by using account key, service shared access signature, service principal or managed identities for Azure resources authentications.
- Copying blobs from block, append, or page blobs and copying data to only block blobs.
- Copying blobs as is or parsing or generating blobs with supported file formats and compression codecs.
Important
If you enable the Allow trusted Microsoft services to access this storage account option on Azure Storage firewall settings and want to use Azure integration runtime to connect to your Blob Storage, you must use managed identity authentication.
Get started
You can use one of the following tools or SDKs to use the copy activity with a pipeline. Select a link for step-by-step instructions:
- Copy data tool
- Azure portal
- .NET SDK
- Python SDK
- Azure PowerShell
- REST API
- Azure Resource Manager template
The following sections provide details about properties that are used to define Data Factory entities specific to Blob storage.
Linked service properties
Azure Blob connector support the following authentication types, refer to the corresponding section on details:
- Account key authentication
- Shared access signature authentication
- Service principal authentication
- Managed identities for Azure resources authentication
Note
When using PolyBase to load data into SQL Data Warehouse, if your source or staging Blob storage is configured with Virtual Network endpoint, you must use managed identity authentication as required by PolyBase, and use Self-hosted Integration Runtime with version 3.18 or above. See the managed identity authentication section with more configuration prerequisites.
Note
HDInsights and Azure Machine Learning activities only support Azure Blob storage account key authentication.
Account key authentication
To use storage account key authentication, the following properties are supported:
Property | Description | Required |
---|---|---|
type | The type property must be set to AzureBlobStorage (suggested) or AzureStorage (see notes below). | Yes |
connectionString | Specify the information needed to connect to Storage for the connectionString property. Mark this field as a SecureString to store it securely in Data Factory. You can also put account key in Azure Key Vault and pull the accountKey configuration out of the connection string. Refer to the following samples and Store credentials in Azure Key Vault article with more details. |
Yes |
connectVia | The integration runtime to be used to connect to the data store. You can use Azure Integration Runtime or Self-hosted Integration Runtime (if your data store is in a private network). If not specified, it uses the default Azure Integration Runtime. | No |
Note
Secondary Blob Service Endpoint is not supported when using account key authentication. You can use other authentication types.
Note
If you were using "AzureStorage" type linked service, it is still supported as-is, while you are suggested to use this new "AzureBlobStorage" linked service type going forward.
Example:
{
"name": "AzureBlobStorageLinkedService",
"properties": {
"type": "AzureBlobStorage",
"typeProperties": {
"connectionString": {
"type": "SecureString",
"value": "DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=<accountname>;AccountKey=<accountkey>"
}
},
"connectVia": {
"referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
"type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
}
}
}
Example: store account key in Azure Key Vault
{
"name": "AzureBlobStorageLinkedService",
"properties": {
"type": "AzureBlobStorage",
"typeProperties": {
"connectionString": {
"type": "SecureString",
"value": "DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=<accountname>;"
},
"accountKey": {
"type": "AzureKeyVaultSecret",
"store": {
"referenceName": "<Azure Key Vault linked service name>",
"type": "LinkedServiceReference"
},
"secretName": "<secretName>"
}
},
"connectVia": {
"referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
"type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
}
}
}
Shared access signature authentication
A shared access signature provides delegated access to resources in your storage account. You can use a shared access signature to grant a client limited permissions to objects in your storage account for a specified time. You don't have to share your account access keys. The shared access signature is a URI that encompasses in its query parameters all the information necessary for authenticated access to a storage resource. To access storage resources with the shared access signature, the client only needs to pass in the shared access signature to the appropriate constructor or method. For more information about shared access signatures, see Shared access signatures: Understand the shared access signature model.
Note
- Data Factory now supports both service shared access signatures and account shared access signatures. For more information about shared access signatures, see Grant limited access to Azure Storage resources using shared access signatures (SAS).
- In later dataset configuration, the folder path is the absolute path starting from container level. You need to configure one aligned with the path in your SAS URI.
Tip
To generate a service shared access signature for your storage account, you can execute the following PowerShell commands. Replace the placeholders and grant the needed permission.
$context = New-AzStorageContext -StorageAccountName <accountName> -StorageAccountKey <accountKey>
New-AzStorageContainerSASToken -Name <containerName> -Context $context -Permission rwdl -StartTime <startTime> -ExpiryTime <endTime> -FullUri
To use shared access signature authentication, the following properties are supported:
Property | Description | Required |
---|---|---|
type | The type property must be set to AzureBlobStorage (suggested) or AzureStorage (see notes below). | Yes |
sasUri | Specify the shared access signature URI to the Storage resources such as blob/container. Mark this field as a SecureString to store it securely in Data Factory. You can also put SAS token in Azure Key Vault to leverage auto rotation and remove the token portion. Refer to the following samples and Store credentials in Azure Key Vault article with more details. |
Yes |
connectVia | The integration runtime to be used to connect to the data store. You can use the Azure Integration Runtime or the Self-hosted Integration Runtime (if your data store is located in a private network). If not specified, it uses the default Azure Integration Runtime. | No |
Note
If you were using "AzureStorage" type linked service, it is still supported as-is, while you are suggested to use this new "AzureBlobStorage" linked service type going forward.
Example:
{
"name": "AzureBlobStorageLinkedService",
"properties": {
"type": "AzureBlobStorage",
"typeProperties": {
"sasUri": {
"type": "SecureString",
"value": "<SAS URI of the Azure Storage resource e.g. https://<container>.blob.core.windows.net/?sv=<storage version>&st=<start time>&se=<expire time>&sr=<resource>&sp=<permissions>&sip=<ip range>&spr=<protocol>&sig=<signature>>"
}
},
"connectVia": {
"referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
"type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
}
}
}
Example: store account key in Azure Key Vault
{
"name": "AzureBlobStorageLinkedService",
"properties": {
"type": "AzureBlobStorage",
"typeProperties": {
"sasUri": {
"type": "SecureString",
"value": "<SAS URI of the Azure Storage resource without token e.g. https://<container>.blob.core.windows.net/>"
},
"sasToken": {
"type": "AzureKeyVaultSecret",
"store": {
"referenceName": "<Azure Key Vault linked service name>",
"type": "LinkedServiceReference"
},
"secretName": "<secretName>"
}
},
"connectVia": {
"referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
"type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
}
}
}
When you create a shared access signature URI, consider the following points:
- Set appropriate read/write permissions on objects based on how the linked service (read, write, read/write) is used in your data factory.
- Set Expiry time appropriately. Make sure that the access to Storage objects doesn't expire within the active period of the pipeline.
- The URI should be created at the right container/blob based on the need. A shared access signature URI to a blob allows Data Factory to access that particular blob. A shared access signature URI to a Blob storage container allows Data Factory to iterate through blobs in that container. To provide access to more or fewer objects later, or to update the shared access signature URI, remember to update the linked service with the new URI.
Service principal authentication
For Azure Storage service principal authentication in general, refer to Authenticate access to Azure Storage using Azure Active Directory.
To use service principal authentication, follow these steps:
Register an application entity in Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) by following Register your application with an Azure AD tenant. Make note of the following values, which you use to define the linked service:
- Application ID
- Application key
- Tenant ID
Grant the service principal proper permission in Azure Blob storage. Refer to Manage access rights to Azure Storage data with RBAC with more details on the roles.
- As source, in Access control (IAM), grant at least Storage Blob Data Reader role.
- As sink, in Access control (IAM), grant at least Storage Blob Data Contributor role.
These properties are supported for an Azure Blob storage linked service:
Property | Description | Required |
---|---|---|
type | The type property must be set to AzureBlobStorage. | Yes |
serviceEndpoint | Specify the Azure Blob storage service endpoint with the pattern of https://<accountName>.blob.core.windows.net/ . |
Yes |
servicePrincipalId | Specify the application's client ID. | Yes |
servicePrincipalKey | Specify the application's key. Mark this field as a SecureString to store it securely in Data Factory, or reference a secret stored in Azure Key Vault. | Yes |
tenant | Specify the tenant information (domain name or tenant ID) under which your application resides. Retrieve it by hovering the mouse in the top-right corner of the Azure portal. | Yes |
connectVia | The integration runtime to be used to connect to the data store. You can use Azure Integration Runtime or Self-hosted Integration Runtime (if your data store is in a private network). If not specified, it uses the default Azure Integration Runtime. | No |
Note
Service principal authentication is only supported by "AzureBlobStorage" type linked service but not previous "AzureStorage" type linked service.
Example:
{
"name": "AzureBlobStorageLinkedService",
"properties": {
"type": "AzureBlobStorage",
"typeProperties": {
"serviceEndpoint": "https://<accountName>.blob.core.windows.net/",
"servicePrincipalId": "<service principal id>",
"servicePrincipalKey": {
"type": "SecureString",
"value": "<service principal key>"
},
"tenant": "<tenant info, e.g. microsoft.onmicrosoft.com>"
},
"connectVia": {
"referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
"type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
}
}
}
Managed identities for Azure resources authentication
A data factory can be associated with a managed identity for Azure resources, which represents this specific data factory. You can directly use this managed identity for Blob storage authentication similar to using your own service principal. It allows this designated factory to access and copy data from/to your Blob storage.
Refer to Authenticate access to Azure Storage using Azure Active Directory for Azure Storage authentication in general. To use managed identities for Azure resources authentication, follow these steps:
Retrieve data factory managed identity information by copying the value of "SERVICE IDENTITY APPLICATION ID" generated along with your factory.
Grant the managed identity proper permission in Azure Blob storage. Refer to Manage access rights to Azure Storage data with RBAC with more details on the roles.
- As source, in Access control (IAM), grant at least Storage Blob Data Reader role.
- As sink, in Access control (IAM), grant at least Storage Blob Data Contributor role.
Important
If you use PolyBase to load data from Blob (as source or as staging) into SQL Data Warehouse, when using managed identity authentication for Blob, make sure you also follow steps 1 and 2 in this guidance to 1) register your SQL Database server with Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) and 2) assign the Storage Blob Data Contributor role to your SQL Database server; the rest are handled by Data Factory. If your Blob storage is configured with an Azure Virtual Network endpoint, to use PolyBase to load data from it, you must use managed identity authentication as required by PolyBase.
These properties are supported for an Azure Blob storage linked service:
Property | Description | Required |
---|---|---|
type | The type property must be set to AzureBlobStorage. | Yes |
serviceEndpoint | Specify the Azure Blob storage service endpoint with the pattern of https://<accountName>.blob.core.windows.net/ . |
Yes |
connectVia | The integration runtime to be used to connect to the data store. You can use Azure Integration Runtime or Self-hosted Integration Runtime (if your data store is in a private network). If not specified, it uses the default Azure Integration Runtime. | No |
Note
Managed identities for Azure resources authentication is only supported by "AzureBlobStorage" type linked service but not previous "AzureStorage" type linked service.
Example:
{
"name": "AzureBlobStorageLinkedService",
"properties": {
"type": "AzureBlobStorage",
"typeProperties": {
"serviceEndpoint": "https://<accountName>.blob.core.windows.net/"
},
"connectVia": {
"referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
"type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
}
}
}
Dataset properties
For a full list of sections and properties available for defining datasets, see the Datasets article.
Azure Data Factory support the following file formats. Refer to each article on format-based settings.
The following properties are supported for Azure Blob under location
settings in format-based dataset:
Property | Description | Required |
---|---|---|
type | The type property of the location in dataset must be set to AzureBlobStorageLocation. | Yes |
container | The blob container. | Yes |
folderPath | The path to folder under the given container. If you want to use wildcard to filter folder, skip this setting and specify in activity source settings. | No |
fileName | The file name under the given container + folderPath. If you want to use wildcard to filter files, skip this setting and specify in activity source settings. | No |
Example:
{
"name": "DelimitedTextDataset",
"properties": {
"type": "DelimitedText",
"linkedServiceName": {
"referenceName": "<Azure Blob Storage linked service name>",
"type": "LinkedServiceReference"
},
"schema": [ < physical schema, optional, auto retrieved during authoring > ],
"typeProperties": {
"location": {
"type": "AzureBlobStorageLocation",
"container": "containername",
"folderPath": "folder/subfolder"
},
"columnDelimiter": ",",
"quoteChar": "\"",
"firstRowAsHeader": true,
"compressionCodec": "gzip"
}
}
}
Legacy dataset model
Note
The following dataset model is still supported as-is for backward compatibility. You are suggested to use the new model mentioned in above section going forward, and the ADF authoring UI has switched to generating the new model.
Property | Description | Required |
---|---|---|
type | The type property of the dataset must be set to AzureBlob. | Yes |
folderPath | Path to the container and folder in the blob storage. Wildcard filter is supported for the path excluding container name. Allowed wildcards are: * (matches zero or more characters) and ? (matches zero or single character); use ^ to escape if your actual folder name has wildcard or this escape char inside. Examples: myblobcontainer/myblobfolder/, see more examples in Folder and file filter examples. |
Yes for Copy/Lookup activity, No for GetMetadata activity |
fileName | Name or wildcard filter for the blob(s) under the specified "folderPath". If you don't specify a value for this property, the dataset points to all blobs in the folder. For filter, allowed wildcards are: * (matches zero or more characters) and ? (matches zero or single character).- Example 1: "fileName": "*.csv" - Example 2: "fileName": "???20180427.txt" Use ^ to escape if your actual file name has wildcard or this escape char inside.When fileName isn't specified for an output dataset and preserveHierarchy isn't specified in the activity sink, the copy activity automatically generates the blob name with the following pattern: "Data.[activity run ID GUID].[GUID if FlattenHierarchy].[format if configured].[compression if configured]", e.g. "Data.0a405f8a-93ff-4c6f-b3be-f69616f1df7a.txt.gz"; if you copy from tabular source using table name instead of query, the name pattern is "[table name].[format].[compression if configured]", e.g. "MyTable.csv". |
No |
modifiedDatetimeStart | Files filter based on the attribute: Last Modified. The files will be selected if their last modified time are within the time range between modifiedDatetimeStart and modifiedDatetimeEnd . The time is applied to UTC time zone in the format of "2018-12-01T05:00:00Z". Be aware the overall performance of data movement will be impacted by enabling this setting when you want to do file filter from huge amounts of files. The properties can be NULL that mean no file attribute filter will be applied to the dataset. When modifiedDatetimeStart has datetime value but modifiedDatetimeEnd is NULL, it means the files whose last modified attribute is greater than or equal with the datetime value will be selected. When modifiedDatetimeEnd has datetime value but modifiedDatetimeStart is NULL, it means the files whose last modified attribute is less than the datetime value will be selected. |
No |
modifiedDatetimeEnd | Files filter based on the attribute: Last Modified. The files will be selected if their last modified time are within the time range between modifiedDatetimeStart and modifiedDatetimeEnd . The time is applied to UTC time zone in the format of "2018-12-01T05:00:00Z". Be aware the overall performance of data movement will be impacted by enabling this setting when you want to do file filter from huge amounts of files. The properties can be NULL that mean no file attribute filter will be applied to the dataset. When modifiedDatetimeStart has datetime value but modifiedDatetimeEnd is NULL, it means the files whose last modified attribute is greater than or equal with the datetime value will be selected. When modifiedDatetimeEnd has datetime value but modifiedDatetimeStart is NULL, it means the files whose last modified attribute is less than the datetime value will be selected. |
No |
format | If you want to copy files as is between file-based stores (binary copy), skip the format section in both the input and output dataset definitions. If you want to parse or generate files with a specific format, the following file format types are supported: TextFormat, JsonFormat, AvroFormat, OrcFormat, and ParquetFormat. Set the type property under format to one of these values. For more information, see the Text format, JSON format, Avro format, Orc format, and Parquet format sections. |
No (only for binary copy scenario) |
compression | Specify the type and level of compression for the data. For more information, see Supported file formats and compression codecs. Supported types are GZip, Deflate, BZip2, and ZipDeflate. Supported levels are Optimal and Fastest. |
No |
Tip
To copy all blobs under a folder, specify folderPath only.
To copy a single blob with a given name, specify folderPath with folder part and fileName with file name.
To copy a subset of blobs under a folder, specify folderPath with folder part and fileName with wildcard filter.
Example:
{
"name": "AzureBlobDataset",
"properties": {
"type": "AzureBlob",
"linkedServiceName": {
"referenceName": "<Azure Blob storage linked service name>",
"type": "LinkedServiceReference"
},
"typeProperties": {
"folderPath": "mycontainer/myfolder",
"fileName": "*",
"modifiedDatetimeStart": "2018-12-01T05:00:00Z",
"modifiedDatetimeEnd": "2018-12-01T06:00:00Z",
"format": {
"type": "TextFormat",
"columnDelimiter": ",",
"rowDelimiter": "\n"
},
"compression": {
"type": "GZip",
"level": "Optimal"
}
}
}
}
Copy activity properties
For a full list of sections and properties available for defining activities, see the Pipelines article. This section provides a list of properties supported by the Blob storage source and sink.
Blob storage as a source type
Azure Data Factory support the following file formats. Refer to each article on format-based settings.
The following properties are supported for Azure Blob under storeSettings
settings in format-based copy source:
Property | Description | Required |
---|---|---|
type | The type property under storeSettings must be set to AzureBlobStorageReadSetting. |
Yes |
recursive | Indicates whether the data is read recursively from the subfolders or only from the specified folder. Note that when recursive is set to true and the sink is a file-based store, an empty folder or subfolder isn't copied or created at the sink. Allowed values are true (default) and false. | No |
wildcardFolderPath | The folder path with wildcard characters under the given container configured in dataset to filter source folders. Allowed wildcards are: * (matches zero or more characters) and ? (matches zero or single character); use ^ to escape if your actual folder name has wildcard or this escape char inside. See more examples in Folder and file filter examples. |
No |
wildcardFileName | The file name with wildcard characters under the given container + folderPath/wildcardFolderPath to filter source files. Allowed wildcards are: * (matches zero or more characters) and ? (matches zero or single character); use ^ to escape if your actual folder name has wildcard or this escape char inside. See more examples in Folder and file filter examples. |
Yes if fileName is not specified in dataset |
modifiedDatetimeStart | Files filter based on the attribute: Last Modified. The files will be selected if their last modified time are within the time range between modifiedDatetimeStart and modifiedDatetimeEnd . The time is applied to UTC time zone in the format of "2018-12-01T05:00:00Z". The properties can be NULL which mean no file attribute filter will be applied to the dataset. When modifiedDatetimeStart has datetime value but modifiedDatetimeEnd is NULL, it means the files whose last modified attribute is greater than or equal with the datetime value will be selected. When modifiedDatetimeEnd has datetime value but modifiedDatetimeStart is NULL, it means the files whose last modified attribute is less than the datetime value will be selected. |
No |
modifiedDatetimeEnd | Same as above. | No |
maxConcurrentConnections | The number of the connections to connect to storage store concurrently. Specify only when you want to limit the concurrent connection to the data store. | No |
Note
For Parquet/delimited text format, BlobSource type copy activity source mentioned in next section is still supported as-is for backward compatibility. You are suggested to use this new model going forward, and the ADF authoring UI has switched to generating these new types.
Example:
"activities":[
{
"name": "CopyFromBlob",
"type": "Copy",
"inputs": [
{
"referenceName": "<Delimited text input dataset name>",
"type": "DatasetReference"
}
],
"outputs": [
{
"referenceName": "<output dataset name>",
"type": "DatasetReference"
}
],
"typeProperties": {
"source": {
"type": "DelimitedTextSource",
"formatSettings":{
"type": "DelimitedTextReadSetting",
"skipLineCount": 10
},
"storeSettings":{
"type": "AzureBlobStorageReadSetting",
"recursive": true,
"wildcardFolderPath": "myfolder*A",
"wildcardFileName": "*.csv"
}
},
"sink": {
"type": "<sink type>"
}
}
}
]
Legacy source model
Note
The following copy source model is still supported as-is for backward compatibility. You are suggested to use the new model mentioned above going forward, and the ADF authoring UI has switched to generating the new model.
Property | Description | Required |
---|---|---|
type | The type property of the copy activity source must be set to BlobSource. | Yes |
recursive | Indicates whether the data is read recursively from the subfolders or only from the specified folder. Note that when recursive is set to true and the sink is a file-based store, an empty folder or subfolder isn't copied or created at the sink. Allowed values are true (default) and false. |
No |
maxConcurrentConnections | The number of the connections to connect to storage store concurrently. Specify only when you want to limit the concurrent connection to the data store. | No |
Example:
"activities":[
{
"name": "CopyFromBlob",
"type": "Copy",
"inputs": [
{
"referenceName": "<Azure Blob input dataset name>",
"type": "DatasetReference"
}
],
"outputs": [
{
"referenceName": "<output dataset name>",
"type": "DatasetReference"
}
],
"typeProperties": {
"source": {
"type": "BlobSource",
"recursive": true
},
"sink": {
"type": "<sink type>"
}
}
}
]
Blob storage as a sink type
Azure Data Factory support the following file formats. Refer to each article on format-based settings.
The following properties are supported for Azure Blob under storeSettings
settings in format-based copy sink:
Property | Description | Required |
---|---|---|
type | The type property under storeSettings must be set to AzureBlobStorageWriteSetting. |
Yes |
copyBehavior | Defines the copy behavior when the source is files from a file-based data store. Allowed values are: - PreserveHierarchy (default): Preserves the file hierarchy in the target folder. The relative path of source file to source folder is identical to the relative path of target file to target folder. - FlattenHierarchy: All files from the source folder are in the first level of the target folder. The target files have autogenerated names. - MergeFiles: Merges all files from the source folder to one file. If the file or blob name is specified, the merged file name is the specified name. Otherwise, it's an autogenerated file name. |
No |
maxConcurrentConnections | The number of the connections to connect to storage store concurrently. Specify only when you want to limit the concurrent connection to the data store. | No |
Example:
"activities":[
{
"name": "CopyFromBlob",
"type": "Copy",
"inputs": [
{
"referenceName": "<input dataset name>",
"type": "DatasetReference"
}
],
"outputs": [
{
"referenceName": "<Parquet output dataset name>",
"type": "DatasetReference"
}
],
"typeProperties": {
"source": {
"type": "<source type>"
},
"sink": {
"type": "ParquetSink",
"storeSettings":{
"type": "AzureBlobStorageWriteSetting",
"copyBehavior": "PreserveHierarchy"
}
}
}
}
]
Legacy sink model
Note
The following copy sink model is still supported as-is for backward compatibility. You are suggested to use the new model mentioned above going forward, and the ADF authoring UI has switched to generating the new model.
Property | Description | Required |
---|---|---|
type | The type property of the copy activity sink must be set to BlobSink. | Yes |
copyBehavior | Defines the copy behavior when the source is files from a file-based data store. Allowed values are: - PreserveHierarchy (default): Preserves the file hierarchy in the target folder. The relative path of source file to source folder is identical to the relative path of target file to target folder. - FlattenHierarchy: All files from the source folder are in the first level of the target folder. The target files have autogenerated names. - MergeFiles: Merges all files from the source folder to one file. If the file or blob name is specified, the merged file name is the specified name. Otherwise, it's an autogenerated file name. |
No |
maxConcurrentConnections | The number of the connections to connect to storage store concurrently. Specify only when you want to limit the concurrent connection to the data store. | No |
Example:
"activities":[
{
"name": "CopyToBlob",
"type": "Copy",
"inputs": [
{
"referenceName": "<input dataset name>",
"type": "DatasetReference"
}
],
"outputs": [
{
"referenceName": "<Azure Blob output dataset name>",
"type": "DatasetReference"
}
],
"typeProperties": {
"source": {
"type": "<source type>"
},
"sink": {
"type": "BlobSink",
"copyBehavior": "PreserveHierarchy"
}
}
}
]
Folder and file filter examples
This section describes the resulting behavior of the folder path and file name with wildcard filters.
folderPath | fileName | recursive | Source folder structure and filter result (files in bold are retrieved) |
---|---|---|---|
container/Folder* |
(empty, use default) | false | container FolderA File1.csv File2.json Subfolder1 File3.csv File4.json File5.csv AnotherFolderB File6.csv |
container/Folder* |
(empty, use default) | true | container FolderA File1.csv File2.json Subfolder1 File3.csv File4.json File5.csv AnotherFolderB File6.csv |
container/Folder* |
*.csv |
false | container FolderA File1.csv File2.json Subfolder1 File3.csv File4.json File5.csv AnotherFolderB File6.csv |
container/Folder* |
*.csv |
true | container FolderA File1.csv File2.json Subfolder1 File3.csv File4.json File5.csv AnotherFolderB File6.csv |
Some recursive and copyBehavior examples
This section describes the resulting behavior of the Copy operation for different combinations of recursive and copyBehavior values.
recursive | copyBehavior | Source folder structure | Resulting target |
---|---|---|---|
true | preserveHierarchy | Folder1 File1 File2 Subfolder1 File3 File4 File5 |
The target folder Folder1 is created with the same structure as the source: Folder1 File1 File2 Subfolder1 File3 File4 File5 |
true | flattenHierarchy | Folder1 File1 File2 Subfolder1 File3 File4 File5 |
The target Folder1 is created with the following structure: Folder1 autogenerated name for File1 autogenerated name for File2 autogenerated name for File3 autogenerated name for File4 autogenerated name for File5 |
true | mergeFiles | Folder1 File1 File2 Subfolder1 File3 File4 File5 |
The target Folder1 is created with the following structure: Folder1 File1 + File2 + File3 + File4 + File5 contents are merged into one file with an autogenerated file name. |
false | preserveHierarchy | Folder1 File1 File2 Subfolder1 File3 File4 File5 |
The target folder Folder1 is created with the following structure: Folder1 File1 File2 Subfolder1 with File3, File4, and File5 is not picked up. |
false | flattenHierarchy | Folder1 File1 File2 Subfolder1 File3 File4 File5 |
The target folder Folder1 is created with the following structure: Folder1 autogenerated name for File1 autogenerated name for File2 Subfolder1 with File3, File4, and File5 is not picked up. |
false | mergeFiles | Folder1 File1 File2 Subfolder1 File3 File4 File5 |
The target folder Folder1 is created with the following structure Folder1 File1 + File2 contents are merged into one file with an autogenerated file name. autogenerated name for File1 Subfolder1 with File3, File4, and File5 is not picked up. |
Mapping data flow properties
Learn details from source transformation and sink transformation in mapping data flow.
Lookup activity properties
To learn details about the properties, check Lookup activity.
GetMetadata activity properties
To learn details about the properties, check GetMetadata activity
Delete activity properties
To learn details about the properties, check Delete activity
Next steps
For a list of data stores supported as sources and sinks by the copy activity in Data Factory, see Supported data stores.
Feedback
Loading feedback...