Quickstart: Use the copy data tool in the Azure Data Factory Studio to copy data

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In this quick start, you will use the Copy Data tool to create a pipeline that copies data from the source folder in Azure Blob storage to target folder.

Prerequisites

Azure subscription

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account before you begin.

Prepare source data in Azure Blob Storage

Select the button below to try it out!

Try your first data factory demo

You will be redirected to the configuration page shown in the image below to deploy the template. Here, you only need to create a new resource group. (You can leave all the other values with their defaults.) Then click Review + create and click Create to deploy the resources.

Note

The user deploying the template needs to assign a role to a managed identity. This requires permissions that can be granted through the Owner, User Access Administrator or Managed Identity Operator roles.

A new blob storage account will be created in the new resource group, and the moviesDB2.csv file will be stored in a folder called input in the blob storage.

A screenshot of the deployment template creation dialog.

Create a data factory

You can use your existing data factory or create a new one as described in Quickstart: Create a data factory by using the Azure portal.

Use the copy data tool to copy data

The steps below will walk you through how to easily copy data with the copy data tool in Azure Data Factory.

Step 1: Start the copy data Tool

  1. On the home page of Azure Data Factory, select the Ingest tile to start the Copy Data tool.

    Screenshot that shows the Azure Data Factory home page.

  2. On the Properties page of the Copy Data tool, choose Built-in copy task under Task type, then select Next.

    Screenshot that shows the Properties page.

Step 2: Complete source configuration

  1. Click + Create new connection to add a connection.

  2. Select the linked service type that you want to create for the source connection. In this tutorial, we use Azure Blob Storage. Select it from the gallery, and then select Continue.

    Screenshot that shows the Select Blob dialog.

  3. On the New connection (Azure Blob Storage) page, specify a name for your connection. Select your Azure subscription from the Azure subscription list and your storage account from the Storage account name list, test connection, and then select Create.

    Screenshot that shows where to configure the Azure Blob storage account.

  4. Select the newly created connection in the Connection block.

  5. In the File or folder section, select Browse to navigate to the adftutorial/input folder, select the emp.txt file, and then click OK.

  6. Select the Binary copy checkbox to copy file as-is, and then select Next.

    Screenshot that shows the Source data store page.

Step 3: Complete destination configuration

  1. Select the AzureBlobStorage connection that you created in the Connection block.

  2. In the Folder path section, enter adftutorial/output for the folder path.

    Screenshot that shows the Destination data store page.

  3. Leave other settings as default and then select Next.

Step 4: Review all settings and deployment

  1. On the Settings page, specify a name for the pipeline and its description, then select Next to use other default configurations.

    Screenshot that shows the settings page.

  2. On the Summary page, review all settings, and select Next.

  3. On the Deployment complete page, select Monitor to monitor the pipeline that you created.

    Screenshot that shows the Deployment complete page.

Step 5: Monitor the running results

  1. The application switches to the Monitor tab. You see the status of the pipeline on this tab. Select Refresh to refresh the list. Click the link under Pipeline name to view activity run details or rerun the pipeline.

    Screenshot that shows the refresh pipeline button.

  2. On the Activity runs page, select the Details link (eyeglasses icon) under the Activity name column for more details about copy operation. For details about the properties, see Copy Activity overview.

The pipeline in this sample copies data from one location to another location in Azure Blob storage. To learn about using Data Factory in more scenarios, go through the tutorials.