Azure Data Lake Storage

The Azure Data Lake Storage connector lets you connect to Azure Data Lake Storage and use SQL to retrieve and update the Azure Data Lake Storage data.

Before you begin

Before using the Azure Data Lake Storage connector, do the following tasks:

• In your Google Cloud project:
  • Ensure that network connectivity is set up. For information about network patterns, see Network connectivity.
  • Grant the roles/connectors.admin IAM role to the user configuring the connector.
  • Grant the following IAM roles to the service account that you want to use for the connector:
    • roles/secretmanager.viewer
    • roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor

    A service account is a special type of Google account intended to represent a non-human user that needs to authenticate and be authorized to access data in Google APIs. If you don't have a service account, you must create a service account. For more information, see Creating a service account.

  • Enable the following services:
    • secretmanager.googleapis.com (Secret Manager API)
    • connectors.googleapis.com (Connectors API)

    To understand how to enable services, see Enabling services.

  If these services or permissions have not been enabled for your project previously, you are prompted to enable them when configuring the connector.

Configure the connector

Configuring the connector requires you to create a connection to your data source (backend system). A connection is specific to a data source. It means that if you have many data sources, you must create a separate connection for each data source. To create a connection, do the following steps:

1. In the Cloud console, go to the Integration Connectors > Connections page and then select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Go to the Connections page

2. Click + Create new to open the Create Connection page.
3. In the Location section, choose the location for the connection.
   1. Region: Select a location from the drop-down list.

      Supported regions for connectors include:

      For the list of all the supported regions, see Locations.

   2. Click Next.
4. In the Connection Details section, complete the following:
   1. Connector: Select Azure Data Lake Storage from the drop down list of available Connectors.
   2. Connector version: Select the Connector version from the drop down list of available versions.
   3. In the Connection Name field, enter a name for the Connection instance.

      Connection names must meet the following criteria:

      • Connection names can use letters, numbers, or hyphens.
      • Letters must be lower-case.
      • Connection names must begin with a letter and end with a letter or number.
      • Connection names cannot exceed 49 characters.
   4. Optionally, enter a Description for the connection instance.
   5. Optionally, enable Cloud logging, and then select a log level. By default, the log level is set to Error.
   6. Service Account: Select a service account that has the required roles.
   7. Optionally, configure the Connection node settings:
      • Minimum number of nodes: Enter the minimum number of connection nodes.
      • Maximum number of nodes: Enter the maximum number of connection nodes.

      A node is a unit (or replica) of a connection that processes transactions. More nodes are required to process more transactions for a connection and conversely, fewer nodes are required to process fewer transactions. To understand how the nodes affect your connector pricing, see Pricing for connection nodes. If you don't enter any values, by default the minimum nodes are set to 2 (for better availability) and the maximum nodes are set to 50.

   Note: You can customize the connection node values only if you are a Pay-as-you-go customer.
   8. Account: This property specifies the name of the Azure Data Lake Storage account.
   9. Directory: This property specifies the root path to list files and folders.
   10. File System: This property specifies the name of the FileSystem which will be used in a Gen 2 storage account. For Example, the name of your Azure blob container.
   11. Chunk Size: The size of chunks (in Mb) to use when uploading large files.
   12. Include Sub Directories: Choose if the sub directories paths should be listed in the Resources view in the ADLSGen2 Schema.
   13. Optionally, click + Add label to add a label to the Connection in the form of a key/value pair.
   14. Click Next.
5. In the Authentication section, enter the authentication details.
   1. Select an Authentication type and enter the relevant details.

      The following authentication types are supported by the Azure Data Lake Storage connection:

      • Shared Access Signature
      • Account Access Key

   To understand how to configure these authentication types, see Configure authentication.

   2. Click Next.
6. Review: Review your connection and authentication details.
7. Click Create.

Configure authentication

Enter the details based on the authentication you want to use.

• Shared Access Signature

  If you want to use anonymous login, select Not Available.

  • Shared Access Signature: Secret Manager Secret containing the Shared Access Signature.

• Account Access Key

  If you want to use anonymous login, select Not Available.

  • Account Access Key: Secret Manager Secret containing the Account Access Key.

Entities, operations, and actions

All the Integration Connectors provide a layer of abstraction for the objects of the connected application. You can access an application's objects only through this abstraction. The abstraction is exposed to you as entities, operations, and actions.

Note: You can view the entities, operations, and actions of a connector in the Connectors task.

• Entity: An entity can be thought of as an object, or a collection of properties, in the connected application or service. The definition of an entity differs from a connector to a connector. For example, in a database connector, tables are the entities, in a file server connector, folders are the entities, and in a messaging system connector, queues are the entities.

  However, it is possible that a connector doesn't support or have any entities, in which case the Entities list will be empty.

• Operation: An operation is the activity that you can perform on an entity. You can perform any of the following operations on an entity:
  • List
  • Get
  • Create
  • Update
  • Delete

  Selecting an entity from the available list, generates a list of operations available for the entity. For a detailed description of the operations, see the Connectors task's entity operations. However, if a connector doesn't support any of the entity operations, such unsupported operations aren't listed in the Operations list.

• Action: An action is a first class function that is made available to the integration through the connector interface. An action lets you make changes to an entity or entities, and vary from connector to connector. Normally, an action will have some input parameters, and an output parameter. However, it is possible that a connector doesn't support any action, in which case the Actions list will be empty.

Note: All entities and actions will have a schema associated with them. For example, an action schema will have the parameter details such as; the parameter names, and its corresponding data type. The schema (metadata) for entities and actions is fetched by the connection at runtime from your backend. If there are any updates to the schema, such updates won't be automatically reflected in your existing connections; you must manually refresh the schema. To refresh the schema for a connection, open the Connection details page of the connection, and then click Refresh connection schema.

System limitations

The Azure Data Lake Storage connector can process 5 transactions per second, per node, and throttles any transactions beyond this limit. By default, Integration Connectors allocates 2 nodes (for better availability) for a connection.

For information on the limits applicable to Integration Connectors, see Limits.

Note: The number of Integration Connectors nodes will autoscale dynamically based on your usage. However, if you want to reserve capacity for large volumes without waiting for autoscaling, you can adjust the minimum node value for a connection. More nodes are required to process more transactions for a connection. Conversely, fewer nodes are required if a connection processes fewer transactions. To configure the node values, do the following:

• If you are a pay-as-you-go customer, configure the minimum and maximum node value in the edit connection page.
• If you are a subscription based customer, contact support.

The maximum transactions that a node can handle depends on various factors. So, before adjusting the minimum nodes for better throughput, it is recommended you check if your backend systems are set up optimally to handle the required traffic.

Actions

This section lists the actions supported by the connector. To understand how to configure the actions, see Action examples.

Note: The results of all the actions will be available as a JSON response in the Connectors task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter after you run your integration.

DownloadFile action

This action lets you download the contents of a particular blob from a directory or a container.

Input parameters of the DownloadFile action

Parameter Name	Data Type	Required	Description
Path	String	Yes	The path of the file (including the file name) to download. For example: FILE_NAME dir1/FILE_NAME dir1/dir2/FILE_NAME
HasBytes	Boolean	No	Whether to download content as bytes (Base64 format). To download non-text files such as .pdf, .xls, and .docx, you must set HasBytes to true. To download a text file, you can set HasBytes to true or false. If you set the value to true, the text content is downloaed as bytes (Base64 format). The default value of this parameter is false.

Output parameters of the DownloadFile action

If the action is successful, it returns the contents of the file or the blob.

For example on how to configure the DownloadFile action, see Action examples.

CreateFile action

This action lets your create a blob or a file in a container or a directory.

Input parameters of the CreateFile action

Parameter Name	Data Type	Required	Description
Path	String	Yes	The path of the file which will be created.

For example on how to configure the CreateFile action, see Action examples.

CopyFile action

This action lets you copy the contents of a file or a blob to another file or blob in the same container or directory.

Input parameters of the CopyFile action

Parameter Name	Data Type	Required	Description
SourcePath	String	Yes	The path of the file which will be copied.
DestinationPath	String	Yes	The path of the file where it will be copied.

For example on how to configure the CopyFile action, see Action examples.

DeleteObject action

This action lets you delete a file or a blob.

Input parameters of the DeleteObject action

Parameter Name	Data Type	Required	Description
Recursive	String	No	Set this to true to delete all the folder's content including any sub-folders.
Path	String	Yes	The path of the file or folder to be deleted.
DeleteType	String	Yes	Set this to FILESANDFOLDERS to delete the file or folder specified in the Path parameter. Set this to FILES to delete only the files inside the folder specified in the Path parameter.

For example on how to configure the DeleteObject action, see Action examples.

LeaseBlob action

This action lets you create and manage a lock on a blob.

Input parameters of the LeaseBlob action

Parameter Name	Data Type	Required	Description
Path	String	Yes	The path of the file.
LeaseAction	String	Yes	Specifies the lease action to execute.
LeaseDuration	Integer	Yes	Specifies the duration of the lease.

For example on how to configure the LeaseBlob action, see Action examples.

UploadFile Action

This action let users upload the contents to a particular blob or container.

Input parameters of the UploadFile action

Parameter Name	Data Type	Required	Description
Path	String	Yes	The path of the file to be uploaded.
HasBytes	Boolean	No	Whether to upload content as bytes.
Content	String	Yes	Content to upload.

For example on how to configure the UploadFile action, see Action examples.

RenameObject Action

This action lets you rename a file or a folder.

Input parameters of the RenameObject action

Parameter Name	Data Type	Required	Description
Path	String	Yes	The path which will be renamed.
RenameTo	String	Yes	The new name of the file or the folder.

For example on how to configure the RenameObject action, see Action examples.

Action examples

Example - Download a file

This example downloads a binary file.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
2. Select the DownloadFile action, and then click Done.
3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "Path": "testdirectory1/test1.pdf",
   "HasBytes": true
   }

If the action is successful, the DownloadFile task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

[{
"Success": "True",
"ContentBytes": "UEsDBBQABgAIAAAAIQCj77sdZQEAAFIFAAATAAgCW0NvbnRlbnRfVHlwZXNdLnhtbCCiBAIooA"
}]

Example - Upload a file

This example uploads content as a blob.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
2. Select the UploadFile action, and then click Done.
3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "Path": "testblob4",
   "HasBytes": true,
   "Content": "abcdef\nabcdef"
   }

If the action is successful, the UploadFile task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

[{
"Success": "true"
}]

Example - Create a file

This example creates a file in the specified directory.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
2. Select the CreateFile action, and then click Done.
3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "path": "testdirectory1/testblob"
   }

If the action is successful, the CreateFile task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

[{
"Success": "true"
}]

Example - Copy a file

This example copies a file from one location to another location.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
2. Select the CopyFile action, and then click Done.
3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "SourcePath": "testdirectory1/testblob",
   "DestinationPath": "testblob"
   }

If the action is successful, the CopyFile task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

[{
"Success": "true"
}]

Example - Delete a blob

This example deletes the specified blob.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
2. Select the DeleteObject action, and then click Done.
3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "path": "testdirectory1/testblob"
   }

If the action is successful, the DeleteObject task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

[{
"Success": "true"
}]

Example - Lease a blob

This example leases the specified blob.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
2. Select the LeaseBlob action, and then click Done.
3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "Path": "testblob2",
   "LeaseAction": "Acquire",
   "LeaseDuration": 60.0
   }

If the action is successful, the LeaseBlob task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

[{
"LeaseId": "7aae9ca2-f015-41b6-9bdf-5fd3401fc493",
"Success": "true"
}]

Example - Rename a blob

This example renames a blob.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
2. Select the RenameObject action, and then click Done.
3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "Path": "testblob",
   "RenameTo": "testblob6"
   }

If the action is successful, the RenameObject task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

[{
"Success": true
}]

Entity operation examples

This section shows how to perform some of the entity operations in this connector.

Example - List all the records

This example lists all the records in the Resource entity.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select Resource from the Entity list.
3. Select the List operation, and then click Done.
4. Optionally, in Task Input section of the Connectors task, you can filter your result set by specifying a filter clause. Specify the filter clause value always within the single quotes (').

Example - Get a record

This example gets a record with the specified ID from the Resource entity.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select Resource from the Entity list.
3. Select the Get operation, and then click Done.
4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click EntityId and then enter testdirectory1/testblob1 in the Default Value field.

   Here, testdirectory1/testblob1 is a unique record ID in the Resource entity.

Use the Azure Data Lake Storage connection in an integration

After you create the connection, it becomes available in both Apigee Integration and Application Integration. You can use the connection in an integration through the Connectors task.

• To understand how to create and use the Connectors task in Apigee Integration, see Connectors task.
• To understand how to create and use the Connectors task in Application Integration, see Connectors task.

Get help from the Google Cloud community

You can post your questions and discuss this connector in the Google Cloud community at Cloud Forums.

What's next

• Understand how to suspend and resume a connection.
• Understand how to monitor connector usage.
• Understand how to view connector logs.