What Is Azure Blob?

Azure Blob Storage is a scalable and cost-effective cloud storage solution provided by Microsoft Azure. It allows users to store and manage large amounts of unstructured data, such as text or binary data, which can be accessed globally over HTTP/HTTPS. Blob Storage is optimized for storing massive amounts of data, making it ideal for serving images or documents directly to a browser, storing data for backup and restore, disaster recovery, and archiving. It supports three types of blobs: block blobs for efficient uploading of large files, append blobs for log files, and page blobs for random access and frequent read/write operations.

What are the benefits of integrating MetaRouter with Azure Blob?

• Private data stream that can never be co-mingled with anyone else's data
• Playbooks that let you control how data is processed prior to reaching Azure Blob
• Unstructured environment for customer data gives you ultimate flexibility
• Addressable third-party IDs are provided within your data lake when paired with the Sync Injector

Getting Started - From Your Azure Blob Account

Azure Portal Access

Before you start, you must have access to the target Azure Cloud account, called a directory. You must also be given the appropriate permissions from an account manager to access the appropriate Subscription.

An Azure Storage Account must be created if one does not already exist and a Blob Container must also be created as a destination for the events sent with the Blob Storage integration if one does not already exist.

Azure Storage Account

Azure uses sub-accounts called Storage Accounts under which Blob Storage Containers and other Storage resources are organized under.

You must create a new Storage Account if none exist in your Azure account yet. You can follow the steps below to do so.

1. Search for or use the sidebar to navigate to the Storage Accounts page.
2. Click 'Create' to create a new Storage Account

Create an Azure Blob Storage Container

In the target Storage Account follow the instructions below to create a new container.

1. Navigate to 'Containers'
2. Create a new Container
3. Enter the name of the container and press 'Create'

Authentication Options

MetaRouter supports three authentication methods for connecting to Azure Blob Storage. These options are mutually exclusive, and if multiple authentication fields are filled, the integration will use the method with the highest priority listed below.

• Account Key: Highest priority if multiple authentication fields are filled. Provides wide-ranging permissions for the Storage Account.
• SAS Token: Second highest priority if multiple authentication fields are filled. Provides limited permissions based on its creation parameters.
• Managed Identity: Lowest priority if multiple authentication fields are filled. Uses Azure Managed Identity to give the cluster direct access to Azure Blob.

Obtain the Following:

• Account Key:
  1. Go to the Azure portal and navigate to your Storage Account.
  2. Under the "Settings" section, click on "Access keys."
  3. You will see two access keys (key1 and key2). You can use either key to authenticate your requests.
• Account Name:
  1. In the Azure portal, navigate to your Storage Account.
  2. The "Account Name" is displayed at the top of the Storage Account's overview page.
• Bucket (Container):
  1. In Azure Blob Storage, a "bucket" is referred to as a "container."
  2. Navigate to your Storage Account in the Azure portal.
  3. Under the "Blob service" section, click on "Containers."
  4. You can create a new container or select an existing one.
• SAS Token (Shared Access Signature):
  1. Go to the Azure portal and navigate to your Storage Account.
  2. Under the "Settings" section, click on "Shared access signature."
  3. Configure the required permissions, services, and expiry date.
  4. Click "Generate SAS and connection string."
• Managed Identity:
  1. Go to the Azure portal and navigate to Managed Identities.
  2. Assign the Storage Blob Data Contributor role to the Managed Identity for your Storage Account.
  3. Contact your MetaRouter representative to create an SRE ticket and enable this option for your MetaRouter cluster.

Getting Started - From Your MetaRouter Account

Adding a Azure Blob integration.

From the integration library, add an Azure Blob integration. Then, fill out the Connection Parameters:

Additional Azure Blob Documentation

• Manage storage account keys
• Manage blob containers
• Set and retrieve metadata for a container or blob
• Grant limited access to Azure Storage resources using shared access signatures (SAS)