How to use IBM App Connect with Microsoft Azure Blob storage

Microsoft Azure Blob storage is a Cloud Object Storage solution. Azure Blob (Binary Large Object) is a secure object storage solution that is optimized for storing massive amounts of unstructured data for cloud-native workloads, archives, data lakes, high-performance computing, and machine learning.

Availability:

App Connect Enterprise as a Service connector
Local connector in containers (Continuous Delivery release) 12.0.1.0-r1 or later
Local connector in containers (Long Term Support release)

Connecting to Microsoft Azure Blob storage
General considerations
Events and actions

Supported product and API versions

To find out which product and API versions this connector supports, see Detailed System Requirements on the IBM Support page.

Connecting to Microsoft Azure Blob storage

Complete the connection fields that you see in the App Connect Designer Catalog page or flow editor. If necessary, work with your Microsoft Azure Blob storage administrator to obtain these values.

Microsoft Azure Blob storage connection fields:

Authentication method

Select the authentication method that you want to use, click Continue:

Provide credentials for App Connect to use (BASIC) - (the default)
Provide credentials for App Connect to use (API KEY) - (Shared key)

Then specify values in the connection fields for your chosen environment:

Table 1. Connection fields for your chosen environment. Descriptions of the fields are given after this table.
Provide credentials for App Connect to use (BASIC)	Provide credentials for App Connect to use (API KEY)
Storage account name	Storage account name
Tenant ID	Storage account key
Client ID
Client secret

Storage account name

Specify your Microsoft Azure Blob storage account name

Required: True

Storage account key

Specify the access key that is used to authorize access to the data in your storage account by Shared Key authorization. Azure generates two 512-bit storage account access keys when creating a storage account.

Required: True

Tenant ID

Specify the unique directory (tenant) ID of the Azure Active Directory instance

Required: True

Client ID

Specify the application (client) ID of your application that is registered through the App registrations in the Azure portal

Required: True

Client secret

Specify the client secret of your application that is generated through the App registrations in the Azure portal

Required: True

To obtain connection values for Microsoft Azure Blob storage and to connect to IBM® App Connect, complete the following steps:

Sign in to the Azure portal and go to your storage account.
If you are using the Basic (default) authentication method to connect to App Connect:
1. Enter your Storage account name. For more information, see Storage account overview on the Microsoft Documentation page.
2. Enter the Tenant ID.
  To find the Tenant ID, go to Azure Active Directory > Properties. Then, scroll down to the Tenant ID field. Click Copy to copy the Tenant ID.
  
  Figure 1. The Tenant ID
  
  For more information about Tenant ID, see How to find your Azure Active Directory tenant ID on the Microsoft Documentation page.
3. Enter the Client ID.
  To find the Client ID for your application, select Azure Active Directory. From App registrations, select your application. Click Copy to copy the Client ID of your application.
  
  Figure 2. The Client ID of your application
  
  For more information about Client ID, see Use the portal to create an Azure AD application and service principal that can access resources on the Microsoft Documentation page.
4. Enter the Client secret.
  To find the Client secret for your application, select Azure Active Directory. From App registrations, select your application.
  
  Go to Certificates & secrets > Client secrets. Click Copy to copy the existing Client secret or click New client secret to create a new Client secret and copy it.
  
  Figure 3. The Client secret of your application
  
  For more information about Client secret, see Use the portal to create an Azure AD application and service principal that can access resources on the Microsoft Documentation page.
If you are using the API key (Shared key) authentication method to connect to App Connect:
1. Enter your Storage account name. For more information, see Storage account overview on the Microsoft Documentation page.
2. Enter the Storage account key.
  To find the Storage account key, go to Security + networking > Access keys. Your account access keys appear, as well as the complete connection string for each key.
  
  Select Show keys to show your access keys and connection strings, and to enable buttons to copy the values.
  
  Under key1, find the Key value. Click Copy to copy the Storage account key.
  
  Figure 4. The Storage account key
  
  For more information about Storage account key, see Manage storage account access keys on the Microsoft Documentation page.

To connect to a Microsoft Azure Blob storage endpoint from the App Connect Designer Catalog page for the first time, expand Microsoft Azure Blob storage, then click Connect.

Tip:

Before you use the account that is created in App Connect in a flow, rename the account to something meaningful that helps you to identify it. To rename the account on the Catalog page, select the account, open its options menu (⋮), then click Rename Account.

General considerations

Before you use App Connect Designer with Microsoft Azure Blob storage, take note of the following considerations:

(General consideration) You can see lists of the trigger events and actions that are available on the Catalog page of the App Connect Designer.
For some applications, the events and actions in the catalog depend on the environment and whether the connector supports configurable events and dynamic discovery of actions. If the application supports configurable events, you see a Show more configurable events link under the events list. If the application supports dynamic discovery of actions, you see a Show more link under the actions list.
(General consideration) If you are using multiple accounts for an application, the set of fields that is displayed when you select an action for that application can vary for different accounts. In the flow editor, some applications always provide a curated set of static fields for an action. Other applications use dynamic discovery to retrieve the set of fields that are configured on the instance that you are connected to. For example, if you have two accounts for two instances of an application, the first account might use settings that are ready for immediate use. However, the second account might be configured with extra custom fields.

Events and actions

Microsoft Azure Blob storage events

These events are for changes in this application that trigger a flow to start completing the actions in the flow.

Note: Events are not available for changes in this application. You can trigger a flow in other ways, such as at a scheduled interval or at specific dates and times.

Microsoft Azure Blob storage actions

Your flow completes these actions on this application.

Append blobs

Update or create append blob
Append block

Blob services

Set blob service properties
Get blob service properties

Blobs

Retrieve blobs
Update or create blob
Delete blob
Copy blob
Set blob metadata
Check blob exists
Download blob content
Abort copy blob

Containers

Create container
Retrieve containers
Delete container
Set container metadata
Check container exists
Set container ACL
Get container ACL

Page blobs

Update or create page blob
Add page

Snapshots

Create blob snapshot
Retrieve blob snapshots
Delete blob snapshot

Versions

Retrieve blob versions
Delete blob version

Examples

Dashboard tile for a template that uses Microsoft Azure Blob storage

Use templates to quickly create flows for Microsoft Azure Blob storage

Learn how to use App Connect templates to quickly create flows that complete actions on Microsoft Azure Blob storage. For example, open the Templates gallery, and then search for Microsoft Azure Blob storage.

Learn more