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.

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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:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal and go to your storage account.
2. 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.

3. 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.