Microsoft Azure Blob Storage connection

To access your data in Microsoft Azure Blob Storage, create a connection asset for it.

Azure Blob Storage is used for storing large amounts of data in the cloud.

Create a connection to Microsoft Azure Blob Storage

To create the connection asset, choose an authentication method.

Connection string: Connection string from the storage account's Access keys page on the Microsoft Azure portal.

Example connection string, which you can find in the ApiKeys section of the container:

DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=sampleaccount;AccountKey=samplekey;EndpointSuffix=core.windows.net

Note:

Prerequisite for Entra ID authentication:

Microsoft Entra ID is a cloud-based identity and access management service. To obtain connection values for the Entra ID authentication method, sign in to the Microsoft Azure portal and go to your storage account. For information about Microsoft Entra ID, see What is Microsoft Entra ID?.

Entra ID client secret credential

Tenant ID: The Microsoft Entra tenant ID. To find the Tenant ID, go to Microsoft Entra ID> Properties. Scroll down to the Tenant ID field. For more information, see How to find your Microsoft Entra tenant ID.
Client ID: The client ID for authorizing access to Microsoft Azure Blob Storage. To find the Client ID for your application, select Microsoft Entra ID. From App registrations, select your application. Click Copy to copy the Client ID of your application. For more information, see Register a Microsoft Entra app and create a service principal.
Client secret: The authentication key that is associated with the client ID for authorizing access to Microsoft Azure Blob Storage. To find the Client secret for your application, select Microsoft Entra ID. 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. For more information, see Register a Microsoft Entra app and create a service principal.
Storage account URL: Storage account URL.

Entra ID username password credential

Client ID: The client ID for authorizing access to Microsoft Azure Blob Storage. To find the Client ID for your application, select Microsoft Entra ID. From App registrations, select your application. Click Copy to copy the Client ID of your application. For more information, see Register a Microsoft Entra app and create a service principal.
Username and Password: Username and password for the Microsoft Azure Blob Storage account. You need permission to access the blob without multi-factor authentication.
Storage account URL: Storage account URL.

Other properties

Container: The name of the container that contains the files to access.

Choose the method for creating a connection based on where you are in the platform

In a project: Click Assets > New asset > Connect to a data source. See Adding a connection to a project.
In a catalog: Click Add to catalog > Connection. See Adding a connection asset to a catalog.
In a deployment space: Click Import assets > Data access > Connection. See Adding data assets to a deployment space.
In the Platform assets catalog: Click New connection. See Adding platform connections.

Next step: Add data assets from the connection

Where you can use this connection

You can use Azure Blob Storage connections in the following workspaces and tools:

Projects

Data Refinery (watsonx.ai Studio or IBM Knowledge Catalog)
DataStage (DataStage service). See Connecting to a data source in DataStage.
SPSS Modeler (watsonx.ai Studio)

Catalogs

Platform assets catalog
Other catalogs (IBM Knowledge Catalog)

Supported file types

The Azure Blob Storage connection supports these file types: Avro, CSV, Delimited text, Excel, JSON, ORC, Parquet, SAS, SAV, SHP, and XML.

Table formats

The Azure Blob Storage connection supports these Data Lake table formats: Delta Lake and Iceberg.

Learn more

Parent topic: Supported connections