Copy data from or to Azure Files by using Azure Data Factory

APPLIES TO: Azure Data Factory Azure Synapse Analytics

This article outlines how to copy data to and from Azure Files. To learn about Azure Data Factory, read the introductory article.

Supported capabilities

This Azure Files connector is supported for the following capabilities:

Supported capabilities	IR	Managed private endpoint
Copy activity (source/sink)	① ②	✓ Exclude storage account V1
Lookup activity	① ②	✓ Exclude storage account V1
GetMetadata activity	① ②	✓ Exclude storage account V1
Delete activity	① ②	✓ Exclude storage account V1

① Azure integration runtime ② Self-hosted integration runtime

You can copy data from Azure Files to any supported sink data store, or copy data from any supported source data store to Azure Files. For a list of data stores that Copy Activity supports as sources and sinks, see Supported data stores and formats.

Specifically, this Azure Files connector supports:

• Copying files by using account key or service shared access signature (SAS) authentications.
• Copying files as-is or parsing/generating files with the supported file formats and compression codecs.

Getting started

To perform the Copy activity with a pipeline, you can use one of the following tools or SDKs:

• The Copy Data tool
• The Azure portal
• The .NET SDK
• The Python SDK
• Azure PowerShell
• The REST API
• The Azure Resource Manager template

Create a linked service to Azure Files using UI

Use the following steps to create a linked service to Azure Files in the Azure portal UI.

1. Browse to the Manage tab in your Azure Data Factory or Synapse workspace and select Linked Services, then click New:

   • Azure Data Factory
   • Azure Synapse

   

2. Search for file and select the connector for Azure Files labeled Azure File Storage.

   

3. Configure the service details, test the connection, and create the new linked service.

   

Connector configuration details

The following sections provide details about properties that are used to define entities specific to Azure Files.

Linked service properties

The Azure Files connector supports the following authentication types. See the corresponding sections for details.

• Account key authentication
• Shared access signature authentication
• System-assigned managed identity authentication
• User-assigned managed identity authentication

Account key authentication

Data Factory supports the following properties for Azure Files account key authentication:

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property must be set to: AzureFileStorage.	Yes
connectionString	Specify the information needed to connect to Azure Files. You can also put the account key in Azure Key Vault and pull the accountKey configuration out of the connection string. For more information, see the following samples and the Store credentials in Azure Key Vault article.	Yes
fileShare	Specify the file share.	Yes
snapshot	Specify the date of the file share snapshot if you want to copy from a snapshot.	No
connectVia	The Integration Runtime to be used to connect to the data store. You can use Azure Integration Runtime or Self-hosted Integration Runtime (if your data store is located in private network). If not specified, it uses the default Azure Integration Runtime.	No

Example:

{
    "name": "AzureFileStorageLinkedService",
    "properties": {
        "type": "AzureFileStorage",
        "typeProperties": {
            "connectionString": "DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=<accountName>;AccountKey=<accountKey>;EndpointSuffix=core.chinacloudapi.cn;",
            "fileShare": "<file share name>"
        },
        "connectVia": {
          "referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
          "type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
        }
    }
}

Example: store the account key in Azure Key Vault

{
    "name": "AzureFileStorageLinkedService",
    "properties": {
        "type": "AzureFileStorage",
        "typeProperties": {
            "connectionString": "DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=<accountname>;EndpointSuffix=core.chinacloudapi.cn;",
            "fileShare": "<file share name>",
            "accountKey": {
                "type": "AzureKeyVaultSecret",
                "store": {
                    "referenceName": "<Azure Key Vault linked service name>",
                    "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
                },
                "secretName": "<secretName>"
            }
        },
        "connectVia": {
            "referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
            "type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
        }            
    }
}

Shared access signature authentication

A shared access signature provides delegated access to resources in your storage account. You can use a shared access signature to grant a client limited permissions to objects in your storage account for a specified time. For more information about shared access signatures, see Shared access signatures: Understand the shared access signature model.

The service supports the following properties for using shared access signature authentication:

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property must be set to: AzureFileStorage.	Yes
sasUri	Specify the shared access signature URI to the resources. Mark this field as SecureString to store it securely. You can also put the SAS token in Azure Key Vault to use auto-rotation and remove the token portion. For more information, see the following samples and Store credentials in Azure Key Vault.	Yes
fileShare	Specify the file share.	Yes
snapshot	Specify the date of the file share snapshot if you want to copy from a snapshot.	No
connectVia	The Integration Runtime to be used to connect to the data store. You can use Azure Integration Runtime or Self-hosted Integration Runtime (if your data store is located in private network). If not specified, it uses the default Azure Integration Runtime.	No

Example:

{
    "name": "AzureFileStorageLinkedService",
    "properties": {
        "type": "AzureFileStorage",
        "typeProperties": {
            "sasUri": {
                "type": "SecureString",
                "value": "<SAS URI of the resource e.g. https://<accountname>.file.core.chinacloudapi.cn/?sv=<storage version>&st=<start time>&se=<expire time>&sr=<resource>&sp=<permissions>&sip=<ip range>&spr=<protocol>&sig=<signature>>"
            },
            "fileShare": "<file share name>",
            "snapshot": "<snapshot version>"
        },
        "connectVia": {
            "referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
            "type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
        }
    }
}

Example: store the SAS token in Azure Key Vault

{
    "name": "AzureFileStorageLinkedService",
    "properties": {
        "type": "AzureFileStorage",
        "typeProperties": {
            "sasUri": {
                "type": "SecureString",
                "value": "<SAS URI of the Azure Storage resource without token e.g. https://<accountname>.file.core.chinacloudapi.cn/>"
            },
            "sasToken": {
                "type": "AzureKeyVaultSecret",
                "store": {
                    "referenceName": "<Azure Key Vault linked service name>",
                    "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
                },
                "secretName": "<secretName with value of SAS token e.g. ?sv=<storage version>&st=<start time>&se=<expire time>&sr=<resource>&sp=<permissions>&sip=<ip range>&spr=<protocol>&sig=<signature>>"
            },
            "fileShare": "<file share name>"
        },
        "connectVia": {
            "referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
            "type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
        }
    }
}

System-assigned managed identity authentication

A data factory or Synapse pipeline can be associated with a system-assigned managed identity for Azure resources, which represents that resource for authentication to other Azure services. You can use this system-assigned managed identity for Azure Files authentication. To learn more about managed identities for Azure resources, see Managed identities for Azure resources.

To use system-assigned managed identity authentication, follow these steps：

1. Retrieve system-assigned managed identity information by copying the value of the system-assigned managed identity object ID generated along with your factory or Synapse workspace.

2. Grant the managed identity permission in Azure Files. For more information on the roles, see this article.

   • As source, in Access control (IAM), grant at least the Storage File Data Privileged Reader role.
   • As sink, in Access control (IAM), grant at least the Storage File Data Privileged Contributor role.

These properties are supported for an Azure Files linked service:

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property must be set to AzureFileStorage.	Yes
serviceEndpoint	Specify the Azure Files service endpoint with the pattern of https://<accountName>.file.core.chinacloudapi.cn/.	Yes
fileShare	Specify the file share.	Yes
snapshot	Specify the date of the file share snapshot if you want to copy from a snapshot.	No
connectVia	The Integration Runtime to be used to connect to the data store. You can use Azure Integration Runtime. If not specified, it uses the default Azure Integration Runtime.	No

Example:

{
    "name": "AzureFileStorageLinkedService",
    "properties": {
        "type": "AzureFileStorage",
        "typeProperties": {            
            "serviceEndpoint": "https://<accountName>.file.core.chinacloudapi.cn/",
            "fileShare": "<file share name>",
            "snapshot": "<snapshot version>"
        },
        "connectVia": {
            "referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
            "type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
        }
    }
}

User-assigned managed identity authentication

A data factory can be assigned with one or multiple user-assigned managed identities. You can use this user-assigned managed identity for Azure Files authentication, which allows to access and copy data from or to Azure Files. To learn more about managed identities for Azure resources, see Managed identities for Azure resources.

To use user-assigned managed identity authentication, follow these steps:

1. Create one or multiple user-assigned managed identities and grant permission in Azure Files. For more information on the roles, see this article.

   • As source, in Access control (IAM), grant at least the Storage File Data Privileged Reader role.
   • As sink, in Access control (IAM), grant at least the Storage File Data Privileged Contributor role.

2. Assign one or multiple user-assigned managed identities to your data factory and create credentials for each user-assigned managed identity.

These properties are supported for an Azure Files linked service:

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property must be set to AzureFileStorage.	Yes
serviceEndpoint	Specify the Azure Files service endpoint with the pattern of https://<accountName>.file.core.chinacloudapi.cn/.	Yes
credentials	Specify the user-assigned managed identity as the credential object.	Yes
fileShare	Specify the file share.	Yes
snapshot	Specify the date of the file share snapshot if you want to copy from a snapshot.	No
connectVia	The Integration Runtime to be used to connect to the data store. You can use Azure Integration Runtime or Self-hosted Integration Runtime (if your data store is located in private network). If not specified, it uses the default Azure Integration Runtime.	No

Example:

{
    "name": "AzureFileStorageLinkedService",
    "properties": {
        "type": "AzureFileStorage",
        "typeProperties": {            
            "serviceEndpoint": "https://<accountName>.file.core.chinacloudapi.cn/",
            "credential": {
                "referenceName": "credential1",
                "type": "CredentialReference"
            },
            "fileShare": "<file share name>",
            "snapshot": "<snapshot version>"
        },
        "connectVia": {
            "referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
            "type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
        }
    }
}

Legacy model

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property must be set to: AzureFileStorage.	Yes
host	Specifies the Azure Files endpoint as: -Using UI: specify \\<storage name>.file.core.chinacloudapi.cn\<file service name> - Using JSON: "host": "\\\\<storage name>.file.core.chinacloudapi.cn\\<file service name>".	Yes
userid	Specify the user to access the Azure Files as: -Using UI: specify AZURE\<storage name> -Using JSON: "userid": "AZURE\\<storage name>".	Yes
password	Specify the storage access key. Mark this field as a SecureString to store it securely in Data Factory, or reference a secret stored in Azure Key Vault.	Yes
connectVia	The Integration Runtime to be used to connect to the data store. You can use Azure Integration Runtime or Self-hosted Integration Runtime (if your data store is located in private network). If not specified, it uses the default Azure Integration Runtime.	No for source, Yes for sink

Example:

{
    "name": "AzureFileStorageLinkedService",
    "properties": {
        "type": "AzureFileStorage",
        "typeProperties": {
            "host": "\\\\<storage name>.file.core.chinacloudapi.cn\\<file service name>",
            "userid": "AZURE\\<storage name>",
            "password": {
                "type": "SecureString",
                "value": "<storage access key>"
            }
        },
        "connectVia": {
            "referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
            "type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
        }
    }
}

Dataset properties

For a full list of sections and properties available for defining datasets, see the Datasets article.

Azure Data Factory supports the following file formats. Refer to each article for format-based settings.

• Avro format
• Binary format
• Delimited text format
• Excel format
• JSON format
• ORC format
• Parquet format
• XML format

The following properties are supported for Azure Files under location settings in format-based dataset:

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property under location in dataset must be set to AzureFileStorageLocation.	Yes
folderPath	The path to folder. If you want to use wildcard to filter folder, skip this setting and specify in activity source settings.	No
fileName	The file name under the given folderPath. If you want to use wildcard to filter files, skip this setting and specify in activity source settings.	No

Example:

{
    "name": "DelimitedTextDataset",
    "properties": {
        "type": "DelimitedText",
        "linkedServiceName": {
            "referenceName": "<Azure File Storage linked service name>",
            "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
        },
        "schema": [ < physical schema, optional, auto retrieved during authoring > ],
        "typeProperties": {
            "location": {
                "type": "AzureFileStorageLocation",
                "folderPath": "root/folder/subfolder"
            },
            "columnDelimiter": ",",
            "quoteChar": "\"",
            "firstRowAsHeader": true,
            "compressionCodec": "gzip"
        }
    }
}

Copy activity properties

For a full list of sections and properties available for defining activities, see the Pipelines article. This section provides a list of properties supported by Azure Files source and sink.

Azure Files as source

Azure Data Factory supports the following file formats. Refer to each article for format-based settings.

• Avro format
• Binary format
• Delimited text format
• Excel format
• JSON format
• ORC format
• Parquet format
• XML format

The following properties are supported for Azure Files under storeSettings settings in format-based copy source:

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property under storeSettings must be set to AzureFileStorageReadSettings.	Yes
Locate the files to copy:
OPTION 1: static path	Copy from the given folder/file path specified in the dataset. If you want to copy all files from a folder, additionally specify wildcardFileName as *.
OPTION 2: file prefix - prefix	Prefix for the file name under the given file share configured in a dataset to filter source files. Files with name starting with fileshare_in_linked_service/this_prefix are selected. It utilizes the service-side filter for Azure Files, which provides better performance than a wildcard filter. This feature is not supported when using a legacy linked service model.	No
OPTION 3: wildcard - wildcardFolderPath	The folder path with wildcard characters to filter source folders. Allowed wildcards are: * (matches zero or more characters) and ? (matches zero or single character); use ^ to escape if your actual folder name has wildcard or this escape char inside. See more examples in Folder and file filter examples.	No
OPTION 3: wildcard - wildcardFileName	The file name with wildcard characters under the given folderPath/wildcardFolderPath to filter source files. Allowed wildcards are: * (matches zero or more characters) and ? (matches zero or single character); use ^ to escape if your actual file name has wildcard or this escape char inside. See more examples in Folder and file filter examples.	Yes
OPTION 4: a list of files - fileListPath	Indicates to copy a given file set. Point to a text file that includes a list of files you want to copy, one file per line, which is the relative path to the path configured in the dataset. When using this option, do not specify file name in dataset. See more examples in File list examples.	No
Additional settings:
recursive	Indicates whether the data is read recursively from the subfolders or only from the specified folder. When recursive is set to true and the sink is a file-based store, an empty folder or subfolder isn't copied or created at the sink. Allowed values are true (default) and false. This property doesn't apply when you configure fileListPath.	No
deleteFilesAfterCompletion	Indicates whether the binary files will be deleted from source store after successfully moving to the destination store. The file deletion is per file, so when copy activity fails, you will see some files have already been copied to the destination and deleted from source, while others are still remaining on source store. This property is only valid in binary files copy scenario. The default value: false.	No
modifiedDatetimeStart	Files filter based on the attribute: Last Modified. The files will be selected if their last modified time is greater than or equal to modifiedDatetimeStart and less than modifiedDatetimeEnd. The time is applied to UTC time zone in the format of "2018-12-01T05:00:00Z". The properties can be NULL, which means no file attribute filter will be applied to the dataset. When modifiedDatetimeStart has datetime value but modifiedDatetimeEnd is NULL, it means the files whose last modified attribute is greater than or equal with the datetime value will be selected. When modifiedDatetimeEnd has datetime value but modifiedDatetimeStart is NULL, it means the files whose last modified attribute is less than the datetime value will be selected. This property doesn't apply when you configure fileListPath.	No
modifiedDatetimeEnd	Same as above.	No
enablePartitionDiscovery	For files that are partitioned, specify whether to parse the partitions from the file path and add them as additional source columns. Allowed values are false (default) and true.	No
partitionRootPath	When partition discovery is enabled, specify the absolute root path in order to read partitioned folders as data columns. If it is not specified, by default, - When you use file path in dataset or list of files on source, partition root path is the path configured in dataset. - When you use wildcard folder filter, partition root path is the sub-path before the first wildcard. For example, assuming you configure the path in dataset as "root/folder/year=2020/month=08/day=27": - If you specify partition root path as "root/folder/year=2020", copy activity will generate two more columns month and day with value "08" and "27" respectively, in addition to the columns inside the files. - If partition root path is not specified, no extra column will be generated.	No
maxConcurrentConnections	The upper limit of concurrent connections established to the data store during the activity run. Specify a value only when you want to limit concurrent connections.	No

Example:

"activities":[
    {
        "name": "CopyFromAzureFileStorage",
        "type": "Copy",
        "inputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<Delimited text input dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "outputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<output dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "typeProperties": {
            "source": {
                "type": "DelimitedTextSource",
                "formatSettings":{
                    "type": "DelimitedTextReadSettings",
                    "skipLineCount": 10
                },
                "storeSettings":{
                    "type": "AzureFileStorageReadSettings",
                    "recursive": true,
                    "wildcardFolderPath": "myfolder*A",
                    "wildcardFileName": "*.csv"
                }
            },
            "sink": {
                "type": "<sink type>"
            }
        }
    }
]

Azure Files as sink

Azure Data Factory supports the following file formats. Refer to each article for format-based settings.

• Avro format
• Binary format
• Delimited text format
• JSON format
• ORC format
• Parquet format

The following properties are supported for Azure Files under storeSettings settings in format-based copy sink:

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property under storeSettings must be set to AzureFileStorageWriteSettings.	Yes
copyBehavior	Defines the copy behavior when the source is files from a file-based data store. Allowed values are: - PreserveHierarchy (default): Preserves the file hierarchy in the target folder. The relative path of source file to source folder is identical to the relative path of target file to target folder. - FlattenHierarchy: All files from the source folder are in the first level of the target folder. The target files have autogenerated names. - MergeFiles: Merges all files from the source folder to one file. If the file name is specified, the merged file name is the specified name. Otherwise, it's an autogenerated file name.	No
maxConcurrentConnections	The upper limit of concurrent connections established to the data store during the activity run. Specify a value only when you want to limit concurrent connections.	No

Example:

"activities":[
    {
        "name": "CopyToAzureFileStorage",
        "type": "Copy",
        "inputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<input dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "outputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<Parquet output dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "typeProperties": {
            "source": {
                "type": "<source type>"
            },
            "sink": {
                "type": "ParquetSink",
                "storeSettings":{
                    "type": "AzureFileStorageWriteSettings",
                    "copyBehavior": "PreserveHierarchy"
                }
            }
        }
    }
]

Folder and file filter examples

This section describes the resulting behavior of the folder path and file name with wildcard filters.

folderPath	fileName	recursive	Source folder structure and filter result (files in bold are retrieved)
Folder*	(empty, use default)	false	FolderA     File1.csv     File2.json     Subfolder1         File3.csv         File4.json         File5.csv AnotherFolderB     File6.csv
Folder*	(empty, use default)	true	FolderA     File1.csv     File2.json     Subfolder1         File3.csv         File4.json         File5.csv AnotherFolderB     File6.csv
Folder*	*.csv	false	FolderA     File1.csv     File2.json     Subfolder1         File3.csv         File4.json         File5.csv AnotherFolderB     File6.csv
Folder*	*.csv	true	FolderA     File1.csv     File2.json     Subfolder1         File3.csv         File4.json         File5.csv AnotherFolderB     File6.csv

File list examples

This section describes the resulting behavior of using file list path in copy activity source.

Assuming you have the following source folder structure and want to copy the files in bold:

Sample source structure	Content in FileListToCopy.txt	Configuration
root     FolderA         File1.csv         File2.json         Subfolder1             File3.csv             File4.json             File5.csv     Metadata         FileListToCopy.txt	File1.csv Subfolder1/File3.csv Subfolder1/File5.csv	In dataset: - Folder path: root/FolderA In copy activity source: - File list path: root/Metadata/FileListToCopy.txt The file list path points to a text file in the same data store that includes a list of files you want to copy, one file per line with the relative path to the path configured in the dataset.

recursive and copyBehavior examples

This section describes the resulting behavior of the Copy operation for different combinations of recursive and copyBehavior values.

recursive	copyBehavior	Source folder structure	Resulting target
true	preserveHierarchy	Folder1     File1     File2     Subfolder1         File3         File4         File5	The target folder Folder1 is created with the same structure as the source: Folder1     File1     File2     Subfolder1         File3         File4         File5.
true	flattenHierarchy	Folder1     File1     File2     Subfolder1         File3         File4         File5	The target Folder1 is created with the following structure: Folder1     autogenerated name for File1     autogenerated name for File2     autogenerated name for File3     autogenerated name for File4     autogenerated name for File5
true	mergeFiles	Folder1     File1     File2     Subfolder1         File3         File4         File5	The target Folder1 is created with the following structure: Folder1     File1 + File2 + File3 + File4 + File 5 contents are merged into one file with autogenerated file name
false	preserveHierarchy	Folder1     File1     File2     Subfolder1         File3         File4         File5	The target folder Folder1 is created with the following structure Folder1     File1     File2 Subfolder1 with File3, File4, and File5 are not picked up.
false	flattenHierarchy	Folder1     File1     File2     Subfolder1         File3         File4         File5	The target folder Folder1 is created with the following structure Folder1     autogenerated name for File1     autogenerated name for File2 Subfolder1 with File3, File4, and File5 are not picked up.
false	mergeFiles	Folder1     File1     File2     Subfolder1         File3         File4         File5	The target folder Folder1 is created with the following structure Folder1     File1 + File2 contents are merged into one file with autogenerated file name. autogenerated name for File1 Subfolder1 with File3, File4, and File5 are not picked up.

Lookup activity properties

To learn details about the properties, check Lookup activity.

GetMetadata activity properties

To learn details about the properties, check GetMetadata activity

Delete activity properties

To learn details about the properties, check Delete activity

Legacy models

Legacy dataset model

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property of the dataset must be set to: FileShare	Yes
folderPath	Path to the folder. Wildcard filter is supported, allowed wildcards are: * (matches zero or more characters) and ? (matches zero or single character); use ^ to escape if your actual folder name has wildcard or this escape char inside. Examples: rootfolder/subfolder/, see more examples in Folder and file filter examples.	Yes
fileName	Name or wildcard filter for the file(s) under the specified "folderPath". If you don't specify a value for this property, the dataset points to all files in the folder. For filter, allowed wildcards are: * (matches zero or more characters) and ? (matches zero or single character). - Example 1: "fileName": "*.csv" - Example 2: "fileName": "???20180427.txt" Use ^ to escape if your actual file name has wildcard or this escape char inside. When fileName isn't specified for an output dataset and preserveHierarchy isn't specified in the activity sink, the copy activity automatically generates the file name with the following pattern: "Data.[activity run ID GUID].[GUID if FlattenHierarchy].[format if configured].[compression if configured]", for example "Data.0a405f8a-93ff-4c6f-b3be-f69616f1df7a.txt.gz"; if you copy from tabular source using table name instead of query, the name pattern is "[table name].[format].[compression if configured]", for example "MyTable.csv".	No
modifiedDatetimeStart	Files filter based on the attribute: Last Modified. The files will be selected if their last modified time is greater than or equal to modifiedDatetimeStart and less than modifiedDatetimeEnd. The time is applied to UTC time zone in the format of "2018-12-01T05:00:00Z". Be aware the overall performance of data movement will be impacted by enabling this setting when you want to do file filter from huge amounts of files. The properties can be NULL that means no file attribute filter will be applied to the dataset. When modifiedDatetimeStart has datetime value but modifiedDatetimeEnd is NULL, it means the files whose last modified attribute is greater than or equal with the datetime value will be selected. When modifiedDatetimeEnd has datetime value but modifiedDatetimeStart is NULL, it means the files whose last modified attribute is less than the datetime value will be selected.	No
modifiedDatetimeEnd	Files filter based on the attribute: Last Modified. The files will be selected if their last modified time is greater than or equal to modifiedDatetimeStart and less than modifiedDatetimeEnd. The time is applied to UTC time zone in the format of "2018-12-01T05:00:00Z". Be aware the overall performance of data movement will be impacted by enabling this setting when you want to do file filter from huge amounts of files. The properties can be NULL that means no file attribute filter will be applied to the dataset. When modifiedDatetimeStart has datetime value but modifiedDatetimeEnd is NULL, it means the files whose last modified attribute is greater than or equal with the datetime value will be selected. When modifiedDatetimeEnd has datetime value but modifiedDatetimeStart is NULL, it means the files whose last modified attribute is less than the datetime value will be selected.	No
format	If you want to copy files as-is between file-based stores (binary copy), skip the format section in both input and output dataset definitions. If you want to parse or generate files with a specific format, the following file format types are supported: TextFormat, JsonFormat, AvroFormat, OrcFormat, ParquetFormat. Set the type property under format to one of these values. For more information, see Text Format, Json Format, Avro Format, Orc Format, and Parquet Format sections.	No (only for binary copy scenario)
compression	Specify the type and level of compression for the data. For more information, see Supported file formats and compression codecs. Supported types are: GZip, Deflate, BZip2, and ZipDeflate. Supported levels are: Optimal and Fastest.	No

Example:

{
    "name": "AzureFileStorageDataset",
    "properties": {
        "type": "FileShare",
        "linkedServiceName":{
            "referenceName": "<Azure File Storage linked service name>",
            "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
        },
        "typeProperties": {
            "folderPath": "folder/subfolder/",
            "fileName": "*",
            "modifiedDatetimeStart": "2018-12-01T05:00:00Z",
            "modifiedDatetimeEnd": "2018-12-01T06:00:00Z",
            "format": {
                "type": "TextFormat",
                "columnDelimiter": ",",
                "rowDelimiter": "\n"
            },
            "compression": {
                "type": "GZip",
                "level": "Optimal"
            }
        }
    }
}

Legacy copy activity source model

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property of the copy activity source must be set to: FileSystemSource	Yes
recursive	Indicates whether the data is read recursively from the sub folders or only from the specified folder. Note when recursive is set to true and sink is file-based store, empty folder/sub-folder will not be copied/created at sink. Allowed values are: true (default), false	No
maxConcurrentConnections	The upper limit of concurrent connections established to the data store during the activity run. Specify a value only when you want to limit concurrent connections.	No

Example:

"activities":[
    {
        "name": "CopyFromAzureFileStorage",
        "type": "Copy",
        "inputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<Azure File Storage input dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "outputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<output dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "typeProperties": {
            "source": {
                "type": "FileSystemSource",
                "recursive": true
            },
            "sink": {
                "type": "<sink type>"
            }
        }
    }
]

Legacy copy activity sink model

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property of the copy activity sink must be set to: FileSystemSink	Yes
copyBehavior	Defines the copy behavior when the source is files from file-based data store. Allowed values are: - PreserveHierarchy (default): preserves the file hierarchy in the target folder. The relative path of source file to source folder is identical to the relative path of target file to target folder. - FlattenHierarchy: all files from the source folder are in the first level of target folder. The target files have autogenerated name. - MergeFiles: merges all files from the source folder to one file. If the File Name is specified, the merged file name would be the specified name; otherwise, would be autogenerated file name.	No
maxConcurrentConnections	The upper limit of concurrent connections established to the data store during the activity run. Specify a value only when you want to limit concurrent connections.	No

Example:

"activities":[
    {
        "name": "CopyToAzureFileStorage",
        "type": "Copy",
        "inputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<input dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "outputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<Azure File Storage output dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "typeProperties": {
            "source": {
                "type": "<source type>"
            },
            "sink": {
                "type": "FileSystemSink",
                "copyBehavior": "PreserveHierarchy"
            }
        }
    }
]

Related content

For a list of data stores supported as sources and sinks by the copy activity, see supported data stores.