Elastic Azure Blob Storage connector reference

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Elastic Azure Blob Storage connector reference

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The Elastic Azure Blob Storage connector is a connector for Azure Blob Storage.

This connector is written in Python using the Elastic connector framework.

View the source code for this connector (branch 8.12, compatible with Elastic 8.12).

Native connector (Elastic Cloud)

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View native connector reference

Availability and prerequisites

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This connector is available as a native connector on Elastic Cloud, as of 8.9.1.

To use this connector natively in Elastic Cloud, satisfy all native connector requirements.

Usage

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To use this connector as a native connector, see Native connectors (managed service).

For additional operations, see Using connectors.

Compatibility

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This connector has not been tested with Azure Government. Therefore we cannot guarantee that it will work with Azure Government endpoints. For more information on Azure Government compared to Global Azure, refer to the official Microsoft documentation.

Configuration

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The following configuration fields are required to set up the connector:

Account name
Name of Azure Blob Storage account.
Account key
Account key for the Azure Blob Storage account.
Blob endpoint
Endpoint for the Blob Service.

Documents and syncs

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The connector will fetch all data available in the container.

  • Files bigger than 10 MB won’t be extracted.
  • Permissions are not synced. All documents indexed to an Elastic deployment will be visible to all users with access to that Elastic Deployment.

Sync rules

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Basic sync rules are identical for all connectors and are available by default.

Advanced sync rules are not available for this connector in the present version. Currently filtering is controlled via ingest pipelines.

Content extraction

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See Content extraction.

Known issues

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This connector has the following known issues:

  • lease data and tier fields are not updated in Elasticsearch indices

    This is because the blob timestamp is not updated. Refer to Github issue.

Troubleshooting

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See Troubleshooting.

Security

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See Security.

View the source code for this connector (branch 8.12, compatible with Elastic 8.12)

Connector client (self-managed)

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View connector client reference

Availability and prerequisites

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This connector is available as a self-managed connector client. This connector client is compatible with Elastic versions 8.6.0+. To use this connector, satisfy all connector client requirements.

Usage

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To use this connector as a connector client, see Connector clients (self-managed) For additional usage operations, see Using connectors.

Compatibility

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This connector has not been tested with Azure Government. Therefore we cannot guarantee that it will work with Azure Government endpoints. For more information on Azure Government compared to Global Azure, refer to the official Microsoft documentation.

Configuration

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When using the connector client workflow, initially these fields will use the default configuration set in the connector source code. These are set in the get_default_configuration function definition.

These configurable fields will be rendered with their respective labels in the Kibana UI. Once connected, you’ll be able to update these values in Kibana.

The following configuration fields are required to set up the connector:

account_name
Name of Azure Blob Storage account.
account_key
Account key for the Azure Blob Storage account.
blob_endpoint
Endpoint for the Blob Service.
retry_count
Number of retry attempts after a failed call. Default value is 3.
concurrent_downloads
Number of concurrent downloads for fetching content. Default value is 100.
use_text_extraction_service
Requires a separate deployment of the Elastic Text Extraction Service. Requires that ingest pipeline settings disable text extraction. Default value is False.

Deployment using Docker

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You can deploy the Azure Blob Storage connector as a self-managed connector client using Docker. Follow these instructions.

Step 1: Download sample configuration file

Download the sample configuration file. You can either download it manually or run the following command:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/elastic/connectors/main/config.yml.example --output ~/connectors-config/config.yml

Remember to update the --output argument value if your directory name is different, or you want to use a different config file name.

Step 2: Update the configuration file for your self-managed connector

Update the configuration file with the following settings to match your environment:

  • elasticsearch.host
  • elasticsearch.api_key
  • connectors

If you’re running the connector service against a Dockerized version of Elasticsearch and Kibana, your config file will look like this:

# When connecting to your cloud deployment you should edit the host value
elasticsearch.host: http://host.docker.internal:9200
elasticsearch.api_key: <ELASTICSEARCH_API_KEY>

connectors:
  -
    connector_id: <CONNECTOR_ID_FROM_KIBANA>
    service_type: azure_blob_storage
    api_key: <CONNECTOR_API_KEY_FROM_KIBANA>

Using the elasticsearch.api_key is the recommended authentication method. However, you can also use elasticsearch.username and elasticsearch.password to authenticate with your Elasticsearch instance.

Note: You can change other default configurations by simply uncommenting specific settings in the configuration file and modifying their values.

Step 3: Run the Docker image

Run the Docker image with the Connector Service using the following command:

docker run \
-v ~/connectors-config:/config \
--network "elastic" \
--tty \
--rm \
docker.elastic.co/enterprise-search/elastic-connectors:8.12.2.0 \
/app/bin/elastic-ingest \
-c /config/config.yml

Refer to DOCKER.md in the elastic/connectors repo for more details.

Find all available Docker images in the official registry.

We also have a quickstart self-managed option using Docker Compose, so you can spin up all required services at once: Elasticsearch, Kibana, and the connectors service. Refer to this README in the elastic/connectors repo for more information.

Documents and syncs

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The connector will fetch all data available in the container.

  • Files bigger than 10 MB won’t be extracted.
  • Permissions are not synced. All documents indexed to an Elastic deployment will be visible to all users with access to that Elastic Deployment.

Sync rules

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Basic sync rules are identical for all connectors and are available by default.

Advanced sync rules are not available for this connector in the present version. Currently filtering is controlled via ingest pipelines.

Content extraction

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See Content extraction.

End-to-end testing

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The connector framework enables operators to run functional tests against a real data source. Refer to Connector testing for more details.

To perform E2E testing for the Azure Blob Storage connector, run the following command:

$ make ftest NAME=azure_blob_storage

For faster tests, add the DATA_SIZE=small flag:

make ftest NAME=azure_blob_storage DATA_SIZE=small

Known issues

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This connector has the following known issues:

  • lease data and tier fields are not updated in Elasticsearch indices

    This is because the blob timestamp is not updated. Refer to Github issue.

Troubleshooting

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See Troubleshooting.

Security

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See Security.