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Copy data from/to a file system by using Azure Data Factory	Learn how to copy data from file system to supported sink data stores (or) from supported source data stores to file system by using Azure Data Factory.	data-factory		linda33wj	shwang	douglasl	data-factory	data-services	conceptual	06/12/2020	jingwang

Copy data to or from a file system by using Azure Data Factory

[!div class="op_single_selector" title1="Select the version of Data Factory service you are using:"]

Version 1

Current version [!INCLUDEappliesto-adf-asa-md]

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

Supported capabilities

This file system connector is supported for the following activities:

Copy activity with supported source/sink matrix
Lookup activity
GetMetadata activity
Delete activity

Specifically, this file system connector supports:

Copying files from/to local machine or network file share. To use a Linux file share, install Samba on your Linux server.
Copying files using Windows authentication.
Copying files as-is or parsing/generating files with the supported file formats and compression codecs.

Prerequisites

[!INCLUDE data-factory-v2-integration-runtime-requirements]

Getting started

[!INCLUDE data-factory-v2-connector-get-started]

The following sections provide details about properties that are used to define Data Factory entities specific to file system.

Linked service properties

The following properties are supported for file system linked service:

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property must be set to: FileServer.	Yes
host	Specifies the root path of the folder that you want to copy. Use the escape character "" for special characters in the string. See Sample linked service and dataset definitions for examples.	Yes
userid	Specify the ID of the user who has access to the server.	Yes
password	Specify the password for the user (userid). 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. Learn more from Prerequisites section. If not specified, it uses the default Azure Integration Runtime.	No

Sample linked service and dataset definitions

Scenario	"host" in linked service definition	"folderPath" in dataset definition
Local folder on Integration Runtime machine: Examples: D:\* or D:\folder\subfolder\*	In JSON: `D:\\` On UI: `D:\`	In JSON: `.\\` or `folder\\subfolder` On UI: `.\` or `folder\subfolder`
Remote shared folder: Examples: \\myserver\share\* or \\myserver\share\folder\subfolder\*	In JSON: `\\\\myserver\\share` On UI: `\\myserver\share`	In JSON: `.\\` or `folder\\subfolder` On UI: `.\` or `folder\subfolder`

Note

When authoring via UI, you don't need to input double backslash (\\) to escape like you do via JSON, specify single backslash.

Example:

{
    "name": "FileLinkedService",
    "properties": {
        "type": "FileServer",
        "typeProperties": {
            "host": "<host>",
            "userid": "<domain>\\<user>",
            "password": {
                "type": "SecureString",
                "value": "<password>"
            }
        },
        "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.

[!INCLUDE data-factory-v2-file-formats]

The following properties are supported for file system under location settings in format-based dataset:

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property under `location` in dataset must be set to FileServerLocation.	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": "<File system linked service name>",
            "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
        },
        "schema": [ < physical schema, optional, auto retrieved during authoring > ],
        "typeProperties": {
            "location": {
                "type": "FileServerLocation",
                "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 file system source and sink.

File system as source

[!INCLUDE data-factory-v2-file-formats]

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

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property under `storeSettings` must be set to FileServerReadSettings.	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: server side filter - fileFilter	File server side native filter which provides better performance than OPTION 3 wildcard filter. Use `` to match zero or more characters and `?` to match zero or single character. Learn more about the syntax and notes from the Remarks* under this section.	No
OPTION 3: client side filter - wildcardFolderPath	The folder path with wildcard characters to filter source folders. Such filter happens on ADF side, ADF enumerate the folders/files under the given path then apply the wildcard filter. 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: client side filter - wildcardFileName	The file name with wildcard characters under the given folderPath/wildcardFolderPath to filter source files. Such filter happens on ADF side, ADF enumerate the files under the given path then apply the wildcard filter. 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.	Yes
OPTION 3: 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. Note that 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 copy scenario, where data source stores are Blob, ADLS Gen1, ADLS Gen2, S3, Google Cloud Storage, File, Azure File, SFTP, or FTP. 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 within the time range between `modifiedDatetimeStart` and `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
maxConcurrentConnections	The number of the connections to connect to storage store concurrently. Specify only when you want to limit the concurrent connection to the data store.	No

Example:

"activities":[
    {
        "name": "CopyFromFileSystem",
        "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": "FileServerReadSettings",
                    "recursive": true,
                    "wildcardFolderPath": "myfolder*A",
                    "wildcardFileName": "*.csv"
                }
            },
            "sink": {
                "type": "<sink type>"
            }
        }
    }
]

File system as sink

[!INCLUDE data-factory-v2-file-formats]

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

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property under `storeSettings` must be set to FileServerWriteSettings.	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 number of the connections to connect to the data store concurrently. Specify only when you want to limit the concurrent connection to the data store.	No

Example:

"activities":[
    {
        "name": "CopyToFileSystem",
        "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": "FileServerWriteSettings",
                    "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	ADF 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

Note

The following models are still supported as-is for backward compatibility. You are suggested to use the new model mentioned in above sections going forward, and the ADF authoring UI has switched to generating the new model.

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 Sample linked service and dataset definitions and Folder and file filter examples.	No
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 within the time range between `modifiedDatetimeStart` and `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, 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.	No
modifiedDatetimeEnd	Files filter based on the attribute: Last Modified. The files will be selected if their last modified time is within the time range between `modifiedDatetimeStart` and `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, 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.	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

Tip

To copy all files under a folder, specify folderPath only.
To copy a single file with a given name, specify folderPath with folder part and fileName with file name.
To copy a subset of files under a folder, specify folderPath with folder part and fileName with wildcard filter.

Note

If you were using "fileFilter" property for file filter, it is still supported as-is, while you are suggested to use the new filter capability added to "fileName" going forward.

Example:

{
    "name": "FileSystemDataset",
    "properties": {
        "type": "FileShare",
        "linkedServiceName":{
            "referenceName": "<file system 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 subfolders 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 number of the connections to connect to storage store concurrently. Specify only when you want to limit the concurrent connection to the data store.	No

Example:

"activities":[
    {
        "name": "CopyFromFileSystem",
        "type": "Copy",
        "inputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<file system 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. No record deduplication is performed during the merge. If the File Name is specified, the merged file name would be the specified name; otherwise, would be autogenerated file name.	No
maxConcurrentConnections	The number of the connections to connect to storage store concurrently. Specify only when you want to limit the concurrent connection to the data store.	No

Example:

"activities":[
    {
        "name": "CopyToFileSystem",
        "type": "Copy",
        "inputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<input dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "outputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<file system output dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "typeProperties": {
            "source": {
                "type": "<source type>"
            },
            "sink": {
                "type": "FileSystemSink",
                "copyBehavior": "PreserveHierarchy"
            }
        }
    }
]

Next steps

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

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connector-file-system.md

connector-file-system.md

Copy data to or from a file system by using Azure Data Factory

Supported capabilities

Prerequisites

Getting started

Linked service properties

Sample linked service and dataset definitions

Dataset properties

Copy activity properties

File system as source

File system as sink

Folder and file filter examples

File list examples

recursive and copyBehavior examples

Lookup activity properties

GetMetadata activity properties

Delete activity properties

Legacy models

Legacy dataset model

Legacy copy activity source model

Legacy copy activity sink model

Next steps

Files

connector-file-system.md

Latest commit

History

connector-file-system.md

File metadata and controls

Copy data to or from a file system by using Azure Data Factory

Supported capabilities

Prerequisites

Getting started

Linked service properties

Sample linked service and dataset definitions

Dataset properties

Copy activity properties

File system as source

File system as sink

Folder and file filter examples

File list examples

recursive and copyBehavior examples

Lookup activity properties

GetMetadata activity properties

Delete activity properties

Legacy models

Legacy dataset model

Legacy copy activity source model

Legacy copy activity sink model

Next steps