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Getting started with Azure Blob Storage

Azure Blob Storage has an extensive set of configuration and access settings. There are detailed guides in the Azure Blob Storage documentation. Best practice can depend on your situation. This guide is intended as a quick-start, to help you get going with ArcticDB.

You will need an azure account with permission to create storage-accounts. - Install Azure CLI or use the browser based Cloud Shell. - If you installed Azure CLI then you will also need to login.

1. Select a region.

A region close to your client will mean greater performance. You can list your available regions with. 

az account list-locations -o table

2. Create a resource-group

This is not required but best practice would be to create a new resource-group to try out arcticdb. Resource groups are there to help you collect together and manage related resources in Azure. Set your chosen <REGION> here. If you use an existing resource-group then replace that in the examples below. 

az group create --name arcticdb --location <REGION>

3. Create a blob storage account

This is created within your resource-group. Choose a <STORAGE_NAME>, it needs to be globally unique across all of Azure. 

az storage account create -g arcticdb --allow-blob-public-access false --sku Standard_LRS -n <STORAGE_NAME>
-g arcticdb is the resource-group you created in the last step.

4. Create a container

Create a container within the storage account. Depending on your account and CLI setup you may need to provide authorization for this step. 

az storage container create  --name data --account-name <STORAGE_NAME>

5. Connect to the storage account

  • Get the connection string. 

    az storage account show-connection-string -g arcticdb --query connectionString -n <STORAGE_NAME> | sed 's,",,g'
    The connection string includes the AccountKey for authentication and so you should store it securely.

  • Install ArcticDB.

  • Find your CA_CERT_PATH path. See the ArcticAB API docs for more information.
  • Replace <CONNECTION_STRING> and <CA_CERT_PATH> in the following example. 
    import arcticdb as adb
connection_string = '<CONNECTION_STRING>'
ca_cert_path = '<CA_CERT_PATH>'
arctic = adb.Arctic(f"azure://{connection_string};Container=data;CA_cert_path={ca_cert_path}")