kohera-logo-regular.svg

Store documents in Azure Blob storage using SQL

One little step in a migration track from on-premise to Azure is related to binary files like images, pdf and others. These files are often stored on many different places: SharePoint, file shares, local folders, SQL file tables, SQL tables as binary objects, etc. Using the last 2 options – files stored in SQL – you probably have already created a variety of SQL procedures to maintain and using these binary files. Scenario’s where you dynamically generate PDF or other client related files, are using these techniques. When using Azure blob-storage as well in your platform, you can move these SQL stored files easily to Azure with a little change in your SQL procedures.

In the next example, I show you how to move a PDF file stored in an SQL file-table to an Azure blob-container. There are multiple ways of doing this, this is just one of them.

Case description:

  • On-premise SQL server 2017 containing file-table, configured for non-transactional access
  • Azure blob-storage-container
  • PDF file generated by business-application and stored in the file-table

Case purpose:

  • Store PDF file in Azure blob-storage in a HYBRID-cloud infrastructure solution
  • Use T-SQL to make it happen

Case start situation:

  • Existing file-table:
CREATE TABLE [application].[PrintedInvoices] 
    AS FILETABLE ON [PRIMARY] FILESTREAM_ON [SQL_ApplicationServer_FG_FS]
WITH
(
  FILETABLE_DIRECTORY = N'Application_PrintedInvoices'
, FILETABLE_COLLATE_FILENAME = Latin1_General_100_CI_AS_KS_WS
);
  • File accessible in OS:

  • Or Query using T-SQL:

SELECT *
FROM [SQL_ApplicationServer].[application].[PrintedInvoices]
WHERE [name]='ClientX_Invoice_Y.pdf';


  • Define your blob-storage in Azure (hot or cold storage)

  • Check your access keys:

Case solution:

  • Install AZcopy toolbox on your server. This is a command line tool to interact with your Azure blob-storage.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-use-azcopy

 

  • At you SQL server database, configure xp_cmdshell access:

EXEC sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1; 
GO 
RECONFIGURE; 
GO
EXEC sp_configure 'xp_cmdshell', 1; 
GO 
RECONFIGURE; 
GO 
--give access:
sp_xp_cmdshell_proxy_account [ NULL | { 'account_name' , 'password' } ] 
  • Create a new stored procedure for creating the AZcopy command line statement and executes it.

create procedure [Application].[up_LoadInvoiceToAzureBlob]
@OutputFileName varchar(512)
as
begin

declare @cmd nvarchar(4000);

select @cmd= '"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\AzCopy\azcopy.exe" '
      +' /Source:'+FileTableRootPath(N'[Application].[PrintedInvoices]')
	  +' /Dest:https://storageaccount.blob.core.windows.net/virtualfolder/'
	  +' /DestKey: '
	  +' /Pattern:'+@OutputFileName + ' /Y'
;
DECLARE @result int;  
EXEC @result = master..xp_cmdshell @cmd;  

IF (@result = 0)  
begin
    PRINT 'Success'  
	-- or do something else
end
ELSE
begin  
   PRINT 'Failure';  
   -- or do something else
end

end


  • Execute procedure like this:
exec [Application].[up_LoadInvoiceToAzureBlob] 
@OutputFileName='ClientX_Invoice_Y.pdf'; 

  • Visual verifying the result, can be done using for example Azure storage explorer

Download here https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/features/storage-explorer/



DSC_1388
Aggregaties
Power BI Desktop is een prachtige tool om snel data-analyses te kunnen uitvoeren. Je connecteert op een databron, importeert en...
dba image
DBA is not that scary
Often when talking to people who are looking for a career path in the data world I feel like there...
blog-2303
How do you link an SCD Type 2 table in Power Query?
This article uses a simple example to demonstrate how to link an SCD Type 2 table in Power Query to...
featured-2302
How to easily parse JSON in Power BI Desktop
Sometimes you want to use JSON data in Power BI. And sometimes Power BI doesn’t exactly do what you want...
header-2301
Power BI reports as monitoring tool
Who has not created monitoring reports or beautiful dashboards in Power BI? Would it not be great to show off...
your-modernization-journey-starts-now-header
Your Modernization Journey starts now
Recently Microsoft introduced SQL server 2022. We wrote this post to make sure you won’t be missing out on all...