The Data Lake resource will be created and configured from the Azure Portal. The prerequisites are:
- An Azure SQL Server instance
- A blob storage account
We have created the following view in the SQL Server database. The SQL Server Linked Service has already been created in a previous chapter:
CREATE VIEW ADFV2Book.Purchase AS
SELECT Dimension.Date.Date,
Dimension.Supplier.Supplier,
Dimension.Supplier.Category,
Dimension.[Stock Item].[Stock Item],
Fact.Purchase.[Ordered Quantity]
FROM Fact.Purchase
INNER JOIN Dimension.Date
ON Fact.Purchase.[Date Key] = Dimension.Date.Date
INNER JOIN Dimension.[Stock Item]
ON Fact.Purchase.[Stock Item Key] = Dimension.[Stock Item].[Stock Item Key]
INNER JOIN Dimension.Supplier
ON Fact.Purchase.[Supplier Key] = Dimension.Supplier.[Supplier Key]
We also need to find a container in the storage account. Click on storage accounts from the dashboard:
In the Services section, click on Blobs:
Find a container or create one (click on the + Container button). We will use an existing one..
Note that some components of the Azure Data Lake, data factory, and other Azure services/tools do not handle special characters such as blank and hyphen properly in file paths or filenames. Even though there may be ways to overcome this challenge, they may not be straightforward. We strongly recommend avoiding those special characters when handling files.