Enable WASB Access

By default, Microsoft Azure deployments integrate with Azure Data Lake Store (ADLS). Optionally, you can configure your deployment to integrate with WASB.

• Windows Azure Storage Blob (WASB) is an abstraction layer on top of HDFS, which enables persistence of storage, access without a Hadoop cluster presence, and access from multiple Hadoop clusters. 

Limitations of WASB Integration

• If a directory is created on the HDI cluster through WASB, the directory includes a Size=0 blob. The Designer Cloud Powered by Trifacta platform does not list them and does not support interaction with Size=0 blobs.

Read-only access

If the base storage layer has been set to ADLS, you can follow these instructions to set up read-only access to WASB. 

Pre-requisites

General

• The Designer Cloud Powered by Trifacta platform has already been installed and integrated with an Azure HDI or Azure Databricks cluster.
• WASB must be set as the base storage layer for the Designer Cloud Powered by Trifacta platform instance. See Set Base Storage Layer.
• For each combination of blob host and container, a separate Azure Key Vault Store entry must be created. For more information, please contact your Azure admin. 

Create a registered application

Before you integrate with Azure ADLS, you must create the Designer Cloud Powered by Trifacta platform as a registered application. See Configure for Azure.

Other Azure properties

The following properties should already be specified in the Admin Settings page. Please verify that the following have been set:

• azure.applicationId
  
• azure.secret
  
• azure.directoryId

The above properties are needed for this configuration. For more information, see Configure for Azure.

Key Vault Setup

For new installs, an Azure Key Vault has already been set up and configured for use by the Designer Cloud Powered by Trifacta platform.

For more information, see Configure for Azure.

Configure WASB Authentication

Authentication to WASB storage is managed by specifying the appropriate host, container, and token ID in the Designer Cloud Powered by Trifacta platform configuration. When access to WASB is requested, the platform passes the information through the Secure Token Service to query the specified Azure Key Vault Store using the provided values. The keystore returns the value for the secret. The combination of the key (token ID) and secret is used to access WASB.

For more information on creating the Key Vault Store and accessing it through the Secure Token Service, see Configure for Azure.

Configure the Designer Cloud Powered by Trifacta platform

Define location of SAS token

The SAS token required for accessing Azure can be accessed from either of the following locations:

1. Key Vault
2. Alteryx configuration

whether SAS token is to be retrieved from Azure Key Vault or Configuration

SAS token from Key Vault

To store the SAS token in the key vault, specify the following parameters in platform configuration. You can apply this change through the Admin Settings Page (recommended) or trifacta-conf.json. For more information, see Platform Configuration Methods.

Secret names used for extra stores

If you are enabling extra WASB stores, specify the secret name to be used to access the SAS token from the Key Vault per extra Store.

"azure.wasb.extraStores": [ {
	...
	"keyVaultSasTokenSecretName": "<secret_name>"
  }, {
	...
	"keyVaultSasTokenSecretName": "<secret_name>"
  }
]

SAS token from Alteryx configuration

To specify the SAS token in the Designer Cloud Powered by Trifacta platform configuration, set the following flag to false and then specify the SAS token per container.  

SAS token for extra WASB stores

If you are enabling extra WASB stores and azure.wasb.fetchSasTokensFromKeyVault is set to false, specify the sasToken for each extra store.

"azure.wasb.extraStores": [ {
	...
	"sasToken": "<your_value_here>"
  }, {
	...
	"sasToken": "<your_value_here>"
  }
]

Define default storage location and access key

In platform configuration, you must define the following properties. When these properties are specified, the platform acquires the secret for the specified token ID, which is used to gain access to WASB. 

Storage account

Azure path to the location where your data is to be stored.

"azure.wasb.defaultStore.blobHost": "<your_value_here>",

Container

Within your storage location, this value defines the default container for storing data.

"azure.wasb.defaultStore.container": "<your_value_here>",

Define extra stores

If you have additional WASB stores, you can specify access to them for the Designer Cloud Powered by Trifacta platform.  Users of the platform can use them for reading sources and writing results.

Steps:

1. To apply this configuration change, login as an administrator to the Alteryx node. Then, edit trifacta-conf.json. For more information, see Platform Configuration Methods.

2. Locate the azure.wasb.extraStores configuration block and add the following parameters:

   "azure.wasb.extraStores": 
       "extraStores": [
        {
         "sasToken": "<VALUE1_HERE",
         "keyVaultSasTokenSecretName": "<VALUE1_HERE>",
         "container": "<VALUE1_HERE>",
         "blobHost": "<VALUE1_HERE>"
        },
        {
         "sasToken": "VALUE2_HERE",
         "keyVaultSasTokenSecretName": "<VALUE2_HERE>",
         "container": "<VALUE2_HERE>",
         "blobHost": "<VALUE2_HERE>"
        }
       ]
      },
    },

   Parameter	Description
   sasToken	Set this value to SAS token, if applicable.
   keyVaultSasTokenSecretName	To use the same SAS token as used in default storage, set this value to the same SAS token ID. If needed, you can generate and apply a per-container SAS token for use in this field for this specific store. Details are below.
   container	Apply the name of the WASB container. NOTE: If you are specifying different blob host and container combinations for your extra stores, you must create a new Key Vault store. See above for details.
   blobHost	Specify the blob host for the extra store. NOTE: If you are specifying different blob host and container combinations for your extra stores, you must create a new Key Vault store. See above for details.

3. Save your changes and restart the platform.

Generate per-container SAS token

Execute the following command at the command line to generate a SAS token for a specific container:

Set-AzureRmStorageAccount -Name 'name'
$sasToken = New-AzureStorageContainerSASToken -Permission r -ExpiryTime (Get-Date).AddHours(2.0) -Name '<container_name>'

Configure storage protocol

You must configure the platform to use the WASBS (secure) storage protocol when accessing.

Steps:

1. You can apply this change through the Admin Settings Page (recommended) or trifacta-conf.json. For more information, see Platform Configuration Methods.

2. Locate the following parameter and change its value  wasbs for secure access:

   "webapp.storageProtocol": "wasbs",

3. Save your changes and restart the platform.

Enable

Steps:

1. You can apply this change through the Admin Settings Page (recommended) or trifacta-conf.json. For more information, see Platform Configuration Methods.

2. Locate the following parameter and change its value to true:

   "azure.wasb.enabled": true,

3. Save your changes and restart the platform.

Testing

Restart services. See Start and Stop the Platform.

After the configuration has been specified, a WASB connection appears in the Import Data page. Select it to begin navigating through the WASB Browser for data sources.

Try running a simple job from the Designer Cloud application. For more information, see Verify Operations.

• See WASB Browser.
• See Using WASB.