Nordlicht Reisen GmbH, a fictional travel agency, has its travel catalogs as PDF files on a file server. They are to move into a blob container, and later new files are to be carried over regularly. For jobs like this there are two tools that the exam names: Azure Storage Explorer, a program with a graphical interface, and AzCopy, a command-line program. Both move data between your computer and Azure Storage, or between storage accounts.
Prior knowledge. What a storage account is, what containers and blobs are, and how access keys and SAS tokens work is covered in lessons 2.1 to 2.3 of this course. You also know the basic concepts of Blob Storage from K3, lesson 3.6.3. This lesson is only about moving the data.
The skill in the study guide is called "Manage data by using Azure Storage Explorer and AzCopy". Behind it are three questions: How do I connect the tool to the account, which permissions do I need for that, and which command or click moves the data?
Which tool when?
| Storage Explorer | AzCopy | |
|---|---|---|
| Form | program with a graphical interface for Windows, macOS and Linux | command-line program |
| Strength | viewing data, moving single files, creating properties and SAS addresses | large amounts, scripts, scheduled tasks, synchronizing folders |
| Sign-in | an account in the program, or a single resource with key, SAS or Entra ID | azcopy login or a SAS token in the address |
| Targets | blobs, Data Lake, file shares, queues, tables | blobs and file shares |
Microsoft names AzCopy explicitly for three cases: from a local source system into a storage account, from a storage account to a local system, and from one storage account to another. For migrations on a large scale (Microsoft mentions transfers of more than 1 TB), Microsoft points to a separate service, Azure Storage Mover. That is not exam material in this lesson, but good to know when a project gets bigger.