How to set up Azure Blob Storage for Large Volume Media Archiving
IFS Applications offers two options for archiving large media items; Azure
Blob Storage and Oracle File Storage.
This document describes how to set up an Azure Blob Storage for Large Volume
Media Archiving.
On the Hub menu, select New -> Storage -> Storage Account.
Enter a name for the storage account. Note: Storage account names must be
between 3 and 24 characters in length and may contain numbers and lowercase
letters only. Your storage account name must be unique within Azure. The
Azure portal will indicate if the storage account name you select is already
in use.
Select Resource Manager as the
deployment model to be used. Note: Blob storage accounts can only be created using the Resource Manager
deployment model.
Select Blob Storage as the type of storage account
and Hot or Cool
as the
access tier (Hot is specified by default). Note: The access tier
Archive is not recommended large volume
media archiving within IFS Applications since
media items stored in this tier cannot be accessed immediately.
Select the replication option for the storage account:
LRS , GRS
, RA-GRS ,
or ZRS . The default is RA-GRS. Selection depends on the criticality of the
data stored in Azure.
Select the subscription in which you want to create the new storage
account.
Specify a new resource group or select an existing resource group.
Select the geographic location for your storage account.
After you create your storage account, you can modify its configuration, such
as changing the replication option used for the account or changing the access
tier for a Blob storage account.
In the Azure portal, navigate to your storage account, find and click
Configuration under
SETTINGS to view and/or change the account configuration. Depending on
the performance tier you chose when creating the storage account, some
replication options may not be available.
For Blob storage accounts, changing the access tier may incur charges for the
change in addition to changing your pricing. Please see the Blob storage
accounts - Pricing and Billing for more details.
When you create a storage account, Azure generates two 512-bit storage access
keys, which are used for authentication when the storage account is accessed. By
providing two storage access keys, Azure enables you to regenerate the keys with
no interruption to your storage service or access to that service.
Note: It is recommend that you avoid sharing your storage access keys with anyone
else.
In the Azure portal, navigate to your storage account, click
All Settings and then click
Access Keys to view, copy, and regenerate
your account access keys. The Access Keys
blade also includes pre-configured connection strings using your primary and
secondary keys that you can copy to use in IFS Applications.
Regenerate storage access keys.
Note: It is recommended that you change the access keys to your storage account
periodically to help keep your storage connections secure. Two access keys are
assigned so that you can maintain connections to the storage account by using
one access key while you regenerate the other access key. Regenerating your access keys can affect IFS applications that are dependent
on the storage account. If access keys are regenerated the Media Archives window
must be updated with the new key.
Follow the below process to rotate storage access keys:
In the Media Archives window update the
Azure
Account Key field to reference the secondary
access key of the storage account.
Regenerate the primary access key for your storage account. On the
Access Keys
blade, click Regenerate Key 1 , and then click
Yes to confirm that you want to
generate a new key.
Update the Azure
Account Key field to reference the new primary access key.
Regenerate the secondary access key in the same manner.
It is recommended to use HTTPS when connecting to Microsoft Azure from IFS
Applications, for this you need to create an Oracle Wallet. You can continue
without creating an Oracle Wallet but this makes IFS Application use HTTP instead
which is not secure. The Oracle Wallet creation process is started by exporting
the SSL Certificates from your browser. The steps below outline how it is done
in Internet Explorer 11:
Run Internet Explorer as Administrator and Log on to the Azure Account (https://portal.azure.com)
Click on the padlock icon shown on the URL.
Click View Certificates link in the Pop-up window.
The Certificate dialog
will appear.
Select the Details tab.
Select Subject field and copy the value
(e.g., portal.azure.com)
Click Copy to File to open the Certificate Export Wizard. Click Next and
Next again.
Browse for a location and provide the text copied in step 5 as the file
Name.
Click Next and then click Finish.
Select Certification Path tab in the Certificate dialog.
Perform steps 5 - 8 for each node except for the bottom node in the
Certificate path.
Open Oracle Wallet Manger.
Select Wallet-> New from the menu.
The New Wallet screen will now prompt you to enter a password for your
wallet. Enter the password.
Click OK.
Click No in the next dialog asking to create a
request.
Select the Trusted Certificates Node from the Tree navigator.
Right-click and click Import
Trusted Certificates.
Import all the Certificates created in steps 1-10.
Save the wallet to a local folder.
Put the wallet inside a folder that can be accessed by Oracle.
Preferably this location would be inside what is listed under
ALL_DIRECTORIES data dictionary view. E.g.,
C:/app/Administrator/product/12.1.0/dbhome_1/scheduler/wallet
Azure Account Name: Name of the Microsoft Azure Blob Storage
account
Azure Container Name: Name of the container in the
Azure Blob Storage account
Azure Account Key: Key 1 generated by Azure (listed under Access
Keys in Azure account).
Azure Wallet Path: Path of the
Oracle Wallet. This location is in
the virtual machine where Oracle is installed. Oracle should have
access to this location. Preferably this path should be part of the ALL_DIRECTORIES
data dictionary view in Oracle.
Azure Wallet Password: Password used when creating the Oracle
Wallet.
