Configure Azure AI Search in copy activity

This article outlines how to use the copy activity in Data pipeline to copy data to Azure AI Search.

Supported configuration

For the configuration of each tab under copy activity, go to the following sections respectively.

Refer to the General settings guidance to configure the General settings tab.

The following properties are supported for Azure AI Search under the Destination tab of a copy activity.

The following properties are required:

Data store type: Select External.
Connection: Select an Azure AI Search connection from the connection list. If the connection doesn't exist, then create a new Azure AI Search connection by selecting New.
Index name: Select the name of the search index. The service does not create the index. The index must exist in Azure AI Search.

Under Advanced, you can specify the following fields:

Index action: Specify whether to merge or replace when a document already exists in the index. You can choose Merge or Upload.
- Merge: Combine all the columns in the new document with the existing one. If there is no existing document, the new document will be uploaded as a new one to the index.
- Upload: The new document replaces the existing one. If there is no existing document, the new document will be uploaded as a new one to the index.
Write batch size: Data is uploaded into the search index when the buffer size reaches the specified write batch size. Allowed values are: integer 1 to 1,000, and the default value is 1000.
Azure AI Search service supports writing documents as a batch. A batch can contain 1 to 1,000 Actions. An action handles one document to perform the upload/merge operation.
Max concurrent connections: Specify the upper limit of concurrent connections established to the data store during the activity run. Specify a value only when you want to limit concurrent connections.

The following tables contain more information about the copy activity in Azure AI Search.

Name	Description	Value	Required	JSON script property
Data store type	Your data store type.	External	Yes	/
Connection	Your connection to the destination data store.	< your Azure AI Search connection >	Yes	connection
Index name	The name of the search index. The service does not create the index. The index must exist in Azure AI Search.	< your search index name >	Yes	indexName
Index action	Specify whether to merge or replace when a document already exists in the index. Allowed values are: Merge (default), and Upload.	• Merge • Upload	Yes	indexAction: • merge • upload
Write batch size	Data is uploaded into the search index when the buffer size reaches the specified write batch size.	Integer 1 to 1,000 Default is 1000	Yes	writeBatchSize
Max concurrent connections	The upper limit of concurrent connections established to the data store during the activity run.	<upper limit of concurrent connections> (integer)	No	maxConcurrentConnections