Get started with Azure Data Lake Storage Gen1 using Azure PowerShell

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Note

Azure Data Lake Storage Gen1 is now retired. See the retirement announcement here.Data Lake Storage Gen1 resources are no longer accessible.

Learn how to use Azure PowerShell to create an Azure Data Lake Storage Gen1 account and perform basic operations such as create folders, upload and download data files, delete your account, etc. For more information about Data Lake Storage Gen1, see Overview of Data Lake Storage Gen1.

Prerequisites

Note

We recommend that you use the Azure Az PowerShell module to interact with Azure. See Install Azure PowerShell to get started. To learn how to migrate to the Az PowerShell module, see Migrate Azure PowerShell from AzureRM to Az.

Authentication

This article uses a simpler authentication approach with Data Lake Storage Gen1 where you're prompted to enter your Azure account credentials. The access level to Data Lake Storage Gen1 account and file system is then governed by the access level of the logged in user. However, there are other approaches to authenticate with Data Lake Storage Gen1, which are end-user authentication or service-to-service authentication. For instructions and more information on how to authenticate, see End-user authentication or Service-to-service authentication.

Create a Data Lake Storage Gen1 account

  1. From your desktop, open a new Windows PowerShell window. Enter the following snippet to log in to your Azure account, set the subscription, and register the Data Lake Storage Gen1 provider. When prompted to log in, make sure you log in as one of the subscription administrators/owner:

    # Log in to your Azure account
Connect-AzAccount

# List all the subscriptions associated to your account
Get-AzSubscription

# Select a subscription
Set-AzContext -SubscriptionId <subscription ID>

# Register for Azure Data Lake Storage Gen1
Register-AzResourceProvider -ProviderNamespace "Microsoft.DataLakeStore"

  2. A Data Lake Storage Gen1 account is associated with an Azure resource group. Start by creating a resource group.

    $resourceGroupName = "<your new resource group name>"
New-AzResourceGroup -Name $resourceGroupName -Location "East US 2"

    Create an Azure Resource Group

  3. Create a Data Lake Storage Gen1 account. The name you specify must only contain lowercase letters and numbers.

    $dataLakeStorageGen1Name = "<your new Data Lake Storage Gen1 account name>"
New-AzDataLakeStoreAccount -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName -Name $dataLakeStorageGen1Name -Location "East US 2"

    Create a Data Lake Storage Gen1 account

  4. Verify that the account is successfully created.

    Test-AzDataLakeStoreAccount -Name $dataLakeStorageGen1Name

    The output for the cmdlet should be True.

Create directory structures

You can create directories under your Data Lake Storage Gen1 account to manage and store data.

  1. Specify a root directory.

    $myrootdir = "/"

  2. Create a new directory called mynewdirectory under the specified root.

    New-AzDataLakeStoreItem -Folder -AccountName $dataLakeStorageGen1Name -Path $myrootdir/mynewdirectory

  3. Verify that the new directory is successfully created.

    Get-AzDataLakeStoreChildItem -AccountName $dataLakeStorageGen1Name -Path $myrootdir

    It should show an output as shown in the following screenshot:

    Verify Directory

Upload data

You can upload your data to Data Lake Storage Gen1 directly at the root level, or to a directory that you created within the account. The snippets in this section demonstrate how to upload some sample data to the directory (mynewdirectory) you created in the previous section.

If you are looking for some sample data to upload, you can get the Ambulance Data folder from the Azure Data Lake Git Repository. Download the file and store it in a local directory on your computer, such as C:\sampledata.

Import-AzDataLakeStoreItem -AccountName $dataLakeStorageGen1Name `
   -Path "C:\sampledata\vehicle1_09142014.csv" `
   -Destination $myrootdir\mynewdirectory\vehicle1_09142014.csv

Rename, download, and delete data

To rename a file, use the following command:

Move-AzDataLakeStoreItem -AccountName $dataLakeStorageGen1Name `
    -Path $myrootdir\mynewdirectory\vehicle1_09142014.csv `
    -Destination $myrootdir\mynewdirectory\vehicle1_09142014_Copy.csv

To download a file, use the following command:

Export-AzDataLakeStoreItem -AccountName $dataLakeStorageGen1Name `
    -Path $myrootdir\mynewdirectory\vehicle1_09142014_Copy.csv `
    -Destination "C:\sampledata\vehicle1_09142014_Copy.csv"

To delete a file, use the following command:

Remove-AzDataLakeStoreItem -AccountName $dataLakeStorageGen1Name `
    -Paths $myrootdir\mynewdirectory\vehicle1_09142014_Copy.csv

When prompted, enter Y to delete the item. If you have more than one file to delete, you can provide all the paths separated by comma.

Remove-AzDataLakeStoreItem -AccountName $dataLakeStorageGen1Name `
    -Paths $myrootdir\mynewdirectory\vehicle1_09142014.csv, $myrootdir\mynewdirectoryvehicle1_09142014_Copy.csv

Delete your account

Use the following command to delete your Data Lake Storage Gen1 account.

Remove-AzDataLakeStoreAccount -Name $dataLakeStorageGen1Name

When prompted, enter Y to delete the account.

Next steps