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Connecting Azure Blob Storage to Zeta Alpha

This guide helps you set up access for the Zeta Alpha Azure Blob Storage connector.

Authentication uses an Azure Storage Account access key. The connector needs:

  • The storage account name
  • A storage account access key (key1 or key2)
  • The container name to crawl

This guide follows 2 actions:

  1. Retrieve your storage account credentials from the Azure Portal
  2. Share the necessary information with Zeta Alpha

Action 1: Retrieve Storage Account Credentials​

Log in to the Azure Portal as a user with at least the Storage Account Contributor or Reader role on the target storage account.

1. Navigate to your Storage Account​

In the Azure Portal search bar, type the name of your storage account and open it.

2. Open "Access keys"​

In the left-hand menu of the storage account, scroll to Security + networking and click on Access keys.

3. Copy the Storage account name​

At the top of the Access keys page you will see the Storage account name. Copy this value — you will need it in a later step.

4. Reveal and copy an access key​

Click Show next to key1 (or key2 if you prefer to rotate key1 independently). Copy the key value.

IMPORTANT: Treat this key like a password. Anyone with this key has full read/write access to all blobs in the account. If the key is ever compromised, rotate it immediately in the Azure Portal and provide the new key to Zeta Alpha.

5. Identify the container name​

In the left-hand menu, click Containers (under Data storage). Note the name of the container that Zeta Alpha should crawl. If you want to crawl multiple containers, each one requires a separate content source configuration in Zeta Alpha.

Action 2: Share Necessary Information with Zeta Alpha​

Please share the following required information with Zeta Alpha so we can configure the connector:

  • Storage account name — e.g. mycompanydocs
  • Storage account access key — the key copied in step 4
  • Container name — the container to crawl

Optional configuration​

You may also provide any of the following to refine what is indexed:

OptionDescription
Path inclusion patternsRegular expressions — only blobs whose full path matches at least one pattern are crawled. Example: ^research/ to include only blobs under the research/ prefix.
Path exclusion patternsRegular expressions — blobs whose full path matches any pattern are skipped. Example: \.tmp$ to exclude temporary files.
Since dateOnly blobs last modified on or after this date are crawled. Useful for incremental updates. Leave empty to crawl everything.
Until dateOnly blobs last modified before this date are crawled.
Crawl limitMaximum number of blobs to yield per crawl run. Useful for testing or rate-limiting large containers.
Full crawlWhen enabled, ignores the since/until dates and re-crawls all blobs in the container from scratch.