Configure Amazon S3 in a copy activity

Article
01/26/2024

This article outlines how to use the copy activity in a data pipeline to copy data from and to Amazon S3.

Required permissions

To copy data from Amazon S3, make sure you've been granted the following permissions for Amazon S3 object operations: s3:GetObject and s3:GetObjectVersion.

In addition, s3:ListAllMyBuckets and s3:ListBucket/s3:GetBucketLocation permissions are required for operations like testing connection and browsing from root.

For the full list of Amazon S3 permissions, go to Specifying Permissions in a Policy on the AWS site.

Supported format

Amazon S3 supports the following file formats. Refer to each article for format-based settings.

Supported configuration

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

General
Source
Destination
Mapping
Settings

General

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

Source

The following properties are supported for Amazon S3 under the Source tab of a copy activity.

The following properties are required:

Data store type: Select External.
Connection: Select an Amazon S3 connection from the connection list. If no connection exists, then create a new Amazon connection by selecting New.
Connection type: Select Amazon S3 for your connection type.
File path type: You can choose File path, Prefix, Wildcard file path, or List of files as your file path type. The configuration for each setting is:
- File path: If you choose this type, the data can be copied from the given bucket or the given bucket and folder path specified.
- Prefix: If you choose this type, specify the Bucket and Prefix.
  - Bucket: Specify the S3 bucket name. It is required.
  - Prefix: Specify the prefix for the S3 key name under the given bucket to filter source S3 files. S3 keys whose names start with bucket/this_prefix are selected. It utilizes S3's service-side filter, which provides better performance than a wildcard filter.
    
    When you use prefix and choose to copy to file-based destination with preserving hierarchy, note the sub-path after the last "/" in prefix will be preserved. For example, you have source bucket/folder/subfolder/file.txt, and configure prefix as folder/sub, then the preserved file path is subfolder/file.txt.
- Wildcard file path: If you choose this type, specify the Bucket and Wildcard paths.
  - Bucket: Specify the S3 bucket name. It is required.
  - Wildcard paths: Specify the folder or file path with wildcard characters under your given bucket to filter your source folders or files.
    
    Allowed wildcards are: * (matches zero or more characters) and ? (matches zero or single character). Use ^ to escape if your folder name has wildcard or this escape character inside. See more examples in Folder and file filter examples. Wildcard folder path: The folder path with wildcard characters under the given bucket to filter source folders.
    
    Wildcard file name: The file name with wildcard characters under the given bucket and folder path (or wildcard folder path) to filter source files.
- List of files: If you choose this type, specify the Folder path and Path to file list to indicates to copy a given file set. Point to a text file that includes a list of files you want to copy, one file per line, which is the relative path to the path configured. For more examples, go to File list examples.
  - Folder path: Specify the path to the folder under given bucket. It is required.
  - Path to file list: Specify the path of the text file that includes a list of files you want to copy.
Recursively: Specify whether the data is read recursively from the subfolders or only from the specified folder. When Recursively is selected and the destination is a file-based store, an empty folder or subfolder isn't copied or created at the destination. This property is selected by default and doesn't apply when you configure Path to file list.
File format: Select the file format applied from the drop-down list. Select Settings to configure the file format. For settings of different file formats, refer to articles in Supported format for detailed information.

Under Advanced, you can specify the following fields:

Filter by last modified: Files are filtered based on the last modified dates that you specified. This property doesn't apply when you configure your file path type as List of files.
- Start time (UTC): The files are selected if their last modified time is greater than or equal to the configured time.
- End time (UTC): The files are selected if their last modified time is less than the configured time.
When Start time (UTC) has datetime value but End time (UTC) is NULL, it means the files whose last modified attribute is greater than or equal with the datetime value will be selected. When End time (UTC) has datetime value but Start time (UTC) is NULL, it means the files whose last modified attribute is less than the datetime value will be selected. The properties can be NULL, which means no file attribute filter will be applied to the data.
Enable partition discovery: Specify whether to parse the partitions from the file path and add them as additional source columns. It is unselected by default and not supported when you use binary file format.
- Partition root path: When partition discovery is enabled, specify the absolute root path in order to read partitioned folders as data columns.
  
  If it is not specified, by default,
  - When you use file path or list of files on source, partition root path is the path that you configured.
  - When you use wildcard folder filter, partition root path is the sub-path before the first wildcard.
  - When you use prefix, partition root path is sub-path before the last "/".
  For example, assuming you configure the path as root/folder/year=2020/month=08/day=27:
  - If you specify partition root path as root/folder/year=2020, copy activity will generate two more columns month and day with value "08" and "27" respectively, in addition to the columns inside the files.
  - If partition root path is not specified, no extra column will be generated.
Max concurrent connection: 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.
Additional columns: Add additional data columns to store source files' relative path or static value. Expression is supported for the latter.

Destination

The following properties are supported for Amazon S3 under the Destination tab of a copy activity.

The following properties are required:

Data store type: Select External.
Connection: Select an Amazon S3 connection from the connection list. If no connection exists, then create a new Amazon connection by selecting New.
Connection type: Select Amazon S3 for your connection type.
File path: The data can be copied to the given bucket or the given bucket and folder path specified.
File format: Select the file format applied from the drop-down list. Select Settings to configure the file format. For settings of different file formats, refer to articles in Supported format for detailed information.

Under Advanced, you can specify the following fields:

Copy behavior: Defines the copy behavior when the source is files from a file-based data store. You can choose a behavior from the drop-down list.
- Flatten hierarchy: All files from the source folder are in the first level of the destination folder. The destination files have autogenerated names.
- Merge files: Merges all files from the source folder to one file. If the file name is specified, the merged file name is the specified name. Otherwise, it's an auto-generated file name.
- Preserve hierarchy: Preserves the file hierarchy in the target folder. The relative path of source file to source folder is identical to the relative path of target file to target folder.
Max concurrent connections: This property indicates 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.

Mapping

For Mapping tab configuration, go to Configure your mappings under mapping tab. If you choose Binary as your file format, mapping will not be supported.

Settings

For the Settings tab configuration, go to Configure your other settings under settings tab.

Table summary

The following tables contain more information about the copy activity in Amazon S3.

Source information

Name	Description	Value	Required	JSON script property
Data store type	Your data store type.	External	Yes	/
Connection	Your connection to the source data store.	<your Amazon S3 connection>	Yes	connection
Connection type	Select a type for your connection.	Amazon S3	Yes	/
File path type	The file path type used to get source data.	• File path • Prefix • Wildcard file path • List of files	Yes	/
For File path
Bucket	The S3 bucket name.	<your bucket name>	Yes	bucketName
Directory	The path to the folder under the specified bucket.	<your folder name>	No	folderpath
File name	The file name under the specified bucket and folder path.	<your file name>	No	fileName
For Prefix
Bucket	The S3 bucket name.	<your bucket name>	Yes	bucketName
Prefix	The prefix for the S3 key name under the given bucket to filter source S3 files.	<your prefix>	No	prefix
For Wildcard file path
Bucket	The S3 bucket name.	<your bucket name>	Yes	bucketName
Wildcard Folder Path	The folder path with wildcard characters under the specified bucket to filter source folders.	<your folder path with wildcard characters>	No	wildcardFolderPath
Wildcard Filename	The file name with wildcard characters under the specified bucket and folder path (or wildcard folder path) to filter source files.	<your file name with wildcard characters>	Yes	wildcardFileName
For List of files
Bucket	The S3 bucket name.	<your bucket name>	Yes	bucketName
Directory	The path to the folder under the specified bucket.	<your folder name>	No	folderpath
Path to file list	Indicates to copy a given file set. Point to a text file that includes a list of files you want to copy, one file per line.	< file list path >	No	fileListPath

File format	The file format for your source data. For the information of different file formats, refer to articles in Supported format for detailed information.	/	Yes	/
Recursively	Indicates whether the data is read recursively from the subfolders or only from the specified folder. Note that when Recursively is selected and the destination is a file-based store, an empty folder or subfolder isn't copied or created at the destination. This property doesn't apply when you configure Path to file list.	selected (default) or unselect	No	recursive
Filter by last modified	The files with last modified time in the range [Start time, End time) will be filtered for further processing. The time will be applied to UTC time zone in the format of `yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.fffZ`. These properties can be skipped which means no file attribute filter will be applied. This property doesn't apply when you configure your file path type as List of files.	datetime	No	modifiedDatetimeStart modifiedDatetimeEnd
Enable partition discovery	Indicates whether to parse the partitions from the file path and add them as additional source columns.	selected or unselected (default)	No	enablePartitionDiscovery: true or false (default)
Partition root path	When partition discovery is enabled, specify the absolute root path in order to read partitioned folders as data columns.	< your partition root path >	No	partitionRootPath
Max concurrent connection	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.	<max concurrent connections>	No	maxConcurrentConnections
Additional columns	Add additional data columns to store source files' relative path or static value. Expression is supported for the latter.	• Name • Value	No	additionalColumns: • name • value

Destination information

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 Amazon S3 connection>	Yes	connection
Connection type	Select a type for your connection.	Amazon S3	Yes	/
File path	The folder/file path to the destination file.	<folder/file path>	Yes	/
Bucket	The S3 bucket name.	<your bucket name>	Yes	bucketName
Directory	The path to the folder under the specified bucket.	<your folder name>	No	folderpath
File name	The file name under the specified bucket and folder path.	<your file name>	No	fileName
Copy behavior	Defines the copy behavior when the source is files from a file-based data store.	• Flatten hierarchy • Merge files • Preserve hierarchy	No	copyBehavior: • FlattenHierarchy • MergeFiles • PreserveHierarchy
Max concurrent connections	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.	<max concurrent connections>	No	maxConcurrentConnections

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Configure Amazon S3 in a copy activity

Required permissions

Supported format