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Setting properties and metadata during the import process

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When you run the Microsoft Azure Import/Export Tool to prepare your drives, you can specify properties and metadata to be set on the destination blobs. Follow these steps:

  1. To set blob properties, create a text file on your local computer that specifies property names and values.
  2. To set blob metadata, create a text file on your local computer that specifies metadata names and values.
  3. Pass the full path to one or both of these files to the Azure Import/Export Tool as part of the PrepImport operation.

Note

When you specify a properties or metadata file as part of a copy session, those properties or metadata are set for every blob that is imported as part of that copy session. If you want to specify a different set of properties or metadata for some of the blobs being imported, you'll need to create a separate copy session with different properties or metadata files.

Specify blob properties in a text file

To specify blob properties, create a local text file, and include XML that specifies property names as elements, and property values as values. Here's an example that specifies some property values:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Properties>
    <Content-Type>application/octet-stream</Content-Type>
    <Content-MD5>Q2hlY2sgSW50ZWdyaXR5IQ==</Content-MD5>
    <Cache-Control>no-cache</Cache-Control>
</Properties>

Save the file to a local location like C:\WAImportExport\ImportProperties.txt.

Specify blob metadata in a text file

Similarly, to specify blob metadata, create a local text file that specifies metadata names as elements, and metadata values as values. Here's an example that specifies some metadata values:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Metadata>
    <UploadMethod>Windows Azure Import/Export service</UploadMethod>
    <DataSetName>SampleData</DataSetName>
    <CreationDate>10/1/2013</CreationDate>
</Metadata>

Save the file to a local location like C:\WAImportExport\ImportMetadata.txt.

Add the path to properties and metadata files in dataset.csv

BasePath,DstBlobPathOrPrefix,BlobType,Disposition,MetadataFile,PropertiesFile
H:\Video\,https://mystorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net/video/,BlockBlob,rename,None,H:\mydirectory\properties.xml
H:\Photo\,https://mystorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net/photo/,BlockBlob,rename,None,H:\mydirectory\properties.xml
K:\Temp\FavoriteVideo.ISO,https://mystorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net/favorite/FavoriteVideo.ISO,BlockBlob,rename,None,H:\mydirectory\properties.xml
\\myshare\john\music\,https://mystorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net/music/,BlockBlob,rename,None,H:\mydirectory\properties.xml

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