Copy data from and to Microsoft Access using Azure Data Factory or Synapse Analytics

APPLIES TO: Azure Data Factory Azure Synapse Analytics

This article outlines how to use the Copy Activity in Azure Data Factory and Synapse Analytics pipelines to copy data from a Microsoft Access data store. It builds on the copy activity overview article that presents a general overview of copy activity.

Supported capabilities

This Microsoft Access connector is supported for the following capabilities:

① Azure integration runtime ② Self-hosted integration runtime

For a list of data stores that are supported as sources/sinks by the copy activity, see the Supported data stores table.

Prerequisites

To use this Microsoft Access connector, you need to:

• Set up a Self-hosted Integration Runtime. See Self-hosted Integration Runtime article for details.
• Install the Microsoft Access ODBC driver for the data store on the Integration Runtime machine.

Getting started

To perform the copy activity with a pipeline, you can use one of the following tools or SDKs:

• Copy Data tool
• Azure portal
• .NET SDK
• Python SDK
• Azure PowerShell
• REST API
• Azure Resource Manager template

Create a linked service to Microsoft Access using UI

Use the following steps to create a linked service to Microsoft Access in the Azure portal UI.

1. Browse to the Manage tab in your Azure Data Factory or Synapse workspace and select Linked Services, then select New:

   • Azure Data Factory
   • Azure Synapse

   

2. Search for Access and select the Microsoft Access connector.

   

3. Configure the service details, test the connection, and create the new linked service.

   

Connector configuration details

The following sections provide details about properties that are used to define Data Factory entities specific to Microsoft Access connector.

Linked service properties

The following properties are supported for Microsoft Access linked service:

Example:

{
    "name": "MicrosoftAccessLinkedService",
    "properties": {
        "type": "MicrosoftAccess",
        "typeProperties": {
            "connectionString": "Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb, *.accdb)};Dbq=;",
            "authenticationType": "Basic",
            "userName": "",
            "password": {
                "type": "SecureString",
                "value": ""
            }
        },
        "connectVia": {
            "referenceName": "",
            "type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
        }
    }
}

Dataset properties

For a full list of sections and properties available for defining datasets, see the datasets article. This section provides a list of properties supported by Microsoft Access dataset.

To copy data from Microsoft Access, the following properties are supported:

Example

{
    "name": "MicrosoftAccessDataset",
    "properties": {
        "type": "MicrosoftAccessTable",
        "linkedServiceName": {
            "referenceName": "",
            "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
        },
        "typeProperties": {
            "tableName": ""
        }
    }
}
Copy activity properties
For a full list of sections and properties available for defining activities, see the Pipelines article. This section provides a list of properties supported by Microsoft Access source.
Microsoft Access as source
To copy data from Microsoft Access, the following properties are supported in the copy activity source section:



Property
Description
Required




type
The type property of the copy activity source must be set to: MicrosoftAccessSource
Yes


query
Use the custom query to read data. For example: "SELECT * FROM MyTable".
No (if "tableName" in dataset is specified)



Example:
"activities":[
    {
        "name": "CopyFromMicrosoftAccess",
        "type": "Copy",
        "inputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "outputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "
",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "typeProperties": {
            "source": {
                "type": "MicrosoftAccessSource",
                "query": "SELECT * FROM MyTable"
            },
            "sink": {
                "type": ""
            }
        }
    }
]

Microsoft Access as sink
To copy data to Microsoft Access, the following properties are supported in the copy activity sink section:



Property
Description
Required




type
The type property of the copy activity sink must be set to: MicrosoftAccessSink
Yes


writeBatchTimeout
Wait time for the batch insert operation to complete before it times out.
Allowed values are: timespan. Example: “00:30:00” (30 minutes).
No


writeBatchSize
Inserts data into the SQL table when the buffer size reaches writeBatchSize.
Allowed values are: integer (number of rows).
No (default is 0 - auto detected)


preCopyScript
Specify a SQL query for Copy Activity to execute before writing data into data store in each run. You can use this property to clean up the pre-loaded data.
No


maxConcurrentConnections
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.
No



Example:
"activities":[
    {
        "name": "CopyToMicrosoftAccess",
        "type": "Copy",
        "inputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "outputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "typeProperties": {
            "source": {
                "type": ""
            },
            "sink": {
                "type": "MicrosoftAccessSink"
            }
        }
    }
]

Lookup activity properties
To learn details about the properties, check Lookup activity.
Related content
For a list of data stores supported as sources and sinks by the copy activity, see supported data stores.