Creating an export job for the Azure Import/Export service

Creating an export job for the Microsoft Azure Import/Export service using the REST API involves the following steps:

• Selecting the blobs to export.

• Obtaining a shipping location.

• Creating the export job.

• Shipping your empty drives to Microsoft via a supported carrier service.

• Updating the export job with the package information.

• Receiving the drives back from Microsoft.

  See Using the Windows Azure Import/Export service to Transfer Data to Blob Storage for an overview of the Import/Export service and a tutorial that demonstrates how to use the Azure portal to create and manage import and export jobs.

Selecting blobs to export

To create an export job, you will need to provide a list of blobs that you want to export from your storage account. There are a few ways to select blobs to be exported:

• You can use a relative blob path to select a single blob and all of its snapshots.

• You can use a relative blob path to select a single blob excluding its snapshots.

• You can use a relative blob path and a snapshot time to select a single snapshot.

• You can use a blob prefix to select all blobs and snapshots with the given prefix.

• You can export all blobs and snapshots in the storage account.

  For more information about specifying blobs to export, see the Put Job operation.

Obtaining your shipping location

Before creating an export job, you need to obtain a shipping location name and address by calling the Get Location or List Locations operation. List Locations will return a list of locations and their mailing addresses. You can select a location from the returned list and ship your hard drives to that address. You can also use the Get Location operation to obtain the shipping address for a specific location directly.

Follow the steps below to obtain the shipping location:

• Identify the name of the location of your storage account. This value can be found under the Location field on the storage account's Dashboard in the Azure portal or queried for by using the service management API operation Get Storage Account Properties.

• Retrieve the location that are available to process this storage account by calling the Get Location operation.

• If the AlternateLocations property of the location contains the location itself, then it is okay to use this location. Otherwise, call the Get Location operation again with one of the alternate locations. The original location might be temporarily closed for maintenance.

Creating the export job

To create the export job, call the Put Job operation. You will need to provide the following information:

• A name for the job.

• The storage account name.

• The shipping location name, obtained in the previous step.

• A job type (Export).

• The return address where the drives should be sent after the export job has completed.

• The list of blobs (or blob prefixes) to be exported.

Shipping your drives

Next, use the Azure Import/Export Tool to determine the number of drives you need to send, based on the blobs you have selected to be exported and the drive size. See the Azure Import/Export Tool Reference for details.

Package the drives in a single package and ship them to the address obtained in the earlier step. Note the tracking number of your package for the next step.

Updating the export job with your package information

After you have your tracking number, call the Update Job Properties operation to updated the carrier name and tracking number for the job. You can optionally specify the number of drives, the return address, and the shipping date as well.

Receiving the package

After your export job has been processed, your drives will be returned to you with your encrypted data. You can retrieve the BitLocker key for each of the drives by calling the Get Job operation. You can then unlock the drive using the key. The drive manifest file on each drive contains the list of files on the drive, as well as the original blob address for each file.

Deleting personal information

Personal information is relevant to the import/export service (via the portal and API) during import and export operations. Data used during these processes include:

• Contact name
• Phone number
• Email
• Street address
• City
• Zip/postal code
• State
• Country/Province/Region
• Drive ID
• Carrier account number
• Shipping tracking number

When an import/export job is created, users provide contact information and a shipping address. Personal information is stored in up to two different locations: in the job and optionally in the portal settings. Personal information is only stored in portal settings if you check the checkbox labeled, Save carrier and return address as default during the Return shipping info section of the export process.

Personal contact information may be deleted in the following ways:

• Data saved with the job is deleted with the job. Users can delete jobs manually and completed jobs are automatically deleted after 90 days. You can manually delete the jobs via the REST API or the Azure portal. To delete the job in the Azure portal, go to your import/export job, and click Delete from the command bar. For details on how to delete an import/export job via REST API, refer to Delete an import/export job.

• Contact information saved in the portal settings may be removed by deleting the portal settings. You can delete portal settings by following these steps:

  • Sign in to the Azure portal.
  • Click on the Settings icon
  • Click Export all settings (to save your current settings to a .json file).
  • Click Delete all settings and private dashboards to delete all settings including saved contact information.

For more information, review the Microsoft Privacy policy at Trust Center

Next steps

• Using the Import/Export service REST API