Using Azure Blob Storage in VidiCore

Applies to

An environment where VidiCore API / VidiNet needs to read and write files and metadata from Azure Blob Storage.

Summary

The article describes the basic configuration from a VidiNet point of view. The Azure permissions are to be handled according to best practices to allow an external service to read and write to Azure Blob Storage.

Pre-requisites and system requirements.

a verified and working Azure account to manage Azure Blob Storage permissions.
understanding how to configure the VidiCore API. In below example, we are using CURL

Updating the VidiCore API using CURL

You can of course also use Azure Blob Storage as regular VidiCore storage, including importing and storing high-res and proxy copies in Azure, as well as transcoding to/from Azure storage.

This is easily achieved by registering storage in VidiCore with a method that has a URI on the form azure://:{accessKey}@{accountName}/{containerName}/.

Create a configuration document XML

We start out by creating an example xml document to post to vidispine: storage.xml.

CODE

<StorageDocument xmlns="http://xml.vidispine.com/schema/vidispine">
  <type>LOCAL</type>
  <capacity>150000000000</capacity>
  <method>
    <uri>azure://:{accessKey}@{accountName}/{containerName}/</uri>
    <read>true</read>
    <write>true</write>
    <browse>true</browse>
  </method>
<showImportables>true</showImportables>
</StorageDocument>

NOTE your credentials in line 5

Navigate to the same directory and continue to update and configure VidiCore API with the Azure example configuration.

Use CURL to update and configure VidiCore API

In the below examples, we are using CURL to

authorize using -uadmin:admin
defining CURL method: -XPOST
calling the Vidispine API http://demo.myvidispine.com/API/storage
defining type document and name of document: -d@storage.xml
header if content type: -Hcontent-type:application/xml

CODE

curl -uadmin:admin -X POST http://demo.myvidispine.com/API/storage -d@storage.xml -Hcontent-type:application/xml

What's next?

When doing this VidiCore will monitor and use the storage according to current storage rules.
VidiCoder transcoding media is proxied by the VidiCore application server.
For formats where headers are rewritten after transcoding is done, the transcoded file is cached locally and transferred to Azure after transcoding.
During transcoding, the files are available via the VidiCore API function and are served by the application server.
All VidiCore codecs are available, including H.264, ProRes, VC-1 (WMV), VC-3 (DNxHD) (subject to license).

All codecs are available, including H.264, ProRes, VC-1 (WMV), VC-3 (DNxHD) (subject to license).