Azure Blob Storage External Storage Setup

Overview

Azure Blob Storage is Microsoft’s object storage solution optimized for storing large amounts of unstructured data. CHEQ supports Azure Blob Storage as an external destination for both one-time and scheduled reports, allowing you to securely export and store your data outside the CHEQ platform for analysis and long-term retention.

Create Your Azure Storage Account & Access Key

1. Create a Storage Account

   1. Log into the Azure Portal.

   2. Navigate to Storage Accounts and click Create.

   3. Select your Resource Group, enter a Storage Account Name, and choose the desired Region.

   4. Review and create the account.

2. Create a Container

   1. Within your storage account, navigate to Containers.

   2. Click + Container and enter a name (this will serve as your "Bucket Name" in CHEQ).

   3. Assign permissions ("Private" is recommended).

3. Generate an Access Key

   1. In your storage account, go to Security + Networking > Access Keys.

   2. Copy the Storage Account Name and one of the Access Keys.

   3. Keep this information secure, as you’ll use it in the CHEQ scheduler configuration.

Send CHEQ Data to Azure Blob Storage

In the CHEQ platform:

1. Select the relevant product and navigate to Data Exports from the left menu

2. Select the Reports or Report Scheduler tab at the top of the page and click Create Report or Create Report Scheduler, depending on whether you need a one-time report or a recurring scheduled report.

3. Fill in the required fields. Note that the available fields may vary depending on the report selected.

   • Report Type: Select the report type - either Time-series or User Data. If you select User Data, you will also need to choose a user identifier. 

   • Detail Level: Select the relevant option (e.g., Detection detailed)

   • Report Name: Enter a descriptive name for your export (e.g., CHEQ Report).

   • Frequency: Select how often the report should run (Daily, Weekly, etc.).

   • File Format: Choose CSV or XLSX formats.

   • Send To: Select External Storage.

   • Cloud Storage Provider: Choose Azure Blob Storage.

   • Storage Level: Select Flat or Nested depending on your desired folder structure.

   • Bucket Name: Enter the name of the container you created in Azure.

   • Storage Account Name: Enter your Azure Storage Account name.

   • Access Key: Paste the access key you generated in Azure.

The interface will look something like this, where External Storage has been selected:

Populate the fields with the information you just generated from your Azure Blob and click Test Connection to verify that the connection succeeded. You can also check Set as default connection to automatically apply this setup to all future reports. 

Access CHEQ Scheduled Reports Using Azure Blob Storage

Once reports are generated, you can access them in your Azure Blob Storage account:

• Navigate to your Storage Account > Containers > <bucket-name>.

• Locate the folder named after your Scheduled Name (e.g., Daily Analytics Export).

• The folder path follows the format:

  <bucket-name>/<report_name>/<report_start_date>/

• The report filename follows the format:

  <report_start_date>_<file_num>.<format>

Notes

• Ensure the Access Key has read/write permissions to the container.

• If you regenerate or rotate access keys, update the credentials in CHEQ immediately.

• Large reports will be split into multiple files (maximum of 1M rows per file).