> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.pentaho.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.pentaho.com/pdia-data-integration/archived-merged-pages/connecting-to-virtual-file-systems-archive/before-you-begin-vfs-connections/access-to-microsoft-azure.md).

# Access to Microsoft Azure

To access Azure services from PDI, you must first create and configure your Azure Data Lake Gen 1, or Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 and Blob Storage services. you should also enable the hierarchical namespace to maximize file system performance.

* Access to the Azure services requires an Azure account with an active subscription. See [Create an account for free](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/?ref=microsoft.com\&utm_source=microsoft.com\&utm_medium=docs\&utm_campaign=visualstudio).
* Access to Azure Storage requires an Azure Storage account. See [Create a storage account](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-account-create?tabs=azure-portal).


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