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Understanding
Azure Data
Factory
Operationalizing Big Data and
Advanced Analytics Solutions
—
Sudhir Rawat
Abhishek Narain
 Understanding Azure
Data Factory
Operationalizing Big Data and
Advanced Analytics Solutions

Sudhir Rawat
Abhishek Narain
Understanding Azure Data Factory: Operationalizing Big Data and
Advanced Analytics Solutions
Sudhir Rawat Abhishek Narain
Bangalore, India Shanghai, China

ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-4842-4121-9 ISBN-13 (electronic): 978-1-4842-4122-6

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-4122-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018965932

Copyright © 2019 by Sudhir Rawat and Abhishek Narain

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or
part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of
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The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if
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Printed on acid-free paper
Table of Contents
About the Authors�������������������������������������������������������������������������������vii
About the Technical Reviewer�������������������������������������������������������������ix
Introduction�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xi

Chapter 1: Introduction to Data Analytics��������������������������������������������1

What Is Big Data?��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������2
Why Big Data?�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������3
Big Data Analytics on Microsoft Azure�������������������������������������������������������������4
What Is Azure Data Factory?���������������������������������������������������������������������������������5
High-Level ADF Concepts��������������������������������������������������������������������������������6
When to Use ADF?�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������8
Why ADF?��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������9
Summary������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������12

Chapter 2: Introduction to Azure Data Factory�����������������������������������13

Azure Data Factory v1 vs. Azure Data Factory v2�����������������������������������������������14
Data Integration with Azure Data Factory�����������������������������������������������������������16
Architecture���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������16
Concepts��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������18
Hands-on: Creating a Data Factory Instance Using a User Interface�������������42
Hands-on: Creating a Data Factory Instance Using PowerShell��������������������52
Summary������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������54

iii
Table of Contents

Chapter 3: Data Movement�����������������������������������������������������������������57

Overview�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������58
How Does the Copy Activity Work?����������������������������������������������������������������58
Supported Connectors����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������59
Configurations�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������64
Supported File and Compression Formats����������������������������������������������������64
Copy Activity Properties���������������������������������������������������������������������������������65
How to Create a Copy Activity�����������������������������������������������������������������������68
Copy Performance Considerations����������������������������������������������������������������������85
Data Integration Units������������������������������������������������������������������������������������86
Parallel Copy��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������86
Staged Copy��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������88
Considerations for the Self-Hosted Integration Runtime�������������������������������93
Considerations for Serialization and Deserialization�������������������������������������94
Considerations for Compression�������������������������������������������������������������������95
Considerations for Column Mapping�������������������������������������������������������������96
Summary������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������96

Chapter 4: Data Transformation: Part 1����������������������������������������������97

Data Transformation��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������97
HDInsight������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������98
Hive Activity�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������100
Pig Activity���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������117
MapReduce Activity�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������122
Streaming Activity���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������127
Spark Activity����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������132
Azure Machine Learning�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������141
Azure Data Lake������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������167

iv
 Table of Contents

Chapter 5: Data Transformation: Part 2��������������������������������������������193

Data Warehouse to Modern Data Warehouse����������������������������������������������������193
ETL vs. ELT��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������194
Azure Databricks�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������195
Build and Implement Use Case�������������������������������������������������������������������������197
Stored Procedure����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������219
Custom Activity�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������235

Chapter 6: Managing Flow����������������������������������������������������������������265

Why Managing Flow Is Important���������������������������������������������������������������������265
Expressions�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������266
Functions����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������267
Activities�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������267
Let’s Build the Flow�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������268
Build the Source Database��������������������������������������������������������������������������269
Build Azure Blob Storage as the Destination�����������������������������������������������273
Build the Azure Logic App����������������������������������������������������������������������������277
Build the Azure Data Factory Pipeline���������������������������������������������������������284
Summary����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������309

Chapter 7: Security���������������������������������������������������������������������������311
Overview�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������311
Cloud Scenario��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������313
Securing the Data Credentials���������������������������������������������������������������������313
Data Encryption in Transit����������������������������������������������������������������������������314
Data Encryption at Rest�������������������������������������������������������������������������������315

v
Table of Contents

Hybrid Scenario�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������316
On-Premise Data Store Credentials�������������������������������������������������������������317
Encryption in Transit������������������������������������������������������������������������������������318
Firewall Configurations and IP Whitelisting for Self-Hosted Integration
Runtime Functionality����������������������������������������������������������������������������������321
IP Configurations and Whitelisting in Data Stores���������������������������������������324
Proxy Server Considerations�����������������������������������������������������������������������324
Storing Credentials in Azure Key Vault��������������������������������������������������������������327
Prerequisites�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������327
Steps�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������327
Reference Secret Stored in Key Vault����������������������������������������������������������331
Advanced Security with Managed Service Identity�������������������������������������������333
Summary����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������334

Chapter 8: Executing SSIS Packages������������������������������������������������335

Why SSIS Packages?����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������335
Provision the Azure SQL Server Database��������������������������������������������������������338
Provision the Azure-SSIS IR������������������������������������������������������������������������������340
Deploy the SSIS Package����������������������������������������������������������������������������������348
SSIS Package Execution�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������356
Summary����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������358

Index�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������359

vi
About the Authors
Sudhir Rawat is a senior software engineer
at Microsoft Corporation. He has 15 years
of experience in turning data to insights. He
is involved in various activities, including
development, consulting, troubleshooting,
and speaking. He works extensively on the
data platform. He has delivered sessions on
platforms at Microsoft TechEd India, Microsoft
Azure Conference, Great India Developer
Summit, SQL Server Annual Summit, Reboot
(MVP), and many more. His certifications
include MCITP, MCTS, MCT on SQL Server Business Intelligence, MCPS
on Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions, and MS on
Designing and Implementing Big Data Analytics Solutions.

Abhishek Narain works as a technical

program manager on the Azure Data
Governance team at Microsoft. Previously
he worked as a consultant at Microsoft and
Infragistics, and he has worked on various
Azure services and Windows app development
projects. He is a public speaker and regularly
speaks at various events, including Node Day,
Droidcon, Microsoft TechEd, PyCon, the Great
India Developer Summit, and many others.
Before joining Microsoft, he was awarded the
Microsoft MVP ­designation.
vii
About the Technical Reviewer
Zain Asif is a freelance senior developer
specializing in Microsoft technologies
(C#, ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET
Core, Azure Data Lake, Azure Data Factory,
SQL Server and Power BI). He is passionate
about new technologies, both software and
hardware ones.
He is the founder of Falcon Consulting,
and with it, he has had the opportunity to work
with the biggest companies around the world such as Microsoft, Canon,
and Accor. His aim in the future is to make his company an IT engineering
company and work as a freelance software architect and Microsoft expert.
When not working, Zain can be seen on the ground playing cricket or
football or in front of a PC geeking and gaming.

ix
Introduction
Azure Data Factory is the de facto tool for building end-to-end advanced
analytics solutions on Azure. It can handle complex ETL data workflows
and integrates natively with all Azure services with enterprise-grade
security offerings.
For ease of authoring and to make you more productive, it offers a
drag-and-drop user interface with rich control flow for building complex
data workflows, and it provides a single-pane-of-glass monitoring solution
for your data pipelines.
Something that really stands out is the low price-to-performance ratio,
being cost effective and performant at the same time. Its data movement
capabilities with more than 75 high-performance connectors are extremely
helpful when dealing with Big Data coming from various sources. To give
you an example, 100GB data movement would cost you less than $0.40
(that is correct, 40 cents). ADF is an Azure service and bills you in a pay-as-­
you-go model against your Azure subscription with no up-front costs.
ADF also supports operationalizing existing SSIS packages on the
cloud, which is helpful if you are modernizing your data warehouse
solution over time with a lot of existing SSIS packages.

xi
CHAPTER 1

Introduction to Data
Analytics
The demand for Big Data analytics services is greater than ever before,
and this trend will only continue—exponentially so—as data analytics
platforms evolve over time. This is a great time to be a data engineer or a
data scientist with so many options of analytics platforms to select from.
The purpose of this book is to give you the nitty-gritty details of
operationalizing Big Data and advanced analytics solutions on Microsoft Azure.
This book guides you through using Azure Data Factory to coordinate
data movement; to perform transformations using technologies such as
Hadoop (HDInsight), SQL, Azure Data Lake Analytics, Databricks, files
from different kinds of storage, and Cosmos DB; and to execute custom
activities for specific tasks (coded in C#). You will learn how to create data
pipelines that will allow you to group activities to perform a certain task.
This book is hands-on and scenario-driven. It builds on the knowledge
gained in each chapter.
The focus of the book is to also highlight the best practices with respect
to performance and security, which will be helpful while architecting and
developing extract-transform-load (ETL), extract-load-transform (ELT),
and advanced analytics projects on Azure.
This book is ideal for data engineers and data scientists who want to
gain advanced knowledge in Azure Data Factory (a serverless ETL/ELT
service on Azure).
© Sudhir Rawat and Abhishek Narain 2019 1
S. Rawat and A. Narain, Understanding Azure Data Factory,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-4122-6_1
Chapter 1 Introduction to Data Analytics

What Is Big Data?

Big Data can be defined by following characteristics:

• Volume: As the name says, Big Data consists of

extremely large datasets that exceed the processing
capacity of conventional systems such as Microsoft
SQL, Oracle, and so on. Such data is generated through
various data sources such as web applications, the
Internet of Things (IoT), social media, and line-of-­
business applications.

• Variety: These sources typically send data in a variety of

formats such as text, documents (JSON, XML), images,
and video.

• Velocity: This is the speed at which data is generated

is by such sources. High velocity adds to Big Data. For
example a factory installed sensor to keep monitor it’s
temperature to avoid any damage. Such sensors sends
E/Sec (event per second) or sometime in millisecond.
Generally IoT enable places has many such sensors
which sends data so frequently.

• Veracity: This is the quality of data captured from

various sources. System also generates bias, noise and
abnormal data which adds to Big Data. High veracity
means more data. It not only adds to big data but also
add responsibility to correct it to avoid presenting
wrong information to the business user.

Let’s think about a fictious retail company called AdventureWorks,

which has a customer base across the globe. AdventureWorks has an
e-commerce web site and mobile applications for enabling users to shop
online, lodge complaints, give feedback, apply for product returns, and so
on. To provide the inventory/products to the users, it relies on a business-­
2
 Chapter 1 Introduction to Data Analytics

to-­business (B2B) model and partners with vendors (other businesses) that
want to list their products on AdventureWorks e-commerce applications.
AdventureWorks also has sensors installed on its delivery vans to collect
various telemetry data; for example, it provides customers with up-to-­
date information on consignment delivery and sends alerts to drivers in
the case of any issue, for example a high temperature in the delivery van’s
engine. The company also sends photographers to various trekking sites.
All this data is sent back to the company so it can do image classification to
understand the gadgets in demand. This helps AdventureWorks stock the
relevant items. AdventureWorks also captures feeds from social media in
case any feedback/comment/complaint is raised for AdventureWorks.
To get some valuable insights from the huge volume of data, you
must choose a distributed and scalable platform that can process the Big
Data. Big Data has great potential for changing the way organizations use
information to enhance the customer experience, discover patterns in
data, and transform their businesses with the insights.

Why Big Data?

Data is the new currency. Data volumes have been increasing drastically
over time. Data is being generated from traditional point-of-sale systems,
modern e-commerce applications, social sources like Twitter, and IoT
sensors/wearables from across the globe. The challenge for any organization
today is to analyze this diverse dataset to make more informed decisions
that are predictive and holistic rather than reactive and disconnected.
Big Data analytics is not only used by modern organizations to get
valuable insights but is also used by organizations having decades-old
data, which earlier was too expensive to process, with the availability
of pay-as-you-go cloud offerings. As an example, with Microsoft Azure
you can easily spin up a 100-node Apache Spark cluster (for Big Data
analytics) in less than ten minutes and pay only for the time your job
runs on those clusters, offering both cloud scale and cost savings in a Big
Data analytics project.
3
Chapter 1 Introduction to Data Analytics

Big Data Analytics on Microsoft Azure

Today practically every business is moving to the cloud because of
lucrative reasons such as no up-front costs, infinite scale possibilities, high
performance, and so on. The businesses that store sensitive data that can’t
be moved to the cloud can choose a hybrid approach. The Microsoft cloud
(aka Azure) provides three types of services.

• Infrastructure as a service (IaaS )

• Platform as a service (PaaS)

• Software as a service (SaaS)

It seems like every organization on this planet is moving to PaaS. This

gives companies more time to think about their business while innovating,
improving customer experience, and saving money.
Microsoft Azure offers a wide range of cloud services for data analysis.
We can broadly categorize them under storage and compute.

• Azure SQL Data Warehouse, a cloud-based massively

parallel-processing-enabled enterprise data
warehouse

• Azure Blob Storage, a massively scalable object storage

for unstructured data that can be used to search for
hidden insights through Big Data analytics

• Azure Data Lake Store, a massively scalable data store

(for unstructured, semistructured, and structured data)
built to the open HDFS standard

• Azure Data Lake Analytics, a distributed analytics

service that makes it easy for Big Data analytics to
support programs written in U-SQL, R, Python,
and .NET

4
 Chapter 1 Introduction to Data Analytics

• Azure Analysis Services, enterprise-grade data

modeling tool on Azure (based on SQL Server Analysis
Service)

• Azure HDInsight, a fully managed, full-spectrum open

source analytics service for enterprises (Hadoop, Spark,
Hive, LLAP, Storm, and more)

• Azure Databricks, a Spark-based high-performance

analytics platform optimized for Azure

• Azure Machine Learning, an open and elastic AI

development tool for finding patterns in existing data
and generating models for prediction

• Azure Data Factory, a hybrid and scalable data

integration (ETL) service for Big Data and advanced
analytics solutions

• Azure Cosmos DB, an elastic and independent scale

throughput and storage tool; it also offers throughput,
latency, availability, and consistency guarantees with
comprehensive service level agreements (SLAs),
something no other database service offers at the
moment

What Is Azure Data Factory?

Big Data requires a service that can help you orchestrate and
operationalize complex processes that in turn refine the enormous
structure/semistructured data into actionable business insights.
Azure Data Factory (ADF) is a cloud-based data integration service
that acts as the glue in your Big Data or advanced analytics solution,
ensuring your complex workflows integrate with the various dependent

5
Chapter 1 Introduction to Data Analytics

services required in your solution. It provides a single pane for monitoring

all your data movements and complex data processing jobs. Simply said, it
is a serverless, managed cloud service that’s built for these complex hybrid
ETL, ELT, and data integration projects (data integration as a service).
Using Azure Data Factory, you can create and schedule data-driven
workflows (called pipelines) that can ingest data from disparate data stores.
It can process and transform the data by using compute services such as
Azure HDInsight Hadoop, Spark, Azure Data Lake Analytics, and Azure
Machine Learning (Figure 1-1).

Figure 1-1. Azure Data Factory

High-Level ADF Concepts

An Azure subscription might have one or more ADF instances. ADF is
composed of four key components, covered in the following sections.
These components work together to provide the platform on which you
can compose data-driven workflows with steps to move and transform
data or execute custom tasks using custom activity that could include

6
 Chapter 1 Introduction to Data Analytics

deleting files on Azure storage after transforms or simply running

additional business logic that is not offered out of the box within Azure
Data Factory.

Activity
An activity represents an action or the processing step. For example,
you copy an activity to copy data between a source and a sink. Similarly,
you can have a Databricks notebook activity transform data using Azure
Databricks. ADF supports three types of activities: data movement, data
transformation, and control flow activities.

Pipeline
A pipeline is a logical grouping of activities. Typically, it will contain a set
of activities trying to achieve the same end goal. For example, a pipeline
can contain a group of activities ingesting data from disparate sources,
including on-premise sources, and then running a Hive query on an on-­
demand HDInsight cluster to join and partition data for further analysis.
The activities in a pipeline can be chained together to operate
sequentially, or they can operate independently in parallel.

Datasets
Datasets represent data structures within the data stores, which simply
point to or reference the data you want to use in your activities as inputs or
outputs.

Linked Service
A linked service consists of the connection details either to a data source
like a file from Azure Blob Storage or a table from Azure SQL or to a
compute service such as HDInsight, Azure Databricks, Azure Data Lake
Analytics, and Azure Batch.

7
Chapter 1 Introduction to Data Analytics

I ntegration Runtime
The integration runtime (IR) is the underlying compute infrastructure used
by ADF. This is the compute where data movement, activity dispatch, or
SSIS package execution happens. It has three different names: Azure, self-­
hosted, and Azure SQL Server Integration Services (Figure 1-2).

Figure 1-2. Relationship between ADF components

When to Use ADF?

The following are examples of when you should use ADF:

• Building a Big Data analytics solution on Microsoft

Azure that relies on technologies for handling large
numbers of diverse datasets. ADF offers a way to create
and run an ADF pipeline in the cloud.

• Building a modern data warehouse solution that

relies on technologies such as SQL Server, SQL Server
Integration Services (SSIS), or SQL Server Analysis
Services (SSAS); see Figure 1-3. ADF provides the
ability to run SSIS packages on Azure or build a modern
ETL/ELT pipeline letting you access both on-premise
and cloud data services.

8
 Chapter 1 Introduction to Data Analytics

• Migrating or coping data from a physical server to

the cloud or from a non-Azure cloud to Azure (blob
storage, data lake storage, SQL, Cosmos DB). ADF can
be used to migrate both structured and binary data.

You will learn more about the ADF constructs in Chapter 2.

Figure 1-3. A typical modern data warehouse solution

W
 hy ADF?
The following are reasons why you should use ADF:

• Cost effective: ADF is serverless, and the billing is based

on factors such as the number of activities run, the data
movement duration, and the SSIS package execution
duration. You can find the latest pricing details at
https://aka.ms/adfpricing.
For example, if you run your ETL/ ELT pipeline
hourly, which also involves data movement
(assuming 100GB data movement per hourly run,
which should take around 8 minutes with 200MBps

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Chapter 1 Introduction to Data Analytics

bandwidth), then ADF would bill you not more than

$12 for the monthly execution (720 pipeline runs).

Note: The charges for any other service (HDInsight,

Azure Data Lake Analytics) are not considered
in this calculation. This is solely for the ADF
orchestration and data movement cost. On the
contrary, there are non-Microsoft ETL/ELT tools
that may offer similar capabilities with a much
higher cost.

• On-demand compute: ADF provides additional cost-­

saving functionality like on-demand provisioning
of Hindsight Hadoop clusters. It takes care of the
provisioning and teardown of the cluster once the
job has executed, saving you a lot of additional cost
and making the whole Big Data analytics process on-­
demand.

• Cloud scale: ADF, being a platform-as-a-service

offering, can quickly scale if need be. For the Big Data
movement, with data sizes from terabytes to petabytes,
you will need the scale of multiple nodes to chunk data
in parallel.

• Enterprise-grade security: The biggest concern around

any data integration solution is the security, as the
data may well contain sensitive personally identifiable
information (PII).

Since ADF is a Microsoft-owned service (or as I

call it a first-party citizen on Azure), it follows the
same security standards as any other Microsoft
service. You can find the security and compliance
certification information online.

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 Chapter 1 Introduction to Data Analytics

A common challenge when building cloud

applications is to manage the credentials that need
to be in your code/ADF pipeline for authenticating
to cloud services. Keeping these credentials secure
is an important task. Ideally, they never appear on
developer workstations or get checked into source
control. ADF supports Azure Key Vault, which
provides a way to securely store credentials and
other keys and secrets, but your code/ADF pipeline
needs to authenticate to Key Vault to retrieve them.
Managed Service Identity (MSI) makes solving this
problem simpler by giving Azure services such as ADF
an automatically managed identity in Azure Active
Directory (Azure AD). ADF supports MSI and uses this
identity to authenticate to any service that supports
Azure AD authentication, including Key Vault,
without having any credentials in your code/ADF
pipeline, which probably is the safest option for
service-to-service authentication on Azure.

• Control flow: You can chain activities in a sequence,

branch based on certain conditions, define parameters
at the pipeline level, and pass arguments while
invoking the pipeline on-demand or from a trigger.
ADF also includes custom state passing and looping
containers, that is, for-each iterators.

• High-performance hybrid connectivity: ADF supports

more than 70 connectors at the time of writing this
book. These connectors support on-premise sources as
well, which helps you build a data integration solution
with your on-premise sources.

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Chapter 1 Introduction to Data Analytics

• Easy interaction: ADF’s support for so many

connectors makes it easy to interact with all kinds of
technologies.

• Visual UI authoring and monitoring tool: It makes

you super productive as you can use drag-and-drop
development. The main goal of the visual tool is
to allow you to be productive with ADF by getting
pipelines up and running quickly without requiring you
to write a single line of code.

• SSIS package execution: You can lift and shift an

existing SSIS workload.

• Schedule pipeline execution: Every business have

different latency requirements (hourly, daily, monthly,
and so on), and jobs can be scheduled as per the
business requirements.

• Other development options: In addition to visual

authoring, ADF lets you author pipelines using
PowerShell, .NER, Python, and REST APIs. This helps
independent software vendors (ISVs) build SaaS-based
analytics solutions on top of ADF app models.

Summary
Azure Data Factory is a serverless data integration service on the cloud
that allows you to create data-driven workflows for orchestrating and
automating data movement and data transformation for your advanced
analytics solutions. In the upcoming chapters, you will dig deeper into
each aspect of ADF with working samples.

12
CHAPTER 2

Introduction to Azure
Data Factory
In any Big Data or advanced analytics solution, the orchestration
layer plays an important role in stitching together the heterogenous
environments and operationalizing the workflow. Your overall solution
may involve moving raw data from disparate sources to a staging/sink
store on Azure, running some rich transform jobs (ELT) on the raw data,
and finally generating valuable insights to be published using reporting
tools and stored in a data warehouse for access. Azure Data Factory is the
extract-transform-load (ETL)/extract-load-transform (ELT) service offered
by Microsoft Azure.
Azure Data Factory (ADF) is a Microsoft Azure platform-as-a-service
(PaaS) offering for data movement and transformation. It supports data
movement between many on-premise and cloud data sources. The
supported platform list is elaborate and includes both Microsoft and
other vendors. It is a powerful tool providing complete flexibility for the
movement of structured and unstructured datasets, including RDBMS,
XML, JSON, and various NoSQL data stores. Its core strength is the
flexibility of being able to use U-SQL or HiveQL.
This chapter will introduce you to Azure Data Factory basics
(Figure 2-­1). This knowledge will form the building blocks for the
advanced analytics solution that you will build later in the book.

© Sudhir Rawat and Abhishek Narain 2019 13

S. Rawat and A. Narain, Understanding Azure Data Factory,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-4122-6_2
Chapter 2 Introduction to Azure Data Factory

Figure 2-1. Azure Data Factory basics

 zure Data Factory v1 vs. Azure Data

A
Factory v2
When you create an Azure Data Factory resource on your Azure
subscription, the wizard will ask you to choose between Azure Data
Factory v1 and Azure Data Factory v2. Azure Data Factory version 2 is
generally available and being actively developed, which means regular
feature updates. Azure Data Factory v1 is stabilized, but it’s more limited
than v2. ADF v2 adds the much needed control flow functionality, which
lets data engineers define complex workflows. Monitoring is also an added
enhancement in v2, making it much richer and natively integrating it with
Azure Monitor and Microsoft Operations Management Suite for building
single-pane-of-glass monitoring. One of the biggest features of v2 is the
integration of SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). Many Microsoft
customers have been using SSIS for their data movement needs primarily
involving SQL Server databases for many years because SSIS has been in
existence for a long time. The integration of SSIS and Azure Data Factory

14
 Chapter 2 Introduction to Azure Data Factory

has been a key customer requirement for migrating to the PaaS platform
for ETL without needing to rewrite the entire data transformation logic
across the enterprise.
The recent release of Azure Data Factory v2 has taken a major step
toward meeting this requirement. SSIS packages can now be integrated
with ADF and can be scheduled/orchestrated using ADF v2. The SSIS
package execution capability makes all fine-grained transformation
capabilities and SSIS connectors available from within ADF. Customers
can utilize existing ETL assets while expanding ETL capabilities with the
ADF platform.
ADF v2 allows SSIS packages to be moved to the cloud using the
integration runtime (IR) to execute, manage, monitor, and deploy these
packages to Azure. The IR allows for three different scenarios: Azure (a
pure PaaS with endpoints), self-hosted (within a private network), and
Azure-SSIS (a combination of the two).
The capability of SSIS package integration with ADF has led to the
expansion of a core feature of the ADF platform. Specifically, there is now
a separate control flow in the ADF platform. The activities are broken into
data transformation activities and control flow activities; this is similar to
the SSIS platform.
In addition to the SSIS integration, ADF v2 has expanded its
functionality on a few other fronts. It now supports an extended library of
expressions and functions that can be used in the JSON string value. Data
pipeline monitoring is available using OMS tools in addition to the Azure
portal. This is a big step toward meeting the requirements of customers
with established OMS tools for any data movement activity.
There has also been a change in job scheduling in ADF v2. In the prior
version, jobs were scheduled based on time slices. This feature has been
expanded in ADF v2. Jobs can be scheduled based on triggering events,
such as the completion of a data refresh in the source data store.

15
Chapter 2 Introduction to Azure Data Factory

In this book, we will focus on Azure Data Factory v2, but most of the
features are applicable to v1 too.

Data Integration with Azure Data Factory

Azure Data Factory offers a code-free, drag-and-drop, visual user
interface to maximize productivity by getting data pipelines up and
running quickly. You can also connect the visual tool directly to your
Git repository for a seamless deployment workflow. Using Azure Data
Factory, you can create and schedule data-driven workflows (called
pipelines) that can ingest data from disparate data stores. ADF can
process and transform the data by using compute services such as Azure
HDInsight Hadoop, Spark, Azure Data Lake Analytics, Azure Cosmos DB,
and Azure Machine Learning.
You can also write your own code in Python, .NET, the REST API, Azure
PowerShell, and Azure Resource Manager (ARM) to build data pipelines
using your existing skills. You can choose any compute or processing
service available on Azure and put them into managed data pipelines to
get the best of both the worlds.

Architecture
When you create an Azure Data Factory v2 resource on your Azure
subscription, you create a data integration account. This is sort of a
serverless workplace where you can author your data pipelines. You are
not billed for this step. You pay for what you use, and that will happen only
when you execute some pipeline.

16
 Chapter 2 Introduction to Azure Data Factory

Figure 2-2. ADF architecture showing the command/ control flow

versus data flow during orchestration

Once you start authoring the pipeline, the ADF service stores the
pipeline metadata in the selected ADF region. When your pipeline is
executed, the orchestration logic runs on some compute, in other words,
the integration runtime. There are three types of IR used for different
purposes, and I will talk about the use of each one of them in the
upcoming sections.

17
Chapter 2 Introduction to Azure Data Factory

C
 oncepts
Azure Data Factory is composed of five key components. These
components come together while you build data-driven workflows for
transforming data.

P
 ipelines
A pipeline is a logical grouping of activities performing a set of processes
such as extracting data, transforming it, and loading into some database,
data warehouse, or storage. For example, a pipeline can contain a group
of activities to ingest data from Amazon S3 (an on-premise file system to a
staging store) and then run a Spark query on an Azure Databricks cluster
to partition the data.
A data factory might have one or more pipelines.
An Azure Data Factory instance uses JSON to describe each of its
entities. If you are using visual authoring, you will not need to understand
this structure. But when writing code/script, you’ll need to understand this
JSON payload (see Table 2-1).
Here is how a pipeline is defined in JSON format:

{
    "name": "PipelineName",
    "properties":
    {
        "description": "pipeline description",
        "activities":
        [
        ],
        "parameters": {
         }
    }
}

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 Chapter 2 Introduction to Azure Data Factory

Table 2-1. Pipeline Properties

Tag Description Type Required

name Specifies the name of the pipeline. Use a String Yes

name that represents the action that the
pipeline performs.
Maximum number of characters: 140.
Must start with a letter, number, or
underscore (_).
The following characters are not allowed:
.+?/<> *%&:\
description Specifies the text describing what the String No
pipeline is used for.
activities The pipeline can have one or more Array Yes
activities defined within it.
parameters The parameters property can have one or List No
more parameters defined within the pipeline,
making your pipeline flexible for reuse.

Activities
Activities represent a processing step in a pipeline. These are specific
tasks that compose the overall pipeline. For example, you might use a
Spark activity, which runs a Spark query against Azure Databricks or an
HDInsight cluster, to transform or analyze your data. Azure Data Factory
supports three types of activities: data movement (copy activities), data
transform (compute activities), and control activities.

19
Other documents randomly have
different content
enemy, as long as there was the faintest hope of bringing him to
reason by simpler means, will redound more to our honour in the
pages of future history, than a precipitate display of our energy and
our power. At all events the treaty which was ultimately concluded
was much more advantageous to commerce and civilization in
general than it would probably have been had an earlier settlement
taken place. The Chinese were brought to yield by degrees, and,
therefore, the compact is much more likely to be durable than if it
had been wrung from them by an earlier and more sudden
emergency.
Nevertheless, before even the draught of the proposed treaty had
been fully drawn up at Macao, rumours were continually brought
concerning the extensive preparations for defence which were still
going on up the river. Some naval and military officers were
accordingly sent up to the Bogue, to ascertain how far these
rumours might be well founded; and it was now discovered "that
military works upon a great scale were in progress, that troops were
collected upon the heights, that entrenched camps were being
formed on both sides of the river, and that the island of North
Wantung was bristling with cannon."
These preparations certainly looked very unlike the preliminaries to
the signature of a treaty of peace; "and from this moment," says Sir
Gordon Bremer, "I must confess that my faith in the sincerity of the
Chinese commissioner was completely destroyed." It was in fact to
be no longer doubted that hostilities would be speedily resumed.
And although the orders of the emperor to Keshen to cancel the
treaty agreed on, and to provide means for the immediate
extermination of the foreigners had not then been made public,
enough was already known to make it evident that the intentions of
the government were very far from being of a peaceful nature.
On his side, Captain Elliot had done his utmost to impress the
Chinese with a confidence in his "good faith;" and so anxious was he
to hasten the evacuation of Chusan, that he had not only sent up a
vessel of war to convey the necessary orders, but had also
forwarded an overland despatch, by the hands of a Chinese special
messenger, to the same purport.
Scarcely a month, however, had elapsed when Captain Elliot began
to doubt whether the Chinese really meant to act up to their
promises with equal good faith. On the 20th of January, he had
declared, in a public proclamation, that he had no reason to call in
question the "scrupulous sincerity and enlarged opinions of the very
eminent person with whom negotiations had been pending;" and it
was just a month afterwards, on the 20th of February, that he
declared that the "imperial minister and high commissioner had
failed to conclude the treaty which had been sent up to the Bogue
ready prepared for signature." This document was carried up by the
Nemesis. But, as the commissioner had already left the Bogue and
gone to Canton, it was transmitted to him by the hands of a
confidential person in the employment of Keshen, who had been
distinctly named to Captain Elliot for the purpose. Four days were
allowed for the return of the messenger, and the Nemesis was
directed to wait at the Bogue for the answer, until the expiration of
that period, when she was to return to Macao, either with or without
the treaty.
As the time agreed on approached its expiration, reports became
more numerous than ever, concerning the hostile preparations in
progress. The edict of the emperor addressed to Keshen, before
spoken of, was now made public, and a proclamation was pasted on
the walls of Canton, (but whether by the orders of the viceroy or not
does not appear certain,) by which a reward of 50,000 dollars each
was offered for the heads of Captain Elliot and Sir Gordon Bremer!
The four days of the stay of the Nemesis at the Bogue were not
spent unprofitably. Advantage was taken of this opportunity by
Captain Hall to examine the new works of the Chinese, many of
which were still in progress, (during a truce and while a treaty of
peace had been agreed on!) Numerous sand-bag batteries had been
erected, and others were in course of completion, halfway up the hill
of Anunghoy. Troops were crowding upon the hills on the opposite
side, while upon the Island of North Wantung equal activity was
displayed.
But the observations were not limited entirely to the works at the
Bogue. Captain Hall set out with a single boat's crew upon an
adventurous and interesting excursion up Anson's Bay, to the mouth
of the river in which the junks had been destroyed on the day of the
Chuenpee. Just within the entrance, several large mandarin boats
were now observed collected together, and surrounded by a vast
number of labouring men. This excited some surprise, as there wore
no works visible upon which they could be employed; but the object
of this bustle was unexpectedly discovered afterwards. The
mandarin boats and a great part of the people, thinking probably
that the single boat of the Nemesis was only the advanced one of
many others similar to those which had destroyed their war-junks,
made off as fast as they could, leaving her to pursue her course
unmolested.
Having, in the former ascent of the river in the Nemesis, observed
that a branch of it turned off to the right towards Chuenpee, Captain
Hall, determined to explore it now. It branched off about one and a
half to two miles from the entrance, and soon led to a very
considerable village on the right or Chuenpee side, (in ascending,)
while, nearly opposite to it, a large sand-battery, recently erected,
was discovered, mounting eight guns, and further on, was a strong
stone battery. Neither of these fired at the boat, although the
gunners ran down to their guns, as if apprehensive of an attack.
To the astonishment of all in the boat, it was now found that this
branch of the river, or creek, or whatever it might be called, instead
of leading further up the country, inland, gradually turned round and
encircled the whole of Chuenpee, communicating with the "outer
waters" to the southward of that promontory. Thus it was evident
that Chuenpee was an island.
Having passed quite through the passage, so as to reach the point
of junction with the "outer waters," Captain Hall landed on
Chuenpee in company with Mr. Turner, the surgeon of the vessel,
and Mr. Gray, a midshipman of H.M.S. Herald, and, sending the boat
round the promontory to the opposite side, walked across without
any molestation. Nothing particular worth noticing was observed in
this excursion, except the large farm-houses, which were passed,
together with several extensive sugar-works, in full operation.
A visit made to the Tycocktow side of the river was less promising,
although equally successful. It was thought desirable, on the
following day, to reconnoitre the defences in that direction; and
accordingly Captain Hall, accompanied by Mr. Compton, proceeded in
the ship's cutter across the river for that purpose. A large number of
troops were collected upon the heights, upon which were numerous
tents; and several large transport junks, not less than twenty sail,
were hastily landing troops, guns, and ammunition. It was also
noticed that boats were passing round at the back of the hill and
works, through a large canal or creek; so that, although it was not
possible to explore the lines of communication from one part to the
other, it became very evident that the neighbourhood of the river,
although apparently mountainous and rugged, was accessible to
boats on all sides, and was in fact composed of distinct islands.
The question of the intentions of the Chinese was soon decided; for
the fort on Wantung, as the boat passed between it and the
mainland, on that side, fired at it with round shot. There was no
mistaking the tone of defiance which this indicated; but Captain Hall
was sufficiently acquainted with the Chinese character to be
reluctant to turn back at this threat, because the affair would have
been reported as a great victory, with their usual exaggeration. The
little bow-gun of the boat was therefore instantly fired at the troops
who were looking over the battlements of the fort; and no further
molestation being attempted by the Chinese, she again pursued her
way, content with this token of defiance.
These little reconnoitring excursions sufficed to shew, were anything
still wanting to bring conviction to the most unbelieving, that the
Chinese were fully aware that no treaty of peace was likely to be
signed, and that they looked forward to the resumption of hostilities,
not only without much apprehension, but with tolerable confidence
in the probability of their own success.
On the evening of the 18th, the four days agreed on for the return
of the messenger from Canton having fully expired, the Nemesis was
moved up from Chuenpee to the Bogue, where she remained one
hour, waiting for an answer from the imperial commissioner. None,
however, was brought; and as everything now so plainly indicated
that cannon-balls alone were to be expected as a reply, Captain Hall
resolved to return to Macao, and report all that had been seen and
done to the plenipotentiary and the commander-in-chief. Not a
moment was lost in communicating the results of the reconnoitring
excursions, the firing of a shot from North Wantung, and the non-
appearance of the messenger at the appointed time.
The most incredulous now no longer doubted; the film was raised
even from before the eyes of Captain Elliot himself, and orders were
given that all the officers should join their respective ships. The light
division, which was then in the roads of Macao, or at the mouth of
the river, was placed under the orders of Captain Herbert (since
made K.C.B.) of the Calliope, and was directed to proceed
immediately to the Bogue. It consisted of the Calliope, Samarang,
Herald, Alligator, Sulphur, and the Nemesis; and the object was "to
prevent, as much as possible, any further defensive preparations on
the part of the enemy, but not to run any unnecessary hazard until
the main body of the force came up." At the same time, the
commodore hastened over to Hong-Kong, in the Madagascar
steamer, for the purpose of taking up the ships of the line, consisting
of the Wellesley, Blenheim, and Melville, seventy-fours, and the
steamers, Queen and Madagascar; leaving the Druid, with the
Jupiter troop-ship, and the transports, Sophia, Minerva, Thetis, and
Eagle, to follow.
These active measures were briefly announced by Captain Elliot, in a
circular issued on the same day to the following effect, simply
stating that "circumstances had induced the commander-in-chief to
announce to H.M. plenipotentiary his intention to move the forces
towards the Bocca Tigris,"—from which it would seem that the
responsibility of this inevitable measure was rather assumed by Sir
Gordon Bremer than by the plenipotentiary; but Captain Elliot had
also written to Captain Herbert, stating that he left him at liberty,
and moved to prevent the continuance of defensive preparations at
the Bogue.
It was on the day following this movement (the 20th) that Keshen's
notification of his unwillingness to continue negotiations became
known at Macao; and shortly afterwards, the emperor's edict (before
alluded to) was also promulgated, in which every proposed measure
of conciliation towards the foreigners was recalled, and orders given,
on the other hand, that "they should be rooted out entirely."
On the morning of the 21st, a reconnoitring party landed,
unperceived, upon the island of Wantung, consisting of Captains
Elliot, Herbert, and Belcher, and Lieutenant Stransham, and they
were able to count seventeen more guns, newly-mounted, in
addition to those which had been observed on the former occasion.
The truce had already fully expired, but hostilities did not commence
immediately, as might have been expected. On the 22nd, a Chinese
boat happened to be stopped, in which was found a messenger, who
was recognised by Lieutenant Watson as an active agent of the
Chinese authorities. It was naturally suspected that he was the
bearer of orders of some kind or other to the local officers, and such
was found to be the case. They were addressed to Admiral Kwan,
desiring him to hurry on the stopping-up of the channel which runs
at the back of Anunghoy, by which the latter becomes an island. The
means employed were stones and stakes, and sunken junks, which
had been collected in large quantities at a place called Sanmannkow,
which must have been the large town known to lie in the rear of
Anunghoy. Thus all our observations respecting the intentions of the
authorities were fully confirmed, and it could now no longer be
doubted, on our part, that a heavy blow must at once be struck.
 FOOTNOTES:
[23] In no part of China are there found within the same distance
so many large pagodas or religions monuments as upon the
banks of this fine river. This is not the place to describe them
minutely, or to discuss their purpose. They are found in most of
the large towns, and sometimes on the banks of rivers, and form
a part of the religious buildings of the Budhist superstition, and
together with it, seem to have been originally introduced from the
west. The shape of them is familiar to most readers. The finest
and most celebrated one of the kind is the famous Porcelain
Tower of Nankin; which is in reality a pagoda, larger and more
ornamented than the rest, and distinguished by being principally
constructed of Porcelain brick glazed, and of various shades of
colour. These towers, or pagodas, are of great use in the
navigation of the Canton river, as, from their height, they are
conspicuous objects at a distance, and are generally placed in
advantageous positions.
[24] The Hong merchants' boats are both large and convenient,
somewhat resembling a small room or van, placed upon a very
sharp-pointed but broad boat, as they are only used for pulling
about the smooth waters of the river. Nothing can be better
adapted to comfort, affording shelter both from the sun and rain,
with plenty of room for at least half-a-dozen people to sit down
and converse. The outside of these boats is showily painted, and
commonly decorated with handsome wood-work. The inside is
generally elegantly fitted up. They are usually pulled by four men
forward, who use a short broad-bladed oar or paddle, with great
dexterity and effect; and they are also assisted as well as steered
by a large heavy scull-oar behind.
 CHAPTER XVI.
Keshen, who had spent all his life either in large provincial capitals or
in the imperial city itself, could have had little opportunity of learning
anything either relating to foreign trade or foreign ships, still less
was he acquainted with the "outer waters" along the coast of the
empire.
After describing them to his imperial master, he boldly ventures his
opinion, that the reputation of the fortifications of the Bocca Tigris,
as a place of defence, have been much overrated, and he goes on to
say—"It is, then, clear that we have no defences worthy to be called
such. It is, in truth, the local character of the country, that there is
no important point of defence by which the whole may be
maintained."
No wonder that such a declaration from a man who was also the
third member of the imperial cabinet, taken, as it was, from personal
observation, should have sounded unpalatable and even traitorous
to the emperor's ear. But this was not all. Indeed, one might almost
imagine that some European must have pointed out to him defects
which his own unpractised and unaided eye could never have
detected.
Lin, on the other hand, had never dared to report to his master the
full extent of the information which was given to him, though he was
fully prepared to adopt every advice which tended to obstruct the
commerce of England, and impede an amicable settlement of the
difficulties.
Such truths are always hard to bear, and harder to believe, and were
consequently not believed, because they were true. But Keshen did
his best to improve his weapons; he sent for a founder of cannon,
who gave him a new model, and undertook to make some
experimental pieces. Yet it did not escape Keshen that, even if he
succeeded in casting good cannon, he could only do so as a
preparation for the future. "They could not be ready," says he, "for
the business we have now in hand. These are the proofs," he adds,
"of the inefficiency of our military armament, which is such that no
reliance can be placed upon it."
He proceeded to say that it would be necessary to employ a naval as
well as a land force to defend the Bogue, but then threw out a
suspicion that the seamen were not to be depended on, for that "he
had heard a report that, after the battle of Chuenpee, these men all
went to their commander, or Tetuh, and demanded money of him,
threatening that they would otherwise disperse; and he had,
therefore, personally made inquiry into the matter, and found that
the report was perfectly true, and, moreover, that the Tetuh, having
no other remedy, (evidently the pay was in arrear,) was obliged to
pawn his own clothes and other things, by which means he was
enabled to give each of them a bonus of two dollars, and thus only
could he get them to remain for a time at their posts."[25]
Moreover, he added, "our ships of war are not large and strong, and
it is difficult to mount heavy guns upon them. Hence it is evident
that our force here, (he was writing at the Bogue,) as a guard and
defence against the foreigners, is insufficient."
Keshen next remarked upon the character of the people of the
province. "Your slave has found them ungrateful and avaricious. Of
those who are actual traitors it is unnecessary to say anything. But
the rest are accustomed to see the foreigners day by day, and
intimacy has grown up between them." And he proceeds to contrast
them very unfavourably with the people of Chusan, "who felt at once
that the foreigners were of another race."[26]
Keshen then appealed to the history of the past, and made particular
allusion to the difficulty which had formerly been experienced, in
overcoming even the pirates upon the coast, who were at length
only reduced to submission by a promise of security upon condition
of laying down their arms.[27] Finally he expressed great fear, that if
he gave battle, he would be unable to command a victory, and, in
that case, the dignity of the empire would be sullied, and the lives of
the people sacrificed.
To understand the full importance of these remarks, it is necessary
to bear in mind that they were written before the action of the
Bogue took place, and as a ground for asking for the emperor's
consent to the terms proposed by Captain Elliot. Others, however,
were called to aid in his councils at this time, and, among the high
officers of Canton, Lin himself was consulted. They appeared to
concur with Keshen; at all events, they knew that upon his head
would rest all the responsibility.
The memorial containing Captain Elliot's demands was sent up to
Pekin, together with this report, which was founded upon personal
observation; and Keshen implored the emperor to look with pity
upon "his black-haired flock, the people, and that he would be
graciously pleased to accede to the requests made by the foreigners,
and to grant them favours beyond measure. Thus," he added, "shall
we lay the foundation for victory hereafter, by binding and curbing
the foreigners now, while we prepare the means of cutting them off
at some future period."
Keshen was a true Chinaman of the new school, (for there are new
schools even in antique China,) and, in most respects, the very
opposite of Lin. Sensible of the weakness of his country when
matched with England, conscious of his inability to fight his enemy
with success, he nevertheless hazarded the chance, when the
commands of the emperor compelled him to aim the blow. He,
however, did his utmost to gain time, and even endeavoured to
impose upon Captain Elliot, and to hope against hope itself. After all
that Keshen had said, the defence of the Bogue was conducted, as
we shall now perceive, with more energy than might have been
expected, and, indeed, with considerable spirit.
On the following morning, at dawn, the Nemesis took Captain Elliot
once more up to the Bogue, where he remained about an hour, as if
in anxious expectation of some communication from the shore. But
this last lingering hope was again deceived. Captain Elliot, being now
fully satisfied that no peaceable communication from the Chinese
was any longer to be expected, finally left the Bogue, and finding
H.M.S. Herald at anchor off Lankeet, just below Chuenpee, he went
on board that vessel, leaving the Nemesis to pursue her way down
to Hong-Kong.
On the 22nd, Captain Herbert, with the light squadron, took up his
position at the anchorage off South Wantung, where Captain Elliot
announced to him that Keshen had failed to conclude the treaty, and
that he was therefore to consider himself moved, to prevent the
continuance of the defensive preparations. The Nemesis having
joined him from Hong-Kong on the 23rd, Captain Herbert embarked
on board that vessel, and, taking with him the pinnaces of the
Calliope, Samarang, Herald, and Alligator, commanded by
Lieutenants Watson, Bower, Dewes, and Woolcomb, proceeded up
Anson's Bay to explore the river before described as opening at the
bottom of it.
It was reported that the Chinese were staking it across; and, from
the bustle which had been previously observed there, when the boat
of the Nemesis ventured into it, there was reason to believe that
hostile preparations were being made. Moreover, it was thought
advisable, if possible, to examine the channel which had been found
to lead round in the rear of Anunghoy; for upon this fortress, as the
most extensive of the defences of the Bogue, it was thought the
principal attack of the squadron would be made. Suspicion was also
excited by the contents of the intercepted despatch of Keshen to
Admiral Kwan.
On entering the river, it was no longer to be doubted that
preparations for defence had been commenced. A great number of
boats were observed busily employed in driving stakes or piles into
the bed of the river, across which others were trying to moor a
strong raft. No sooner was the steamer discovered approaching,
than the boats all pulled away, and the Chinese were seen
scampering off as fast as possible. However, when it came to the
point of pulling up the stakes, in order to make a passage between
them for the boats which were in tow, all on a sudden a heavy
discharge from a masked battery, close abreast of the spot, was
poured upon them, and at once betrayed the cause of the secret
preparations before observed.
The steamer immediately poured in a volley of grape and canister
from her bow and stern guns, while the boats pulled away towards
the shore, to carry the works by storm, opening their fire from their
bow-guns as they advanced. The Chinese fled, after some
resistance; and the battery, which was of very recent construction,
was at once taken possession of by the crews of the boats, the
colours being taken by Lieutenant Bowers. It was found to mount
twenty guns of various calibre, which were immediately destroyed.
There were also lying on the ground a vast number of guns
dismounted, probably not less than sixty, which appeared to have
been landed out of their junks, or recovered after the destruction of
their fleet in the bay. These were all rendered useless, with the
exception of a few brass ones, which were carried away as trophies.
Their magazines and buildings were also totally destroyed. The
number of killed among the Chinese were about thirty, but no
wounded were found, as they had probably been carried off by their
companions in arms. On our side no casualties happened.
Content, for the present, with this successful feat, Captain Herbert
returned in the Nemesis, and rejoined the squadron, at its
anchorage, a little to the southward of South Wantung. On the
following morning they all returned to the scene of the previous
exploit, and set about pulling up the piles, to clear a passage. This
time, likewise, they were fired at, but from a different quarter. The
Chinese troops, posted on the hills above, commenced firing at the
working party, but it was soon returned from the thirty-two-
pounders, by which they were speedily dispersed. A passage having
at length been cleared, the Nemesis steamed up the river for some
distance, until she had nearly reached the large town at the back of
Anunghoy; but, as there appeared to be no further hostile
preparations going on, Captain Herbert thought it better to return
and complete the destruction of the fort, raft, &c., which had been
only partially done the day before; after which they returned to the
squadron, which the commodore himself had now joined, with the
three line-of-battle ships and the Druid.
The next day, the 25th of February, was the great day of preparation
for the combined and resolute attack of all the Bogue forts. The
batteries which were to be reduced were as follows:—The
geographical positions of the Bogue have already been described.
Beginning from the south end of the promontory of Anunghoy, which
of course you approach first, there were several strong works along
the shore, the ridges on the hill's side above being also armed with
guns wherever they could be conveniently placed; and upon the top,
which was pretty steep, an entrenched camp had been formed,
calculated for about twelve hundred men. On this side were two
considerable sand-batteries, not long erected, mounting, as was
afterwards found, thirty guns of small calibre.
Proceeding on along the front was the old battery of Anunghoy,
which, in a manner, seemed to have given place to a new and
extremely well built one, partly of granite and partly of chunam, and
reaching down almost to high-water mark. The rear of this battery,
running up the steep hill-side, was enclosed by a high wall, on which
were steps or platforms for firing musketry.
Continuing our survey of the walls parallel with the passage through
the Bogue, and passing out of the southern fort by its northern gate,
you found a line of steep rocky beach, about two to three hundred
yards long, and unprotected, which led to the northern Anunghoy
fort. Upon this beach was erected a sort of platform, made of wood,
serving merely as a line of communication between the forts, for the
passage of troops. Having traversed this causeway, you arrive at the
northern fort. This was a less formidable one than its fellow lower
down, but still it presented an extensive line of works. The whole
together completely defended the river front of the promontory of
Anunghoy. The number of guns mounted upon all these works was
afterwards found to be very great, and the long line of embrasures
certainly looked very formidable.
The island of North Wantung, which is opposite to these forts, was
thickly studded with cannon all over. Its eastern side presented a
formidable line of guns, and was considered by the Chinese to be its
most important side of defence, for it fronted Anunghoy,
commanding the passage between them; here they had planted
some of their largest guns. An object upon which they had placed
great reliance was the large chain cable which they had carried
across the passage from Anunghoy to a rock close to Wantung, and
which they had secured into the solid rock on either side, something
after the manner of the chains of a suspension bridge. The rafts
which supported it were strongly moored, and the Chinese had
adopted a curious contrivance for raising or lowering the chain, for
the purpose of letting their own junks pass through, by means of a
kind of windlass.
A passage was not forced through this chain and rafts until after the
forts were taken; and the Chinese appeared to forget that there was
another channel round the west side of Wantung, and that even had
that been impassable, we could have sent our light steamers, rocket-
boats, and gun-boats, round the back of Anunghoy itself. They,
moreover, made little calculation of the great power of the rising and
falling of the tide, the weight and strength of a line-of-battle ship, or
the terrific power of her broadside.
The little island of South Wantung had been unaccountably left
unoccupied by the Chinese; but, in reality, it was within range, and
well commanded by the strong batteries and Hill Fort upon North
Wantung. The oversight rendered their positions much less tenable,
and soon decided the plan of attack which was adopted by Sir
Gordon Bremer. It was as follows: a battery of two 8-inch iron and
one 24-pounder brass howitzers was to be erected during the night,
in a hollow, upon the top of this little island of South Wantung,
which was very favourably situated for the object required. This
battery would not only greatly annoy the Chinese in the northern
island, and probably shell them out, but also distract their attention
from the attack upon Anunghoy.
The commodore reserved to himself (with the Wellesley, 74, and
Druid, 42) the attack on the south-west batteries of Wantung, that
is, on the side not fronting Anunghoy; while Sir Le Fleming
Senhouse, in the Blenheim, 74, with the Melville, 74, and The Queen
Steamer, together with the rocket-boats of the two ships, was to
attack the batteries of Anunghoy, using his own discretion as to the
best mode for placing them for that purpose. The light division
under Capt. Herbert, consisting of the Calliope, Samarang, Herald,
Alligator, Sulphur, and Modeste, were to direct their attention to the
batteries on the northern and north-western side of Wantung, and
also those facing Anunghoy, and either to anchor or keep under
weigh, according as it might appear most likely to ensure the object
in view. The Madagascar and Nemesis steamers were to land the
troops, but the latter was more particularly employed to cover the
working party, who were to raise the battery on South Wantung, and
also the troops on shore.
It was not likely that the land forces would have much to do; but it
was directed that detachments of the 26th and 49th regiments, with
the 37th M.N.I. and Bengal volunteers, under the command of Major
Pratt, of the 26th, should be placed on board the steamers and the
transport-boats, together with a few Chinese boats collected for the
purpose, and they were to remain off the southern end of South
Wantung, protected from the fire of the enemy's guns, until the
Chinese should be driven out of the batteries, when their
subsequent movements were to be directed by signal. The royal
marines also, under Capt. Ellis, were to be held in readiness to land
with the troops, and were to be accompanied by the two 6-pounder
field-pieces of the Wellesley and Druid, with seamen to work and
drag them; scaling-ladders were also to be carried with the force.
Soon after mid-day, on the 25th, the Nemesis took on board a
detachment of one hundred and thirty of the Madras Native Infantry,
for the purpose of assisting the royal artillery, under Capt. Knowles
and Lieut. Spencer, in the erection of the mortar battery upon the
top of South Wantung; and they were accompanied by Lieut.
Johnson and Lieut. Rundall, of the Madras Engineers, with the same
object. On her way across, the guns of the large Anunghoy Fort
opened upon her, and were fired with tolerable precision, many of
them passing quite near her, but fortunately without doing any
damage. On arriving at the southern end of South Wantung, it was
found that Sir Le Fleming Senhouse, had already arrived in his own
boat, together with a detachment of the Royal and Madras Artillery.
The Anunghoy Battery continued firing, but without effect, and it
was not returned for some time, by the orders of the commodore.
However, as soon as the detachments were landed, Sir Le Fleming
Senhouse himself gave Capt. Hall permission to return the fire. No
time was lost in landing ammunition and warlike implements upon
the island, and parties were busily employed filling sand-bags
preparatory to the erection of the battery above, the whole working
party being perfectly protected from the fire of the Chinese.
In the meantime, the batteries on North Wantung began to open on
the Nemesis; and, in order that she might get completely under
cover of the island of South Wantung, she was run full in upon the
shore, which was somewhat steep in that part; and thus she lay
literally with her head out of water, and her stern deep in it, without
receiving any injury; her light draught of water enabled her to
approach closer than any other vessel could have done. In this
manner, all the shot of the batteries passed over her, without doing
any mischief. The fire was not returned, both owing to the position
in which she was, and because it could only have served to point
out, in the darkness of the night, the situation of the working parties
upon the island.
At daylight the battery was quite completed, and the Nemesis was
ordered to withdraw; not long after which, the new battery opened
fire in beautiful style, against North Wantung, under the direction of
Capt. Knowles. The rockets were thrown into it with great effect,
and, together with the shells, could be seen to fall directly within the
forts; this was shortly followed by a blaze of fire, from the burning of
the Custom House and other buildings; soon after which, the
outworks and sand-batteries were abandoned, and the Chinese took
refuge principally in the upper fort. Their loss must have been
considerable at all points; and the panic created by the bursting of
the shells and rockets, which were quite new to them, evidently
threw them into great disorder. It was reported, and there is reason
to believe with truth, that the Chinese officers abandoned the place
at the first commencement of the firing, and ran down to their
boats, having locked the gates behind them, to prevent their own
troops from following their example.
The grand combined attack was to have commenced early in the
morning, and the troops were ordered to be in readiness at seven
o'clock. The morning, however, was perfectly calm; the sun shone
brilliantly, and lighted up the scene of impending destruction and
slaughter, as if it were to be a scene of rejoicing. Until ten o'clock
there was not a breath of air; when, a light breeze springing up, the
Melville and Blenheim, accompanied by the Queen steamer, got
under weigh, attended by three rocket-boats, the Blenheim being
the leading ship. They stood in for the southern Anunghoy fort,
running along towards the Anson's Bay side of it, in order to be out
of range of its guns in front, so that they could throw in shot and
shell upon its flank, without any risk of receiving injury themselves.
The hill of Anunghoy was crowned with Chinese troops, their
numerous silken banners floating gaily to the now reviving breeze.
Some of their guns were discharged at a great distance; but the fire
was kept up with spirit, though frequently out of range.
Not so, however, our own majestic ships, which slowly glided up to
their positions without wasting a single shot, until, having anchored
with springs on their cables, they could bring their broadsides to
bear. The Blenheim, although the leading ship, was either carried by
the tide, or else slightly touched the ground, and was soon
overtaken by the Melville, which succeeded in taking up a more
advantageous position in very gallant style. In the meantime, the
Queen had commenced throwing shell into the sand-batteries and
other works upon the hill's side; and, at the same time, the terrific
broadsides of the Melville and the Blenheim opened upon the great
battery; the rocket-boats also did their full share in the work of
destruction. The Chinese could not long withstand these
simultaneous attacks.[28]
At about the same time with the attack on Anunghoy, began also
that upon the batteries on the western and north-western side of
Wantung, partly under the commodore in person, and partly under
Capt. Herbert. The ships[29] waited to receive the fire of the forts
pretty close, and then at once poured in their iron shower upon the
devoted batteries, with destructive effect. It would have been
impossible for any troops to have long defended the island of
Wantung, bristling though it then was with cannon, against the
powerful force arrayed against it. Our battery of howitzers had been
playing upon it for several hours; and now six or seven men-of-war,
including one line-of-battle ship, the Wellesley, were battering it at
the same time. But the defenders could not run away, being shut in
on every side by the river; and it was perhaps fortunate for them
that the Nemesis, which had already been engaged with the
different batteries, was sent down to fetch the troop-boats from the
southern island, under which they had been sheltered.
The land force was under the command of Major Pratt, of the
Cameronians, who was already well known to the Chinese at
Chuenpee. The detachments of the 26th and 49th were under Major
Johnson, the marines under Capt. Ellis, the 37th M.N.I, under Capt.
Duff, and the Bengal Volunteers under Capt. Mee.
The scene on all sides at this moment was extremely imposing. The
light breeze, which had barely served to bring the ships into position,
had quite died away when the thunder of artillery commenced, as if
it were unwilling to take them back again until their work was fully
done. The heavy, curling smoke, scarcely broken by an occasional
flash, hung gloomily on every side, as if to veil from sight the scene
of destruction which was going on. For a time the firing ceased, in
order to allow the smoke to rise; and, just at that moment, the
troops were hastening towards Wantung, to take possession of the
works, the firing of which had also ceased. At the same time, Sir Le
Fleming Senhouse, with the marines and a party of blue-jackets,
landed, to the attack of Anunghoy.
At half-past one the troops were landed on Wantung by the Nemesis
and Madagascar, assisted by boats. The object was of course to
reach the hill fort as quickly as possible, and had the Chinese been
better acquainted with the rules of European warfare, they would
probably have at once surrendered themselves, seeing the utter
hopelessness of resistance. Probably the fear of being put to death
as prisoners prevented this timely sparing of blood. Our gallant
troops and seamen pushed rapidly up the ascent over the ruined
outworks, and might have suffered severe loss before they could
have taken possession of the upper fort, had not the Chinese been
almost panic-struck, or had they possessed weapons better
calculated for the purpose of defence. But, instead of surrendering
or accepting quarter, they again ran out of the fort and down the
hill, and many of the poor fellows were shot in their vain attempts to
fly, without any possible means of escape. The greater part of these
took refuge in the lower Custom House fort, where many of them
were killed and wounded before the rest surrendered, which,
however, they at length did, to the number of about one thousand.
The prisoners were soon afterwards taken to the mainland, and set
at liberty, equally astonished as they were rejoiced at our leniency.
The Nemesis, in the meantime, had gone over to Anunghoy, to
render assistance, if required, and there observed the marines and
seamen of the Blenheim and Melville, under Sir Le F. Senhouse, in
the act of taking possession of the forts. It appears that they landed
without much opposition, though they were only three hundred in
number; and not only passed through the southern fort, driving the
Chinese up the hill above, but also proceeded along the beach
towards the northern fort, of which they also made themselves
masters, the Chinese having fled.
Whatever doubts Keshen himself had entertained concerning the
defensibility of the Bogue, he had too much discretion to
communicate them either to his officers or troops. They had little
anticipation of the total defeat which they were soon to sustain, for
they had made rude sketches delineating the entire destruction of
our ships by the terrible fire of their artillery.
The British flag had by this time supplanted that of China upon all
the defences of the Bogue. It was little past two o'clock, and ample
time yet remained to turn the victory to the greatest possible
advantage before the close of the day. The Nemesis once more
crossed over to Wantung, and as she drew so little water, was
enabled to run close in, and make fast to the lower fort itself.
Nothing, however, of a hostile character remained to be done in this
quarter, but there was yet ample room to perform the more humane
duty of assisting the unfortunate Chinese. Many of these poor
fellows were floating about in the water, clinging in despair to any
small piece of wood or bamboo they might have the good fortune to
find. Many were drowned, as had before been the case at
Chuenpee, but many yet remained to be saved. Boats were sent out
for this purpose, but the Chinese notions of warfare were of such a
barbarous nature, that they seemed to think the only object of any
attempt to save them was to reserve them for slow torture,
mutilation, or death.[30] The poor fellows dived their heads under
water as the boats approached them, attempting to drown
themselves, and thus escape falling into our hands. Many were,
nevertheless, dragged out, and carried on board the steamer, where
they appeared bewildered by astonishment more than by fear, when
they found that they were kindly treated. All of them were soon
afterwards liberated without any conditions, and they then appeared
thankful for their escape.
The day was now far advanced, but there still remained a fort and
encampment to be taken possession of on the opposite side of the
river, usually called Little Tycocktow, facing the western side of
Wantung. There was every probability that these would be carried
without resistance, for the Wellesley had already seriously damaged
the fort, by her beautiful firing of shells, in the morning, and the
Modeste had also contributed to silence it. A party of the Wellesley's
marines were embarked in her own boats, about four o'clock, under
Lieut. Maitland, and proceeded across, in company with the
Nemesis, in order to complete the day's work. A few shots were fired
by her as she approached the fort, but, finding they were not
returned, the boats pushed off to land, including the boats of the
Nemesis, with Capt. Hall and Lieut Pedder. The fort was found
abandoned; and having taken possession of it, they advanced up the
hill in the rear with all speed, as they observed a body of Chinese in
disorder, close to an encampment upon the top of it. However, on
the approach of the little party, they fled into the interior,
abandoning their lines, magazines, &c. These were all set fire to and
destroyed, and the effect of the blaze, which lasted for a
considerable time, becoming more vivid as the night closed in,
spread far and wide, among the distant inhabitants of the country,
the general panic which had already seized their troops. The
conflagration extended itself on all sides, much beyond the original
site of the encampment, and threw its lurid glare over the scene of
slaughter and confusion of the day. Having spiked the guns in the
fort, the boats returned with their crews to their respective ships.
Thus closed the eventful day of the capture of the famous Bogue
forts, and the total dispersion of their unfortunate defenders. Had
the Chinese been better armed, and more experienced in the
important science of gunnery, the capture of the forts would have
cost us a much greater sacrifice of human life. On this occasion, so
trifling was the latter, that at 3 P.M., when Captain Elliot issued his
circular announcing the fall of the batteries of the Bocca Tigris, to
her Majesty's forces, he added, that "no loss on our side had been
reported up to that hour." Sir Gordon Bremer had only subsequently
to report, that "five men were slightly wounded, throughout the
whole force." Much surprise, however, was created by this
announcement, for the firing was for some time kept up with spirit
from the forts. It was also recorded with the utmost minuteness,
"that the main-topmast and fore-yard of the Blenheim were shot
through, one gun was rendered unserviceable, and there were
several shots in the hull; that the Melville had also a shot in one of
her top-masts; that the Calliope was struck; and that other ships had
just a rope cut here and there." No one could dispute the triumphant
declaration of the commander-in-chief, that he was "convinced that
almost any number of men the Chinese could collect, would not be
able to stand against the animated gallantry of his men for an
instant."
It is to be regretted that the loss on the side of the Chinese, in killed
and wounded, should have been so considerable. Thirteen hundred
prisoners were taken, but were set at liberty soon afterwards; and,
altogether, upwards of five hundred were killed and wounded during
the day. Many of the Chinese officers boldly and nobly met their
death, some even courted it; they dreaded their master's wrath and
their own degradation more than the loss of life at the hands of their
country's foe. Among these, the most distinguished and most
lamented, was poor old Admiral Kwan, whose death excited much
sympathy throughout the force; he fell by a bayonet wound in his
breast, as he was meeting his enemy at the gate of Anunghoy,
yielding up his brave spirit willingly to a soldier's death, when his life
could only be preserved with the certainty of degradation. He was
altogether a fine specimen of a gallant soldier, unwilling to yield
when summoned to surrender, because to yield would imply treason.
Kwan's body was claimed and recognised by his own family the
following day, and was of course readily given up to them. A salute
of minute-guns was fired to his honour from the Blenheim, as a
brave but fallen enemy. It will be remembered that he was the same
distinguished personage who lost his red button or ball during the
engagement with the war-junks in Anson's Bay, and obtained it back
again, at his own request, through Capt. Elliot's intercession.
The resistance which the Chinese might have offered to our forces
will be seen from the following account of the ordnance captured
during the day. On the southern Anunghoy fort, were 107 guns, of
various calibre; one being a 68-pounder, one a 42, and a good many
of 32, 24, and 18. Four of them were very large brass guns, made
by the Portuguese, in 1627, two of these being upwards of eleven
feet long, and ten inches and three-quarters in diameter of the bore;
three of the iron ones were of English manufacture, and the
remainder were heavy Chinese guns. On the northern Anunghoy fort
were 40 guns, about half of them varying from 18 to 42-pounders.
All of these were Chinese. At the two sand-bag batteries, erected to
the eastward of the southern fort, were about 30 guns of small
calibre; so that there were altogether on that side of the river one
hundred and seventy-seven guns. Again, upon the little fortified
island of North Wantung, were planted upwards of one hundred and
sixty guns, of which, however, one third were very small, and of little
service; and another third of them varied only from six to twelve
pounders. The remainder were mostly very good, and some very
heavy guns; one being a 68, and another a 42-pounder. Several of
these bore a curious inscription, similar to some others subsequently
taken on Lord Napier's fort, near Canton.
On the fort and works, on the mainland, on the western side of the
river, facing Wantung, were also mounted about forty guns. Thus,
the whole number captured in this day's operations amounted to
three hundred and eighty pieces of cannon; to which, if we add
eighty pieces more, captured on the preceding day by the Nemesis
and boats, under Capt. Herbert, at the masked battery and
stockades in the river, at the bottom of Anson's Bay, we shall find the
whole number taken and destroyed in these two days alone, at the
first resumption of hostilities, to have amounted to four hundred and
sixty pieces.
Immediately after the British flag was planted triumphantly upon the
forts of the Bogue, or at any rate before the close of the day, a
notice was issued by Commodore Sir Gordon Bremer, by which the
blockade of the river of Canton was raised. British and foreign
merchant-ships were now permitted to proceed as far as the Bogue,
and were to be allowed to go further up the river, as soon as the
obstructions to the navigation could be removed.
 FOOTNOTES:
[25] This was, on more than one occasion, the case during the war. Soldiers were often found
among the killed and wounded each having two dollars on their persons, and, on one occasion,
even six dollars.
[26] This, probably, alludes to the maxim of the Chinese moral code, which says that it should be
remembered that a "foreigner, though he be a good man, and on terms of intimacy with you, is still
of a different race."
[27] This alludes to the famous pirate Kochinga, who was bought off and made an admiral.
[28] During the heat of the action against the batteries of Anunghoy, a very dashing thing was
done by Commander Sullivan, who was serving as a supernumerary commander on board the
Melville. One of the boats got adrift, owing to some accident, and was being carried by the tide
close in under the batteries. The instant this was perceived by Commander Sullivan, he jumped into
his gig, and pulled off to recover the boat, in doing which he was of course exposed to the close
fire of the batteries, but he fortunately escaped unhurt, and brought the boat safely back. This little
spirited incident was not taken public notice of.
[29] Consisting of the Wellesley and Druid, with the Calliope, Samarang, Herald, Alligator, Modeste,
and Sulphur.
[30] The Chinese rarely make any effort to save even their own countrymen from being drowned.
Indeed, should a common boatman tumble overboard accidentally, his own companions in the boat
will often give him no assistance, particularly if he is really in danger of being drowned without it.
 CHAPTER XVII.
The great event which has now been described, the capture of the Bogue forts, though purchased at a
very small sacrifice on the part of the victors, derived an immense importance from the greatness of the
sacrifice in reference to the Chinese. Although the cautious discernment of a few men like Keshen might
have appreciated the strength of their enemy, and the comparative weakness of their own defences, the
fact of the fall of the Bogue forts, which were considered by the Chinese throughout the empire, as well
as by the government, to be impregnable, created a degree of alarm in the public mind without parallel
since the Tartar conquest. Whatever reliance the authorities on the spot, and the overweening
arrogance of a population accustomed only to the "submission" of foreigners, may have placed in the
efficiency of other recent preparations of a different description higher up the river, these could never
inspire confidence in the mass of the nation, or even in the government, to whom the nature of them
could be little known.
The fall of the Bocca Tigris at once destroyed the charm of its supposed strength, and the loss of a
feudal tower of old could hardly have spread more consternation among a host of vassals, than did the
fall of the Bogue forts among the Chinese nation. Totally inexperienced in the horrors of war, they
retained a sort of hereditary pride in the Bogue, as their great bulwark against the inroads of the
foreigner. The whole nation was at that time unprepared for war, and the government without any
organized system of defence. Hence it is not difficult to perceive, that advantage might have been taken
of their momentary state of alarm, to have urged them at once to the conclusion of some kind of
peaceable settlement. The whole difficulty, however, at that time, seems to have turned upon the
question of the supply of tea. The Chinese saw clearly the anxiety which we shewed to obtain the year's
crop, and they quickly boasted that "their tea and their rhubarb were as necessary to the foreigner as
air itself." However, it was resolved at length, that we should dictate the terms of peace at Canton,
rather than at the Bogue, and, accordingly, the fleet prepared to proceed immediately up the river.
It will be remembered that a large chain cable had been thrown across the river, supported by rafts,
between Anunghoy and a little islet close to South Wantung. It served them no good purpose whatever;
and after the ports were taken possession of, nothing was easier than to remove this impediment to the
navigation. The forts were next blown up, or damaged as much as they could be, though not without
great labour and difficulty, arising from the heavy masses of stone and chunam of which they were
constructed. Chinese powder was, moreover, used for the purpose, which, being less strong, though
made as nearly as possible with the same proportions and of the same materials as our own, but with
less care, added somewhat to the difficulty of the task. Several days were occupied by the engineers,
sappers, and miners, assisted by seamen, in this laborious operation. It was, however, effectually done
at last, scarcely one stone being left standing upon another.
On the morning following the action, the light squadron under Captain Herbert was ordered to proceed
without delay up the river, in order to follow up the advantages already gained by the panic created by
the capture of the Bogue. It consisted of the Calliope, Alligator, Herald, Sulphur, and Modeste, with the
Nemesis and Madagascar steamers. The principal objects and the general aspect of the river, as far as
the second bar, (which is below the first one,) have been already described, in connexion with the
account of the grand conference between Keshen and Captain Elliot.[31]
The whole of the neighbouring country on both sides is almost one continued tract of swampy rice-
ground, an additional proof of the endless water-communications. Above the first bar, the river becomes
more intricate in its navigation, having its channel broken and divided by several islands, and ceasing to
be navigable for vessels even of moderate size beyond Whampoa, at least by any channel which had
been at that time discovered. But it will be presently seen that another passage was soon afterwards
found. The anchorage at Whampoa had heretofore been the resort of all the foreign trading ships, and
the surrounding country at all times presents a very picturesque and refreshing appearance. The Canton
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