Automating Access Token and Refresh Token Generation Using ADF and Azure Key Vault – Part 1
Introduction
In this blog, I will explain how we can automate generating access tokens or refresh tokens. When working with APIs, a common problem is the expiration of the access token or refresh token after some time. We solved this issue by using Azure Data Factory and Azure Key Vault.
Azure Key Vault is used for storing API credentials as it is one of the most secure ways to store keys/secrets in Azure. Azure Data Factory is used to automate the process of generating access tokens for APIs. We are dividing this blog into two parts:
- Setup of Azure Key Vault and Azure Data Factory.
- Automating access token generation in Azure Data Factory.
Before we proceed with the blog, please test your API in Postman to know the API requirements for generating access tokens. For me, it is client ID, client secret, and Refresh Token.
Steps to Set Up Azure Key Vault and Azure Data Factory:
– Go to the Azure portal and create a Key Vault resource. Please make sure that your Key Vault and Azure Data Factory are in the same region.
– Create a secret by generate/import and entering the required details. I have already created the secrets I need.
– For the access token, you can keep the initial value as anything you want; we will update it later using an ADF Pipeline.
– Set up an access policy for the Azure Data Factory to access our Key Vault. To do this, go to “Access Policy” and select the appropriate options.
– Click “Next” and select your Azure Data Factory, where you will be creating a pipeline for refreshing the access token.
– Now, go to Azure Data Factory Studio and set up the linked Service for your API in the Azure data factory.
– The dataset is also pretty straightforward, and I prefer to use a parameter for the relative URL so that I can reuse the same dataset and just set the URL of the API I want to call during runtime:
Conclusion
That’s all for the setup in part 1. We’ve covered the essential steps to set up Azure Key Vault and Azure Data Factory for securely managing API credentials and setting the groundwork for automating access token generation. These tools provide a reliable and secure way to handle token expiration, ensuring smooth API operations without manual intervention.
In part 2, we will discuss in detail how we can automate access token generation using Azure Data Factory.
We hope you found this article useful, and if you would like to discuss anything, you can reach out to us at [email protected]
