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Tutorial — Replace TPT Pipeline with ADF + ADLS + dbt

Comparative positioning note

This document is written from the perspective of Microsoft Azure, Cloud Scale Analytics, and CSA Loom. Any description of third-party or competing products, services, pricing, or capabilities is derived from publicly available documentation and sources believed accurate at the time of writing, and is provided for general comparison only. We do not claim expertise in, or authority over, any non-Microsoft product or service; the respective vendor's official documentation is the authoritative source for their offerings, which may change over time. Nothing here is intended to disparage any vendor — where a competing product has genuine advantages, we aim to note them honestly. Verify all third-party details against the vendor's current official documentation before making decisions.

Audience: Data engineers replacing Teradata Parallel Transporter (TPT) export/load pipelines with Azure Data Factory (ADF), ADLS Gen2, and dbt. This step-by-step tutorial covers JDBC connection setup, full and incremental load patterns, and end-to-end pipeline orchestration.

Prerequisites

  • Azure Data Factory workspace provisioned
  • Self-Hosted Integration Runtime (SHIR) installed with network access to Teradata
  • Teradata JDBC drivers installed on SHIR machine
  • ADLS Gen2 storage account
  • Databricks workspace with SQL warehouse
  • dbt project configured (see Tutorial — BTEQ to dbt)

1. The source TPT pipeline

We will replace a TPT pipeline that extracts order data from Teradata, transforms it, and loads it into a summary table. This is a representative export/load pattern.

Original: orders_etl.tpt

DEFINE JOB ORDERS_ETL
DESCRIPTION 'Extract orders, transform, load to summary'
(
    /* ---- STEP 1: Export from Teradata ---- */
    DEFINE SCHEMA orders_schema
    (
        order_id       INTEGER,
        customer_id    INTEGER,
        product_id     INTEGER,
        order_date     DATE,
        amount         DECIMAL(12,2),
        discount       DECIMAL(12,2),
        status         VARCHAR(20),
        region_id      INTEGER,
        updated_at     TIMESTAMP
    );

    DEFINE OPERATOR EXPORT_ORDERS
    TYPE EXPORT
    SCHEMA orders_schema
    ATTRIBUTES
    (
        VARCHAR TdpId        = 'td_prod_server',
        VARCHAR UserName     = @ETL_USER,
        VARCHAR UserPassword = @ETL_PASSWORD,
        VARCHAR SelectStmt   = 'SELECT order_id, customer_id, product_id,
                                       order_date, amount, discount, status,
                                       region_id, updated_at
                                FROM production.orders
                                WHERE updated_at > CAST(''' || @LAST_WATERMARK || ''' AS TIMESTAMP)
                                  AND updated_at <= CAST(''' || @CURRENT_WATERMARK || ''' AS TIMESTAMP);'
    );

    DEFINE OPERATOR FILE_WRITER
    TYPE DATACONNECTOR CONSUMER
    SCHEMA orders_schema
    ATTRIBUTES
    (
        VARCHAR DirectoryPath = '/data/staging/orders/',
        VARCHAR FileName      = 'orders_incremental.dat',
        VARCHAR Format        = 'DELIMITED',
        VARCHAR TextDelimiter = '|',
        VARCHAR OpenMode      = 'Write'
    );

    APPLY TO OPERATOR (FILE_WRITER)
    SELECT * FROM OPERATOR (EXPORT_ORDERS);
);

Associated load script: orders_load.bteq

.LOGON td_prod_server/etl_user,${ETL_PASSWORD}

/* Load exported data into staging */
.IMPORT DATA FILE=/data/staging/orders/orders_incremental.dat

USING (
    order_id       INTEGER,
    customer_id    INTEGER,
    product_id     INTEGER,
    order_date     DATE,
    amount         DECIMAL(12,2),
    discount       DECIMAL(12,2),
    status         VARCHAR(20),
    region_id      INTEGER,
    updated_at     TIMESTAMP
)

INSERT INTO staging.orders_incremental VALUES (:order_id, :customer_id,
    :product_id, :order_date, :amount, :discount, :status, :region_id, :updated_at);

/* Merge staging into target */
MERGE INTO production.orders_summary tgt
USING (
    SELECT
        order_date,
        region_id,
        COUNT(*) AS order_count,
        SUM(amount) AS gross_revenue,
        SUM(discount) AS total_discount,
        SUM(amount - discount) AS net_revenue
    FROM staging.orders_incremental
    WHERE status = 'COMPLETED'
    GROUP BY order_date, region_id
) src
ON tgt.order_date = src.order_date AND tgt.region_id = src.region_id
WHEN MATCHED THEN UPDATE SET
    tgt.order_count = src.order_count,
    tgt.gross_revenue = src.gross_revenue,
    tgt.total_discount = src.total_discount,
    tgt.net_revenue = src.net_revenue
WHEN NOT MATCHED THEN INSERT VALUES (
    src.order_date, src.region_id, src.order_count,
    src.gross_revenue, src.total_discount, src.net_revenue
);

DELETE FROM staging.orders_incremental ALL;

.LOGOFF
.QUIT

Orchestration: cron job

# Run every 15 minutes
*/15 * * * * /opt/teradata/scripts/run_orders_etl.sh

2. Design the Azure replacement

Architecture

┌──────────────┐    JDBC     ┌──────────┐    Write    ┌──────────────┐
│  Teradata    │────────────>│   ADF    │───────────>│  ADLS Gen2   │
│  production  │   (SHIR)   │  Pipeline │  Parquet   │  /raw/orders │
│  .orders     │            │          │            │              │
└──────────────┘            └──────────┘            └──────┬───────┘
                                                          │
                                                    ┌─────▼────────┐
                                                    │  Databricks  │
                                                    │  dbt run     │
                                                    │  (MERGE)     │
                                                    └─────┬────────┘
                                                          │
                                                    ┌─────▼────────┐
                                                    │  Delta Lake  │
                                                    │  silver      │
                                                    │  .orders     │
                                                    │  .orders_    │
                                                    │   summary    │
                                                    └──────────────┘

Component mapping

TPT/BTEQ component Azure replacement Purpose
TPT Export operator ADF Copy Activity (JDBC) Extract from Teradata
File writer (pipe-delimited) ADF Parquet sink Write to ADLS
BTEQ load to staging ADF Copy → Delta staging Load to staging table
BTEQ MERGE to target dbt incremental model Transform and merge
cron schedule ADF trigger (tumbling window) Orchestration
Watermark tracking ADF watermark activity Track incremental position

3. Set up ADF Teradata connection

Step 3.1: Install SHIR and Teradata JDBC driver

# On the SHIR machine (Windows or Linux with network access to Teradata)

# 1. Download and install SHIR from Azure Portal
# ADF → Manage → Integration runtimes → New → Self-Hosted

# 2. Install Teradata JDBC driver
# Download from: https://downloads.teradata.com/download/connectivity/jdbc-driver
# Place JAR files in SHIR custom driver directory:
#   Windows: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Integration Runtime\5.0\Shared\Jars\
#   Linux: /opt/microsoft/integration-runtime/shared/jars/

# Required files:
#   - terajdbc4.jar
#   - tdgssconfig.jar

Step 3.2: Create Teradata linked service

In ADF Studio → Manage → Linked Services → New:

{
    "name": "ls_teradata_production",
    "type": "Teradata",
    "typeProperties": {
        "connectionString": "DBCName=td_prod_server;Database=production;",
        "authenticationType": "Basic",
        "username": "adf_extract_user",
        "password": {
            "type": "AzureKeyVaultSecret",
            "store": {
                "referenceName": "ls_keyvault",
                "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
            },
            "secretName": "teradata-adf-password"
        }
    },
    "connectVia": {
        "referenceName": "ir_self_hosted",
        "type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
    }
}

Step 3.3: Create ADLS linked service

{
    "name": "ls_adls_datalake",
    "type": "AzureBlobFS",
    "typeProperties": {
        "url": "https://csadatalake.dfs.core.windows.net",
        "accountKey": {
            "type": "AzureKeyVaultSecret",
            "store": {
                "referenceName": "ls_keyvault",
                "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
            },
            "secretName": "adls-account-key"
        }
    }
}

4. Build ADF extraction pipeline

Step 4.1: Create Teradata source dataset

{
    "name": "ds_teradata_orders",
    "type": "TeradataTable",
    "linkedServiceName": {
        "referenceName": "ls_teradata_production",
        "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
    },
    "typeProperties": {
        "database": "production",
        "table": "orders"
    }
}

Step 4.2: Create ADLS sink dataset

{
    "name": "ds_adls_orders_parquet",
    "type": "Parquet",
    "linkedServiceName": {
        "referenceName": "ls_adls_datalake",
        "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
    },
    "typeProperties": {
        "location": {
            "type": "AzureBlobFSLocation",
            "fileSystem": "raw",
            "folderPath": {
                "value": "teradata/orders/@{formatDateTime(pipeline().TriggerTime, 'yyyy/MM/dd/HH')}",
                "type": "Expression"
            },
            "fileName": "orders_incremental.parquet"
        },
        "compressionCodec": "snappy"
    }
}

Step 4.3: Build the pipeline

Pipeline: pl_teradata_orders_incremental

{
    "name": "pl_teradata_orders_incremental",
    "properties": {
        "activities": [
            {
                "name": "GetLastWatermark",
                "type": "Lookup",
                "typeProperties": {
                    "source": {
                        "type": "DatabricksDeltaLakeSource",
                        "query": "SELECT COALESCE(MAX(watermark_value), '1900-01-01 00:00:00') AS last_watermark FROM silver.etl_watermarks WHERE table_name = 'orders'"
                    },
                    "dataset": { "referenceName": "ds_databricks_watermarks" }
                }
            },
            {
                "name": "GetCurrentWatermark",
                "type": "Lookup",
                "dependsOn": [],
                "typeProperties": {
                    "source": {
                        "type": "TeradataSource",
                        "query": "SELECT CAST(CURRENT_TIMESTAMP AS VARCHAR(26)) AS current_watermark;"
                    },
                    "dataset": { "referenceName": "ds_teradata_orders" }
                }
            },
            {
                "name": "CopyIncrementalOrders",
                "type": "Copy",
                "dependsOn": [
                    {
                        "activity": "GetLastWatermark",
                        "dependencyConditions": ["Succeeded"]
                    },
                    {
                        "activity": "GetCurrentWatermark",
                        "dependencyConditions": ["Succeeded"]
                    }
                ],
                "typeProperties": {
                    "source": {
                        "type": "TeradataSource",
                        "query": {
                            "value": "SELECT order_id, customer_id, product_id, order_date, amount, discount, status, region_id, updated_at FROM production.orders WHERE updated_at > CAST('@{activity('GetLastWatermark').output.firstRow.last_watermark}' AS TIMESTAMP) AND updated_at <= CAST('@{activity('GetCurrentWatermark').output.firstRow.current_watermark}' AS TIMESTAMP)",
                            "type": "Expression"
                        },
                        "partitionOption": "Hash",
                        "partitionSettings": {
                            "partitionColumnName": "order_id",
                            "partitionUpperBound": "100000000",
                            "partitionLowerBound": "1",
                            "partitionCount": 8
                        }
                    },
                    "sink": {
                        "type": "ParquetSink",
                        "storeSettings": { "type": "AzureBlobFSWriteSettings" },
                        "formatSettings": {
                            "type": "ParquetWriteSettings",
                            "maxRowsPerFile": 500000
                        }
                    },
                    "enableStaging": false,
                    "parallelCopies": 8
                }
            },
            {
                "name": "UpdateWatermark",
                "type": "DatabricksNotebook",
                "dependsOn": [
                    {
                        "activity": "CopyIncrementalOrders",
                        "dependencyConditions": ["Succeeded"]
                    }
                ],
                "typeProperties": {
                    "notebookPath": "/Repos/data-team/teradata-migration/notebooks/update_watermark",
                    "baseParameters": {
                        "table_name": "orders",
                        "watermark_value": {
                            "value": "@activity('GetCurrentWatermark').output.firstRow.current_watermark",
                            "type": "Expression"
                        },
                        "rows_copied": {
                            "value": "@string(activity('CopyIncrementalOrders').output.rowsCopied)",
                            "type": "Expression"
                        }
                    }
                }
            },
            {
                "name": "RunDbtModels",
                "type": "DatabricksNotebook",
                "dependsOn": [
                    {
                        "activity": "UpdateWatermark",
                        "dependencyConditions": ["Succeeded"]
                    }
                ],
                "typeProperties": {
                    "notebookPath": "/Repos/data-team/teradata-migration/notebooks/run_dbt",
                    "baseParameters": {
                        "models": "stg_orders orders_summary"
                    }
                }
            }
        ],
        "annotations": ["teradata-migration", "orders", "incremental"]
    }
}

Step 4.4: Create tumbling window trigger (replaces cron)

{
    "name": "tr_orders_incremental_15min",
    "type": "TumblingWindowTrigger",
    "typeProperties": {
        "frequency": "Minute",
        "interval": 15,
        "startTime": "2024-01-01T00:00:00Z",
        "delay": "00:01:00",
        "maxConcurrency": 1,
        "retryPolicy": {
            "count": 3,
            "intervalInSeconds": 60
        }
    },
    "pipeline": {
        "pipelineReference": {
            "referenceName": "pl_teradata_orders_incremental",
            "type": "PipelineReference"
        }
    }
}

5. Build dbt models for transformation

Step 5.1: Staging model (load Parquet into Delta)

models/staging/stg_orders.sql:

-- Replaces: TPT export + BTEQ load to staging
-- Reads from raw Parquet files landed by ADF

{{ config(
    materialized='incremental',
    unique_key='order_id',
    incremental_strategy='merge',
    file_format='delta'
) }}

SELECT
    order_id,
    customer_id,
    product_id,
    order_date,
    CAST(amount AS DECIMAL(12,2)) AS amount,
    CAST(discount AS DECIMAL(12,2)) AS discount,
    status,
    region_id,
    updated_at,
    CURRENT_TIMESTAMP() AS _loaded_at,
    'adf-teradata' AS _source
FROM {{ source('raw_teradata', 'orders') }}

{% if is_incremental() %}
WHERE updated_at > (SELECT MAX(updated_at) FROM {{ this }})
{% endif %}

Step 5.2: Summary model (replaces BTEQ MERGE)

models/marts/orders_summary.sql:

-- Replaces: MERGE INTO production.orders_summary from orders_load.bteq
-- Aggregates orders by date and region

{{ config(
    materialized='incremental',
    unique_key=['order_date', 'region_id'],
    incremental_strategy='merge',
    file_format='delta',
    partition_by=['order_date']
) }}

SELECT
    order_date,
    region_id,
    COUNT(*) AS order_count,
    SUM(amount) AS gross_revenue,
    SUM(discount) AS total_discount,
    SUM(amount - discount) AS net_revenue,
    CURRENT_TIMESTAMP() AS _updated_at
FROM {{ ref('stg_orders') }}
WHERE status = 'COMPLETED'

{% if is_incremental() %}
    AND order_date >= DATE_SUB(CURRENT_DATE(), 3)  -- Reprocess last 3 days for late arrivals
{% endif %}

GROUP BY order_date, region_id

Step 5.3: Watermark management notebook

notebooks/update_watermark.py:

# Databricks notebook: update_watermark
# Called by ADF after successful copy

dbutils.widgets.text("table_name", "")
dbutils.widgets.text("watermark_value", "")
dbutils.widgets.text("rows_copied", "0")

table_name = dbutils.widgets.get("table_name")
watermark_value = dbutils.widgets.get("watermark_value")
rows_copied = int(dbutils.widgets.get("rows_copied"))

spark.sql(f"""
    MERGE INTO silver.etl_watermarks AS target
    USING (SELECT
        '{table_name}' AS table_name,
        CAST('{watermark_value}' AS TIMESTAMP) AS watermark_value,
        {rows_copied} AS rows_copied,
        CURRENT_TIMESTAMP() AS updated_at
    ) AS source
    ON target.table_name = source.table_name
    WHEN MATCHED THEN UPDATE SET
        target.watermark_value = source.watermark_value,
        target.rows_copied = source.rows_copied,
        target.updated_at = source.updated_at
    WHEN NOT MATCHED THEN INSERT *
""")

print(f"Watermark updated: {table_name} = {watermark_value} ({rows_copied} rows)")

Step 5.4: dbt runner notebook

notebooks/run_dbt.py:

# Databricks notebook: run_dbt
# Called by ADF to execute dbt models

import subprocess

dbutils.widgets.text("models", "")
models = dbutils.widgets.get("models")

# Run dbt from the repo
result = subprocess.run(
    ["dbt", "run", "--select", models, "--profiles-dir", "/dbfs/dbt/profiles/"],
    capture_output=True,
    text=True,
    cwd="/Workspace/Repos/data-team/teradata-migration"
)

print("STDOUT:", result.stdout)
if result.returncode != 0:
    print("STDERR:", result.stderr)
    raise Exception(f"dbt run failed with return code {result.returncode}")

# Run tests
result = subprocess.run(
    ["dbt", "test", "--select", models, "--profiles-dir", "/dbfs/dbt/profiles/"],
    capture_output=True,
    text=True,
    cwd="/Workspace/Repos/data-team/teradata-migration"
)

print("TEST STDOUT:", result.stdout)
if result.returncode != 0:
    print("TEST STDERR:", result.stderr)
    raise Exception(f"dbt test failed with return code {result.returncode}")

6. Monitoring and alerting

Step 6.1: ADF monitoring

ADF provides built-in monitoring for pipeline runs:

Metric Where to find Alert threshold
Pipeline success/failure ADF Monitor → Pipeline runs Alert on any failure
Copy activity duration Activity run details >10 min (normally ~3 min)
Rows copied Copy activity output 0 rows (data gap)
SHIR health ADF → Integration runtimes Offline status

Step 6.2: Azure Monitor alerts

{
    "name": "alert-teradata-pipeline-failure",
    "type": "Microsoft.Insights/metricAlerts",
    "properties": {
        "criteria": {
            "allOf": [
                {
                    "metricName": "PipelineFailedRuns",
                    "metricNamespace": "Microsoft.DataFactory/factories",
                    "operator": "GreaterThan",
                    "threshold": 0,
                    "timeAggregation": "Total"
                }
            ]
        },
        "windowSize": "PT15M",
        "evaluationFrequency": "PT5M",
        "actions": [
            {
                "actionGroupId": "/subscriptions/.../actionGroups/data-platform-alerts"
            }
        ]
    }
}

Step 6.3: Data quality monitoring

-- Daily data quality check (dbt test or standalone)
SELECT
    'orders' AS table_name,
    COUNT(*) AS total_rows,
    COUNT(DISTINCT order_date) AS distinct_dates,
    MIN(order_date) AS earliest_date,
    MAX(order_date) AS latest_date,
    SUM(CASE WHEN order_date = DATE_SUB(CURRENT_DATE(), 1) THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS yesterday_rows,
    CURRENT_TIMESTAMP() AS checked_at
FROM silver.orders;

-- Alert if yesterday has 0 rows (pipeline may have failed silently)

7. Full load pipeline (initial migration)

For the initial bulk migration, create a separate full-load pipeline:

Step 7.1: Full load ADF pipeline

{
    "name": "pl_teradata_orders_full_load",
    "properties": {
        "activities": [
            {
                "name": "CopyFullOrders",
                "type": "Copy",
                "typeProperties": {
                    "source": {
                        "type": "TeradataSource",
                        "query": "SELECT * FROM production.orders",
                        "partitionOption": "Hash",
                        "partitionSettings": {
                            "partitionColumnName": "order_id",
                            "partitionUpperBound": "100000000",
                            "partitionLowerBound": "1",
                            "partitionCount": 32
                        }
                    },
                    "sink": {
                        "type": "ParquetSink",
                        "storeSettings": { "type": "AzureBlobFSWriteSettings" },
                        "formatSettings": {
                            "type": "ParquetWriteSettings",
                            "maxRowsPerFile": 1000000
                        }
                    },
                    "parallelCopies": 32
                }
            }
        ]
    }
}

Step 7.2: Performance comparison

Metric TPT (original) ADF (replacement)
Full load (100M rows) ~45 min (TPT direct) ~60 min (JDBC via SHIR)
Incremental (100K rows) ~2 min (TPT + BTEQ) ~3 min (ADF + dbt)
Network bandwidth used Dedicated VLAN ExpressRoute / VPN
Parallelism TPT instances ADF partition count
Error handling TPT error tables ADF fault tolerance
Scheduling cron ADF triggers (tumbling window)
Monitoring Log files + email ADF Monitor + Azure Monitor

8. Cutover plan

Phase 1: Parallel run (2-4 weeks)

Run both TPT/BTEQ and ADF/dbt pipelines simultaneously:

Teradata → TPT → Teradata target    (existing)
Teradata → ADF → ADLS → dbt → Delta (new)

Compare outputs daily:

-- Compare Teradata target with Azure target
SELECT 'teradata' AS source, order_date, region_id, order_count, net_revenue
FROM teradata_mirror.orders_summary
WHERE order_date = DATE_SUB(CURRENT_DATE(), 1)

UNION ALL

SELECT 'azure', order_date, region_id, order_count, net_revenue
FROM silver.orders_summary
WHERE order_date = DATE_SUB(CURRENT_DATE(), 1)

ORDER BY order_date, region_id, source;

Phase 2: Switch primary (1 week)

  • ADF/dbt becomes primary pipeline
  • TPT/BTEQ runs as backup
  • All consumers read from Azure

Phase 3: Decommission TPT (after 30 days stable)

  • Disable TPT/BTEQ cron jobs
  • Archive scripts to version control
  • Remove Teradata extract user permissions
  • Update documentation

9. Troubleshooting

Issue Cause Resolution
ADF JDBC timeout Large query, slow network Increase timeout, add partitioning
SHIR out of memory Too many parallel copies Reduce parallelCopies, increase SHIR RAM
Teradata session limit Too many ADF partitions Reduce partitionCount, coordinate with DBA
Parquet schema mismatch Teradata column type change Update ADF dataset schema mapping
dbt MERGE conflicts Late-arriving data overlaps Use wider incremental window (3-7 days)
Watermark gap ADF failure between copy and watermark update Re-run with manual watermark override
Data duplication Retry without idempotent MERGE Ensure unique_key in dbt incremental

Maintainers: csa-inabox core team Last updated: 2026-04-30