Quick Tip: installing Azure Service Bus Explorer with Chocolatey

 Recently I had to reinstall Azure Service Bus Explorer on a new laptop and it seems that you now need to use Chocolatey (a package manager for Windows) to install Azure Service Bus Explorer. 

Installing Chocolatey, is quite straightforward, - you need to follow the steps outlined on Install Chocolatey for individual use - I installed Chocolatey using PowerShell prompt (with elevated privileges) and did not encounter any issues. 

Next you can simply install Azure Service Bus Explorer from command prompt using "choco install servicebusexplorer". By default it will install into this folder C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\ServiceBusExplorer\tools\ServiceBusExplorer.exe . No issues encountered with version 6.0.3

Hidden gem : the business process catalog for Dynamics 365 apps

The business process catalog for Dynamics 365 apps is an Excel workbook that contains more than 700 processes grouped by end-to-end scenarios and business process areas for different products (Dynamics 365 SCM, Business Central, Customer Service etc ...). It can be used as a blueprint for requirement-gathering and implementation templates. 

Microsoft updates the catalog at least four times each year and the latest November 2024 release was recently made available. This latest releases includes:

• Azure DevOps templates that you can use to track your implementation
• Configuration deliverable downloads for Finance and Operation apps as well as Customer Engagement apps.
• AI generated process flow diagrams for level 3 processes to accelerate the discover process.

Download the latest version on https://aka.ms/businessprocesscatalog and explore AI generated flow diagrams at https://aka.ms/businessprocessflow

API Playground in Dataverse Accelerator App

 The API playground is a pre-authenticated software testing tool which is part of the Dataverse Accelerator App. API playground  allows you to quickly interact with the Microsoft Dataverse Web API - check out Explore and test Dataverse in the Web API playground (Preview)

Dynamics 365 and Power Platform monthly reading list September 2024

 2024 Release Wave 2

Release plans for 2024 release wave 2 are now publicly available - Release plans for Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Cloud for Industry - Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Learn - from July 29th, early access will be available for activation - other key dates for 2024 release wave 2 are also available . Also check out the videos like Dynamics 365 Service 2024 Release Wave 2 or Dynamics 365 and Power Platform 2024 Release Wave 2 - these might also contain features/functionality which are not listed in the release plans.

• 2024 Wave 2: Dynamics 365 Customer Service (YouTube) by @d365goddess
• 2924
• Use the Power Platform Environment Settings App 
• Change history 2024 release wave 1 and change history 2024 release wave 2 -  there are frequent changes on features which are part of a release wave - follow up using the change history
• 2024 release wave 2 for Dynamics 365 Contact Center
• Managed identity support for Dataverse plugins

Copilots, AI and machine learning

• Document classification with Power Automate and Azure AI by @mattbdevaney
• Understanding Copilots at Microsoft (YouTube)
• Microsoft Copilot Studio implementation guide
• So you want to build your own copilot
• Use Dataverse timeline highlights powered by generative AI
• Microsoft Copilot for Finance (YouTube)
• Simplify IT management with Microsoft Copilot for Azure - save time and get answers fast
• Microsoft Copilot for Service on ServiceNow
• Building a multi-channel notification system with Azure Functions and Azure Communication Services - Part 1 #60daysofIA
• Azure AI Translator GitHub repo

Technical topics (Configuration, customization and extensibility)

• Unlocking the full potential of Dynamics Digital Contact Center Platform with Bring Your Own Carrier (BYOC)
• How Microsoft does Quality Assurance (QA)
• Why use managed solutions by @BergmannBene
• Filtering embedded Power BI reports
• Outbound dialer enhancements in Dynamics 365 Customer Service
• Setting up Postman environment to test the Dataverse APIs - quick tip
• Application Insights integration with model-driven Power Apps explored
• Power Platform Well Architected
• User Experience in model-driven apps - the good, the bad and the ugly (YouTube)
• Customer Service: Setup Copilot (YouTube)
• Power Platform Community Tools series - Bulk Data Updater (YouTube)
• Build your own agent using Microsoft Copilot Studio (GitHub Repo)
• The scarce resource of Dataverse storage capacity
• Demo: Build intelligent and scalable solutions with Power Apps and Power Platform (YouTube)
• Manage application users in the Power Platform Admin Center (PPAC)
• Dataverse: Azure Synapse Link vs Fabric Link (YouTube) 
• Adjust other Dynamics 365 copilots in Copilot Studio
• What is a Power Platform Solutions Architect? Action packed explanation! (YouTube)
• Building smarter bots with copilot studio (YouTube)
• Announcing General Availability of Block unmanaged customizations
• 6 stages of solution deployment by  @LinkeD365
• Everything you didn't know you needed to know about Power Platform Solutions
• Dynamics 365 Finance is gradually moving onto the same base platform as Dynamics 365 CE - useful shortcuts
• https://aka.ms/ERPTrialLicense
• https://aka.ms/ERPDevDeploy 
• https://aka.ms/ERPDevConfig 

Topics for Dynamics 365 Business Applications Platform consultants, project managers and power users

• Three ways AI is transforming service from the field to the contact center (Microsoft white paper)
• Capture and communicate value with the business value toolkit (Power Platform CoE toolkit)
• Introducing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center(YouTube)
• Eneco Mobility supercharges its customer car with generative AI by introducing Dynamics 365 Contact Center (Case study - Capgemini) - follow  Peter Ruiter (@pajruiter)  to learn more about copilots and Dynamics 365 Contact Center

Quick tip: Get-AzSubscription and Azure Cloud Shell

The Get-AzSubscription PowerShell cmdlet gets the subscription ID, subscription name and home tenant for subscriptions that the current account can access. You can also pass this values in as a parameter e.g. "Get-AzSubscription -SubscriptionId" to find the name of a subscription. 

The easiest way to execute this cmdlet (without having to install anything on your machine) is by using Azure Cloud Shell.  A handy feature of Azure Cloud Shell is predictive intellisense - use the RightArrow key to accept an inline suggestion.

Power Platform Managed Identity support for Dataverse Plugins (preview)

This is a long overdue feature which allows Dataverse plug-ins to connect to Azure resources (e.g. Azure Key Vault) using managed identities, eliminating the need for credential management and enhancing security.   It currently is available in public preview but GA is expected for November 2024

You will need to create a managed identity record in Dataverse and link it ot your specific plugin assembly - for more details take a look at Set up managed identity for Power Platform (Preview) and Power Platform managed identity overview (Preview) for more details.

In your plugin, you will need to the implement the IManagedIdentityService interface which allows your plugins to interact with managed identities. Using this interface, your plugin can request an access token for a specific Azure resource. I asked Copilot to generate the code for this below but did not check it yet ...

In the meanwhile there is also a XrmToolBox plugin available to help with configuring the managed identity - see GitHub - drivardxrm/Driv.XTB.PluginIdentityManager: XrmToolBox Tool to help manage Managed Identity records in Dataverse

References:

• Announcing public preview of Power Platform Managed Identity support for Dataverse plugin-ins
• Set up managed identity for Power Platform plugins

How to improve your blog posts with Microsoft Copilot

 Here is a little trick that I found on how you can improve your blogposts with Microsoft Copilot. Use this two prompts:

1. Prompt 1: Read the blog post below and suggest 3 questions that a reader will have that are not answered in the article: (Add URL)
2. Prompt 2: Now answer the questions. Avoid bullet-points.

It is however to always review the answers before you just copy/paste them into your blog - the generated content might not be correct - this is referred to as Generative AI hallucinations 

Quick tip: disable meeting invite notifications in Teams activity feed.

There is a new (annoying) functionality which  show meeting invite notifications in your Microsoft Teams activity feed. To disable this go to your  Teams settings and open the 'Notifications and activity' menu on the left sside. At the bottom you will find the calendar notifications which you can change to 'Off'. See Manage notification settings on Microsoft support for more details

Quick Tip: Azure Synapse Link Troubleshooting Guide

 If you encounter issues when setting up Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse - the first place to check is the Azure Synapse Link Troubleshooting Guide - https://aka.ms/synapselinkTSG .

Related posts:

• Implementing Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse: gotchas and tips
• Near real-time and snapshots in Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse
• Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse playlist by Scott Sewell

Quick tip: cheap static website hosting in Azure Storage

Azure Storage's static website hosting feature provides a serverless solution for serving static content such as HTML and images, directly from the $web container. It's a cost-effective option since there's no charge for enabling the feature, with expenses arising only from storage use and operations. Additionally, it includes traffic metrics for easy monitoring of visitor statistics.

References:

• Static website hosting in Azure Storage
• Tutorial: host a static website using Azure Storage

Power Automate license enforcement - looking at it from a Dynamics 365 CE perspective

Mid May 2023, a warning popped up in Microsoft Message Center regarding "Non-Compliant Power Automate Flows" -  soon after the message however disappeared so this got probably missed by the majority of Dataverse and Dynamics 365 admins.

This however raised some concerns in the broader Microsoft community ( see Will Power Automate enforcement licensing kill your flows?  and Upcoming licensing enforcement in Power Automate explained ). 

To be honest I did not pay a lot of attention since the message apparently vanished in thin air and after consultation with Microsoft support they said that this message was sent prematurely. But then, end of October another warning popped up.

So it seems that Microsoft is finally cracking down on Power Automate flows which are not associated with a properly licensed user for premium connectors or Power Automate flows not directly linked to a Power App. When you built your own model-driven app on top of Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (CE) which uses Power Automate flows, you will need to associate the Power Automate Flow with with your new app.

There is a PowerShell script to identify the flows which at risk to be turned off  across your tenant - see I have many environments - how can I get the flows that need my attention across tenants in the Power Automate Licensing FAQ - which uses the Get-AdminFlowAtRiskOfSuspension cmdlet

The Get-AdminFlowAtRiskOfSuspension cmdlet is part of a separate PowerShell module which you can install using Install-Module -Name Microsoft.PowerApps.Administration.PowerShell. It will run a scan of your environments and outline

Check out Associate flows with apps - Power Automate | Microsoft Learn on how you need to link up a flow with an app (see below screenshot on where to do this in the Power Automate flow detail screen). If you make this change on a flow which is a part of a solution, then the associations will be part of the solution file and can be transported cross environments.

Related articles/blog posts:

• Will Power Automate enforcement licensing kill your flows?
• Upcoming licensing enforcement in Power Automate explained
• Flows in app context - is there a clear definition of what it means?
• How do you license Power Automate flows when using them with Power Apps

The ABC of AI: Retrieval-Augmented-Generation (RAG) and grounding

This is the first in a series of blog posts about more advanced generative AI and Large Language Model (LLM) concepts which I use as notes to myself (check out Why I blog and you might want to consider it as well)

Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is an AI framework that enhances the quality of responses generated by large language models (LLMs). LLMs are trained on a massive amount of data and understand statistical relationships between words but lack true comprehension of their meanings. So when faced with specific questions in a dynamic context so that is where RAG comes in.

RAG integrates information retrieval into LLM answers by using these steps:

1. User inputs prompt: when you ask a question, RAG uses your input prompt
2. RAG retrieves relevant information from an external knowledge base based on the user prompt
3. RAG combines this external content with your original promt creating a richer input for the LLM

RAG and grounding are related concepts in the context of enhancing LLMs. Grounding is the process of providing LLMs with information about a specific use-case. RAG is one of the techniques which is used for grounding (another technique is dense retrieval - see Dense X Retrieval: What retrieval granularity should we use  for more details). 

Microsoft Copilot offers a good example of grounding and RAG in use. The reason why Copilot is able to give more targetted responses, is because it uses grounding to improve the specificity of the prompt. 

Copilot uses Microsoft Graph, which can retrieve information about relationships between users, activities and organizational data (like info in Power Platform/Dataverse and/or Dynamics 365, info from e-mails, chats, documents and meetings) as part of the prompt grounding process. Microsoft Copilot will use the user prompt and additional info retrieved through Microsoft and then sends it to the LLM. For more details see Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 overview

The most common systems to provide external data for RAG LLMs are vector databases and feature stores.

References:

• Implement Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) with Azure OpenAI Service (Microsoft Learn)
• RAGAs- How to evaluate RAG pipelines chatbot
• Intro to Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) with Generative AI and OpenAI on Azure
• Azure Cosmos DB - Vector Database
• How vector search and semantic ranking improve your  GPT prompts (Microsoft Mechanics)
• The 5 types of LLM apps (YouTube)
• RAG application with Azure open AI & Azure Cognitive Search (French legal use case - Python notebook)
• Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 overview
• Grounding language model with chunking-free in-context retrieval
• Grounding LLMs
• Langchain - use cases - Q&A with RAG
• Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAGs) for LLMs

Dynamics 365 and Power Platform monthly reading list April 2024

Copilots, AI and machine learning

• Artificial Intelligence 2023 Playlist by Stanford Online (YouTube) and Stanford CS229: Machine Learning | Spring 2022 Stanford Online (YouTube)
• Use Semantic Kernel with Lakehouse in Microsoft Fabric
• Fabric end-to-end use case: Analytics engineering part 1 - dbt with the Lakehouse by @s_debruyn
• From Microsoft to global brands, Dynamics 365 Copilot is helping transform customer experiences across service, sales and marketing
• Accelerate support ramp-ups, handoffs and wrap-ups with Copilot summarization in Dynamics 365 Customer Service
• Introducing new Copilot experiences to boost productivity and elevate customer experiences across the organization
• Transform your business with Microsoft AI (Microsoft Learning Path)
• Accelerating revenue with AI Powered Solutions: a CRO Guide (e-book)
• Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals: Generative AI (Learning path)
• 10 AI terms everyone should know
• Revolutionizing marketing workflows with Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights
• Creating Custom Copilots: Azure AI Studio and Copilot Studio. When to use what?
• Build your Copilot testing strategy in Dynamics 365 Customer Service
• Learn Live: Microsoft Learn AI Skills Challenge
• The Art and Science of working with AI
• Microsoft Copilot in Azure extends capabilities to Azure SQL Database (Private preview)
• How to connect Copilot Studio to Dynamics 365 Customer Service (YouTube)
• Introducing Copilot pane in Power BI Desktop (preview)
• Enable Copilot case and conversation summaries 
• Trust Micrsoft Copilot with your Power Platform and Dynamics 365 data - Power CAT live (YouTube)
• Building Modern Enterprise Solutions: Microsoft Dataverse and Microsoft Copilot
• Microsoft Copilot scenario library - real use cases for HR,Finance, IT, Marketing and Sales
• Microsoft Copilot for Sales FAQ
• Day 19: Microsoft Copilot vs Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 vs Copilot aka PVA
• Announcing Microsoft Copilot for Service
• Enable Copilot in Customer Service and custom apps (Dynamics 365)
• Microsoft Copilot for Service: Introducing new Copilot experiences to boost productivity and elevate customer experiences across the organization  and Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 (YouTube)
• Generative AI for beginners (Microsoft)
• Large language models, explained with a minimum of math and jargon
• Using copilot with SharePoint knowledge to serve your customers
• Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Deliver higher-impact experiences with better data quality and configuration with Copilot
• Information Assistant Industry accelerator on GitHub
• Announcing Microsoft Copilot for Service and Microsoft Copilot for Service product page
• Build your own copilots with Azure AI Studio (Microsoft Mechanics recording)
• Build GPT-automated customer support with Azure Communication Services

 

Technical topics (Configuration, customization and extensibility)

• Lakehouse vs Warehouse vs Datamart - the difference between the three Fabric objects
• Power Platform Well-Architected framework
• Creating service principals really easily using PAC CLI by @carldesouza
• The power of Prefer Headers in the  Dynamics CRM web API
• Analyze Dataverse tables from Microsoft Fabric
• Enterprise security with Power Platform (Microsoft white paper)
• Microsoft Fabric, explained for existing Synapse users
• Announcing new cloud governance guidance in the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF) for Azure
• PCF Learning Roadmap
• Mask sensitive data and prevent unauthorized access and Dataverse: about masking rules 
• Protect enterprise solutions with new Microsoft Power Platform security features
• Power Platform Wave 1 2024: Top 10 features you need to know! (YouTube)
• Add intelligence into your apps with Dataverse AI functions (YouTube)
• Leverage the Power Platform API to create a capacity report
• Associate activities with multiple related records (2023 Wave 2 Public preview)
• Power Platform tenant settings  (YouTube)
• Working with solution dependencies for objects made easier
• Improve solution import time
• https://aka.ms/azai - develop apps that use Azure AI services
• How to create a new Dynamics 365 SCM trial environment from the Power Platform Admin Center (PPAC) preview
• What's new in Playwright 1.32 (YouTube)
• Using Application Insights for Dataverse monitoring
• Modernize customer support with Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Service
• Announcing the Power Platform solutions with AI and Copilot learning path
• Sample library for Digital Contact Center Platform

Topics for Dynamics 365 Business Applications Platform consultants, project managers and power users

• Modernize Service Guided Tour
• Forrester TEI study shows 315% ROI when modernizing customer service with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service
• End of support for Project Service Automation (PSA 3.x)
• Model driven Apps (Power Platform)  visual glossary
• My annual letter: leading in a new era - annual letter from Satya Nadella, CEO at Microsoft
• Finding adequate metrics for  outer,inner and process quality in software development
• Customer story: Avanade puts people first, accelerates sales productivity with Microsoft Copilot for Sales
• Keeping up to date with changes to the Release Wave Plans
• A consultant's guide: overcoming the challenges of joining a Microsoft Dynamics 365 project mid-way through
• Accelerate Copilot extensibility and Power Apps creation with Microsoft Dataverse
• How Microsoft and generative AI are transforming financial services contact centers

SQL Server Integration Services Project template available for Visual Studio 2022

 Since end of 2022, there is also a SQL Server Integration Services  Project template available for Visual Studio 2022 which you can install from the Visual Studio Marketplace. You can install it from the direct download link here or you can search for it in the Visual Studio 2022 extension manager and install it from there.

Classic Azure Application Insights deprecated on February 29th 2024 - 7 days to go

 If you missed it - classic Azure Application Insights will be deprecated on February 29th 2024. If you missed the different notification e-mails, you can quite easily see the warning if you navigate to an Azure Application Insights resource in Azure Portal.

Migration is actually quite easy - you just click on the link provided and this will open up the menu depicted below which allows you to associate your Azure Application Insights resource to a Log Analytics Workspace. The good news is that there are no pricing changes when moving to the workspace-based model. 

As indicated in the migration window, this is  a one way operation so plan for it in advance - the points below might impact on how you will do the migration:

• You can link different Application Insight resources to a single Log Analytics workspace or you can make the split - in most case you want to consolidate it.
• Instrumentation keys do not change during the migration so you don't need to worry about this
• The export feature is not available on the Application Insights workspace-based resources - you need to look at diagnostic settings for exporting telemetry
• There might be some schema changes - important to consider when doing KQL queries - check out query data across Log Analytics workspaces, applications and resources in Azure Monitor
• Existing log data will not immediately move to the Log Analytics workspace - only new logs generated after the migration will be stored in the new log location.

Running SSIS packages in Azure Data Factory - scaling and monitoring

Lifting and shifting SSIS packages to Azure Data Factory (ADF) can provide several benefits. By moving your on-premises SSIS workloads to Azure, you can reduce operational costs and the burden of managing infrastructure that you have when you run SSIS on-premises or on Azure virtual machines. 

You can also increase high availability with the ability to specify multiple nodes per cluster, as well as the high availability features of Azure and of Azure SQL Database. You can also increase scalability with the ability to specify multiple cores per node (scale up) and multiple nodes per cluster (scale out) - see Lift and shift SQL Server Integration Services workloads to the cloud

To lift and shift SSIS packages to ADF, you can use the SSIS Integration Runtime (IR) in ADF. The Azure SSIS-IR is a cluster of virtual machines for executing SSIS packages. You can define the number of cores and compute capacity during the initial configuration (Lift and shift SSIS packages using Azure Data Factory on SQLHack)

Even though there is Microsoft article which explains how to Configure the Azure-SSIS integration runtime for high performance, there is not a lot of guidance of how to run it at the lowest possible cost but still being able to complete the jobs. So would you recommend a higher sizing running on a single node or running a lower sizing on multiple nodes? Based on experience, it seems perfectly possible to run most jobs on a single node and up until now we have been running all of them on a D4_v3, 4 cores, 16GB Standard. If you decide to run it on a lower configuration, it would recommend monitoring failures, capacity usage and throughput. (See Monitor integration runtime in Azure Data Factory for more details)

Reference:

• Configure the Azure-SSIS integration runtime for high performance 
• Comparing SSIS and Azure Data Factory

Dynamics 365 and Power Platform monthly reading list November 2023

 2023 Release Wave 2

• Dynamics 365 Customer Service: new dialer experience (preview) by @D365Goddess
• New sales capabilities in 2023 release wave 2 - helping sellers work smarter
• Dynamics 365 CRM Wave 2 Release: enhance categorization of knowledge search articles
• Configure sales Copilot for Dynamics 365 Sales (Preview) by @DianaBirkelbach

Technical topics (Configuration, customization and extensibility)

• Dataverse - use bulk operation messages (MS Learn) -  CreateMultiple and UpdateMultiple are now GA!  Read the small print to see when to use it
• Dataverse let's try elastic tables (preview) - by @temmy_raharjo
• Ways to deal with missing Power Platform environments  by @inogic
• Edit subgrids side by side with Power Apps Grid or editable grid by @DianaBirkelbach
• Announcing monthly channel for model-driven apps
• Announcing general availability of custom connectors in solutions as well as environment variable secrets
• Announcing SharePoint Embedded Public Preview at ESPC23 - will be interesting to explore whether it is possible to combine this with Dynamics 365 data as an alternative for Power Pages. Head over to http://aka.ms/start-spe/ to start building your first SharePoint Embedded app. 
• Dataverse + Azure Service Bus queue + Azure function for processing long operations
• Workflow automation in Dynamics 365 CRM: triggering actions on email send and receive events by @inogic
• August 2023 updates for modernization and theming in Power Apps
• Connecting to Dataverse from Function App using Managed Identity - using azd
• Power BI - Mastering sales calculations: a comprehensive guide to departmental analysis 
• How to enable the enhanced email template editor in model-driven apps (Dynamics 365/Dataverse)

Copilots, AI and machine learning

• Write an email with Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Service by @nishantranacrm
• Getting your enterprise ready for Microsoft 365 Copilot (Ignite 2023 recording)
• Learn live: prepare, implement and secure Microsoft 365 Copilot (Ignite 2023 recording)
• New study validates the business value and opportunity of AI
• Architecture and deployment diagrams for Microsoft 365 Copilot
• Analyse the impact of AI-enhanced customer service with Copilot analytics
• What is prompt engineering? (McKinsey)
• Anti-hype LLM reading list
• Microsoft Chat Copilot vs Azure ChatGPT - which generative AI capability to choose for the enterprise
• Measuring the productivity impact of Generative AI (NBER digest)
• The power of prompting (Microsoft Research)
• Get started with Microsoft Copilot Studio: how to create your first Copilot by @lisacrosbie
• Use Copilot to summarize cases - Dynamics 365 Customer Service

Topics for Dynamics 365 Business Applications Platform consultants, project managers and power users

• Microsoft to make Dynamics 365 Marketing a part of D365 Customer Insights
• Customer Service in the age of AI
• Refresh the sales experience with Dynamics 365 Sales modern update

Implementing Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse: gotchas and tips

Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse allows you to easily export data from a Dataverse (or Dynamics 365) instance to Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 (ADLS) and/or Azure Synapse. Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse provides a continuous replication of standard and custom entities/tables to Azure Synapse and Azure Data Lake. 

I highly recommend you to view the awesome YouTube playlist Azure Synapse Link and Dataverse - better together from Scott Sewell (@Scottsewell) as an introduction.

This blog post provides a number of tips & tricks but is not an exhaustive list - it is highly recommended to go through the links in the Microsoft documentation listed in the reference section below. You can also take a look at the presentation I delivered at Techorama  in May 2023 which is available on Github - Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse from 0 to 100

1. Check the region of your Dataverse/Dynamics 365 instance

The configuration of Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse is done through the Power Platform maker portal but before you can get started you should first setup Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 and Azure Synapse in your Azure subscription.  

It is however best that you first check in the configuration screen in which region your instance is located since the storage account and Synapse Workspace must be created in the same region as the Power Apps environment for which you want to enable Azure Synapse Link.  From the PPAC user interface it is currently not possible to create a Dataverse/Dynamics 365 instance in a specific region but this is possible with the PowerShell - see Creating a Dataverse instance in a specific Azure region using Power Apps Admin PowerShell module. 

If you need to move a Dataverse or Dynamics 365 instance to a different Azure region, you can open a Microsoft support tickets. Based on recent experience this specific type of Microsoft support request is handled fairly quickly (within 1-2 business days).

Azure Data Lake Storage is a set of capabilities, built on Azure Blob Storage. When you create a storage account and check the "enable hierarchical namespace" checkbox on the advanced tab, you create an Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2.

2. Make sure all prerequisites are in place before enabling Azure Synapse Link

Definitely make sure that all security configuration outlined on Create an Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse with your Azure Synapse Workspace (Microsoft docs) are correctly setup. The exception messages which are shown in the Azure Synapse Link configuration pages aren't always very helpful.

3. Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse is a Lake Database

In the documentation from Microsoft (Understand lake database concepts) a lake database is defined as:

A lake database provides a relational metadata layer over one or more files in a data lake. You can create a lake database that includes definitions for tables, including column names and data types as well as relationships between primary and foreign key columns. The tables reference files in the data lake, enabling you to apply relational semantics to working with the data and querying it using SQL. However, the storage of the data files is decoupled from the database schema; enabling more flexibility than a relational database system typically offers.

The data is stored ADLS Gen2 in accordance with the Common Data Model (CDM) -the folders used conform to well-defined and standardized metadata structures (mapped 1:1 with Dataverse tables/entities). At the root you will see a metadata file (called model.json) which contains semantic information about all of the entity/table records, attributes and relationships between the tables/entities.

The way the files are being written depends on the Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse configuration - both the partitioning mode and in place vs append only mode can be configured - see Advanced Configuration Options in Azure Synapse Link 

4. Synapse Link for Dataverse uses passthrough authentication using ACLs in Azure Data Lake - no support for SQL authentication

Since all the the data for the tables in Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse are CSV files which are stored in Azure Data Lake Storage, this also means that security needs to be set at the level of the files in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2. There is no support for SQL authentication in the Lake DB which is created by Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse.

References:

• Use the Common Data Model to optimize Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 (Microsoft docs)
• Create an Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse with your Azure Synapse Workspace (Microsoft docs)
• Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse - understanding advanced configuration settings (Microsoft docs)
• Do more with data - from Data Export Service to Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse (Microsoft docs)
• Use Power BI to analyze the CDS data in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2
• Synapse Link for Dataverse - Option Sets
• Dataverse metadata in Synapse
• Setting up Azure Synapse Link for Dynamics 365/Dataverse
• Power BI modeling guidance for Power Platform
• Azure Synapse Serverless SQL Pools cheat sheet
• Controlling cost with Azure Synapse Serverless Pools

Near real-time and snapshots in Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse

The Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse documentation contains a section about Access near real-time data and read-only snapshot data but it does not really explain why you want to use one or the other. 

When you open an Azure Synapse SQL Serverless LakeDB in SQL Server Management Studio you see a clear distinction between the two versions of the table data - whereas in Azure Synapse Studio there is no obvious distinction besides the name you will see the "account" table the "account_partitioned" view:

• Near real time data: external table for all the underlying CSV files exported by the Azure Synapse Lin for Dataverse sync engine. There is a soft SLA for the data to be present in these tables within 15 minutes
• Snapshot data/partitioned views: views on top of the near-real time data which are updated on an hourly interval.

In most scenarios, it best to do queries against these partitioned views since you will avoid read conflicts and you are sure that a full transaction has been written on the CSV files in Azure Data Lake storage. 

A typical exception that you might receive when doing queries directly against the "tables" is "https://`[datalakestoragegen2name].dfs.core.windows.net$$/[lakedbname]/[tablename/Snapshot/2023-05_1684234580/2023-05.csv" does not exist or you don't have file access rights)" but this also depends on your specific context. If you have a lot of create, updates or deletes on Dataverse tables this might happen more regularly. Even though, the partitioned views are update on an hourly basis - it might be that the Synapse Link engine is just refreshing the views at the same point that you perform a query, which will give you a similar exception but the changes that this occurs are more rare.

You can check the last sync timestamp and sync status in the Power Platform maker portal (see screenshot below)

For the moment, you will also have to manually check the monitoring page (which can be quite tedious if you have a lot of environments) but there is an item in the Microsoft release planner "Receive notifications about the state of Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse" which is apparently in public preview but I haven't seen it in for  environments (not in the https://make.powerapps.com and also not in  https://make.preview.powerapps.com/)  I have access to. 

It is also not easy to see if something went wrong with the refresh of the partitioned views - up until now the easiest way to find out is running a SQL query -  select name,create_date from sys.views order by create_date desc against the LakeDB.

Quick tip: SQL Server Management Studio 19 supports AAD service principal authentication

SQL Server Management Studio 19.x and higher now allows you to login to SQL using Azure Active Directory application ids and secrets - nice improvement and a reason for me to upgrade.