Connect an Azure Synapse Analytics data source (preview)

Azure Synapse Analytics is an enterprise analytics service that accelerates time to insights across data warehouses and big data systems. Azure Synapse Analytics brings together the best of SQL technologies used in enterprise data warehousing, Spark technologies used for big data, Data Explorer for log and time series analytics, Pipelines for data integration and ETL/ELT, and deep integration with other Azure services such as Power BI, Cosmos DB, and AzureML.

For more information, see Azure Synapse overview.

Prerequisites

Note

Synapse Workspaces which have firewall enabled are currently not supported.

Important

Make sure to set all role assignments as described.

In Customer Insights:

• You have an Administrator role in Customer Insights. Learn more about user permissions in Customer Insights.

In Azure:

• An active Azure subscription.

• If using a new Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 account, the service principal for Customer Insights which is "Dynamics 365 AI for Customer Insights" needs Storage Blob Data Contributor permissions. Learn more about connecting to an Azure Data Lake Storage with a service principal for Customer Insights. The Data Lake Storage Gen2 must have hierarchical namespace enabled.

• On the resource group the Azure Synapse workspace is located, the service principal which is "Dynamics 365 AI for Customer Insights" and the user for Customer Insights needs to be assigned at least Reader permissions. For more information, see Assign Azure roles using the Azure portal.

• The user needs Storage Blob Data Contributor permissions on the Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 account where the data is located and linked to the Azure Synapse workspace. Learn more about using the Azure portal to assign an Azure role for access to blob and queue data and Storage Blob Data Contributor permissions.

• The Azure Synapse workspace managed identity needs Storage Blob Data Contributor permissions on the Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 account where the data is located and linked to the Azure Synapse workspace. Learn more on using the Azure portal to assign an Azure role for access to blob and queue data and Storage Blob Data Contributor permissions.

• On the Azure Synapse workspace, the service principal for Customer Insights which is "Dynamics 365 AI for Customer Insights" needs Synapse Administrator role assigned. For more information, see How to set up access control for your Synapse workspace.

• If your Customer Insights environment stores data in your own Azure Data Lake Storage, the user who sets up the connection to Azure Synapse Analytics needs at least the built-in Reader role on the Data Lake Storage account. For more information, see Assign Azure roles using the Azure portal.

Connect to the data lake database in Azure Synapse Analytics

1. Go to Data > Data sources.

2. Select Add data source.

3. Choose the Azure Synapse Analytics (Preview) method.

   

4. Enter a Name for the data source and an optional Description.

5. Choose an available connection to Azure Synapse Analytics or create a new one.

6. Choose a Database from the workspace connected in the selected Azure Synapse Analytics connection and select Next. Currently, we only support the database type Lake database.

7. Select the entities to ingest from the connected database and select Next.

8. Optionally, choose the data entities to allow data profiling on.

9. Select Save to apply your selection and start the ingestion of the data from your newly created data source linked to the Lake database tables in Azure Synapse Analytics. The Data sources page opens showing the new data source in Refreshing status.

   Tip

   There are statuses for tasks and processes. Most processes depend on other upstream processes, such as data sources and data profiling refreshes.

   Select the status to open the Progress details pane and view the progress of the tasks. To cancel the job, select Cancel job at the bottom of the pane.

   Under each task, you can select See details for more progress information, such as processing time, the last processing date, and any applicable errors and warnings associated with the task or process. Select the View system status at the bottom of the panel to see other processes in the system.

Loading data can take time. After a successful refresh, the ingested data can be reviewed from the Entities page.