Forum Discussion
Business Central Data to Fabric
- 25 days ago
Hi Saum02,
If this is Business Central Online, I would not build the Fabric solution around direct access to the underlying SQL database.
Microsoft's current Business Central integration guidance recommends using the REST API stack for integrations rather than treating the SaaS database as a directly accessible SQL source.
On the Fabric side, there are a few options worth looking at:
- Fabric currently has a Dynamics 365 Business Central connector available as a Dataflow Gen2 source.
- For more controlled/custom extraction, the standard Business Central REST APIs are still the preferred interface.
- There is also a newer option called BC2Fab, which Microsoft highlighted in the Fabric What's New updates. It is a partner Fabric workload that replicates Business Central data into OneLake using Open Mirroring and incremental change detection, so it may be worth evaluating if your goal is ongoing analytical replication rather than repeatedly extracting through APIs.
If this is Business Central on-premises, then direct SQL access is technically another option because you control the underlying SQL Server. I would still compare that against the API approach before coupling your Fabric model directly to the physical BC database schema.So the first question I would ask is whether your environment is Business Central Online or on-premises, and roughly how much data / how many tables you need to bring into Fabric.
AI-assisted drafting: AI was used to help structure and phrase this response. I reviewed and validated the technical content before posting.
Saum02
There are multiple option you can exercise while connecting with BC. I would prefer these options
If Business Central Online, then it is not recommended to connect directly to the underlying SQL database. It’s not a supported approach and the schema can change with BC updates and extensions.
For Fabric, BC APIs/OData or other supported integration options is recommended.
For BC On-Premises, direct SQL extraction can be a good option, preferably through a read-only replica to avoid impacting the production BC database.
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