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seoyeon123's avatar
seoyeon123
Regular Visitor
8 days ago

Fabric Capacity pause

Hi,,,,,

I have the following questions regarding pausing/suspending a Microsoft Fabric Capacity (F64 SKU, currently paid via Azure credits) from the Azure Resource Group management page:

  1. Maximum suspension duration When I pause/suspend a Fabric Capacity resource from the Azure Resource Group portal, is there a maximum length of time it can remain in the "Suspended" state? Is there any limit after which the capacity or its associated data would be automatically deleted or require re-provisioning?
  2. Validity of prior workloads during suspension While the capacity is suspended, is the work/data previously produced by Fabric workloads (e.g., pipeline runs, notebook outputs, Lakehouse/Warehouse data, job history) preserved as-is, and will it remain fully valid and accessible once the capacity is resumed? Or is there any retention/expiration policy that could cause data or job history to be lost during the suspension period?
  3. Billing during suspension Since we currently consume the F64 capacity through Azure credits, if we suspend the capacity, will only OneLake storage costs continue to be charged during the suspension period, with all compute-related capacity charges stopped? Please confirm exactly which cost components (if any) continue to accrue while the capacity is suspended.

Thank you for your clarification.

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4 Replies

  • ibarrau's avatar
    ibarrau
    Super User
    8 days ago

    Hi. I haven't seen something like a limit at the docs, However I can tell you that we had a capacity paused for months, so I'll speak for that one.

    1- I don't think there is a limit at suspension time. The artifacts/items in a workspace will remain exactly as they are but they will be unaccesible while the capacity is paused.
    2- The work/data is preserved. The jobs or compute is paused and won't trigger anything. Once you resume it, they will be there with the exact configuration and the data just as you have left it. There is not expiration for paid capacity paused assigned to a workspace.
    3- When you pause the capacity, the items are not longer available to read and compute/trigger cost won't charge anything. However, onelake storage cost continue like you have said. You can see the details at onelake storage cost section in here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/microsoft-fabric/

    I hope that helps

  • ShivekMaharaj's avatar
    ShivekMaharaj
    Power Participant
    7 days ago

    Hi seoyeon123​,

    I agree with ibarrau​'s main points. I would just add two nuances from the current documentation.

    For the suspension duration, Microsoft documents the pause and resume lifecycle for F capacities, but I cannot find a published maximum number of days that a capacity can remain suspended or a rule saying that it is automatically deleted after a certain period. I would therefore treat this as "no documented maximum" rather than assume a guaranteed unlimited retention period.

    For the stored data, Microsoft is more explicit. The OneLake consumption guidance states that data stored on a paused capacity continues to be billed and that transactions against that capacity are rejected until it is resumed. So pausing the F64 does not by itself delete the Lakehouse/Warehouse data.

    I would make one distinction around job history though. The Fabric items and stored data remain, but individual workloads can have their own retention rules for monitoring or execution history, so I would not assume every type of job-history metadata is retained indefinitely purely because the capacity is paused.

    On billing, a manual pause stops the ongoing Fabric compute billing meter, but Microsoft also notes that any accumulated smoothed usage/overages are reconciled when the capacity is paused. OneLake storage continues to be charged while suspended. For a PAYG F64, that means the normal capacity compute charge stops during the paused period, while storage remains chargeable.

    Also keep in mind that scheduled/background workloads cannot continue normally while the capacity is unavailable. For example, Warehouse background activity catches up after the capacity is resumed.

    AI-assisted drafting: AI was used to help structure and phrase this response. I reviewed and validated the technical content before posting.