Forum Discussion

pmscorca's avatar
pmscorca
Kudo Kingpin
4 months ago
Solved

Different behaviour between SQL database and SQL Analytics endpoint

Hi, I've noticed that there are diffencies between SQL database view and SQL Analytics endpoint view in the explorer. F.e. when I create a table with a datetime column I can do it successfully in t...
General Question
SQL database
  • v-anbandari's avatar
    v-anbandari
    4 months ago

    Hi pmscorca ,

    To align the SQL Analytics Endpoint with the SQL Database Editor, you need to explicitly call the Fabric REST API refreshMetadata operation. This forces the endpoint to sync its schema with the latest definitions.

     

    You don’t use this API inside the SQL Database Editor or SQL Analytics Endpoint UI directly  it’s a REST API call that you trigger from your own automation or client code. In practice, you’d use it in one of these places:

     

    1. Fabric Pipelines → Add a Web activity after your ingestion/transform steps to call the refreshMetadata API, so the SQL Analytics Endpoint is always aligned before downstream reporting.

    2. Notebooks → Use Python (with requests or http libraries) to call the API as part of your workflow.

    3. External scripts → PowerShell, Python, or any HTTP client can invoke the endpoint. This is common if you’re orchestrating refreshes outside Fabric.

    4. CI/CD automation → Integrate the call into deployment pipelines so schema changes are automatically reflected in the SQL Analytics Endpoint.

    For more details, you can refer to the official documentation:

    Items - Refresh Sql Endpoint Metadata - REST API (SQLEndpoint) | Microsoft Learn


    Thank you.

     

lbendlin's avatar
lbendlin
Super User
4 months ago
The SQL Analytics endpoint view should correspond to SQL database view.

Not really. The SQL Endpoint is a pared down, read only version.  Cannot be used for transactions, only for consumption. Meta data synchronization is a one way street, and is not deterministic.

pmscorca's avatar
pmscorca
Kudo Kingpin
4 months ago

Hi, I don't understand the usefulness of the SQL analytics endpoint layer for a SQL database.

These two features don't align with each other, even over time.

  • v-anbandari's avatar
    v-anbandari
    Community Support
    4 months ago

    Hi pmscorca ,

    It may seem that the SQL Database and SQL Analytics endpoint should behave the same, but they are designed for different purposes in Microsoft Fabric.

    The SQL Database is used for transactional operations like insert, update, and delete. The SQL Analytics endpoint is a read-only layer used for reporting and analytical queries. The purpose is not to make both the same, but to allow analytics on the same data without affecting transactional performance and without moving data.

    Because the SQL Analytics endpoint uses a different engine, some differences are expected, such as requiring datetime2 instead of datetime and slight delays in reflecting changes.

    Both are meant to work together, not to behave exactly the same.

    Thank you.