topic Re: External File ingestion in Data Engineering

External File ingestion

JibinSebastian — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 16:55:50 GMT

Hi All,

I want to ingest external csv from from a different network to fabric, Could you please help me to understand the best way to ingest that data into fabric.

any leads would be greatly appreciated.

best regards,
Jibin Sebastian

Re: External File ingestion

deborshi_nag — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 17:06:08 GMT

Hi @JibinSebastian

You can use a Dataflows Gen2 using the File connector. Whether you will need a gateway to connect to the file will depend on:

you need a gateway if:
- The external CSV file is on a private network (on-premises or VPC) that is not accessible over the public internet.
- You want secure connectivity without opening ports or exposing the network publicly.
No gateway needed if:
- The CSV file is hosted on a publicly accessible endpoint (HTTP, HTTPS).
- The file is in a cloud storage service (Azure Blob, AWS S3, etc.) with public or token-based access.
- You manually upload the file into OneLake.

Hope this helps - please appreciate leaving a Kudos or accepting as a Solution!

Re: External File ingestion

lbendlin — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 20:25:09 GMT

Please clarify what "different network" means. For example - if these CSV files are on a sharepoint then you can use the new shortcut feature - no need to ingest anything.

Re: External File ingestion

ati_puri — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 05:30:34 GMT

Hi @JibinSebastian ,

Few options suggested for your scenaio:

Use On-Premises Data Gateway

Install Microsoft On-Premises Data Gateway on your local network.
Configure Fabric Dataflows (Power Query) or Data Factory pipelines to connect through the gateway.
This allows Fabric to securely access local files without moving them manually.

2. Scheduled Upload via Automation

Use Power Automate or a script (PowerShell, Python) to:
- Pick up CSV files from local folders.
- Push them to OneLake or Azure Blob Storage.
Once in OneLake, Fabric can ingest them into Lakehouse or Dataflow Gen2.

3. Hybrid Approach

If you have network restrictions, you can:
- Set up a shared folder accessible via gateway.
- Or use SFTP/FTP with a pipeline in Fabric Data Factory.

Let me know if the requirement is different.

If you found this helpful, do like it and accept it as a solution.

Re: External File ingestion

v-nmadadi-msft — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 10:40:53 GMT

Hi @JibinSebastian

I wanted to check if you had the opportunity to review the information provided by @ati_puri , @lbendlin and @deborshi_nag . Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions.

Thank you.