Power BI Workspace Migration Between Regions in Microsoft Fabric

[ablarrosa8]

We have a customer request to migrate Power BI Workspaces between regions in Microsoft Fabric.
Based on Microsoft documentation and prior discussions, here’s our current understanding — we’d like to validate this and confirm if there are any additional considerations we should highlight.

Current understanding:

• Allowed cross-region migration: Workspaces containing only Power BI elements (semantic models, reports, Gen1 dataflows).
• Not allowed cross-region migration: Fabric-specific items (lakehouses, warehouses, notebooks, Gen2 dataflows) — must be removed before migration.
• Recommendation: Back up non-movable Fabric items before deletion, ideally via Git integration (Azure DevOps or GitHub) for easier restoration after migration.

Process outline:

1. Identify and remove non-movable Fabric items from the workspace.
2. Back them up (Git or manual export).
3. Create a new Fabric capacity in the target region.
4. Reassign the workspace to the new capacity via the Power BI Admin portal.
5. Restore removed items manually in the new region.

Key points to validate:

• This is a manual process — Fabric capacities and workspaces are tied to a specific region.
• Migrating a workspace to another region does not migrate the tenant; metadata and other objects remain in the original region.
• Full tenant migration requires opening a support case in the Power BI Admin portal (“Move to a different region”), handled only by Microsoft, which can take weeks or months and requires careful planning.
• No official Microsoft tool exists for full backup/restore during tenant migration; Power BI APIs or Git are used for exporting and restoring content.

Could you confirm if this understanding is correct, and let us know if there are other critical aspects or best practices we should consider before planning the migration?

Thanks in advance

[v-achippa]

Hi @ablarrosa8,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Fabric Community.

Thank you @AntoineW for the prompt response. 

As we haven’t heard back from you, we wanted to kindly follow up to check if the solution provided by the user for the issue worked? or let us know if you need any further assistance.

Thanks and regards,

Anjan Kumar Chippa

[v-achippa]

Hi @ablarrosa8,

We wanted to kindly follow up to check if the solution provided by the user for the issue worked? or let us know if you need any further assistance.

Thanks and regards,

Anjan Kumar Chippa

[AntoineW · Accepted solution]

Hello @ablarrosa8,

Your current understanding is accurate and well aligned with Microsoft’s official guidance on cross-region workspace migration in Microsoft Fabric

 

Some Additional Considerations 

1. Dataflow Gen2 and Pipelines

• Even though Gen2 dataflows are stored as Fabric items, you can export their definition JSON from the workspace.

• Upon re-import in the new region, recreate linked connections (since data sources and credentials don’t transfer).

• Pipelines (orchestration) also need to be exported manually or via Git.

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2. OneLake Data & Shortcuts

• OneLake data is region-scoped. If your Fabric Lakehouses reference data through shortcuts or Delta tables, you’ll need to recreate shortcuts pointing to data in the new region.

• There’s currently no automated OneLake copy or replication feature between regions (this is in Microsoft’s roadmap under “OneLake Geo-Replication”).

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3. Security and Permissions

• When the workspace moves, workspace roles (Admin/Member/Contributor/Viewer) are preserved.

• However, Fabric role-based access controls (RBAC) on items (e.g., Lakehouse table permissions) are not migrated — they must be reconfigured manually after recreation.

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4. Embedded or App Dependencies

• If the workspace feeds Power BI Apps or embedded reports, note that the workspace ID stays the same, but URLs and dataset refresh connections may need verification after migration.

• Always re-publish the App after migration to refresh binding references.

Documentation : 

- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/admin/service-admin-premium-multi-geo?tabs=power-bi-premium

- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/admin/portal-workspaces#moving-data-around

Hope it can help you!

Best regards,

Antoine