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fabricpribeiro's avatar
fabricpribeiro
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6 months ago
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Security question for TDA

Dears,   I am creating a technical Design authority document (TDA)   One of the sources I have is a SQL Server 2008 DB which has a collection of tables (facts and dims)   The SQL Server is on-p...
  • svenchio's avatar
    6 months ago

    Hi fabricpribeiro , very interesting question/reflection, and since I also writing some tech. documentation that most likely will have to include security, I thought I would be nice to draft something we can both use, here's the summary... source is copilot, hence, posted as generated. 

     

    Identity and Access Management

    Access to the source SQL Server and Microsoft Fabric resources is managed using an Azure Entra ID Service Principal.

    • The Service Principal is granted minimum required permissions on the on‑premises SQL Server to read CDC-enabled tables.
    • In Microsoft Fabric, the Service Principal is assigned Contributor role at the workspace level for the Raw (Landing) zone.
    • No interactive user credentials are used in automated data pipelines.
    • Authentication between Fabric services and Azure resources is handled via Azure Entra ID tokens.

    Security In Transit

    All data transferred between the on‑premises SQL Server and Microsoft Fabric is encrypted in transit using TLS 1.2 or higher.

    • The On‑Premises Data Gateway establishes an outbound-only HTTPS connection to Azure, eliminating the need for inbound firewall rules.
    • No data is exposed directly to the public internet.
    • Data Factory pipelines communicate securely with the gateway using Microsoft-managed certificates.

    Security At Rest

    Data stored in Microsoft Fabric OneLake is encrypted at rest by default using Microsoft-managed encryption keys.

    • Source SQL Server data remains protected by existing database-level security controls (e.g., Transparent Data Encryption, if enabled).
    • Raw data is stored in a dedicated Fabric workspace with restricted access.
    • No sensitive credentials or secrets are persisted in pipelines or notebooks.

    Service-to-Service Security

    Communication between Microsoft Fabric services (Data Factory pipelines, OneLake storage, and monitoring services) is secured using Azure Entra ID–based service-to-service authentication.

    • Authentication is token-based and centrally managed
    • No usernames or passwords are embedded in pipeline definitions
    • Access is governed through Azure RBAC and workspace permissions

    Network Security

    • The On‑Premises Data Gateway operates within the corporate network and communicates with Azure via outbound HTTPS only.
    • Firewall rules restrict SQL Server access to authorized gateway hosts.
    • No direct network peering or VPN is required for data ingestion.

    Hope it helps, thumbs if does and mark as solution if appropiate