Integrate Cosmos DB Data into Automated Tasks with Power Automate

Microsoft Power Automate is an online service that automates events (known as workflows) across the most common apps and services. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Cosmos DB data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to connect to Connect AI from Power Automate and integrate live Cosmos DB data into your workflows and tasks.

CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL, cloud-to-cloud interface for Cosmos DB, allowing you to easily integrate with live Cosmos DB data in Power Automate — without replicating the data. CData Connect AI looks exactly like a SQL Server database to Power Automate and uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Cosmos DB, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Cosmos DB data.

Configure Cosmos DB Connectivity for Power Automate

Connectivity to Cosmos DB from Power Automate is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Cosmos DB data from Power Automate, we start by creating and configuring a Cosmos DB connection.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a Connection

2. Select "Cosmos DB" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Cosmos DB.

   To obtain the connection string needed to connect to a Cosmos DB account using the SQL API, log in to the Azure Portal, select Azure Cosmos DB, and select your account. In the Settings section, click Connection String and set the following values:

   • AccountEndpoint: The Cosmos DB account URL from the Keys blade of the Cosmos DB account
   • AccountKey: In the Azure portal, navigate to the Cosmos DB service and select your Azure Cosmos DB account. From the resource menu, go to the Keys page. Find the PRIMARY KEY value and set AccountKey to this value.
   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Cosmos DB Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions
   

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give the PAT a name and click Create. 👁 Creating a new PAT
   
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to Cosmos DB data from Power Automate.

Connecting to CData Connect AI

To use Connect AI to integrate Cosmos DB data into your Power Automate tasks, you need a new SQL Server connection:

1. Log in to Power Automate
2. Click Data -> Connections -> New connection
3. Select SQL Server 👁 Creating a new SQL Server Connection
   
4. In the connection wizard:
   
   
   • Choose to connect directly
   • Set SQL server name to tds.cdata.com,14333
   • Set SQL database name to the name of the Cosmos DB connection (e.g. CosmosDB1)
   • Set Username to a Connect AI user (e.g. [email protected])
   • Set Password to the PAT for the above user
   • Click Create 👁 Connecting to Connect AI
     

Integrating Cosmos DB Data into Power Automate Tasks

With the connection to Connect AI configured, you are ready to integrate live Cosmos DB data into your Power Automate tasks.

1. Log in to Power Automate
2. Click My flows -> New flow and choose to create the flow from blank or template
3. Add (or configure) a SQL Server action (like Get rows) and configure the action to connect to your Connect AI connection
4. Select a Table to work with (from the drop-down menu) and configure any advanced options (like filters, orders, etc) 👁 Getting Cosmos DB "Rows"
   
5. Configure any actions to follow and test, then save the flow

SQL Access to Cosmos DB Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live Cosmos DB data from Power Automate tasks. You can create more connections and workflows to drive business — all without replicating Cosmos DB data.

To get SQL data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, sign up for a free trial of CData Connect AI.

Related Power Automate Articles

This article explains how to use CData Connect AI with Power Automate (Online). Check out our other articles for more ways to work with Power Automate Desktop:

• Cosmos DB Data in Power Automate Desktop using CData Connect
• Cosmos DB Data in Power Automate Desktop via ODBC