Import Microsoft Dataverse Data Using Azure Data Factory

Dibyendu Datta
Lead Technology Evangelist

Use CData Connect AI to connect to Microsoft Dataverse Data from Azure Data Factory and import live Microsoft Dataverse data.

Microsoft Azure Data Factory (ADF) is a completely managed, serverless data integration service. When combined with CData Connect AI, ADF enables immediate cloud-to-cloud access to Microsoft Dataverse data within data flows. This article outlines the process of connecting to Microsoft Dataverse through Connect AI and accessing Microsoft Dataverse data within ADF.

CData Connect AI offers a cloud-to-cloud interface tailored for Microsoft Dataverse, granting you the ability to access live data from Microsoft Dataverse data within Azure Data Factory without the need for data replication to a natively supported database. Equipped with optimized data processing capabilities by default, CData Connect AI seamlessly channels all supported SQL operations, including filters and JOINs, directly to Microsoft Dataverse. This harnesses server-side processing to expedite the retrieval of the desired Microsoft Dataverse data.

About Microsoft Dataverse Data Integration

CData provides the easiest way to access and integrate live data from Microsoft Dataverse (formerly the Common Data Service). Customers use CData connectivity to:

Access both Dataverse Entities and Dataverse system tables to work with exactly the data they need.
Authenticate securely with Microsoft Dataverse in a variety of ways, including Azure Active Directory, Azure Managed Service Identity credentials, and Azure Service Principal using either a client secret or a certificate.
Use SQL stored procedures to manage Microsoft Dataverse entities - listing, creating, and removing associations between entities.

CData customers use our Dataverse connectivity solutions for a variety of reasons, whether they're looking to replicate their data into a data warehouse (alongside other data sources)or analyze live Dataverse data from their preferred data tools inside the Microsoft ecosystem (Power BI, Excel, etc.) or with external tools (Tableau, Looker, etc.).

Getting Started

Configure Microsoft Dataverse Connectivity for ADF

Connectivity to Microsoft Dataverse from Azure Data Factory is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Microsoft Dataverse data from Azure Data Factory, we start by creating and configuring a Microsoft Dataverse connection.

CData Connect AI uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection

👁 Adding a Connection

Select "Microsoft Dataverse" from the Add Connection panel

👁 Selecting a data source

Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Microsoft Dataverse.
You can connect without setting any connection properties for your user credentials. Below are the minimum connection properties required to connect.
- InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
- OrganizationUrl: Set this to the organization URL you are connecting to, such as https://myorganization.crm.dynamics.com.
- Tenant (optional): Set this if you wish to authenticate to a different tenant than your default. This is required to work with an organization not on your default Tenant.
When you connect the Common Data Service OAuth endpoint opens in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions. The OAuth process completes automatically.
👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
Click Save & Test
Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Microsoft Dataverse 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.

Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
Give the PAT a name and click Create. 👁 Creating a new PAT
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 Microsoft Dataverse data from Azure Data Factory.

Access Live Microsoft Dataverse Data in Azure Data Factory

To establish a connection from Azure Data Factory to the CData Connect AI Virtual SQL Server API, follow these steps.

👁 Logging in to ADF

If you have not yet created a Data Factory, Click New -> Dataset.

👁 Creating new data factory

In the search bar, enter SQL Server and select it when it appears. On the following screen, enter a name for the server. In the Linked service field, select New.

👁 Selecting SQL Server

Enter the connection settings.
- Name - enter a name of your choice.
- Server name - enter the Virtual SQL Server endpoint and port separated by a comma: tds.cdata.com,14333
- Database name - enter the Connection Name of the CData Connect AI data source you want to connect to (for example, CDS1).
- User Name - enter your CData Connect AI username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect AI interface. For example, [email protected].
- Password - select Password (not Azure Key Vault) and enter the PAT you generated on the Settings page.
- Click Create.

👁 Configuring new linked service

In Set properties, set the Name, choose the Linked service we just created, select a Table name from those available, and Import schema from connection/store. Click OK.