FAQ

How is the data synchronizing working?

• BC2Fabric uses Business Central APIs to extract data from Business Central, i.e. it is pulling instead of pushing data.
• All queries provided by BC2Fabric and generated by the BC2Fabric query generator include the hint DataAccessIntent = ReadOnly so data is pulled from the read-only replica. Read-only replicas are available for all production environments. See the DataAccessIntent property for more details.
• Various performance patterns were used to maximize loading performance, including those described in the Business Central performance guidance.

What licenses do I need to run BC2Fabric?

BC2Fabric requires a license for the BC2Fabric solution, an active Fabric or Fabric Trial Capacity (F2 or larger), and at least one Power BI Pro or Premium Per User account to manage and share the workspace assets.

How do I change the refresh time and schedule?

The BC2Fabric workload deploys a Fabric pipeline named bc2fabric_refresh that orchestrates loads from Business Central into the mirrored database. Scheduling is controlled on that pipeline.

1. In Microsoft Fabric, open the workspace that hosts the BC2Fabric workload.
2. Select the bc2fabric_refresh pipeline and choose Schedule from the command bar.
3. Adjust the frequency, start time, end time, or deactivate the schedule. For more details, see Scheduled pipeline runs in Fabric.

You can also trigger an on-demand load by selecting Run now on the pipeline whenever you need an immediate refresh.

How do I build Power BI reports on top of the mirrored data?

The mirrored bc2fabric_mirror database supports building semantic models in Import or Direct Lake mode. When using Direct Lake, reports stay synchronized without maintaining dataset refreshes.

1. Open the Fabric workspace and launch the bc2fabric_mirror database to review the synchronized Business Central tables.
2. From the mirroring experience, choose New > Semantic model, provide a name and select the workspace where the semantic model should be created. Select the mirrored tables that should be part of the semantic model.
3. Use the web authoring experience to build relationships, DAX measures etc. Changes to the model will automatically be saved to the model in the service.
4. Build Power BI reports in the service or connect with Power BI Desktop to the Direct Lake Semantic Model, as described here.

Semantic models with import (instead of Direct Lake) can be created with Power BI Desktop by using the SQL endpoint of the mirroring database and by configuring refreshes from the workspace as required.

How can I see how up to date the data is?

Use Fabric monitoring tools for transparency of the loading process.

• The overview on the mirroring database bc2fabric_mirror shows the last completed mirroring time for every table so you can see when each dataset finished syncing.
• All mirrored tables expose a Modified at BC2FAB column that records when each row was last retrieved from Business Central.

Surface those timestamps through T-SQL queries or Power BI reports to get transparency into the freshness of data.

How are tables and fields named in BC2Fabric?

BC2Fabric mirrors Business Central with the same table and field names from Business Central, removing only special characters such as ., ,, and / from table names.

Behind the scenes, BC2Fabric aligns API queries with the Business Central field list so objects match their Business Central counterparts—this is ensured for the standard BC2Fabric objects and for queries generated with the BC2Fabric query generator and facilitates subsequent queries on the data.

How can I use my own endpoints for mirroring?

Custom APIs and tables can be mirrored as long as they expose the Business Central change tracking columns that BC2Fabric expects.

After creating the Queries (e.g. by using the BC2Fabric query generator), endpoints for custom tables need to be added to the BC2Fabric table config. Once added, they are automatically picked up by the mirroring mechanism—no changes are required in Fabric.

Follow the instructions how to add custom tables.

How can I extend the mirrored data with other data sources?

OneLake lets you combine Business Central data with other sources without copying tables out of Fabric.

• Create a dedicated Lakehouse for blended analytics and add a shortcut that points to the bc2fabric_mirror database schema so the mirrored data is available without duplicating it.
• Use Dataflows Gen2, pipelines, or notebooks to join BC2Fabric tables with third-party data and persist curated outputs in that Lakehouse.
• Build new Semantic Models based on the Lakehouse that combines the data.

This pattern keeps governance centralized while letting you enrich Business Central insights with external sources.

How are deleted records handled with incremental loading?

Business Central logs deletions for BC2Fabric so incremental loads remove the same rows from the mirrored database.

This targeted logging keeps analytics aligned BC while minimizing data storage and processing overhead.

How do I get notified about load failures?

Monitor pipeline executions in Fabric and trigger notifications when runs fail.

1. To monitor the recent runs, open the bc2fabric_refresh pipeline, go to Run history, and review recent executions for status and duration.
2. Create alert rules to send notifications when refreshes fail by creating an Activator Item. Follow the steps as explained here.

How does the loading impact Business Central?

BC2Fabric is designed to avoid affecting transactional performance in Business Central.

• Read-only replica: All data extraction runs against the Business Central read-only replica, so the operational write database remains untouched by analytics workloads.
• Incremental Loading: Each pipeline run processes only the records that changed since the prior refresh by using Business Central systemRowVersion values, keeping load windows short.
• API queries only: The integration calls API queries instead of API pages to maximize throughput.

How is the access to Business Central working?

BC2Fabric authenticates to Business Central with an Azure AD service principal and stores the credentials securely in Azure Key Vault.

For the installation follow the instructions.

What needs to be considered when pausing/resuming the Fabric capacity?

Fabric capacities can be paused and resumed manually or resumed automatically (e.g. via Azure Automation Runbooks) to control costs. The BC2Fabric loading process will not run while the capacity is paused.

After resuming the capacity, resume the bc2fabric_mirror database to restart mirroring. This can be done manually in the mirroring experience (see the Fabric mirroring troubleshooting guidance) or via API by calling the Start Mirroring endpoint.