Power Platform Admin Storage

[KTNN0]

In our Power Platform Admin we are beyond our storage capacity for Database (1 GB), Log (0 MB), File (0 MB).  We are barely starting to use PowerAutomate so I don't understand how we used all that storage.  We are using Power BI much more, could it be the cause of our storage usage?

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/capacity-storage

[Pstork1]

The Power Platform uses the Common Data Service database to maintain its operations.  So when a new environment is created a CDS database is created and 1GB of storage is reserved for its use.  You can read more about how capacity is allocated and used here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/capacity-storage 

[ChrisPiasecki]

Hi @KTNN0, @Pstork1,

I'll just clarify that while each environment provisioned reserves 1GB of storage, a CDS database is not provisioned unless explicitly selected.

If you are building PowerApps (Canvas) or Power Automate flows that connect to other data sources that are not CDS and you don't need it, you can provision the environment without CDS.

That said, it's a better usage of storage capacity to create those type of productivity apps/flows without CDS in the default environment.

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[Pstork1]

One additional clarification.  You can indeed create additional environments without the CDS database.  But the default environment always has a CDS database since it is used by the system to track things like Approvals..  In this case the question was about having 1 GB already committed.  That would be the one GB for the default environment.

[KTNN0]

Sorry I'm still not sure to understand. Thank you for trying to help me!

My initial environment provides 1Go of database storage. When is that storage consumed?

If I create a simple Flow that adds an item in a SharePoint list when a SharePoint file is modified, does this flow use database? logs? files?
If I create a simple Flow that posts in Teams when I receive a specific email, do I use capacity?

[Pstork1]

The creation of a flow consumes a minimal amount of storage to hold the metadata of the flow, Name, when was it created, who was it shared with etc.  But most of the actions don't consume any of the database storage.  For example, creating a list item consumes storage in SharePoint, but not in the CDS database.  Unless you do something with CDS the storage is just used for administrative overhead.  And the 1 GB is a reserved amount for that purpose.  So normally the only time you would notice is if you try to create another environment with a CDS database.  Then you need another 1 GB of database storage.

[KTNN0]

Great, so our simple flows should not affect the storage and to my knowledge, we don't use CDS. Would it be possible to figure out what process uses the storage capacity?

This is what it shows in our https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/resources/capacity

Database: 1.9 used of 1 GB

Log: 1.26 used of 0 MB

File: 97.71 used of 0 GB

[Pstork1 · Accepted solution]

Those are pretty typical numbers for a regular environment and normally not something that I would be concerned about.

[psneathen]

I just received an email that said we were over our limit for storage and when I went into Power Platform Admin Center, and went to Resources / Capacity, it shows that one of my environments is using 3 GB in total and has no storage allocated.  I believe this environment is a newer SharePoint site I established about a year ago and staff are using a list library within it which gets regular use.  I'm just curious as to why there is no storage allocated.  In fact under 'Storage capacity' it shows 0 MB for everything.  In response to this, I did find that my site storage limits were 'manual', but failed to check what they were set to for this site, prior to changing this setting to 'Automatic'.  My question is, do you think changing the SharePoint site storage limit to 'Automatic' will resolve this issue?

[Pstork1]

Please post this as a new question.  You'll get more responses and others will be able to find the answer more easily later.

[psneathen]

Just one more note of interest, we are a public library and have a free Office 365 A1 plan from Microsoft.  We are using the same type of flows, power automate processes, and SharePoint list libraries within my other SharePoint sites, but these have not triggered the need for storage within Power Automate like my latest SharePoint site list library appears to be doing.  Sorry, I am rather new to all of this and my terminology may not be spot on.