Migrate Schema to CDS

[Dalebid1]

Hi, we've got a number of on premise solutions that we are looking to migrate to CDS, it seems relatively straightforward to import data using dataflows, or via Excel as a one off exercise and define alternate keys if regular synchronisation needs to take place. Just wondering if there is a best practice/simple way to move  the relationships which are already in a datasource from a database to CDS, we don't really need to retain the alternate keys in the datasource once its been migrated.

Thanks

Dale.

[dpoggemann · Accepted solution]

Hi @Dalebid1 ,

I am hoping I understand your question but I am regularly migrating data off of legacy Access databases to Dataverse and migrating tables with foreign key relationships in Access to Tables in Dataverse.  I do the Excel method mostly 🙂 and do the following:

1.  Migrate the primary (parent) table to Dataverse with standard entity import template spreadsheet and Import process

2.  Migrate the related table with the standard entity import template (which will contain the lookup column to the parent entity and then I will fill in the Name from the parent table here.  

This will import the 2nd table and the relationship will be established to the parent entity.  If the "Name" column is not unique then you will need to go through the mapping wizard (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/user/import-data) and have a different column from the Parent entity that is unique you can map to or it will fail with unable to resolve reference.

Hopefully this is what you were looking for Dale.

Thanks,

Drew

[EricRegnier]

Hi @Dalebid1, there are no official best practices that I know of and there's no right/wrong answer. It really depends on your scenario. My comments:

• Excel is good. I like the Office Add-in which works nicely. This is a good option for one-time load (with small volume and simple data model) to one table. It is convenient if your users manages the imports.
• Dataflows are really great for simple data model and small amount of data (about <20K). This is also convenient to automatically create your CDS/Dataverse entities/tables if you don't already have them. One time load and replication data works well. But bi-directional sync or updating records that continue to have a lifecycle in Dataverse is not fit for purpose
• Power Automate with the CDS (current environment) connector is a common approach which gives you more flexibility on the actions. The tables would need to be pre-created though.
• On the Azure side, Logic Apps/Azure Data Factory (ADF) are other common approaches, especially for more complex ETL.

Hope this helps!

[Dalebid1]

Thanks for the help Drew that pointed me in the right direction!

[Dalebid1]

Thanks Eric! Good to understand a few more of the migration options outside of our current need to move some ms access databases to PowerApps.