Deployment Pipelines in Microsoft Fabric : Microsoft Fabric is a cloud-based platform that enables you to create, share, and consume business intelligence (BI) content. It offers a variety of tools and features to help you analyze data, create reports and dashboards, and collaborate with others. One of the most powerful features of Microsoft Fabric is deployment pipelines, a tool that allows you to manage the lifecycle of your BI content in a production environment.
Deployment pipelines enable you to develop and test your content in different stages before it reaches the end users. You can also automate the deployment process using APIs and DevOps. In this blog post, I will show you how to create and use deployment pipelines in Microsoft Fabric.
What are deployment pipelines?
Deployment pipelines are a tool that helps you organize your BI content into stages, such as development, test, and production. Each stage is associated with a Fabric workspace, where you can upload, edit, and share your content. You can also set up rules and permissions for each stage to control who can access and modify the content.
Deployment pipelines allow you to deploy your content from one stage to another with a single click. When you deploy content, the source content overwrites anything with the same name in the target stage. Content in the target stage that doesn’t exist in the source stage remains as is. You can also choose which items to deploy or exclude from the deployment.
Deployment pipelines offer three options when it comes to deploying your content:
- Deploy all content – Deploy all your content to the target stage.
- Selective deployment – Select which content to deploy to the target stage.
- Backwards deployment – Deploy your content to a previous stage in the pipeline.
How to create a deployment pipeline?
To create a deployment pipeline, you need to have an Microsoft Fabric subscription and be an admin of a Fabric workspace. You can create a pipeline from anywhere in Fabric by following these steps:
- From the Workspaces flyout, select Deployment pipelines.
- Select Create pipeline.
- In the Create a deployment pipeline dialog box, enter a name and description for the pipeline, and select Create.
You can also create a pipeline from inside an existing workspace by selecting Create deployment pipeline from the workspace menu.
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How to assign a workspace to a pipeline stage?
After creating a pipeline, you need to add the content you want to manage to the pipeline. This is done by assigning a workspace to each pipeline stage. You can assign any workspace that you are an admin of or that has been shared with you as an admin.
To assign a workspace to a pipeline stage:
- From the Workspaces flyout, select Deployment pipelines.
- Select the pipeline that you want to work with.
- Select Assign workspace for the stage that you want to assign a workspace to.
- In the Assign workspace dialog box, select an existing workspace or create a new one.
- Select Assign.
Note that if the workspace is not assigned to your organization’s capacity or to your PPU capacity, you will get a notification to assign it to a capacity.
How to deploy content from one stage to another?
When you are done working with your content in one stage, you can deploy it to the next stage by following these steps:
- From the Workspaces flyout, select Deployment pipelines.
- Select the pipeline that you want to work with.
- Select Deploy for the source stage that you want to deploy from.
- In the Deploy dialog box, select the target stage that you want to deploy to.
- Choose one of the deployment options: Deploy all, Selective deploy, or Backwards deploy.
- Review the items that will be deployed and select Deploy.
You can also use the REST APIs or DevOps tools to automate your deployment process. Learn more about how to do that here.
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FAQs
Here are some frequently asked questions about deployment pipelines:
Q: What are the benefits of using deployment pipelines?
A: Deployment pipelines help you:
- Manage your BI content in a structured and organized way
- Ensure quality and consistency of your BI content across different stages
- Collaborate with other creators and reviewers on your BI content
- Automate your deployment process using APIs and DevOps
Q: What types of items can I deploy using deployment pipelines?
A: You can deploy any type of item that is supported by Fabric workspaces, such as datasets, reports, dashboards, dataflows, apps, etc. See the full list of supported item types here.
Q: How many stages can I have in my deployment pipeline?
A: You can have anywhere between two and ten stages in your deployment pipeline. The default stages are development, test, and production, but you can add, delete, or rename them as per your needs.
Q: How do I share my deployment pipeline with others?
A: You can share your deployment pipeline with other users by selecting Share from the pipeline menu. You can also share individual workspaces within the pipeline by selecting Share from the workspace menu. When you share a pipeline or a workspace with others, they become admins of the pipeline or the workspace, and can view, edit, and delete them.
Q: How do I delete my deployment pipeline?
A: You can delete your deployment pipeline by selecting Delete from the pipeline menu. Note that deleting a pipeline does not delete the workspaces or the content within them. You can still access them from the Workspaces flyout.
Conclusion
Deployment pipelines are a great way to manage the lifecycle of your BI content in Microsoft Fabric. They help you develop, test, and deploy your content in a production environment with ease and efficiency. You can also automate your deployment process using APIs and DevOps tools.