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Configuring a Business Central Database for Read Scale-Out

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INTRODUCED IN: Business Central 2020 release wave 1

In the Business Central Online service, read scale-out is readily available and automatically enabled on the databases.

For Business Central on-premises, you must do the following steps:

  1. Check whether your database supports read scale-out.

  2. Enable read scale-out on the database.

    If the Business Central database runs on Azure SQL Database, determine whether the performance tier of the database supports read scale-out. You can then enable it if it's supported. For more information, see Use read-only replicas to load-balance read-only query workloads in the Azure SQL Database documentation.

    If the Business Central database runs on SQL Server, determine whether your installation supports read scale-out and how to enable the feature. For more information, see Configure read-only routing for an Always On availability group in the SQL Server documentation.

  3. Enable SQL read-only replica support on the Business Central Server instance.

    Business Central Server includes the Enable SQL Read-Only Replica Support (EnableSqlReadOnlyReplicaSupport) setting. This setting isn't enabled by default. For more information, see Configuring Business Central Server.

Integrating directly on SQL Server objects

Warning

During operations such as upgrade and app/extension synchronization, the Business Central Server synchronizes the metadata model defined in AL to physical tables on the SQL Server database.

While it's possible to integrate directly with SQL Server objects on the database (bypassing the Business Central Server), it's not recommended or even supported.

Altering SQL objects created by the Business Central Server directly on the database can break operations such as upgrade and app/extension synchronization.

Adding additional SQL objects such as triggers or stored procedures directly on the database can break operations like upgrade and app/extension synchronization, but will also break system integrations that depend on such additional objects if the table schema created by the Business Central Server synchronization changes.

See also

Using Read Scale-Out for Better Performance
Optimizing SQL Server Performance
DataAccessIntent Property