Integrating Business Central with Azure services

Article
02/23/2024

Business Central supports multiple integrations to Azure services from AL apps/extensions, both build into the AL runtime and from codeunits in the System Application. All integrations from AL code are implemented using the HttpClient data type.

Here are some supported integrations between Business Central and Azure services:

Azure Application Insights
Azure Blob Services
Azure File Services
Azure Functions
Azure Key Vault
Azure Virtual Networks
Azure Open AI Service

Azure Application Insights

You can integrate Business Central with Azure Application Insights by enabling the telemetry feature. With telemetry, system owners can look at usage and lifecycle operations of environments/apps, diagnose problems, and analyze operations that affect performance.

For more information, see Monitoring and Analyzing Telemetry in Azure Application Insights.

Azure Blob Services

Connect to and work with storage accounts, containers, and blobs from Azure Blob Storage in your AL code. The module works as a wrapper of the Azure Blob Services REST API.

As an AL developer, you can use the module to do the following tasks:

Create, delete, and list containers in storage accounts.
Build a tool for uploading and downloading BLOBs to and from Azure Blob Storage.
Manipulate data stored in Azure Blob Storage.

For more information, see Azure Blob Services API.

Azure File Services

Use Azure File Services to take advantage of a fully managed file share service in the cloud. The Azure File Services API module provides you with all the procedures you need to manage your Azure Files in Business Central. Azure Files offers fully managed file shares in the cloud that are accessible via the industry standard Server Message Block (SMB) protocol, Network File System (NFS) protocol, and Azure Files REST API.

The Azure File Services API module uses the REST API to provide you with all the procedures you need to manage your Azure Files in Business Central. Azure file shares can be mounted by cloud or on-premises deployments for easy access to your Business Central files. For directories in Azure File Share Services, use AL to list, create, delete, and rename them. For files in the directories, use AL to create, delete, upload, download, copy, and rename them.

For more information, see Azure File Services API.

Azure Functions

The Azure Functions service is commonly used when migrating on-premises Business Central installations using .NET Interoperability to the online service. For more information, see Using Azure Functions with Dynamics 365 Business Central.

To make it easy to use Azure Functions from Business Central, the System Application includes the Azure Function codeunit with methods to connect to the service and call functions. For more information, see Azure Function codeunit .

When using the Azure Function codeunit from the System Application, you get data about the success or failure of function calls in telemetry. For more information, see Azure Function telemetry.

Azure Key Vault

If your app/extension needs to store and use secrets, such as certificates or credentials for external services, it's good security practice to store these secrets in Azure Key Vault and not in the app source code or app package itself. For more information, see Using Azure Key Vaults with apps/extensions.

When using Azure Key Vault from your AL code, you get data about the success or failure of usage in telemetry. For more information, see Azure Key Vault telemetry.

Azure Virtual Networks

Within the Azure Virtual Networks service, you can use a service tag for Business Central to restrict network access from/to Business Central using firewall and network security group rules.

For more information, see Use Azure security service tags to restrict network access from/to Business Central.

Azure Open AI Service

You can integrate Business Central apps/extensions with the Azure Open AI Service to include copilot and generative AI experiences. For more information, see Integrating AI using Developer Tools for Copilot.

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