What's new in Microsoft Fabric?
This page is continuously updated with a recent review of what's new in Microsoft Fabric.
- To follow the latest in Fabric news and features, see the Microsoft Fabric Updates Blog.
- For community, marketing, case studies, and industry news, see the Microsoft Fabric Blog.
- Follow the latest in Power BI at What's new in Power BI?
- For older news updates, review previous updates in Microsoft Fabric.
New to Microsoft Fabric?
This section includes articles and announcements for users new to Microsoft Fabric.
- Learning Paths for Fabric
- Get started with Microsoft Fabric
- End-to-end tutorials in Microsoft Fabric
- Definitions of terms used in Microsoft Fabric
| Month | Feature | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| March 2024 | Microsoft Fabric is now HIPAA compliant | We're excited to announce that Microsoft Fabric, our all-in-one analytics solution for enterprises, has achieved new certifications for HIPAA and ISO 27017, ISO 27018, ISO 27001, ISO 27701. |
| March 2024 | Exam DP-600 is now available | Exam DP-600 is now available, leading to the Microsoft Certified: Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate certification. The Fabric Career Hub can help you learn quickly and get certified. |
| March 2024 | Fabric Copilot Pricing: An End-to-End example | Copilot in Fabric begins billing on March 1, 2024 as part of your existing Power BI Premium or Fabric Capacity. Learn how Fabric Copilot usage is calculated. |
| January 2024 | Microsoft Fabric Copilot for Data Science and Data Engineering | Copilot for Data Science and Data Engineering is now available worldwide. What can Copilot for Data Science and Data Engineering do for you? |
| December 2023 | Fabric platform Security Fundamentals | Learn more about the big-picture perspective of the Microsoft Fabric security architecture by describing how the main security flows in the system work. |
| November 2023 | Microsoft Fabric, explained for existing Synapse users | A focus on what customers using the current Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) version of Synapse can expect. We explain what the general availability of Fabric means for your current investments (spoiler: we fully support them), but also how to think about the future. |
| November 2023 | Microsoft Fabric is now generally available | Microsoft Fabric is now generally available for purchase. Microsoft Fabric can reshape how your teams work with data by bringing everyone together on a single, AI-powered platform built for the era of AI. This includes: Power BI, Data Factory, Data Engineering, Data Science, Real-Time Analytics, Data Warehouse, and the overall Fabric platform. |
| November 2023 | Fabric workloads are now generally available! | Microsoft Fabric is now generally available! Microsoft Fabric Synapse Data Warehouse, Data Engineering & Data Science, Real-Time Analytics, Data Factory, OneLake, and the overall Fabric platform are now generally available. |
| November 2023 | Implement medallion lakehouse architecture in Microsoft Fabric | An introduction to medallion lake architecture and how you can implement a lakehouse in Microsoft Fabric. |
Features currently in preview
The following table lists the features of Microsoft Fabric that are currently in preview. Preview features are sorted alphabetically.
Note
Features currently in preview are available under supplemental terms of use, review for legal terms that apply to Azure features that are in beta, preview, or otherwise not yet released into general availability. Microsoft Fabric provides previews to give you a chance to evaluate and share feedback with the product group on features before they become generally available (GA).
| Feature | Learn more |
|---|---|
| CI/CD for Fabric Data Pipelines preview | Git Integration and integration with built-in Deployment Pipelines to Data Factory data pipelines is now in preview. For more information, see Data Factory Adds CI/CD to Fabric Data Pipelines. |
| Code-First AutoML preview | In Synapse Data Science, the new AutoML feature enables automation of your machine learning workflow. AutoML, or Automated Machine Learning, is a set of techniques and tools that can automatically train and optimize machine learning models for any given data and task type. |
| Code-First Hyperparameter Tuning preview | In Synapse Data Science, FLAML is now integrated for hyperparameter tuning, currently a preview feature. Fabric's flaml.tune feature streamlines this process, offering a cost-effective and efficient approach to hyperparameter tuning. |
| Copilot in Fabric (preview) is available worldwide | Copilot in Fabric (preview) is now available to all customers, including Copilot for Power BI, Data Factory, and Data Science & Data Engineering. Read more in our Overview on Copilot in Fabric. |
| Data Activator preview | We're thrilled to announce that Data Activator is now in preview and is enabled for all existing Microsoft Fabric users. |
| Data Engineering: Environment preview | We're thrilled to announce preview of the Environment in Fabric. The Environment is a centralized item that allows you to configure all the required settings for running a Spark job in one place. |
| Data Wrangler for Spark DataFrames preview | Data Wrangler now supports Spark DataFrames in preview, users can now edit Spark DataFrames in addition to pandas DataFrames with Data Wrangler. |
| Domains in OneLake (preview) | Domains in OneLake help you organize your data into a logical data mesh, allowing federated governance and optimizing for business needs. You can now create sub domains, default domains for users, and move workspaces between domains. For more information, see Fabric domains. |
| Eventhouse Overview: Handling Real-Time Data with Microsoft Fabric | Eventhouse (preview) is a dynamic workspace hosting multiple KQL databases, part of Fabric Real-Time Analytics. An Eventhouse offers a robust solution for managing and analyzing substantial volumes of real-time data. Get started with a guide to Create and manage an Eventhouse. |
| Folder in Workspace preview | As an organizational unit in the workspace, folder addresses this pain point by providing a hierarchical structure for organizing and managing your items. For more information, see Create folders in workspaces (preview). |
| Integrating On-Premises Data into Microsoft Fabric using Data Pipelines in Data Factory preview | You can use the on-premises Data Gateway, currently a preview feature, to connect to on-premises data sources using dataflows and data pipelines with Data Factory. For more information, see How to access on-premises data sources in Data Factory for Microsoft Fabric. |
| Kusto Cache consumption preview | The preview of Kusto Cache consumption means that you will start seeing billable consumption of the OneLake Cache Data Stored meter from the KQL Database and Eventhouse items. For more information, see KQL Database consumption. |
| Lakehouse support for git integration and deployment pipelines (preview) | The Lakehouse now integrates with the lifecycle management capabilities in Microsoft Fabric, providing a standardized collaboration between all development team members throughout the product's life. Lifecycle management facilitates an effective product versioning and release process by continuously delivering features and bug fixes into multiple environments. |
| Managed private endpoints (preview) | Managed private endpoints for Microsoft Fabric allow secure connections over managed virtual networks to data sources that are behind a firewall or not accessible from the public internet. |
| Managed virtual networks (preview) | Managed virtual networks are virtual networks that are created and managed by Microsoft Fabric for each Fabric workspace. |
| Microsoft 365 connector now supports ingesting data into Lakehouse (preview) | The Microsoft 365 connector now supports ingesting data into Lakehouse tables. |
| Microsoft Fabric Admin APIs | Fabric Admin APIs are designed to streamline administrative tasks. The initial set of Fabric Admin APIs is tailored to simplify the discovery of workspaces, Fabric items, and user access details. |
| Microsoft Fabric User APIs | We're happy to announce the preview of Microsoft Fabric User APIs. The Fabric user APIs are a major enabler for both enterprises and partners to use Microsoft Fabric as they enable end-to-end fully automated interaction with the service, enable integration of Microsoft Fabric into external web applications, and generally enable customers and partners to scale their solutions more easily. |
| Mirroring in Microsoft Fabric preview | With Mirroring in Fabric, you can easily bring your databases into OneLake in Microsoft Fabric, enabling seamless zero-ETL, near real-time insights on your data – and unlocking warehousing, BI, AI, and more. For more information, see What is Mirroring in Fabric?. |
| Notebook Git integration preview | Fabric notebooks now offer Git integration for source control using Azure DevOps. It allows users to easily control the notebook code versions and manage the git branches by leveraging the Fabric Git functions and Azure DevOps. |
| Notebook in Deployment Pipeline Preview | Now you can also use notebooks to deploy your code across different environments, such as development, test, and production. You can also use deployment rules to customize the behavior of your notebooks when they're deployed, such as changing the default Lakehouse of a Notebook. Get started with deployment pipelines, and Notebook shows up in the deployment content automatically. |
| OneLake data access roles | OneLake data access roles for lakehouse are in preview. Role permissions and user/group assignments can be easily updated through a new folder security user interface or through API calls. |
| OneLake Shortcuts API | New REST APIs for OneLake Shortcuts allow programmatic creation and management of shortcuts, currently in preview. You can now programmatically create, read, and delete OneLake shortcuts. For example, see Use OneLake shortcuts REST APIs. |
| OneLake shortcuts to S3-compatible data sources preview | OneLake shortcuts to S3-compatible data sources are now in preview. Create an Amazon S3 compatible shortcut to connect to your existing data through a single unified name space without having to copy or move data. |
| OneLake shortcuts to Google Cloud Storage preview | OneLake shortcuts to Google Cloud Storage are now in preview. Create a Google Cloud Storage shortcut to connect to your existing data through a single unified name space without having to copy or move data. |
| Prebuilt Azure AI services in Fabric preview | The preview of prebuilt AI services in Fabric is an integration with Azure AI services, formerly known as Azure Cognitive Services. Prebuilt Azure AI services allow for easy enhancement of data with prebuilt AI models without any prerequisites. Currently, prebuilt AI services are in preview and include support for the Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, Azure AI Language, and Azure AI Translator. |
| Private Endpoints for Microsoft Fabric (Preview) | Managed Private Endpoints for Microsoft Fabric (preview) allow secure connections to data sources that are behind a firewall or not accessible from the public internet. For more information, see Introducing Managed Private Endpoints for Microsoft Fabric in Preview. |
| Private Link support for Microsoft Fabric (Preview) | Azure Private Link for Microsoft Fabric secures access to your sensitive data in Microsoft Fabric by providing network isolation and applying required controls on your inbound network traffic. For more information, see Announcing Azure Private Link Support for Microsoft Fabric in Preview. |
| REST APIs for Fabric Data Factory pipelines preview | The REST APIs for Fabric Data Factory Pipelines are now in preview. REST APIs for Data Factory pipelines enable you to extend the built-in capability in Fabric to create, read, update, delete, and list pipelines. |
| Splunk add-on preview | Microsoft Fabric add-on for Splunk allows users to ingest logs from Splunk platform into a Fabric KQL DB using the Kusto python SDK. |
| Trusted workspace access (preview) for OneLake Shortcuts | Trusted workspace access (preview) enables secure and seamless access to ADLS Gen2 storage accounts from OneLake shortcuts in Fabric. For more information, see Trusted workspace access (preview). |
| Update records in a KQL Database preview | The .update command is now available, as a preview feature. Learn more about how to Update records in a Kusto database. |
| Warehouse restore points and restore in place | You can now create restore points and perform an in-place restore of a warehouse to a past point in time. Restore in-place is an essential part of data warehouse recovery which allows to restore the data warehouse to a prior known reliable state by replacing or over-writing the existing data warehouse from which the restore point was created. |
Generally available features
The following table lists the features of Microsoft Fabric that have transitioned from preview to general availability (GA) within the last 12 months.
| Month | Feature | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| April 2024 | Semantic Link GA | Semantic links are now generally available! The package comes with our default VHD, you can now use Semantic link in Fabric right away without any pip installation. |
| March 2024 | VNet Gateways in Dataflow Gen2 | VNet Data Gateway support for Dataflows Gen2 in Fabric is now generally available. The VNet data gateway helps to connect from Fabric Dataflows Gen2 to Azure data services within a VNet, without the need of an on-premises data gateway. |
| November 2023 | Microsoft Fabric is now generally available | Microsoft Fabric is now generally available for purchase. Microsoft Fabric can reshape how your teams work with data by bringing everyone together on a single, AI-powered platform built for the era of AI. This includes: Power BI, Data Factory, Data Engineering, Data Science, Real-Time Analytics, Data Warehouse, and the overall Fabric platform. |
Community
This section summarizes new Microsoft Fabric community opportunities for prospective and current influencers and MVPs.
- Sign up for the Fabric Community Newsletter.
- Join a local Fabric User Group or join a local event.
- To learn about the Microsoft MVP Award and to find MVPs, see mvp.microsoft.com.
- Are you a student? Learn more about the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors program.
- Vote and contribute to Microsoft Fabric Ideas.
- Visit the Microsoft Fabric Career Hub for everything you need on your certification journey, including a 50% discount on exams.
- Watch and subscribe to Microsoft Fabric videos on YouTube.
- Ask and answer questions in the Microsoft Fabric community.
| Month | Feature | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| March 2024 | Earn a free Microsoft Fabric certification exam | Become eligible for a free certification exam by completing the Fabric AI Skills Challenge. The Fabric Analytics Engineer AI Skills Challenge is open until April 19, 2024. |
| March 2024 | Exam DP-600 is now available | Exam DP-600 is now available, leading to the Microsoft Certified: Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate certification. The Fabric Career Hub can help you learn quickly and get certified. |
| March 2024 | Microsoft Fabric Community Conference | Join us in Las Vegas March 26-28, 2024 for the first annual Microsoft Fabric Community Conference. See firsthand how Microsoft Fabric and the rest of the data and AI products at Microsoft can help your organization prepare for the era of AI. Register today using code MSCUST for an exclusive discount! |
| March 2024 | Announcing the winners of "HackTogether: The Microsoft Fabric Global AI Hack" | We received 50 Hackathon project submissions from over 100 registrants, participating from every corner of the world. Our judges were blown away by the breadth, depth, and overall quality of submissions. Meet the winners of the Fabric Global AI Hack! |
| January 2024 | Announcing Fabric Career Hub | The new Fabric Career Hub is your one-stop-shop for professional growth! We've created a comprehensive learning journey with the best free on-demand and live training, plus exam discounts. |
| January 2024 | Hack Together: The Microsoft Fabric Global AI Hack | Hack Together is a global online hackathon that runs from February 15 to March 4, 2024. Join us for Hack Together: The Microsoft Fabric Global AI Hack, a virtual event where you can learn, experiment, and hack together with the new Copilot and AI features in Microsoft Fabric! For more information, see Microsoft Fabric Global AI Hack. |
| December 2023 | Microsoft Fabric Community Conference | Join us in Las Vegas March 26-28, 2024 for the first annual Microsoft Fabric Community Conference. See firsthand how Microsoft Fabric and the rest of the data and AI products at Microsoft can help your organization prepare for the era of AI. Register today to immerse yourself in the future of data and AI and connect with thousands of data innovators like yourself eager to share their insights. |
| December 2023 | Fabric Cloud skills challenge | Join the thousands of professionals that have completed the Microsoft Fabric Challenge as part of the Microsoft Ignite Cloud Skills Challenge. In less than 8 hours, you'll learn how to connect, ingest, store, analyze, and report on data with Power BI and Microsoft Fabric. The Microsoft Fabric challenge prepares you for the Microsoft Certified: Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate certification, available soon. The challenge is on until January 15, 2024. |
| November 2023 | Microsoft Fabric MVP Corner – Special Edition (Ignite) | A special edition of the "Microsoft Fabric MVP Corner" blog series highlights selected content related to Fabric and created by MVPs around the Microsoft Ignite 2023 conference, when we announced Microsoft Fabric generally available. |
| November 2023 | Skill up on Fabric with the Microsoft Learn Cloud Skills Challenge | We're excited to announce the Microsoft Ignite: Microsoft Fabric Challenge as part of the Microsoft Learn Cloud Skills Challenge. Skill up for in-demand tech scenarios, and enter to win a VIP pass to the next Microsoft Ignite. The challenge is on until January 15, 2024. The challenge helps you prepare for the Microsoft Certified: Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate certification and new Microsoft Applied Skills credentials covering the lakehouse and data warehouse scenarios, which are coming in the next months. |
Power BI
Updates to Power BI Desktop and the Power BI service are summarized at What's new in Power BI?
Fabric samples and guidance
This section summarizes new guidance and sample project resources for Microsoft Fabric.
| Month | Feature | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| March 2024 | Protect PII information in your Microsoft Fabric Lakehouse with Responsible AI | One possible way to use Azure AI to identify and extract personally identifiable information (PII) in Microsoft Fabric is to use Azure AI Language to detect and categorize PII entities in text data, such as names, addresses, emails, phone numbers, social security numbers, etc. |
| February 2024 | Building Common Data Architectures with OneLake in Microsoft Fabric | Read more about common data architecture patterns and how they can be secured with Microsoft Fabric, and the basic building blocks of security for OneLake. |
| January 2024 | New Fabric certification and Fabric Career Hub | Beta availability of Microsoft Certification Exam DP-600: Implementing Analytics Solutions with Microsoft Fabric, is available for a limited time. Passing this exam earns the Microsoft Certified: Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate certification. |
| December 2023 | Working with OneLake using Azure Storage Explorer | If you want to use an application that directly integrates with Windows File Explorer, check out OneLake file explorer. However, if you're accustomed to using Azure Storage Explorer for your data management tasks, you can continue to harness its functionalities with OneLake and some of its key benefits. |
| November 2023 | Semantic Link: OneLake integrated Semantic Models | Semantic Link adds support for the recently released OneLake integrated semantic models. You can now directly access data using your semantic model's name via OneLake using the read_table function and the new mode parameter set to onelake. |
| November 2023 | Integrate your SAP data into Microsoft Fabric | Using the built-in connectivity of Microsoft Fabric is the easiest and least-effort way of adding SAP data to your Fabric data estate. |
| November 2023 | Fabric Changing the game: Validate dependencies with Semantic Link – Data Quality | Follow this step-by-step example of how to explore the functional dependencies between columns in a table using the semantic link. The semantic link is a feature that allows you to establish a connection between Power BI datasets and Synapse Data Science in Microsoft Fabric. |
| November 2023 | Implement medallion lakehouse architecture in Microsoft Fabric | An introduction to medallion lake architecture and how you can implement a lakehouse in Microsoft Fabric. |
Microsoft Copilot in Microsoft Fabric
With Copilot and other generative AI features in preview, Microsoft Fabric brings a new way to transform and analyze data, generate insights, and create visualizations and reports. For more information, see Copilot in Fabric.
Note
Starting May 20th, 2024, Copilot in Microsoft Fabric will be enabled by default for all tenants.
| Month | Feature | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| February 2024 | Fabric Change the Game: How easy is it to use Copilot in Microsoft Fabric | This blog post shows how simple is to enable Copilot, a generative AI that brings new ways to transform and analyze data, generate insights, and create visualizations and reports in Microsoft Fabric. |
| February 2024 | Copilot for Data Factory in Microsoft Fabric | Copilot for Data Factory in Microsoft Fabric is now available in preview and included in the Dataflow Gen2 experience. For more information, see Copilot for Data Factory. |
| January 2024 | Microsoft Fabric Copilot for Data Science and Data Engineering | Copilot for Data Science and Data Engineering is now available worldwide. What can Copilot for Data Science and Data Engineering do for you? |
| January 2024 | How to enable Copilot in Fabric for Everyone | Follow this guide to get Copilot in Fabric (preview) enabled for everyone in your organization. For more information, see Overview of Copilot for Microsoft Fabric (preview). |
| January 2024 | Copilot in Fabric (preview) is available worldwide | Copilot in Fabric (preview) is now available to all customers, including Copilot for Power BI, Data Factory, and Data Science & Data Engineering. Read more in our Overview on Copilot in Fabric. |
| November 2023 | Empower Power BI users with Microsoft Fabric and Copilot | We're thrilled to announce the general availability of Microsoft Fabric and the preview of Copilot in Microsoft Fabric, including the experience for Power BI.. |
| November 2023 | Copilot for Power BI in Microsoft Fabric preview | We're thrilled to announce the preview of Copilot in Microsoft Fabric, including the experience for Power BI, which helps users quickly get started by helping them create reports in the Power BI web experience. For more information, see Copilot for Power BI. |
Data Factory in Microsoft Fabric
This section summarizes recent new features and capabilities of Data Factory in Microsoft Fabric. Follow issues and feedback through the Data Factory Community Forum.
| Month | Feature | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| April 2024 | Spark job definition activity | With the new Spark job definition activity, you will be able to run a spark job definition in your pipeline. |
| April 2024 | Fabric Warehouse in ADF copy activity | You can now connect to your Fabric Warehouse from an Azure Data Factory/Synapse pipeline. You can find this new connector when creating a new source or sink destination in your copy activity, in the Lookup activity, Stored Procedure activity, Script activity, and Get Metadata activity. |
| April 2024 | Edit column type to destination table support added to Fabric Warehouse and other SQL data stores | When moving data from any supported data sources into Fabric Warehouse or other SQL data stores (SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, or Azure Synapse Analytics) via data pipelines, users can now specify the data type for each column. |
| April 2024 | Performance improvements when writing data to SFTP | The SFTP connector has been improved to offer better performance when writing to SFTP as destination. |
| April 2024 | Service Principal Name authentication kind support for On-Premises and VNET data gateways | Azure Service Principals (SPN) is now supported for on-premises data gateways and VNET data gateways. Learn how to leverage the service principal authentication kind in Azure Data Lake Storage, Dataverse, Azure SQL Database, Web connector, and more. |
| April 2024 | New and updated Certified connectors | The Power Query SDK and Power Query Connector Certification process has introduced 11 new and updated custom Power Query connectors. |
| April 2024 | New Expression Builder Experience | A new experience in the Script activity in Fabric Data Factory pipelines to make it even easier to build expressions using the pipeline expression language. |
| April 2024 | Data Factory Increases Maximum Activities Per Pipeline to 80 | We have doubled the limit on number of activities you may define in a pipeline from 40 to 80. |
| April 2024 | REST APIs for Fabric Data Factory pipelines preview | The REST APIs for Fabric Data Factory Pipelines are now in preview. REST APIs for Data Factory pipelines enable you to extend the built-in capability in Fabric to create, read, update, delete, and list pipelines. |
| March 2024 | Fast copy in Dataflows Gen2 | With Fast copy, you can ingest terabytes of data with the easy experience of dataflows, but with the scalable backend of Pipeline's Copy activity. |
| March 2024 | Integrating On-Premises Data into Microsoft Fabric Using Data Pipelines in Data Factory preview | Using the on-premises Data Gateway, currently a preview feature, customers can connect to on-premises data sources using dataflows and data pipelines with Data Factory. For more information, see How to access on-premises data sources in Data Factory for Microsoft Fabric. |
| March 2024 | CI/CD for Fabric Data Pipelines preview | Git Integration and integration with built-in Deployment Pipelines to Data Factory data pipelines is now in preview. For more information, see Data Factory Adds CI/CD to Fabric Data Pipelines. |
| March 2024 | Browse Azure resources with Get Data | Learn how to browse and connect to all your Azure resources with the 'browse Azure' functionality in Get Data. You can browse Azure resources then connect to Synapse, blob storage, or ADLS Gen2 resources easily. |
| March 2024 | Dataflow Gen2 Support for VNet Gateways now generally available | VNet Data Gateway support for Dataflows Gen2 in Fabric is now generally available. The VNet data gateway helps to connect from Fabric Dataflows Gen2 to Azure data services within a VNet, without the need of an on-premises data gateway. |
| March 2024 | Privacy levels support in Dataflows | You can now set privacy levels for your connections in your Dataflow Gen2. Privacy levels are critical to configure correctly so that sensitive data is only viewed by authorized users. |
| March 2024 | Copy data to S3 Compatible via Fabric Data Factory Data Pipeline | Copying data to S3 Compatible is now available in Data pipeline of Fabric Data Factory! You can use Copy assistant and Copy activity in your Data pipeline to finish this data movement. |
| February 2024 | Dataflows Gen2 data destinations and managed settings | New features for Dataflows Gen2 include destinations, managed settings, and advanced topics. |
| February 2024 | Copilot for Data Factory in Microsoft Fabric | Copilot for Data Factory in Microsoft Fabric is now available in preview and included in the Dataflow Gen2 experience. For more information, see Copilot for Data Factory. |
| February 2024 | Certified Connector updates | The Power Query SDK enables you to create new connectors for both Power BI and Dataflow. New certified Power Query connectors are available to the list of Certified Connectors in Power Query. |
| February 2024 | Data pipeline connector updates | New connectors are available in your Data Factory data pipelines, including S3 compatible and Google Cloud Storage data sources. For more information, see Data pipeline connectors in Microsoft Fabric. |
| December 2023 | Read and Write to the Fabric Lakehouse using Azure Data Factory (ADF) | You can now read and write data in the Microsoft Fabric Lakehouse from ADF (Azure Data Factory). Using either Copy Activity or Mapping Data Flows, you can read, write, transform, and process data using ADF or Synapse Analytics, currently in preview. |
| December 2023 | Set activity state for easy pipeline debugging | In Fabric Data Factory data pipelines, you can now set an activity's state to inactive so that you can save your pipeline even with incomplete, invalid configurations. Think of it as "commenting out" part of your pipeline code. |
| December 2023 | Connection editing in pipeline editor | You can now edit your existing data connections while you're designing your pipeline without leaving the pipeline editor! When setting your connection, select Edit and a pop-up appears. |
| December 2023 | Azure Databricks Notebook executions in Fabric Data Factory | You can now create powerful data pipeline workflows that include Notebook executions from your Azure Databricks clusters using Fabric Data Factory. Add a Databricks activity to your pipeline, point to your existing cluster, or request a new cluster, and Data Factory will execute your Notebook code for you. |
| November 2023 | Implement medallion lakehouse architecture in Microsoft Fabric | An introduction to medallion lake architecture and how you can implement a lakehouse in Microsoft Fabric. |
| November 2023 | Dataflow Gen2 General availability of Fabric connectors | The connectors for Lakehouse, Warehouse, and KQL Database are now generally available. We encourage you to use these connectors when trying to connect to data from any of these Fabric workloads. |
| November 2023 | Dataflow Gen2 Automatic refresh cancellation | To prevent unnecessary resources from being consumed, there's a new mechanism that stops the refresh of a Dataflow as soon as the results of the refresh are known to have no impact. This is to reduce consumption more proactively. |
| November 2023 | Dataflow Gen2 Error message propagation through gateway | We made diagnostics improvement to provide meaningful error messages when Dataflow refresh fails for those Dataflows running through the Enterprise Data Gateway. |
| November 2023 | Dataflow Gen2 Support for column binding for SAP HANA connector | Column binding support is enabled for SAP HANA. This optional parameter results in significantly improved performance. For more information, see Support for column binding for SAP HANA connector. |
| November 2023 | Dataflow Gen2 staging artifacts hidden | When using a Dataflow Gen2 in Fabric, the system will automatically create a set of staging artifacts. Now, these staging artifacts will be abstracted from the Dataflow Gen2 experience and will be hidden from the workspace list. No action is required by the user and this change has no impact on existing Dataflows. |
| November 2023 | Dataflow Gen2 Support for VNet Gateways preview | VNet Data Gateway support for Dataflows Gen2 in Fabric is now in preview. The VNet data gateway helps to connect from Fabric Dataflows Gen2 to Azure data services within a VNet, without the need of an on-premises data gateway. |
| November 2023 | Cross workspace "Save as" | You can now clone your data pipelines across workspaces by using the "Save as" button. |
| November 2023 | Dynamic content flyout integration with Email and Teams activity | In the Email and Teams activities, you can now add dynamic content with ease. With this new pipeline expression integration, you'll now see a flyout menu to help you select and build your message content quickly without needing to learn the pipeline expression language. |
| November 2023 | Copy activity now supports fault tolerance for Fabric Data Warehouse connector | The Copy activity in data pipelines now supports fault tolerance for Fabric Warehouse. Fault tolerance allows you to handle certain errors without interrupting data movement. By enabling fault tolerance, you can continue to copy data while skipping incompatible data like duplicated rows. |
| November 2023 | MongoDB and MongoDB Atlas connectors | MongoDB and MongoDB Atlas connectors are now available to use in your Data Factory data pipelines as sources and destinations. |
| November 2023 | Microsoft 365 connector now supports ingesting data into Lakehouse (preview) | The Microsoft 365 connector now supports ingesting data into Lakehouse tables. |
| November 2023 | Multi-task support for editing pipelines in the designer | You can now open and edit data pipelines from different workspaces and navigate between them using the multi-tasking capabilities in Fabric. |
| November 2023 | String interpolation added to pipeline return value | You can now edit your data connections within your data pipelines. Previously, a new tab would open when connections needed editing. Now, you can remain within your pipeline and seamlessly update your connections. |
Data Factory in Microsoft Fabric samples and guidance
| Month | Feature | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| February 2024 | Fabric Data Pipelines – Advanced Scheduling Techniques | This blog series covers Advanced Scheduling techniques in Microsoft Fabric Data Pipelines. |
| January 2024 | Automate Fabric Data Warehouse Queries and Commands with Data Factory | In Fabric Data Factory, there are many ways to query data, retrieve data, and execute commands from your warehouse using pipeline activities that can then be easily automated. |
| January 2024 | Use Fabric Data Factory Data Pipelines to Orchestrate Notebook-based Workflows | Guidance and good practices when building Fabric Spark Notebook workflows using Data Factory in Fabric with data pipelines. |
| December 2023 | Read data from Delta Lake tables with the DeltaLake.Table M function | The DeltaLake.Table is a new function in Power Query's M language for reading data from Delta Lake tables. This function is now available in Power Query in Power BI Desktop and in Dataflows Gen1 and Gen2 and replaces the need to use community-developed solution. |
Synapse Data Engineering in Microsoft Fabric
This section summarizes recent new features and capabilities of the Data Engineering workload in Microsoft Fabric.
| Month | Feature | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| April 2024 | Fabric Spark Optimistic Job Admission | Fabric Spark Optimistic Job Admission reduces the frequency of throttling errors (HTTP 430: Spark Capacity Limit Exceeded Response) and improves the job admission experience for our customers, especially during peak usage hours. |
| April 2024 | Single Node support for starter pools | The Single Node support for starter pools feature lets you set your starter pool to max one node and get super-fast session start times for your Spark sessions. |
| April 2024 | Container Image for Synapse VS Code | To simplify the development process, we have released a container image for Synapse VS Code that contains all the necessary dependencies for the extension. |
| April 2024 | Git integration with Spark Job definition | Git integration with Spark Job definitions allows you to check in the changes of your Spark Job Definitions into a Git repository, which will include the source code of the Spark jobs and other item properties. |
| April 2024 | New Revamped Object Explorer experience in the notebook | The new Object Explorer experience improves flexibility and discoverability of data sources in the explorer and improve the discoverability of Resource folders. |
| April 2024 | %Run your scripts in Notebook |
Now you can use %run magic command to run your Python scripts and SQL scripts in Notebook resources folder, just like Jupyter notebook %run command. |
| April 2024 | OneLake shortcuts to S3-compatible data sources preview | OneLake shortcuts to S3-compatible data sources are now in preview. Create an Amazon S3 compatible shortcut to connect to your existing data through a single unified name space without having to copy or move data. |
| April 2024 | OneLake shortcuts to Google Cloud Storage preview | OneLake shortcuts to Google Cloud Storage are now in preview. Create a Google Cloud Storage shortcut to connect to your existing data through a single unified name space without having to copy or move data. |
| April 2024 | OneLake data access roles | OneLake data access roles for lakehouse are in preview. Role permissions and user/group assignments can be easily updated through a new folder security user interface or through API calls. |
| March 2024 | New validation enhancement for "Load to table" | The new validation enhancement to the "Load to table" feature help mitigate any validation issues and make your data loading experience smoother and faster. |
| March 2024 | Queuing for Notebook Jobs | Now with Job Queueing for Notebook Jobs, jobs that are triggered by pipelines or job scheduler will be added to a queue and will be retried automatically when the capacity frees up. For more information, see Job queueing in Microsoft Fabric Spark. |
| March 2024 | Autotune Query Tuning feature for Apache Spark | The Autotune Query Tuning feature for Apache Spark is now available. Autotune leverages historical data from your Spark SQL queries and machine learning algorithms to automatically fine-tune your configurations, ensuring faster execution times and enhanced efficiency. |
| March 2024 | OneLake File Explorer: Editing via Excel | With our latest release v1.0.11.0 of file explorer, we're excited to announce that you can now update your files directly using Excel, mirroring the user-friendly experience available in OneDrive. |
| February 2024 | Trusted workspace access (preview) for OneLake Shortcuts | Trusted workspace access (preview) enables secure and seamless access to ADLS Gen2 storage accounts from OneLake shortcuts in Fabric. For more information, see Trusted workspace access (preview). |
| February 2024 | Reduce egress costs with S3 shortcuts in OneLake | Learn how OneLake shortcuts to S3 now support caching, which can greatly reduce egress costs. Use the new Enable Cache for S3 Shortcuts setting with an S3 shortcut. |
| February 2024 | OneLake Shortcuts API | New REST APIs for OneLake Shortcuts allow programmatic creation and management of shortcuts, currently in preview. You can now programmatically create, read, and delete OneLake shortcuts. For example, see Use OneLake shortcuts REST APIs. |
| February 2024 | Browse code snippet | The new Browse code snippet notebook feature allows you to easily access and insert code snippets for commonly used code snippets with multiple supported languages. |
| February 2024 | Configure session timeout | Notebooks now support configuring session timeout for the current live session. It can help you avoid wasting resources or losing context due to timeout. You can specify the maximum duration of your spark sessions, from minutes to hours, and also get alerts before the session expires and extend it. |
| February 2024 | Fabric notebook status bar upgrade | The new Fabric Notebook status bar has three persisted info buttons: session status, save status, and cell selection status. Plus, context features include info on the git connection state, a shortcut to extend session timeout, and a failed cell navigator. |
| January 2024 | Microsoft Fabric Copilot for Data Science and Data Engineering | Copilot for Data Science and Data Engineering is now available worldwide. What can Copilot for Data Science and Data Engineering do for you? |
| January 2024 | Newest version of OneLake File Explorer includes Excel Integration | With the newest version of OneLake file explorer (v1.0.11.0) we bring a few updates to enhance your experience with OneLake, including Excel Integration. |
| December 2023 | %%configure – personalize your Spark session in Notebook | Now you can personalize your Spark session with the magic command %%configure, in both interactive notebook and pipeline notebook activities. |
| December 2023 | Rich dataframe preview in Notebook | The display() function has been updated on Fabric Notebook, now named the Rich dataframe preview. Now when you use display() to preview your dataframe, you can easily specify the range, view the dataframe summary and column statistics, check invalid values or missing values, and preview the long cell. |
| December 2023 | Working with OneLake using Azure Storage Explorer | If you want to use an application that directly integrates with Windows File Explorer, check out OneLake file explorer. However, if you're accustomed to using Azure Storage Explorer for your data management tasks, you can continue to harness its functionalities with OneLake and some of its key benefits. |
| November 2023 | Accessibility support for Lakehouse | To provide a more inclusive and user-friendly interaction, we have implemented improvements so far to support accessibility in the Lakehouse, including screen reader compatibility, responsive design text reflow, keyboard navigation, alternative text for images, and form fields and labels. |
| November 2023 | Enhanced multitasking experience in Lakehouse | We've introduced new capabilities to enhance the multi-tasking experience in Lakehouse, including multitasking during running operations, nonblocking reloading, and clearer notifications. |
| November 2023 | Upgraded DataGrid capabilities in Lakehouse | An upgraded DataGrid for the Lakehouse table preview now features sorting, filtering, and resizing of columns. |
| November 2023 | SQL analytics endpoint re-provisioning | You can now retry the SQL analytics endpoint provisioning directly within the Lakehouse. This means that if your initial provisioning attempt fails, you have the option to try again without the need to create an entirely new Lakehouse. |
| November 2023 | Microsoft Fabric Runtime 1.2 | The Microsoft Fabric Runtime 1.2 is a significant advancement in our data processing capabilities. Microsoft Fabric Runtime 1.2 includes Apache Spark 3.4.1, Mariner 2.0 as the operating system, Java 11, Scala 2.12.17, Python 3.10, Delta Lake 2.4, and R 4.2.2, ensuring you have the most cutting-edge tools at your disposal. In addition, this release comes bundled with default packages, encompassing a complete Anaconda installation and essential libraries for Java/Scala, Python, and R, simplifying your workflow. |
| November 2023 | Multiple Runtimes Support | With the introduction of Runtime 1.2, Fabric supports multiple runtimes, offering users the flexibility to seamlessly switch between them, minimizing the risk of incompatibilities or disruptions. When changing runtimes, all system-created items within the workspace, including Lakehouses, SJDs, and Notebooks, will operate using the newly selected workspace-level runtime version starting from the next Spark Session. |
| November 2023 | Delta as the default table format in the new Runtime 1.2 | The default Spark session parameter spark.sql.sources.default is now delta. All tables created using Spark SQL, PySpark, Scala Spark, and Spark R, whenever the table type is omitted, will create the table as Delta by default. |
| November 2023 | Intelligent Cache | By default, the newly revamped and optimized Intelligent Cache feature is enabled in Fabric Spark. The intelligent cache works seamlessly behind the scenes and caches data to help speed-up the execution of Spark jobs in Microsoft Fabric as it reads from your OneLake or ADLS Gen2 storage via shortcuts. |
| November 2023 | Monitoring Hub for Spark enhancements | The latest enhancements in the monitoring hub are designed to provide a comprehensive and detailed view of Spark and Lakehouse activities, including executor allocations, runtime version for a Spark application, a related items link in the detail page. |
| November 2023 | Monitoring for Lakehouse operations | Users can now view the progress and status of Lakehouse maintenance jobs and table load activities. |
| November 2023 | Spark application resource Usage Analysis | Responding to customers' requests for monitoring Spark resource usage metrics for performance tuning and optimization, we're excited to introduce the Spark resource usage analysis feature, now available in preview. This newly released feature enables users to monitor allocated executors, running executors, and idle executors, alongside Spark executions. |
| November 2023 | REST API support for Spark Job Definition preview | REST Public APIs for Spark Job Definition are now available, making it easy for users to manage and manipulate SJD items. |
| November 2023 | REST API support for Lakehouse, Load to tables and table maintenance | As a key requirement for workload integration, REST Public APIs for Lakehouse are now available. The Lakehouse REST Public APIs makes it easy for users to manage and manipulate Lakehouse items programmatically. |
| November 2023 | Lakehouse support for git integration and deployment pipelines (preview) | The Lakehouse now integrates with the lifecycle management capabilities in Microsoft Fabric, providing a standardized collaboration between all development team members throughout the product's life. Lifecycle management facilitates an effective product versioning and release process by continuously delivering features and bug fixes into multiple environments. |
| November 2023 | Embed a Power BI report in Notebook | We're thrilled to announce that the powerbiclient Python package is now natively supported in Fabric notebooks. This means you can easily embed and interact with Power BI reports in your notebooks with just a few lines of code. To learn more about how to use the powerbiclient package to embed a Power BI component. |
| November 2023 | Mssparkutils new API – reference run multiple notebooks in parallel | A new runMultiple API in mssparkutils called mssparkutils.notebook.runMultiple() allows you to run multiple notebooks in parallel, or with a predefined topological structure. For more information, see Notebook utilities. |
| November 2023 | Notebook resources .JAR file support | We now support uploading the .jar files in the Notebook Resources explorer. You can add your own compiled libs, use drag & drop to generate a code snippet to install them in the session, and load the libraries in code conveniently. |
| November 2023 | Notebook Git integration preview | Fabric notebooks now offer Git integration for source control using Azure DevOps. It allows users to easily control the notebook code versions and manage the git branches by leveraging the Fabric Git functions and Azure DevOps. |
| November 2023 | Notebook in Deployment Pipeline Preview | Now you can also use notebooks to deploy your code across different environments, such as development, test, and production. You can also use deployment rules to customize the behavior of your notebooks when they're deployed, such as changing the default Lakehouse of a Notebook. Get started with deployment pipelines, and Notebook shows up in the deployment content automatically. |
| November 2023 | Notebook REST APIs Preview | With REST Public APIs for the Notebook items, data engineers/data scientists can automate their pipelines and establish CI/CD conveniently and efficiently. The notebook Restful Public API can make it easy for users to manage and manipulate Fabric notebook items and integrate notebook with other tools and systems. |
| November 2023 | Environment preview | We're thrilled to announce preview of the Environment in Fabric. The Environment is a centralized item that allows you to configure all the required settings for running a Spark job in one place. |
| November 2023 | Synapse VS Code extension in vscode.dev preview | With support for the Synapse VS Code extension on vsocde.dev, users can now seamlessly edit and execute Fabric Notebooks without ever leaving their browser window. Additionally, all the native pro-developer features of VS Code are now accessible to end-users in this environment. |
Synapse Data Engineering samples and guidance
| Month | Feature | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| March 2024 | Bridging Fabric Lakehouses: Delta Change Data Feed for Seamless ETL | Learn how to use the Delta Change Data Feed to facilitate seamless data synchronization across different lakehouses in your medallion architecture. |
| January 2024 | Use Fabric Data Factory Data Pipelines to Orchestrate Notebook-based Workflows | Guidance and good practices when building Fabric Spark Notebook workflows using Data Factory in Fabric with data pipelines. |
| November 2023 | Fabric Changing the game: Using your own library with Microsoft Fabric | A step-by-step guide to use your own Python library in the Lakehouse. It's quite simple to create your own library with Python and even simpler to reuse it on Fabric. |
Synapse Data Science in Microsoft Fabric
This section summarizes recent improvements and features for Data Science in Microsoft Fabric.
| Month | Feature | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| April 2024 | Semantic Link GA | Semantic links are now generally available! The package comes with our default VHD, you can now use Semantic link in Fabric right away without any pip installation. |
| April 2024 | Capacity level delegation for AI and Copilot | Tenant admins can now enable AI and Copilot in Fabric for the entire organization, certain security groups, or for a specific Capacity. |
| March 2024 | EU customers can use AI and Copilot without cross-geo setting | Since mid-March EU customers can use AI and Copilot without turning on the cross-geo setting, and their AI and Copilot requests will be processed within EUDB. |
| March 2024 | Code-First Hyperparameter Tuning preview | FLAML is now integrated for hyperparameter tuning, currently a preview feature. Fabric's flaml.tune feature streamlines this process, offering a cost-effective and efficient approach to hyperparameter tuning. |
| March 2024 | Code-First AutoML preview | With the new AutoML feature, you can automate your machine learning workflow and get the best results with less effort. AutoML, or Automated Machine Learning, is a set of techniques and tools that can automatically train and optimize machine learning models for any given data and task type. |
| March 2024 | Compare Nested Runs | Parent and child runs in the Run List View for ML Experiments introduces a hierarchical structure, allowing users to effortlessly view various parent and child runs within a single view and seamlessly interact with them to visually compare results. |
| March 2024 | Support for Mandatory MIP Label Enforcement | ML Model and Experiment items in Fabric now offer enhanced support for Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) labels. |
| January 2024 | Microsoft Fabric Copilot for Data Science and Data Engineering | Copilot for Data Science and Data Engineering is now available worldwide. What can Copilot for Data Science and Data Engineering do for you? |
| December 2023 | Semantic Link update | We're excited to announce the latest update of Semantic Link! Apart from many improvements, we also added many new features for our Power BI engineering community that you can use from Fabric notebooks to satisfy all your automation needs. |
| December 2023 | Prebuilt Azure AI services in Fabric preview | The preview of prebuilt AI services in Fabric is an integration with Azure AI services, formerly known as Azure Cognitive Services. Prebuilt Azure AI services allow for easy enhancement of data with prebuilt AI models without any prerequisites. Currently, prebuilt AI services are in preview and include support for the Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, Azure AI Language, and Azure AI Translator. |
| November 2023 | Copilot in notebooks preview | The Copilot in Fabric Data Science and Data Engineering notebooks is designed to accelerate productivity, provide helpful answers and guidance, and generate code for common tasks like data exploration, data preparation, and machine learning. You can interact and engage with the AI from either the chat panel or even from within notebooks cells using magic commands to get insights from data faster. For more information, see Copilot in notebooks. |
| November 2023 | Custom Python Operations in Data Wrangler | Data Wrangler, a notebook-based tool for exploratory data analysis, has always allowed users to browse and apply common data-cleaning operations, generating the corresponding code in real time. Now, in addition to generating code from the UI, users can also write their own code with custom operations in Data Wrangler. |
| November 2023 | Data Wrangler for Spark DataFrames preview | Data Wrangler now supports Spark DataFrames in preview. Until now, users have been able to explore and transform pandas DataFrames using common operations that can be converted to Python code in real time. The new release allows users to edit Spark DataFrames in addition to pandas DataFrames with Data Wrangler. |
| November 2023 | MLFlow Notebook Widget | The MLflow inline authoring widget enables users to effortlessly track their experiment runs along with metrics and parameters, all directly from within their notebook. |
| November 2023 | New Model & Experiment Item Usability Improvements | New enhancements to our model and experiment tracking features are based on valuable user feedback. The new tree-control in the run details view makes tracking easier by showing which run is selected. We've enhanced the comparison feature, allowing you to easily adjust the comparison pane for a more user-friendly experience. Now you can select the run name to see the Run Details view. |
| November 2023 | Recent Experiment Runs | It's now simpler for users to check out recent runs for an experiment directly from the workspace list view. This update makes it easier to keep track of recent activity, quickly jump to the related Spark application, and apply filters based on the run status. |
| November 2023 | Models renamed to ML Models | Microsoft has renamed "Models" to "ML Models" to ensure clarity and avoid any confusion with other Fabric elements. For more information, see Machine learning experiments in Microsoft Fabric. |
| November 2023 | SynapseML v1.0 | SynapseML v1.0 is now released. SynapseML v1.0 makes it easy to build production ready machine learning systems on Fabric and has been in use at Microsoft for over six years. |
| November 2023 | Train Interpretable Explainable Boosting Machines with SynapseML | We've introduced a scalable implementation of Explainable Boosting Machines (EBM) powered by Apache Spark in SynapseML. EBMs are a powerful machine learning technique that combines the accuracy of gradient boosting with a strong focus on model interpretability. |
| November 2023 | Prebuilt AI models in Microsoft Fabric preview | We're excited to announce the preview for prebuilt AI models in Fabric. Azure OpenAI Service, Text Analytics, and Azure AI Translator are prebuilt models available in Fabric, with support for both RESTful API and SynapseML. You can also use the OpenAI Python Library to access Azure OpenAI service in Fabric. |
| November 2023 | Reusing existing Spark Session in sparklyr | We have added support for a new connection method called "synapse" in sparklyr, which enables users to connect to an existing Spark session. Additionally, we have contributed this connection method to the OSS sparklyr project. Users can now use both sparklyr and SparkR in the same session and easily share data between them. |
| November 2023 | REST API Support for ML Experiments and ML Models | REST APIs for ML Experiment and ML Model are now available. These REST APIs for ML Experiments and ML Models begin to empower users to create and manage machine learning items programmatically, a key requirement for pipeline automation and workload integration. |
Synapse Data Science samples and guidance
| Month | Feature | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| March 2024 | New AI Samples | New AutoML sample, Model Tuning, and Semantic Link samples appear in the Quick Tutorial category of the Data Science samples on Microsoft Fabric. |
| December 2023 | Using Microsoft Fabric's Lakehouse Data and prompt flow in Azure Machine Learning Service to create RAG applications | A step-by-step RAG application through prompt flow in Azure Machine Learning Service combined with Microsoft Fabric's Lakehouse data. |
| November 2023 | New data science happy path tutorial in Microsoft Fabric | We've updated the Data Science Happy Path tutorial for Microsoft Fabric. This new comprehensive tutorial demonstrates the entire data science workflow, using a bank customer churn problem as the context. |
| November 2023 | New data science samples | We've expanded our collection of data science samples to include new end-to-end R samples and new quick tutorial samples for "Explaining Model Outputs" and "Visualizing Model Behavior.". |
| November 2023 | New data science forecasting sample | The new Data Science sample on sales forecasting was developed in collaboration with Sonata Software. This new sample encompasses the entire data science workflow, spanning from data cleaning to Power BI visualization. The notebook covers the steps to develop, evaluate, and score a forecasting model for superstore sales, harnessing the power of the SARIMAX algorithm. |
Synapse Data Warehouse in Microsoft Fabric
This section summarizes recent improvements and features for Synapse Data Warehouse in Microsoft Fabric.
| Month | Feature | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| April 2024 | Fabric Warehouse in ADF copy activity | You can now connect to your Fabric Warehouse from an Azure Data Factory/Synapse pipeline. You can find this new connector when creating a new source or sink destination in your copy activity, in the Lookup activity, Stored Procedure activity, Script activity, and Get Metadata activity. |
| April 2024 | Git integration | Git integration for the Warehouse allows you to check in the changes of your Warehouse to an Azure DevOps Git repository as a SQL database project. |
| April 2024 | Partition elimination | Partition elimination is a performance improvement for tables with a large number of files. The SQL analytics endpoint of a Lakehouse uses partition elimination to read data from only those partitions that are relevant to the query. Recent improvements have boosted performance even more when queries are aimed at a few partitions in a table that has many files. |
| March 2024 | Mirroring in Microsoft Fabric preview | With Mirroring in Fabric, you can easily bring your databases into OneLake in Microsoft Fabric, enabling seamless zero-ETL, near real-time insights on your data – and unlocking warehousing, BI, AI, and more. For more information, see What is Mirroring in Fabric?. |
| March 2024 | Cold cache performance improvements | Fabric stores data in Delta tables and when the data is not cached, it needs to transcode data from parquet file format structures to in-memory structures for query processing. Recent cold cache performance improvements further optimize transcoding and we observed up to 9% faster queries in our tests when data is not previously cached. |
| March 2024 | Extract and publish a SQL database project directly through the DW editor | The SQL Database Projects extension creates a SQL project (.sqlproj) file, a local representation of SQL objects that comprise the schema for a single database, such as tables, stored procedures, or functions. You can now extract and publish a SQL database project directly through the DW editor. |
| March 2024 | Change owner of Warehouse item | The new Takeover API allows you to change the warehouse owner from the current owner to a new owner, which can be an SPN or an Organizational Account. |
| March 2024 | Clone table RLS and CLS | A cloned table now inherits the row-level security (RLS) and dynamic data masking from the source of the clone table. |
| February 2024 | Experience performance improvements | Recent connectivity and performance enhancements include an improved experience for creating warehouses, T-SQL execution, automatic metadata discovery, and error messaging. |
| December 2023 | Automatic Log Checkpointing for Fabric Warehouse | Automatic Log Checkpointing is one of the ways that we help your Data Warehouse to provide you with great performance and best of all, it involves no additional work from you! |
| December 2023 | Restore points and restore in place | You can now create restore points and perform an in-place restore of a warehouse to a past point in time. The restore points and restore in place features are currently in preview. Restore in-place is an essential part of data warehouse recovery which allows to restore the data warehouse to a prior known reliable state by replacing or over-writing the existing data warehouse from which the restore point was created. |
| November 2023 | TRIM T-SQL support | You can now use the TRIM command to remove spaces or specific characters from strings by using the keywords LEADING, TRAILING or BOTH in TRIM (Transact-SQL). |
| November 2023 | GENERATE_SERIES T-SQL support | Generates a series of numbers within a given interval with GENERATE_SERIES (Transact-SQL). The interval and the step between series values are defined by the user. |
| November 2023 | SSD metadata caching | File and rowgroup metadata are now also cached with in-memory and SSD cache, further improving performance. |
| November 2023 | PARSER 2.0 improvements for CSV ingestion | CSV file parser version 2.0 for COPY INTO builds an innovation from Microsoft Research's Data Platform and Analytics group to make CSV file ingestion blazing fast on Fabric Warehouse. For more information, see COPY INTO (Transact-SQL). |
| November 2023 | Fast compute resource assignment enabled | All query executions in Fabric Warehouse are now powered by the new technology recently deployed as part of the Global Resource Governance component that assigns compute resources in milliseconds. |
| November 2023 | REST API support for Warehouse | With the Warehouse public APIs, SQL developers can now automate their pipelines and establish CI/CD conveniently and efficiently. The Warehouse REST Public APIs makes it easy for users to manage and manipulate Fabric Warehouse items. |
| November 2023 | SQLPackage support for Fabric Warehouse | SQLPackage now supports Fabric Warehouse. SqlPackage is a command-line utility that automates the following database development tasks by exposing some of the public Data-Tier Application Framework (DacFx) APIs. The SqlPackage command line tool allows you to specify these actions along with action-specific parameters and properties. |
| November 2023 | Power BI semantic models | Microsoft has renamed the Power BI dataset content type to semantic model. This applies to Microsoft Fabric semantic models as well. For more information, see New name for Power BI datasets. |
| November 2023 | SQL analytics endpoint | Microsoft has renamed the SQL endpoint of a Lakehouse to the SQL analytics endpoint of a Lakehouse. |
| November 2023 | Dynamic data masking | Dynamic Data Masking (DDM) for Fabric Warehouse and the SQL analytics endpoint in the Lakehouse. For more information and samples, see Dynamic data masking in Fabric data warehousing and How to implement dynamic data masking in Synapse Data Warehouse. |
| November 2023 | Clone tables with time travel | You can now use table clones to create a clone of a table based on data up to seven calendar days in the past. |
| November 2023 | User experience updates | Several user experiences in Warehouse have landed. For more information, see Fabric Warehouse user experience updates. |
| November 2023 | Automatic data compaction | Automatic data compaction rewrites many smaller parquet files into a few larger parquet files, which will improve the performance of reading the table. Data Compaction is one of the ways that we help your Warehouse to provide you with great performance and no effort on your part. |
Synapse Data Warehouse samples and guidance
| Month | Feature | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| April 2024 | Fabric Change the Game: Azure SQL Database mirror into Microsoft Fabric | A step-by-step guide to mirror your Azure SQL Database into Microsoft Fabric. |
| February 2024 | Mapping Azure Synapse dedicated SQL pools to Fabric data warehouse compute | Read for guidance on mapping Data Warehouse Units (DWU) from Azure Synapse Analytics dedicated SQL pool to an approximate equivalent number of Fabric Capacity Units (CU). |
| January 2024 | Automate Fabric Data Warehouse Queries and Commands with Data Factory | In Fabric Data Factory, there are many ways to query data, retrieve data, and execute commands from your warehouse using pipeline activities that can then be easily automated. |
| November 2023 | Migrate from Azure Synapse dedicated SQL pools | A detailed guide with a migration runbook is available for migrations from Azure Synapse Data Warehouse dedicated SQL pools into Microsoft Fabric. |
Synapse Real-Time Analytics in Microsoft Fabric
This section summarizes recent improvements and features for real-time analytics in Microsoft Fabric.
| Month | Feature | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| April 2024 | Kusto Cache consumption preview | The preview of Kusto Cache consumption means that you will start seeing billable consumption of the OneLake Cache Data Stored meter from the KQL Database and Eventhouse items. For more information, see KQL Database consumption. |
| April 2024 | Pause and Resume in Eventstream preview | The Pause and Resume feature enables you to pause data streaming from various sources and destinations within Eventstream. You can then resume data streaming seamlessly from the paused time or a customized time, ensuring no data loss. |
| March 2024 | Fabric Real-Time Analytics Integrates with Newly Announced Database Watcher for Azure SQL | Users of Azure SQL can use the Database Watcher monitoring solution with Microsoft Fabric. Database Watcher for Azure SQL (preview) provides advanced monitoring capabilities, and can integrate with Eventhouse KQL database. |
| March 2024 | Update records in a KQL Database preview | The .update command is now available, as a preview feature. Learn more about how to Update records in a Kusto database. |
| March 2024 | Query Azure Data Explorer data from Queryset | Connecting to and using data in Azure Data explorer cluster from Fabric's KQL Queryset is now available. |
| February 2024 | Eventhouse Overview: Handling Real-Time Data with Microsoft Fabric | Eventhouse (preview) is a dynamic workspace hosting multiple KQL databases, part of Fabric Real-Time Analytics. An Eventhouse offers a robust solution for managing and analyzing substantial volumes of real-time data. Get started with a guide to Create and manage an Eventhouse. |
| February 2024 | KQL DB shortcut to Delta Lake tables support name-based column mapping | KQL DB now supports reading Delta tables with column name mappings. The column mapping feature allows Delta table columns and the underlying Parquet file columns to use different names. This enables Delta schema evolution operations such on a Delta table without the need to rewrite the underlying Parquet files and allows users to name Delta table columns by using characters that aren't allowed by Parquet. |
| February 2024 | KQL DB shortcut to Delta Lake tables support deletion vectors | KQL DB can now read delta tables with deletion vectors, resolving the current table state by applying the deletions noted by deletion vectors to the most recent table version. |
| February 2024 | Get Data in KQL DB now supports processing events before ingestion via Eventstream | The Process event before ingestion in Eventstream option enables you to process the data before it's ingested into the destination table. By selecting this option, the get data process seamlessly continues in Eventstream, with the destination table and data source details automatically populated. |
| February 2024 | KQL DB now supports data ingestion using Apache Flink | Using the open-source Flink connector, you can send data from Flink to your table. Using Azure Data Explorer and Apache Flink, you can build fast and scalable applications targeting data driven scenarios. |
| February 2024 | Route data from Splunk Universal Forwarder to KQL DB using Kusto Splunk Universal Connector | You can now use the Kusto Splunk Universal Connector to send data from Splunk Universal Forwarder to a table in your KQL DB. |
| December 2023 | Calculating distinct counts in Power BI running reports on KQL Databases | New Fabric KQL database dcount and dcountif functions use a special algorithm to return an estimate of distinct counts, even in extremely large datasets. The new functions count_distinct and count_distinctif calculate exact distinct counts. |
| December 2023 | Create a Notebook with pre-configured connection to your KQL DB | You can now just create a new Notebook from KQL DB editor with a preconfigured connection to your KQL DB and explore the data using PySpark. This option creates a PySpark Notebook with a ready-to execute code cell to read data from the selected KQL DB. |
| December 2023 | KQL Database schema validation | The new Kusto command .show database schema violations was designed to validate the current state of your database schema and find inconsistencies. You can use .show database schema violations for a spot check on your database or in CI/CD automation. |
| December 2023 | Enabling Data Availability of KQL Database in OneLake | Data availability of KQL Database in OneLake means you can enjoy the best of both worlds. You can query the data with high performance and low latency in their KQL database, and you can query the same data in Delta Parquet via Power BI Direct Lake mode, Warehouse, Lakehouse, Notebooks, and more. |
| December 2023 | Fabric Change the Game: Real–time Analytics | Real-Time Analytics is a formidable tool, diminishing complexity and streamlining data integration processes. Microsoft Fabric allows you to build Real-Time streaming analytics with eventstream or Spark Stream. |
| November 2023 | Announcing Delta Lake support in Real-Time Analytics KQL Database | You can now enable availability of KQL Database in Delta Lake format. Delta Lake is the unified data lake table format chosen to achieve seamless data access across all compute engines in Microsoft Fabric. |
| November 2023 | Real-Time Analytics in Microsoft Fabric general availability (GA) | Announcing the general availability of Real-Time Analytics in Microsoft Fabric! Real-Time Analytics offers countless features all aimed at making your data analysis more efficient and effective. |
| November 2023 | Delta Parquet support in KQL Database | As part of the one logical copy promise, we're excited to announce that data in KQL Database can now be made available in OneLake in delta parquet format. You can now access this Delta table by creating a OneLake shortcut from Lakehouse, Warehouse, or directly via Power BI Direct Lake mode. |
| November 2023 | Open Source Connectors for KQL Database | Several open-source connectors for real-time analytics are now supported to enable users to ingest data from various sources and process it using KQL DB. |
| November 2023 | REST API Support for KQL Database | We're excited to announce the launch of REST Public APIs for KQL DB. The Public REST APIs of KQL DB enables users to manage and automate their flows programmatically. |
| November 2023 | Eventstream now Generally Available | Eventstream is now generally available, adding enhancements aimed at taking your data processing experience to the next level. |
| November 2023 | Eventstream Data Transformation for KQL Database | Now, you can transform your data streams into real time within Eventstream before they're sent to your KQL Database. When you create a KQL Database destination in the eventstream, you can set the ingestion mode to "Event processing before ingestion" and add event processing logics such as filtering and aggregation to transform your data streams. |
| November 2023 | Splunk add-on preview | Microsoft Fabric add-on for Splunk allows users to ingest logs from Splunk platform into a Fabric KQL DB using the Kusto python SDK. |
| November 2023 | Get Data from Eventstream anywhere in Fabric | If you're working on other Fabric items and are looking to ingest data from Eventstream, our new "Get Data from Eventstream" feature simplifies the process, you can Get data from Eventstream while you're working with a KQL database and Lakehouse. |
| November 2023 | Two ingestion modes for Lakehouse Destination | We've introduced two distinct ingestion modes for your Lakehouse Destination: Rows per file and Duration. |
| November 2023 | Optimize Tables Before Ingesting Data to Lakehouse | The table optimization shortcut is now available inside Eventstream Lakehouse destination to compact numerous small streaming files generated on a Lakehouse table. Table optimization shortcut works by opening a Notebook with Spark job, which would compact small streaming files in the destination Lakehouse table. |
| November 2023 | Create a Cloud Connection within Eventstream | We've simplified the process of establishing a cloud connection to your Azure services within Eventstream. When adding an Azure resource, such as Azure IoT Hub and Azure Event Hubs, to your Eventstream, you can now create the cloud connection and enter your Azure resource credentials right within Eventstream. This enhancement significantly improves the process of adding new data sources to your Eventstream, saving time and effort. |
| November 2023 | Get Data in Real-Time Analytics: A New and Improved Experience | A new Get Data experience simplifies the data ingestion process in your KQL database. |
Synapse Real-Time Analytics samples and guidance
| Month | Feature | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| March 2024 | Browse Azure resources with Get Data | Learn how to browse and connect to all your Azure resources with the 'browse Azure' functionality in Get Data. You can browse Azure resources then connect to Synapse, blob storage, or ADLS Gen2 resources easily. |
| November 2023 | Semantic Link: Data validation using Great Expectations | Great Expectations Open Source (GX OSS) is a popular Python library that provides a framework for describing and validating the acceptable state of data. With the recent integration of Microsoft Fabric semantic link, GX can now access semantic models, further enabling seamless collaboration between data scientists and business analysts. |
| November 2023 | Explore Data Transformation in Eventstream for KQL Database Integration | Dive into a practical scenario using real-world bike-sharing data and learn to compute the number of bikes rented every minute on each street, using Eventstream's powerful event processor, mastering real-time data transformations, and effortlessly directing the processed data to your KQL Database.. |
Microsoft Fabric core features
News and feature announcements core to the Microsoft Fabric experience.
| Month | Feature | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| March 2024 | Microsoft Fabric is now HIPAA compliant | We are excited to announce that Microsoft Fabric, our all-in-one analytics solution for enterprises, has achieved new certifications for HIPAA and ISO 27017, ISO 27018, ISO 27001, ISO 27701. |
| March 2024 | Folder in Workspace preview | As an organizational unit in the workspace, folder addresses this pain point by providing a hierarchical structure for organizing and managing your items. For more information, see Create folders in workspaces (preview). |
| March 2024 | Fabric Copilot Pricing: An End-to-End example | Copilot in Fabric begins billing on March 1, 2024 as part of your existing Power BI Premium or Fabric Capacity. Learn how Fabric Copilot usage is calculated. |
| March 2024 | Capacity Platform Updates for Pause/Resume, Capacity Metrics, virtualized items and workspaces for Copilot, and VNET Gateways | The Fabric Capacity Platform now supports usage reporting for Pause/Resume, virtualized items and workspaces supporting Copilot, Capacity Metrics, and VNET Gateway. For more information, read Capacity Platform Updates for Pause Resume and Capacity Metrics for Copilot and VNET Gateways. |
| February 2024 | Managed private endpoints for Microsoft Fabric (Preview) | Managed private endpoints for Microsoft Fabric (preview) allow secure connections to data sources that are behind a firewall or not accessible from the public internet. Workspaces with managed private endpoints have network isolation through a managed virtual network created by Microsoft Fabric. For more information, see Introducing Managed private endpoints for Microsoft Fabric preview. |
| February 2024 | Azure Private Link Support for Microsoft Fabric (Preview) | Azure Private Link for Microsoft Fabric secures access to your sensitive data in Microsoft Fabric by providing network isolation and applying required controls on your inbound network traffic. For more information, see Announcing Azure Private Link Support for Microsoft Fabric in Preview. |
| February 2024 | Domains in OneLake (preview) | Domains in OneLake help you organize your data into a logical data mesh, allowing federated governance and optimizing for business needs. You can now create sub domains, default domains for users, and move workspaces between domains. For more information, see Fabric domains. |
| February 2024 | Customizable Fabric navigation bar | You can now customize your preferred entry points in the navigation bar, including pinning common entry points and unpinning rarely used options. |
| February 2024 | Persistent filters in workspace | You can now save selected filters in workspace list view, and they'll be automatically applied the next time you open the workspace. |
| December 2023 | Microsoft Fabric Admin APIs preview | Fabric Admin APIs are designed to streamline administrative tasks. The initial set of Fabric Admin APIs is tailored to simplify the discovery of workspaces, Fabric items, and user access details. |
| December 2023 | Workspace retention changes in Fabric and Power BI | The retention period for collaborative workspaces is configurable from 7 to 90 days. The workspace retention setting is enabled by default and the default retention period is seven days. |
| November 2023 | Fabric workloads are now generally available! | Microsoft Fabric is now generally available! Microsoft Fabric Synapse Data Warehouse, Data Engineering & Data Science, Real-Time Analytics, Data Factory, OneLake, and the overall Fabric platform are now generally available. |
| November 2023 | Microsoft Fabric User APIs preview | We're happy to announce the preview of Microsoft Fabric User APIs. The Fabric user APIs are a major enabler for both enterprises and partners to use Microsoft Fabric as they enable end-to-end fully automated interaction with the service, enable integration of Microsoft Fabric into external web applications, and generally enable customers and partners to scale their solutions more easily. |
Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) in Microsoft Fabric
This section includes guidance and documentation updates on development process, tools, source control, and versioning in the Microsoft Fabric workspace.
| Month | Feature | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| April 2024 | Introducing Trusted Workspace Access in Fabric Data Pipelines | Create data pipelines in Fabric to access your firewall-enabled ADLS Gen2 storage accounts with ease and security. This feature leverages the workspace identity to establish a secure and seamless connection between Fabric and your storage accounts. |
| March 2024 | CI/CD for Fabric Data Pipelines preview | Git Integration and integration with built-in Deployment Pipelines to Data Factory data pipelines is now in preview. For more information, see Data Factory Adds CI/CD to Fabric Data Pipelines. |
| March 2024 | System file updates for Git integration | The automatically generated system files item.metadata.json and item.config.json have been consolidated into a single system file .platform. For more information, see Automatically generated system files. |
| February 2024 | REST APIs for Fabric Git integration | REST APIs for Fabric Git integration enable seamless incorporation of Fabric Git integration into your team's end-to-end CI/CD pipeline, eliminating the need for manual triggering of actions from Fabric. |
| February 2024 | Delegation for Git integration settings | To enable more control over Git related settings, a tenant admin can now delegate these settings to both capacity admins and workspace admins via the What is the admin portal? |
| November 2023 | Microsoft Fabric User APIs | Microsoft Fabric User APIs are now available. The Fabric user APIs are a major enabler for both enterprises and partners to use Microsoft Fabric as they enable end-to-end fully automated interaction with the service, enable integration of Microsoft Fabric into external web applications, and generally enable customers and partners to scale their solutions more easily. |
| November 2023 | Notebook in Deployment Pipeline Preview | Now you can also use notebooks to deploy your code across different environments, such as development, test, and production. You can also use deployment rules to customize the behavior of your notebooks when they're deployed, such as changing the default Lakehouse of a Notebook. Get started with deployment pipelines, and Notebook shows up in the deployment content automatically. |
| November 2023 | Notebook Git integration preview | Fabric notebooks now offer Git integration for source control using Azure DevOps. It allows users to easily control the notebook code versions and manage the Git branches by leveraging the Fabric Git functions and Azure DevOps. |
| November 2023 | Notebook REST APIs Preview | With REST Public APIs for the Notebook items, data engineers/data scientists can automate their pipelines and establish CI/CD conveniently and efficiently. The notebook Restful Public API can make it easy for users to manage and manipulate Fabric notebook items and integrate notebook with other tools and systems. |
| November 2023 | Lakehouse support for git integration and deployment pipelines (preview) | The Lakehouse item now integrates with the lifecycle management capabilities in Microsoft Fabric, providing a standardized collaboration between all development team members throughout the product's life. Lifecycle management facilitates an effective product versioning and release process by continuously delivering features and bug fixes into multiple environments. |
| November 2023 | SQLPackage support for Fabric Warehouse | SQLPackage now supports Fabric Warehouse. SqlPackage is a command-line utility that automates the following database development tasks by exposing some of the public Data-Tier Application Framework (DacFx) APIs. The SqlPackage command line tool allows you to specify these actions along with action-specific parameters and properties. |
Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) samples
| Month | Feature | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| March 2024 | Microsoft Fabric Lifecycle Management – Getting started with Git Integration and Deployment Pipelines | Learn the essentials of Lifecycle Management through a demo scenario, and explore what Lifecycle Management is, and what it means in Fabric. |
Data Activator in Microsoft Fabric
Data Activator is a no-code experience in Microsoft Fabric for automatically taking actions when patterns or conditions are detected in changing data. This section summarizes recent new features and capabilities of Data Activator in Microsoft Fabric.
| Month | Feature | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| March 2024 | New Expressions "Changes by", "Increases by", and "Decreases by" | When setting conditions on a trigger, we've added syntax to allows you to detect when there's been a change in your data by absolute number or percentage. See New Expressions "Changes by", "Increases by", and "Decreases by". |
Fabric and Microsoft 365
This section includes articles and announcements about Microsoft Fabric integration with Microsoft Graph and Microsoft 365.
| Month | Feature | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| March 2024 | Analyze Dataverse tables from Microsoft Fabric | When creating a shortcut within Fabric, you will now see an option for Dataverse. When you choose this shortcut type and specify your Dataverse environment details, you can quickly see and work with the tables from that environment. |
| November 2023 | Fabric + Microsoft 365 Data: Better Together | Microsoft Graph is the gateway to data and intelligence in Microsoft 365. Microsoft 365 Data Integration for Microsoft Fabric enables you to manage your Microsoft 365 alongside your other data sources in one place with a suite of analytical experiences. |
| November 2023 | Microsoft 365 connector now supports ingesting data into Lakehouse (preview) | The Microsoft 365 connector now supports ingesting data into Lakehouse tables. |
Migration
This section includes guidance and documentation updates on migration to Microsoft Fabric.
| Month | Feature | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| February 2024 | Mapping Azure Synapse dedicated SQL pools to Fabric data warehouse compute | Read for guidance on mapping Data Warehouse Units (DWU) from Azure Synapse Analytics dedicated SQL pool to an approximate equivalent number of Fabric Capacity Units (CU). |
| November 2023 | Migrate from Azure Synapse dedicated SQL pools | A detailed guide with a migration runbook is available for migrations from Azure Synapse Data Warehouse dedicated SQL pools into Microsoft Fabric. |
| November 2023 | Migrating from Azure Synapse Spark to Fabric | A detailed set of articles on migration of Azure Synapse Spark to Microsoft Fabric, including a migration process that can involve multiple scenarios and phases. |
Monitor
This section includes guidance and documentation updates on monitoring your Microsoft Fabric capacity and utilization, including the Monitoring hub.
| Month | Feature | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| March 2024 | Capacity Metrics support for Pause and Resume | Fabric Capacity Metrics has been updated with new system events and reconciliation logic to simplify analysis of paused capacities. Fabric Pause and Resume is a capacity management feature that lets you pause F SKU capacities to manage costs. When your capacity isn't operational, you can pause it to enable cost savings and then later, when you want to resume work on your capacity you can reactivate it. |
Microsoft Purview
This section summarizes recent announcements about governance and compliance capabilities with Microsoft Purview in Microsoft Fabric. Learn more about Information protection in Microsoft Fabric.
| Month | Feature | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| May 2023 | Administration, Security and Governance in Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Fabric provides built-in enterprise grade governance and compliance capabilities, powered by Microsoft Purview. |
Archive
For older updates, review previous updates in Microsoft Fabric.
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