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18Hi,
I'm new to Dynamics 365 (D365) so do bear with me. A key consideration in this post is my limited understanding of option sets, pick lists, etc.. and how they are structured in D365.
I am looking to undertake some Power BI reporting on the D365 data and seeking the best method to do so.
Having researched a little, I intend to take the D365 data and, using Data Export Services, populate a Azure SQL Server database with selected Entities. Before I embark on this journey, I have some questions that I would appreciate answering:
1) SQL server is 'schema-on-write' so there should be the need to pre-create the SQL database objects up-front prior to exporting the selected Entities. However, does the Data Export Services tool automatically create the SQL database objects on-the-fly based on the Entity you've selected to export to SQL Server and therefore is no need to for me to create the objects up-front, or does the Data Export Services tool not create any objects automatically and therefore I will need to create the SQL objects up-front prior to using the Data Export Services?
2) With my limited D365 knowledge, I am thinking that an Entity, say a Customer Entity is made from multiple tables (6 for example) within D365. When using Data Export Services to export the Customer Entity, will the Data Export Services (DES) automatically select all 6 tables or is the some logic performed between D365/DES that either:
a) automatically selects all 6 tables for the Customer Entity, or would I have to understand all the table names and how to locate them to select them for export?
b) automatically de-normalises the 6 tables into a single Customer Entity table so the DES only need to export a single table - this would save me de-normalising the tables after export/before reporting?
3) Once the Data Export Service has been configured and export the selected Entities, when the source D365 system is changed, keeping with the Customer Entity, say a table is removed or additional fields are created - will the already configured DES tool automatically adjust to export the new Entity structure or will this be a manual process by a developer (me)?
Any feedback you can provide will be much appreciated as, quite frankly, I do not understand the D365 structure.
Thanks.
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