Bootstrapping

Why do I need bootstrapping?

You might have an existing Common Data Service (CDS) or other Dynamics 365 app instance with business data, and you want to enable dual-write connection against it. In this case, you need to bootstrap Common Data Service or other Dynamics 365 app data with company information before enabling dual-write connection.

Overview

This document describes sample scenarios explaining how to use Azure Data Factory (ADF) to bootstrap data into CDS entities (for DualWrite solution). It doesn't cover all entities, error handling scenarios, lookup etc. Use this document and template as a reference to setup your own ADF pipeline to import/update data into CDS.

High-level scenario

• Consider 'Customers' (in Finance & Operations) and 'Account' (in CDS) entities for example.

• Use Initial write to copy reference/dependent entities e.g. Company entity, Customer groups entity, Terms of payment entity etc. from F&O to CDS

• Use data management framework to export data from F&O in csv format e.g. setup export project in data management to export customers from each companies (with DataAreaId field) in F&O. It's one-time manual process.

• Use Azure Blob Storage to store the csv files for lookup, transformation etc. Upload your F&O customers csv file in Azure Blob Strorage.

• Use Azure Data Factory (ADF) to bootstrap data into CDS.

High-level flow

Assumptions

• Source data is in Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations app.

• If an account exists in CDS and it doesn't exist in Finance & Operations app, that account will not be bootstrapped as part of this flow.

• All account records in CE has a natural key (account number) that matches Finance and Operations natural key (CustomerAccount)

• Records have 1-1 mapping across the apps.

Prerequisites

• Azure subscription - You will require contributor access to an existing Azure subscription. If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free Azure account before you begin.

• Azure storage account - If you don't have a storage account, see Create an Azure storage account for steps to create one.

• Azure data factory - Create an Azure Data Factory resource follow the steps to create a Data factory

• Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations - Use Data management framework to export data in csv format (click here). In this template, example is used for exporting customers using 'CustCustomerV3Entity'.

• Dynamics 365 CDS - Dynamics 365 CDS administrator user credentials to bootstrap the data.

• Dual-Write - Dual-write solutions installed, and Reference data is copied using initial-write.

Deployment steps

• Setup Azure Storage account

If you don't have a storage account, see Create an Azure storage account for steps to create one. Create one container namely 'ce-data' in your storage account (this container will be used to store all data files, you can change it if needed in your datasets/pipe-lines). Navigate to 'Access keys' and copy 'Connection string' as highlighted below (note it down as it's required at the time of importing Azure Data Factory template):

• Deploy Azure Data Factory Template

  1. Note down Azure data factory name that you created.

  2. Note down the Azure Storage account connection string.

  3. Note down Dynamics 365 CDS instance service URI, Admin user name & password.

  4. Here are all parameters you need

Parameter name	Description	Example
Factory Name	Name of your data factory	BootstrapCDSDataADF
Bootstrap blob stroage account Linked Service_connection String	Connection string of blob strorage	As copied at the time of creating storage account
Bootstrap Dynamics 365 Linked Service_service Uri	URI of Dynamics 365 CDS instance	https://contosod365.crm4.dynamics.com
Bootstrap Dynamics 365 Linked Service_properties_type Properties_username	Dynamics 365 Admin user id	adminservice@contoso.onmicrosot.com
Bootstrap Dynamics 365 Linked Service_password	Dynamics 365 Admin user's password	********

5. Download the ARM template file to your local directory.

6. Click [Template deployment] https://ms.portal.azure.com/#create/Microsoft.Template

7. Click Build your own template in the editor option.

8. Click load file and locate the ARM template file you downloaded earlier and click Save.

9. Provide required parameters and Review + create.

10. After successful deployment, you will find below Pipelines, Datasets and Data flows.

Execution

• Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations -- Use Data management framework to export data in csv format (click here). In this template, example is used for exporting customers using 'CustCustomerV3Entity'. Setup the 'CustCustomerV3Entity' and remove 'FullPrimaryAddress' field map from the mapping. Add 'DataAreaId' field in the csv field. Rename the exported file as '01-CustomersV3Export-Customers V3.csv' and upload in Azure Storage account (ce-data container)

• Download Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations Sample customer file

• Run 'BootstrapAccountsPipeline' from Azure Data Factory.