The BC Insight solution - installation and configuration

The following steps take you through configuring your Dynamics 365 Business Central (BC) as well as Azure resources to enable the feature.

Configuring the storage account

You need to have a storage account to store the exported data from BC.

Step 1. Create an Azure service principal
You will need an Azure credential to be able to connect BC to the Azure Data Lake Storage account. The general process is described at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/develop/quickstart-register-app#register-an-application

Step 2. Configure an Azure Data Lake Gen2
The tool exports the BC data to an Azure Data Lake Gen2. The general process to create the resource is described at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/create-data-lake-storage-account

Step 3. Connect credential to the blob storage
Configure storage account to allow changes by the credential created above. Add a role assignment so that the above credential is granted the Storage Blob Data Contributor role on the storage account. Learn more to do this at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/assign-azure-role-data-access?tabs=portal#assign-an-azure-role

Configuring the Dynamics 365 Business Central
In order to export the data from inside BC to the data lake, you will need to add a configuration to make BC aware of the location in the data lake.

Step 4. Enter the BC settings
You will need to setup settings related to:

1. Container
2. Tenant ID
3. Account name
4. Client ID
5. Client secret

Configuring the SQL Database Server and SQL Database

Step 5. Create Azure SQL Database Server
An SQL database server serves as a logical container for efficient management of databases.

Step 6. Create Azure SQL Database
Create and set up an SQL database to serve as a central repository for storing all defined data from the Dynamics 365 Business Central (BC). The data warehouse dimension and fact tables are stored in the Azure SQL database. The same database also contains staging tables and stored procedures used in the data-loading process.
The design and architecture of the database should be established by the GoPro Team.

Configuring the Azure Data Factory

Step 7. Create Data Factory
The Azure Data Factory technology is used to transfer data from Azure Storage to Azure SQL database (Data Warehouse - DWH), where incremental data load and necessary transformations are provided to fit the analytical data structure. It does not matter where the data warehouse is located, the ETL process will always need to be set up and run in Azure.
The design of the Data Factory should be established by the GoPro Team.

Configuring the Power BI service - Data model and reports

Step 8. Connect Power BI templates to the data warehouse database
With the BC Insight Analytics setup, you get the Power BI templates containing the data model and reports. Credentials need to be set up to connect the templates to the data warehouse database. To publish and share Power BI reports within an organization, it is necessary to have a licensed account for either Power BI Pro or Power BI Premium.