Create a Fabric Capacity Scaling package

A Fabric Capacity Scaling package resizes a Microsoft Fabric capacity to another SKU when it runs. Use it to give the capacity more compute for a load window without pausing it, so reports keep working throughout.

Prerequisites

• An Azure App Registration data provider in the workspace. This is the App Registration whose service principal the package acts as, and it decides which Azure resources you can choose.
• The principal able to enumerate resource groups in the subscription. This package finds its resource that way, so without this the resource list is empty and the package cannot be completed.
• The principal needs permission to change the resource, not only to read it. Listing a resource and scaling it are different rights.

How it works

You choose a data provider, then the capacity to act on, then what to do to it.

When the resource list is empty, the editor names the scope it searched, for example No … were found in … this data provider can see. An empty list reflects the service principal's permissions.

Each of these packages performs one action. Scaling up before a load and back down afterwards is two packages, ordered in a process map or on a schedule. Ordering them this way is also what makes the saving visible in the execution log.

The target SKU

The Target SKU is the SKU the capacity is resized to when the package runs. SKUs step in capacity and price together. See Fabric capacity SKUs for what each one provides.

Scaling keeps the capacity available throughout, which is the difference from Fabric Capacity Pause/Resume. Pausing is cheaper but takes everything offline, while scaling is a smaller saving that nobody has to work around.

Pick the smaller SKU for the day and the larger one for the load window, then use two packages to switch between them.

Create the package

1. Go to Orchestration > Packages.
2. Select Create, then select Fabric Capacity Scaling from the Azure area.
3. Select a Data provider.
4. Select the Resource. If the list is empty, see Troubleshooting below.
5. Select the Target SKU.
6. Select Save. The package is stored as a Draft.

A worked pattern

Scale up to a larger SKU before the nightly load, then scale back down when it completes.

Best practices

• Pair the packages. A scale-up with no matching scale-down is how a cost optimisation exercise becomes a cost increase. Put both in the same process map.
• Order them around the work, not on a clock. A scale-down scheduled for 06:00 runs whether or not the load finished. A scale-down that depends on the load step does not.
• Make the down action the one that cannot be skipped. If the flow can fail between the up and down steps, arrange for the down step to run anyway.
• Give the principal least privilege, scoped to the specific resource rather than the subscription.
• Check the cost model before assuming a saving. Not every action stops billing, and the field help states which ones do.

Troubleshooting

The resource list is empty. The service principal cannot enumerate resource groups, or cannot see resources of this type. Grant subscription level Reader or Microsoft.Resources/subscriptions/resourceGroups/read, then select the refresh button. The editor's own message names the scope it searched.

The resource lists but the action fails at run time. The principal has read permission without write permission. It needs a role that can change the resource, not only see it.

The package succeeds but nothing changed. The resource was already in the target state. These actions are idempotent, which means a success does not by itself prove that anything moved.

A resource was renamed or deleted in Azure. The package stores the reference it was configured with. Reopen the package, select the resource again from the refreshed list, and save.

Reference

Validation messages: Please select a data provider, Please select a capacity, Please select a target SKU.

Related articles

• Packages overview
• Create an Azure Virtual Machine Start/Stop package
• Create an Azure SQL Database Scaling package
• Create a Fabric Capacity Pause/Resume package