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Applies to Product - Power Platform Administration

What’s happening?
The customer needs to understand the feasibility of cloning a large Dynamics instance with significant data tables to separate one business application into two for security reasons.
 

Reason:
The production environment is large, with a database size of approximately 393.43 GB, and there are concerns regarding the capacity to clone this environment and the implications of data deletion on storage consumption.
 

Resolution:
Capacity Assessment: Ensure there is enough capacity in the target environment to accommodate the clone.
Temporary Capacity Request: If necessary, request a temporary capacity extension to facilitate the cloning process. Note that this request is subject to approval and should be considered a one-time exception.
Data Optimization:

  1. Perform bulk deletions of records in the largest tables to optimize the current production environment. Delete bulk records - Power Platform | Microsoft Learn
  2. Clean up records from the AsyncOperationBase and WorkflowLogBase tables by following the guidelines in Clean up records from System Job (AsyncOperationBase) and Process Log (WorkflowLogBase) tables - Power Platform | Microsoft Learn.
Alternative Migration Methods: Consider copying only the schema and customizations, then migrate the necessary data using Dataflows OData connector. More information can be found in Migrate data between Microsoft Dataverse environments using the dataflows OData connector - Power Apps | Microsoft Learn.
Monitoring Data Consumption: After performing bulk deletions, monitor the data consumption to confirm if it drops to the actual size.
Documentation Reference: For further details on copying environments, refer to Copy an environment - Power Platform | Microsoft Learn.