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Backup options for CDS tables

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Hi all,

I'm wondering what solutions people have put in place when it comes to backing up their data within CDS tables.

Are there ways to automate a backup of CDS tables to occur on a regular basis? If so, how easy is it to then restore this data?

Would just like to understand how people are backing up their data, and then restoring into a CDS table in the case of a DR event or similar.

Thanks

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Microsoft Dataverse with Power Apps

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EricRegnier 8,720 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi @Anonymous,

There are multiple ways of backing up your tables/configurations. Top 3 I would say are:

There are automatic daily backup, but you can also backup your environment on-demand from the Power Platform admin center: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/backup-restore-environments

A common method is to create a solution and export that solution as unmanaged and save it in a source control: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/common-data-service/solutions-overview

In a more DevOps scenario is to create a solution, export, unpack that solution and save the solution files to a source control. You can leverage the out-of-the-box Build Tools to do so if you are using Azure DevOps: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/alm/devops-build-tool-tasks

Export solution task: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/alm/devops-build-tool-tasks#export-solution

Unpack task: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/alm/devops-build-tool-tasks#unpack-solution

More on ALM: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/alm/

To restore the configuration in another environment can be achieved by importing the solution you've exported from source environment. You can do that manually or in a DevOps scenario can be done with the same Build Tools as above.

Import solution: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/common-data-service/import-update-export-solutions

Suggest to go through the links I put and it should give you the basics.

Hope this helps...

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Fubar 8,354 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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@EricRegnier just one correction, the Automated backups are no longer daily/nightly - they are now continuous backups (and have been for a while), meaning when you go to restore you can now pick a more fine grained date and time for the restore point.

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EricRegnier 8,720 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Sure, thanks for clarifying

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Community Power Pla... on at

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Hi @EricRegnier , i have some follow up questions regarding your post above.

- when it comes to a shared dataverse environment (other applications etc running in the same environment), is there a way to recover data just for certain tables? Recovering the environment works fine, but it also recovers all the other tables and applications that exist in that environment too...
- Is the recommendation to have one dataverse 'solution' per environment, to avoid the point i mentioned above?
- if CDS is an Azure SQL database in the background, is there the ability to be able to directly access those tables (not in Powerapps but another way)?

Let me know if you need any clarifications on my questions.

Thanks

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EricRegnier 8,720 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hey Jeremy, see comments below

- when it comes to a shared dataverse environment (other applications etc running in the same environment), is there a way to recover data just for certain tables? Recovering the environment works fine, but it also recovers all the other tables and applications that exist in that environment too...

Yes, to recover tables (not data), have a separate solution with just the desired tables and follow #2 or #3 from my original post. For the data of those tables, it really depends on the scenarios for the best approach, but if the data model is not complex and small amount of data (<100K) you can use Configuration Migration Tool to backup and reimport into another environment. You can also export to Excel manually each table or look into complex data backup scenarios like Data Export Service and other ETL solutions.

- Is the recommendation to have one dataverse 'solution' per environment, to avoid the point i mentioned above?

Not necessarily, again it depends on the scenarios and if using managed/unmanaged solutions. Some organizations have many solutions and many environments, and others one. Have a look at the ALM link in my original post and it will give some guidance on how to structure and segment solutions...

- if CDS is an Azure SQL database in the background, is there the ability to be able to directly access those tables (not in Powerapps but another way)?

Not quite, but there is the TDS endpoint to query Dataverse with SQL: https://docs.microsoft.com/powerapps/developer/data-platform/dataverse-sql-query

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