Automating Microsoft Fabric With Terraform: A Deep Dive Into Our Recent Experience

Microsoft Fabric simplifies analytics and data integration, but manual setup can be complex. Our Terraform module automates key components like workspaces, role management, and Spark settings. This blog post explores its structure, key features, and limitations, helping you streamline Fabric deployments efficiently.

Why Automate Microsoft Fabric with Terraform?

Microsoft Fabric enables organizations to streamline analytics, data integration, and visualization. However, manually provisioning and configuring Fabric resources can be complex and time-consuming. Using Microsoft Fabric with Terraform, organizations can leverage infrastructure as code to automate and standardize deployments. To address this, we developed a Terraform module that automates key Fabric components, making deployment faster, more consistent, and scalable. This post explores the module’s structure, its main features, and the current limitations of the Terraform provider for Microsoft Fabric.

The Terraform Fabric Provider: A Rapidly Evolving Tool

The Terraform Fabric Provider for Microsoft Fabric is a relatively new addition to the Terraform ecosystem, designed to automate the provisioning and management of Microsoft Fabric resources. As of now, the provider is still in beta, meaning it is actively evolving, with new features and improvements being introduced at a fast pace.

Frequent Updates & Ongoing Development

A new version of the provider is released approximately every two weeks, bringing incremental improvements, bug fixes, and support for additional Fabric resources. However, given the rapid development cycle, breaking changes and adjustments to existing configurations are possible, requiring regular updates to Terraform code.

Resources Still in Preview

While the provider already supports core Microsoft Fabric components such as workspaces, role assignments, and Git integrations, some resources are still in preview or undergoing refinement. This means that certain functionalities might not be fully stable or available for production use.

Building Blocks of Our Terraform Module

‍Our Terraform module encapsulates multiple resource definitions to create a fully operational Fabric workspace. The module was initially developed for a project where multiple workspaces needed to be provisioned, each with different role assignments. To streamline automation and deployment, we created reusable Terraform modules that allow fast and consistent provisioning of new Fabric workspaces, including predefined roles and Spark configurations. This eliminates the need for manual setup, reducing errors and ensuring a streamlined provisioning process.

The core components include:

• Workspace Creation – Automates the provisioning of Fabric workspaces with customizable settings.
• Git Integration – Links the workspace to Git providers, enabling version control and CI/CD workflows.
• Role Assignments – Manages workspace- and domain-level permissions for users and groups.
• Environments & Domains – Supports isolated computational environments and structured resource grouping.
• Spark Settings – Configures Spark pools for high-performance processing with auto-scaling.

These features help organizations automate deployment while ensuring flexibility and scalability.

Key Features of the Terraform Module

‍The module is designed to enhance efficiency and control over Microsoft Fabric deployments. Some of its notable capabilities include:

• Role-Based Access Control: Easily assign roles to different users and groups for improved security.
• Git Integration: Seamlessly connect to repositories for version-controlled data pipelines.
• Dynamic Environment Sizing: Choose the right resource allocation based on workload requirements.
• Auto-Scaling Spark Resources: Optimize costs and performance with dynamic Spark resource scaling.

By integrating these features, our module simplifies Fabric management while reducing manual configuration efforts.

How the Module is Structured

‍To help understand its functionality, here’s an overview of the main components within the Terraform module:

• fabric_workspace: Creates the main Fabric workspace where all activities take place.
• fabric_workspace_git: Configures Git integration to support version control and automation.
• fabric_workspace_role_assignment: Assigns appropriate access rights to users and groups.
• fabric_environment: Provisions isolated computational environments for specialized workloads.
• fabric_domain: Groups related resources under a single domain for better organization.
• fabric_spark_settings: Manages Spark pools, including logging, concurrency, and auto-scaling configurations.

Each of these elements contributes to a structured and automated Fabric deployment, ensuring all Fabric resources are consistently provisioned and managed.

Limitations and Considerations

‍While Terraform offers powerful infrastructure automation, the Microsoft Fabric Terraform provider is still in beta. This presents some challenges:

• Limited Resource Deployment: Some components cannot yet be deployed via a service principal, restricting automation in certain environments.
• Feature Availability: Since the provider is under active development, certain features might be missing or partially functional.

Despite these limitations, our experience with the module has shown significant advantages over manual provisioning:

• Faster and More Efficient Deployment: New workspaces can be set up quickly without repetitive manual steps.
• Consistent Naming Conventions: The module enforces standardized naming, ensuring clarity and organization across environments.
• Reliable Role Assignments: Role management is automated and consistent, reducing the risk of misconfigurations.

Even though some Fabric resources are not yet fully deployable, the module already streamlines and simplifies workspace management, making it a valuable tool for scaling Microsoft Fabric deployments efficiently.

Need help automating your Microsoft Fabric setup?

Reach out to us—we’d love to support your journey towards streamlined, scalable infrastructure!