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CSA Loom — the Microsoft Fabric experience for Azure tenants where Fabric isn't yet available: lakehouses, warehouses, notebooks, semantic models, Activator rules, Data Agents, across Commercial, GCC, GCC-High, and DoD IL5

Tutorial: Datamart editor (migration template)

CSA Loom datamart — a DEPRECATED Power BI datamart surface whose only action is Migrate: convert the datamart into a Synapse Serverless warehouse tier + an Azure Analysis Services semantic-model tier. No Microsoft Fabric or Power BI Premium required.

What it is

Power BI datamarts are deprecated, so this is a MIGRATION template — not a create surface. No new datamarts can be authored; the entry exists only to migrate existing ones. The Loom migration path converts a datamart into:

  • a Synapse Serverless user database — always-on OPENROWSET / external-table analytics (the warehouse tier), and
  • an Azure Analysis Services tabular model — Import or DirectQuery over Synapse (the semantic-model tier).

The Migrate action provisions both automatically via /api/items/datamart/migrate and stamps a migration receipt on the original item.

When to use it

  • You have existing Power BI datamarts and need an Azure-native landing path before the deprecation bites.
  • You want the datamart's SQL tier and semantic tier split onto services you can govern and scale independently.

Step-by-step in Loom

  1. Open the deprecated datamart. The editor shows its name and a deprecation banner — no authoring surface is offered.
  2. Migrate. Click Migrate. Loom runs CREATE DATABASE on the Synapse Serverless endpoint and PUTs an Azure Analysis Services server, then records the new database name + AAS connection URI on the item.
  3. Deploy the tabular model. Use SSDT or SSMS against the AAS XMLA endpoint (connection URI in the receipt) to deploy the semantic model to the provisioned server.
  4. Reconnect reports. Point Power BI / Loom reports at the new AAS server or the Synapse Serverless SQL endpoint instead of the datamart.

The Azure backend it rides on

  • Warehouse tier: Azure Synapse serverless SQL (user database over ADLS Delta/Parquet).
  • Semantic tier: Azure Analysis Services tabular (XMLA endpoint).
  • Migration: /api/items/datamart/migrate — real CREATE DATABASE + ARM PUT, receipt stamped on the item.

No Fabric required

The migration lands on Synapse Serverless + AAS — no Fabric capacity, OneLake, or Power BI Premium on the default path.

Learn more