Create a Fabric Capacity Pause/Resume package¶

A Fabric Capacity Pause/Resume package suspends or resumes a Microsoft Fabric capacity. Pausing is the blunt, effective way to stop paying for a capacity nothing is using.

Before you start¶

• An Azure App Registration data provider in the workspace

The Azure App Registration whose service principal this package acts as. It decides which Azure resources you can choose below.

• The principal able to enumerate resource groups in the subscription. This package finds its resource that way, so without it the resource list is empty and the package cannot be completed.
• The principal needs permission to change the resource, not only read it. Listing it and scaling it are different rights.

How it works¶

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

When the resource list is empty the editor says so explicitly, naming the scope it searched — No … were found in … this data provider can see. That is a permissions answer, not a fault.

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 — which is also what makes the saving visible in the execution log.

The operation¶

Pause stops the capacity's billing; Resume brings it back online.

Pause is the one that saves money, and it is absolute — while a capacity is paused, nothing that depends on it works. Reports do not render, notebooks do not run, refreshes fail.

So the ordering matters more than with the other Azure resource package types: resume before the first thing that needs the capacity, and pause only after the last. A paused capacity in the middle of a flow does not slow it down; it fails it.

If you need the capacity available but cheaper, use Fabric Capacity Scaling instead.

Steps¶

1. Create the package¶

Orchestration → Packages → Create, then Fabric Capacity Pause/Resume from the Azure area.

2. Choose the data provider¶

3. Choose the resource, then the action¶

Both come from the selections above. The Operation is either Suspend or Resume. If the resource list is empty, see Troubleshooting.

4. Save¶

Saves as a Draft.

A worked pattern¶

Resume at 21:45, run the loads and refreshes, pause as the final step.

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 will run whether or not the load finished. A scale-down that depends on the load step will not.

Make the down action the one that cannot be skipped. If the flow can fail between up and down, 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 — the field help is explicit about 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 use the refresh button. The editor's own message names the scope it searched.

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

The package succeeds but nothing changed. The resource was already in the target state. These actions are idempotent, which is usually what you want, but it means "succeeded" does not prove anything moved.

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

Reference¶

Fields¶

Validation: Please select a data provider, Please select a capacity, Please select an operation.

Related¶

• Packages overview
• Related package types: Azure Virtual Machine Start/Stop, Azure SQL Database Scaling, Fabric Capacity Scaling