Shortcuts in OneLake

Data Ingestion and Semantic Models with Microsoft Fabric

Alex Kuntz

Head of Cloud Curriculum, DataCamp

Introduction to Shortcuts in Microsoft Fabric

  • Shortcuts are symbolic links that can point to various storage locations.
  • Efficient Data Handling: No data degradation, duplication, or latency.

  • Flexible Creation: via Fabric UI or REST API.

  • Wide Data Source Support: Access data from:

    1. OneLake OneLake logo
    2. ADLS Gen2ADLS Logo
    3. Dataverse Dataverse Logo
    4. Amazon S3 storage accounts S3 logo
    5. On-premise locations & Network-restricted locations
Data Ingestion and Semantic Models with Microsoft Fabric

Key Terminology

Target Path:
  • Location that a shortcut points to.
  • Example: In ADLS Gen2 - sampledata/demo/Transaction
Shortcut Path:
  • Location where the shortcut appears.
  • Example: In (Fabric) Lakehouse - Files/Transaction
Data Ingestion and Semantic Models with Microsoft Fabric

Shortcuts in Lakehouse

Tables Folder:

  • Supports Delta, Parquet, and CSV formats.
  • Shortcuts only created at the top level.
  • Automatically recognizes tables for Delta/Parquet data.

Files Folder:

  • Stores any file type (e.g., images, videos).
  • Created at any folder level.
  • No automatic table discovery.

Data Ingestion and Semantic Models with Microsoft Fabric

Deletion Handling in Shortcuts

  • Deleting Shortcut

    • No impact on target data
    • Example: MyLakehouse\Files\ MyShortcut

  • Deleting Referenced Data

    • Target data deleted if permissions allow
    • Example: MyLakehouse\Files\MyShortcut\Foo\ Bar
Data Ingestion and Semantic Models with Microsoft Fabric

OneLake Shortcut Security

Permissions Required for Creating and Deleting Shortcuts

Capability Permission on Shortcut Path Permission on Target Path
Create a shortcut Write ReadAll
Delete a shortcut Write N/A

Permissions Required for Reading and Writing data via Shortcuts

Capability Permission on Shortcut Path Permission on Target Path
Read file/folder content of shortcut ReadAll ReadAll
Write to shortcut target location Write Write
Data Ingestion and Semantic Models with Microsoft Fabric

Let's practice!

Data Ingestion and Semantic Models with Microsoft Fabric

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