How the Azure pause / resume keeps cost down
⏰
Automation resumes F2
Scheduled runbook, each night
→
⚙
Nightly ETL runs
Bronze → Silver → Gold refresh
→
⏸
Automation pauses F2
Billing stops while idle
→
📊
Reports stay live
All day on shared capacity (import model), independent of F2
~£10–12 / month — vs ~£200 running F2 24/7
What we need provisioned, and the access to grant
☁ Azure
Provision
- Resource group (to hold the F2 + Automation)
- Microsoft Fabric F2 capacity (pay-as-you-go)
- Azure Automation account (system-assigned managed identity) for pause / resume
Access to grant
- Matthew: Contributor on the resource group (to build the F2, Automation account & pause/resume runbook)
- Automation's managed identity: Contributor on the F2 capacity (to pause/resume) — applying this one grant needs an Owner / User Access Administrator
📊 Fabric & Power BI
Provision
- ETL workspace (bound to the F2 capacity)
- Reporting workspace (shared Power BI capacity)
Access to grant
- Matthew: Admin / Member on both workspaces (deploy pipelines, Lakehouse/Warehouse, model, reports)
- Matthew: Power BI Pro licence (to build & publish the reports)
- Capacity admin assigns the ETL workspace to F2
- Entra ID account or B2B guest for Matthew
Matthew's account access
- Invite matthew@disseminate.co.uk as an Entra B2B guest
- Grant Admin / Member on the workspace(s)
- Uses his existing Power BI Pro licence — no new licence needed
- Publishes via the Power BI Service (guests can't publish from Desktop)
How providers access the dashboard
👤 Provider access
Provider userEntra ID B2B guest
→
Power BI dashboardRow-level security
→
Sees only its own learnersNo other provider's data
Each provider user needs a Power BI Pro licence to view the dashboard on shared capacity — WYCA to provide or confirm (some users may already have one).
Alternative: host reporting on F64+ capacity so viewers need only a Free licence — likely disproportionate for a pilot at this scale.