Process Azure Analysis Services objects from Azure Data Factory v2 using a Logic App

Create the Logic App
Create a new Logic App from the Azure portal Marketplace and click Edit.

Pick the “When a HTTP request is received” trigger from the list of most commonly used triggers.

Click “+ New step”, “Add an action” and choose the “HTTP – HTTP” action.
Your Logic App Designer now contains all the necessary components to be triggered from Azure Data Factory and to communicate with the Analysis Services REST API.

We now need to configure the HTTP action. You can find background information regarding the Uri (Base URL) and Body in the REST API for Azure Analysis Services documentation on the Analysis Services Team Blog.

• Method: POST
• Uri: https://northeurope.asazure.windows.net/servers/myaas/models/MyModel/refreshes
  The base URL for the Azure Analysis Services REST API to process (refresh) models follows the following format:
  https:// <rollout>.asazure.windows.net/servers/<serverName>/models/<resource>/refreshesIn this URL replace the following values with parts of your Azure Analysis Services Server Name property and model name. In this example my server name was:
  asazure://northeurope.asazure.windows.net/myaas
  • <rollout>: northeurope
  • <serverName>: myaas
  • <resource>: MyModel (model name)
• Body: Read the REST API documentation on the Analysis Services Team Blog under “POST /refreshes” for more information. In the example below I will refresh my entire database (model) by a process Type Full, but processing specific tables or partitions (objects) is also possible.

  {
   "Type": "Full",
   "CommitMode": "transactional",
   "MaxParallelism": 2,
   "RetryCount": 2,
   "Objects": []
  }
  

• Authentication: Active Directory OAuth
• Tenant: Use the Azure Active Directory ID that you saved before
• Audience: https://*.asazure.windows.net
• Client ID: Use the App Registration Application ID that you saved before
• Credential Type: Secret
• Secret: Use the App Registration Key that you saved before

Your Logic App HTTP Action should now look like this:

Test if everything works as expected by running your Logic App. You can fold the HTTP Action open to see the REST API response code and message.

The Logic App works and is ready to get executed from Azure Data Factory. Open the “When a HTTP request is received” trigger and take note of the HTTP POST URL.

Create the Azure Data Factory
Create a new Azure Data Factory v2 from the Azure portal Marketplace. Click on the “Author & Monitor“ tile in your provisioned v2 data factory blade to open the visual tools for ADF v2.

In the visual tools, create a new pipeline and drag and drop a Web Activity on the pane.

Configuring the Web Activity is easy. Open the Settings tab and specifiy the following property values:

• URL: Use the HTTP POST URL of the Logic App that you saved before.
• Method: POST
• Body: A body is required but not needed for our Logic App to function the way we want, therefore use the Sample:

  {"message":"hello world"}
  

Your Web Activity Settings should now look like this:

Execute a Test Run and check the Output tab to see if everything works as expected.

Now open your Logic App and check if it ran succesfully.

Your Analysis Services model has started processing from Azure Data Factory! In a next blog post I plan to show how you can enhance the Logic App with a workflow that will poll the Analysis Services REST API to check when the process operation is completed.

Update: I have created a more advanced version of this Logic App, read about it here: Process Azure Analysis Services objects using a Logic App part 2