Create Warehouse Snapshots in Fabric – Point-in-Time Data Copy
In this Microsoft Fabric tutorial, you’ll learn how to use Warehouse Snapshots — a powerful feature that allows you to capture point-in-time read-only copies of your data warehouse for reporting, auditing, and analytics.
🧠 What is a Warehouse Snapshot?
- A read-only, point-in-time view of a Microsoft Fabric Warehouse
- Not automatically created — must be initiated by users
- Remains consistent even as base tables are updated
- Valid for querying historical data up to 30 days in the past
- Can be refreshed manually to reflect the latest data
📌 Use Cases
- 📊 Historical analytics and period comparisons
- 📦 Stable inputs for machine learning and BI pipelines
- 🔍 Regulatory compliance and audits
- ✅ Backup for critical datasets before running ETL transformations
🧪 Sample Query on a Snapshot
SELECT TOP 5 *
FROM [TechDWH_Snapshot].[dbo].[Sales];🔁 Updating a Snapshot
- Only available to Admin, Member, or Contributor roles
- Automatically refreshes all snapshot tables to current state
- Ongoing queries complete on the previous snapshot version
🔐 Security & Governance
- Follows all permission rules from the parent warehouse
- Strictly read-only – users cannot modify data
- Security policies like GRANT/REVOKE instantly apply
- ⚠️ Snapshot schema is not versioned — dropped tables disappear
⚠️ Preview Limitations
- Works only on warehouses created after March 2025
- No support via SSMS or Direct Lake integration
- Does not support creating new views or DML operations
- Unavailable for Lakehouse SQL Analytics Endpoints