Your step-by-step guide for a smooth transition to Microsoft’s unified storage model
Migrating Dataverse capacity in 2025 is more than a storage exercise — it’s a full architectural checkpoint. With new AI-driven workloads, ERP integrations, and Microsoft’s unified capacity model, organizations need a structured approach to avoid downtime, broken workflows, or unexpected licensing costs.
This guide provides a clear, actionable, and up-to-date Dataverse Capacity Migration Checklist, built for admins, architects, and ERP/CRM teams preparing for 2025.
1️⃣ Pre-Migration Assessment
Before touching any environment, get full visibility into your current usage.
✔ Review current Dataverse & Dynamics 365 storage
- Database (DB)
- File
- Log
- Environment-level usage
✔ Identify high-consumption workloads
- Typical storage hotspots include:
- AI agents
- Power Automate workflows
- Virtual tables
- Attachment-heavy apps
- ERP integrations
✔ Document ERP-related storage
- Finance
- Supply Chain Management
- Project Operations
- Commerce
- HR
✔ Export baseline capacity reports
Use these reports to compare and validate usage before and after migration.
2️⃣ Planning & Architecture Review
This is where most migration problems can be prevented.
✔ Map impacted environments
- Production
- Sandbox
- Dev/Test
- Tier-2 ERP environments
✔ Review retention policies
Key areas to check:
- Audit logs
- Plugin trace logs
- Workflow history
- Dataverse logs
✔ Archive or compress unused data
Identify old logs, inactive attachments, and historical records.
✔ Confirm storage dependencies
- Dataflows
- API integrations
- External systems
- Custom plugins or flows that generate metadata
✔ Review AI-driven workloads
- Will new AI agents increase contextual data storage?
- Are your environments aligned with the future “system-of-action” app model?
3️⃣ Licensing & Capacity Validation
Avoid surprises by validating capacity early.
✔ Validate capacity vs. entitlements
- Confirm the updated unified pool
- Compare with predicted storage growth
✔ Update internal documentation
✔ Check if additional add-ons are required
✔ Review the latest Licensing Guide (Dec 2025)
4️⃣ Environment Preparation
Clean environments = smoother migration.
✔ Validate Power Platform Admin Center access
✔ Set storage alerts
Monitor DB, File, and Log thresholds.
✔ Clean up unused environments
Retire old sandboxes or Dev setups.
✔ Apply retention policies before migrating
5️⃣ Migration Execution
Now you move into the unified storage model and validate workloads.
✔ Move to unified storage (if applicable)
✔ Reconfigure ERP apps
Ensure apps like Finance, SCM, or Project Ops point to unified capacity.
✔ Validate key workloads after migration
- Power Automate flows
- Plugins
- Custom connectors
- API calls
- Ingestion pipelines
✔ Test business apps in all stages
- Production
- Sandbox
- Integrated environments
✔ Validate file storage paths
- Attachments
- Documents
- Images
- AI-generated artifacts
✔ Monitor logs for 48–72 hours
6️⃣ Post-Migration Optimization
Now fine-tune usage under the new model.
✔ Re-evaluate storage consumption
✔ Optimize data tables
- Remove orphaned records
- Clean up attachments
- Archive historical logs
✔ Reconfigure Power Automate flows
Reduce excessive logs and run-history retention.
✔ Update lifecycle & governance documentation
✔ Train admins and users on:
- New capacity model
- Monitoring dashboards
- Storage governance best practices
7️⃣ Ongoing Governance Checklist
Make this part of long-term operations.
✔ Monthly storage health check
✔ Quarterly environment cleanup
✔ Annual architecture review
✔ Predictive planning for AI agent workloads
✔ Monitor Power Platform release waves for capacity rule changes
Final Thoughts
The 2025 Dataverse capacity model introduces new efficiencies — but also new responsibilities. By following this structured checklist, organizations can avoid over-consumption, broken processes, or unexpected licensing increases.
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