SQL Server environment variables available for Power Apps
We are excited to announce that SQL Server environment variables (Entra) for Power Apps support is currently rolling out and will be in Preview regions by Jan 22 and in all regions – including sovereign – by Feb 3.
SQL Server environment variables (Entra) for Power Apps will save you time moving your solutions from one environment to another. For example, from an environment used for dev or test to a different environment used for test or production. Manually create environment variables in your solution or set a switch in your app to auto-create them for you when you add a data source to your app while in your solution. Note that this feature is specifically for Entra. Power Apps with shared connections (e.g., SQL Auth) continue with connection references.
There are two environment variables to set for SQL connections: server and database. The database environment variable depends on the server environment variable. First you create an environment variable for your server. Once that is created you can create an environment variable for the database that attaches to the server environment variable.
Use an environment variable by selecting to create data source and instead of creating a new server database combo, use the ‘Advanced’ tab to select the environment variable to bind to the controls in your app.
Use SQL Server environment variables (Entra) to easily enable professional deployment patterns. See the documentation for this feature for an in-depth discussion: Use environment variables in Power Platform solutions – Power Apps | Microsoft Learn
