If your Azure Databricks tables show up as a knowledge source in Copilot Studio, but the agent cannot access data when you ask questions, the issue is often related to user or service account permissions, network rules, or the configuration of the table connection.
Troubleshooting Steps
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Check that the user or service principal credentials used for the Copilot Studio connection actually have read access to the Databricks tables you want to query. Initial connection success does not guarantee all tables are accessible during a chat, especially if data retrieval is blocked by permissions or firewalls.โ
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Ensure there are no network security group (NSG) rules or Databricks workspace firewall settings preventing data retrieval during agent interaction. Sometimes you can preview data because the preview tool uses a different access method than Copilot Studio's query execution.โ
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Review the environmentโs operation history or activity logs for details on errors. Switch from "Activity map" to "Transcript" to reveal hidden error messages such as token limit exceeded or authentication failures.โ
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Verify the Dataverse virtual table configuration if using virtual tables. Materialized views are required, not just views. Confirm a primary key exists for the tables, and the connector uses a compatible authentication method (service principal recommended).โ
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Check for errors or incomplete status messages in Copilot Studio, such as "SystemError" or "OpenAIMaxTokenLengthExceeded," which may require simplifying prompts or reducing input data size.โ
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Validate that Copilot Studio agent permissions and data access match expected requirements and that Microsoft 365 Copilot, if involved, is properly licensed and configured for enterprise data access.โ
Recommended Actions
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Revisit the Databricks connection in Copilot Studio, confirm credentials and permissions.
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Test querying a very simple table or data set to see if the issue relates to prompt complexity or payload size.
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Clean up the data structure passed to the agent to avoid exceeding token limits.
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Consult the Microsoft 365 Service Health Dashboard for outages or service integration issues around the time of agent failures.โ
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If using Dataverse virtual tables, ensure you follow all required setup, such as primary keys and compatible authentication.โ
By following these steps, you can usually identify and remedy why your Copilot Studio agent cannot access Databricks data even after seeing your tables in the preview.
