You design integration with an external data source that uses sequential integer values as primary keys for the records contained in it Data…

The most robust and efficient solution for synchronizing data from an external system and preventing duplicates in Microsoft Dataverse involves using alternate keys and the upsert method.

An alternate key is defined in Dataverse on a column (or columns) that will store the unique identifier from the external system (in this case, the sequential integer). This enforces uniqueness at the database level, ensuring no two Dataverse rows can have the same external key.

The upsert method is an API operation specifically designed for this integration scenario. It uses the alternate key to determine if a record already exists. If it does, the existing record is updated; if not, a new record is created. This single, atomic operation prevents duplicates and simplifies the integration logic.

A. Webhook: Webhooks are used for outbound integration, pushing data from Dataverse to an external service when an event occurs, not for inbound data synchronization.

C. Change tracking: Change tracking is a feature used to efficiently query for data that has changed in Dataverse. It helps optimize synchronization but does not itself prevent duplicate record creation.

E. Duplicate detection rules: While these rules can be configured to block duplicate records, they are a more general mechanism. The upsert method is the specific, more efficient, and standard architectural pattern for this type of system-to-system integration.

1. Microsoft Dataverse Developer Guide, "Define alternate keys to reference rows": "This is especially useful when you integrate data from an external system... You can define an alternate key in Dataverse that matches the unique identifier used by the external system... The UpsertRequest message is useful in this scenario. It allows you to write code that will either create a new row or update an existing row that has the unique key."

2. Microsoft Dataverse Developer Guide, "Use Upsert to insert or update a record": "The UpsertRequest class creates or updates a table row... To perform the upsert operation, you must identify a row using a key value that is not the primary key. Every table has a GUID value for its primary key, but you can define alternate keys that can be used to identify a row."

3. Microsoft Dataverse Developer Guide, "Use change tracking to synchronize data with external systems": This document explains that change tracking is used to "get data changes" and "synchronize the data in an efficient manner," confirming its role is to identify changes, not to manage the write operation itself.

4. Microsoft Dataverse Developer Guide, "Use webhooks": This document clarifies that "Webhooks is a lightweight HTTP pattern for connecting Web APIs and services with a publish/subscribe model," confirming its use for sending data out of Dataverse.