When your company uses Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, your data grows over time, just like a warehouse that fills up with more boxes as your business expands.
To help you understand how much “digital space” you are using, Business Central provides two important features in the Admin Center:
- Tenant
Capacity
- Environments (Production and Sandbox)
Business Central Tenant Capacity
Think of Tenant Capacity as the storage dashboard for your
Business Central system. Just like a warehouse needs enough space to store
goods, your Business Central tenant needs enough capacity to store the data
your business produces each day.
Scenario
Your company has been using Business Central for a few
years. Every day, users create:
- Sales
orders
- Purchase
documents
- Posted
invoices
- Ledger
entries
- Attachments
such as PDFs and images
All this information takes up space, and as the business
grows, so does the storage usage.
Tenant Capacity helps you answer important questions:
- How
much storage have we used?
- What
is occupying most of the space?
- Are
we nearing our limit?
- Should
we clean up old data or buy more storage?
What You See on the Tenant Capacity Page
1. Total Storage Available
This is the total storage Microsoft includes with your
Business Central subscription. Think of it as knowing the total size of your
warehouse.
2. Storage Used
Shows how much of your total capacity is already consumed.
This number grows as your business activity increases.
3. Breakdown by Storage Type
You can see exactly what is taking up space, such as:
- Database
tables
- Logs
- Attachments
and files
- Each
environment (Production and Sandbox)
This is like knowing which items, old boxes, new stock,
damaged pallets are filling your warehouse.
4. Options to Increase Storage
If you are running out of space, the page also shows how you
can purchase more capacity.
This is similar to renting additional warehouse space.
Why Tenant Capacity Matters
1. Prevent Performance Issues
Large databases can slow down the system. Monitoring usage
helps avoid surprises.
2. Clean Up Unused Data
You can identify and remove:
- Old
logs
- Unnecessary
attachments
- Outdated
archived data
- Historical
entries no longer needed
- Cleaning up reduces storage usage and cost.
3. Better Budget Planning
If your company is growing quickly, you’ll know in advance
when you may need more capacity.
4. Clear Environment-Level Visibility
Each environment shows its storage usage so you can monitor
which areas are consuming the most space.
A Simple Example
Suppose your company has 80 GB of total available capacity.
You check the Tenant Capacity page and see:
- 65
GB used
- 15 GB remaining
- 40
GB from posted documents
- 20
GB from attachments
- 5 GB
from sandbox environments
Based on this, you may decide to:
- Archive
older posted documents
- Delete
unnecessary sandboxes
- Remove
large attachments
- Buy
additional storage
- Apply data retention policies
Customers can choose additional database and capacity based on their requirements.
It is available as 1 GB, 100 GB or additional environment add-on.
Understanding Extra Environments in Business Central
Just like having separate workspaces in a company main
office, training rooms, and testing areas, Business Central provides different
types of environments.
Types of Environments
- Production
environment: Your live system with real data
- Sandbox
environment: A safe testing space where changes don’t affect the live
system
Default Setup
A Business Central tenant starts with:
- 1
Production environment
- 3
Sandbox environments
- Base
storage capacity (80 GB)
This is enough for many businesses initially.
When You Need More Environments
As your business grows, you may need:
- More
testing areas
- Multiple
teams working on different projects
- UAT
environments
- Training
systems
- Region-specific
setups
- Development
environments
This is where extra environments become valuable. You can purchase this as an add-on.
Buying Additional Production Environments
Microsoft allows you to purchase extra production
environments through your CSP partner.
Each extra production environment includes:
- 1
additional Production environment
- 3
Sandbox environments
- 4
GB of extra storage
Example
If you buy 2 additional production environments, you
now have:
- 3
Production environments total
- 9
Sandbox environments
- 8
GB additional storage
This is ideal for organizations with multiple regions,
departments, or teams.
Environments Can Be Created in Any Supported Country
You can create environments in any country where Business
Central is available.
This is useful for:
- Multinational
companies
- Local
tax or regulatory compliance
- Better
performance for regional teams
Example:
Your headquarters is in Dubai, but you operate in India, Saudi Arabia, and the
UK.
You can create environments in each of those regions.
Who Can Create Environments?
Anyone with the right permissions can create them:
- Customers
- Administrators
- Partner
consultants
Environments can be created directly from the Business
Central Admin Center—no need to contact Microsoft support.
Summary:
Your company starts with:
- 1
Production
- 3
Sandboxes
- 80
GB storage
Your operations expand, so you purchase 1 extra production
environment.
Now you have:
- 2
Production environments
- 6
Sandboxes
- 84
GB total storage (shared storage capacity for all the environments increases by 4 GB when you buy extra production environment)
And you can place each environment in any Business
Central-supported region.
To conclude,
Tenant Capacity tells you how much storage your Business
Central system is using, while extra environments give your company flexibility
to test, train, and grow without affecting live business data.
