Fabric capacity consumption, after smoothing, that exceeds what the SKU allows in a timepoint. Any overage left after the 10-minute throttling window carries forward and is paid off by later idle time; alternatively, capacity overage billing at triple the usual rate avoids throttling.
Also called capacity overage.
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Terms in this definition
- Fabric capacity
The compute behind Microsoft Fabric, sized in capacity units (CUs). Microsoft recommends F SKUs, purchased via Azure with per-second billing.
- Consumption
Serverless, event-driven Azure Functions hosting plan charged per execution; runs are capped at 10 minutes and VNet integration isn't available.
- Smoothing
Fabric's way of spreading the capacity units an operation consumes across later 30-second timepoints, which makes throttling less likely. Interactive work is spread over 5 to 64 minutes and background work over a full day.
- SKU
The size or tier of a service, for example a VM size or the Premium tier of ACR.
- Timepoint
Fabric spreads capacity unit consumption across 30-second slots, 2,880 per day. Interactive work gets spread across 5 minutes or longer; background work across 24 hours.
- WINDOW
Returns rows from a sorted, optionally partitioned table, either at fixed positions (ABS) or relative to the current row (REL). Running totals plus moving averages are common uses.
Related terms
- Burndown
The Fabric capacity mechanism whereby spare CUs in later timepoints repay carryforward, the overage that went past the 10-minute window. Throttling stays in place until the carryforward has been fully paid off.
- Carryforward
When a Fabric capacity's overage goes beyond the 10-minute throttling window, the excess is pushed into future timepoints and gradually repaid from unused capacity (burndown); throttling lasts until it's gone.
- SCU
Security Compute Unit, the measure of Security Copilot capacity. Units are either provisioned and charged hourly or used as overage, and each is tied to one workspace without sharing.