Azure OpenAI on your data: deploying to a different environment than the default one or to existing chatbot

[HenryJammes]

You can now connect Power Virtual Agents to Azure OpenAI on your data natively:

• Blog announcement: Create Generative AI solutions with Power Virtual Agents and Azure OpenAI Services | Microsoft Power...
• Documentation: Generative answers with Azure OpenAI on your data - Power Virtual Agents | Microsoft Learn

The deployment needs to start from the Azure OpenAI studio, after you've added "your data", and by default this creates a new chatbot in the default environment of your Power Platform tenant.

Here are workaround steps if you'd like to deploy to a different environment or if you need to enable this for an existing chatbot.
Note that this is subject to change, are the feature is still in preview, and the below guidance is only provided "as is".

[HenryJammes · Accepted solution]

To target a different environment than the default one:

1. Start from the Azure OpenAI Studio (https://oai.azure.com/)
2. Configure "Add your data" (select your data source, Azure Cognitive Search, index, column mapping, etc.)
3. Click on "Deploy to" and "A new Power Virtual Agents bot..."
   
4. Select "Continue in Power Virtual Agents"
5. Stop the URL from loading when you see it starts with this:

   https://web.powerva.microsoft.com/environments/~default/...

6. Swap the "~default" part of the URL with the environment id of your choice (as of now, only environments located in the US region can have that feature). You can get the environment id from the PVA portal URL of your desired target environment.
7. Resume the loading of the URL (i.e. press enter)

What happens next:

1. An "Azure OpenAI" connection will automatically be created for you in your target environment (visible in https://make.powerapps.com/environments/<ENVIRONMENT_ID>/connections) 
2. You'll be able to create a new PVA chatbot in the desired environment with the Azure OpenAI on your data connection already configured in the Conversational Boosting topic.

If you'd like to add the Azure OpenAI on your data to an existing bot:

1. Follow the same steps as before but DON'T create a new chatbot, only let the process fully load so that it creates the Azure OpenAI connection in https://make.powerapps.com/environments/<ENVIRONMENT_ID>/connections
2. In your existing PVA chatbot, go the Create generative answers node of your choice (by default in Conversational Boosting topic, but you can add it anywhere you want)
3. Edit data sources, and click on "Add connection", and select the Azure OpenAI once that was created.
4. Edit the Connection properties to match your model configuration, both in the "General" and "Model data" tabs:
   
5. Note: alternatively, you can also use the code editor view to do that in the YAML definition:
   E.g.
   

     actions:
       - kind: SearchAndSummarizeContent
         id: search-content
         userInput: =System.Activity.Text
         variable: Topic.Answer
         azureOpenAIOnYourDataSource:
           connectionReference: cr507_ao.connectionreference.metadata_spo_item_name.9044d6442d4a44418e72b153083ea3cd
           dataSources:
             - indexName: sharepoint-index
               titleField: metadata_spo_item_name
               urlField: url
               filePathField: metadata_spo_item_name
               contentFields:
                 - content
               queryType: simple
               roleInformation: You are an AI assistant
               limitResponsesToDataContent: =true
           apiVersion: 2023-06-01-preview
           deployment: PowerCATGPT35Turbo
           temperature: =0
           topP: =1
           maxTokens: =1200

 When you look at the URL that opens from the Azure OpenAI studio, you can also reverse engineer it directly:

• https://aka.ms/pva-aoai-prod  resolves to https://web.powerva.microsoft.com/environments/~default/create/templates/azureopenai

Then you have these parameters:

• ?azureSearchResourceId=/subscriptions/<AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID>/resourceGroups/<AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME>/providers/Microsoft.Search/searchServices/<AZURE_SEARCH_SERVICE_NAME>&azureSearchIndexName=<INDEX_NAME>&azureSearchQueryType=simple&inScope=true&roleInformation=<SYSTEM_MESSAGE>&azureOpenAIResourceId=/subscriptions/<AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID>/resourceGroups/<AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME>/providers/Microsoft.CognitiveServices/accounts/<AZURE_OPENAI_SERVICE_NAME>&azureOpenAIDeploymentId=<AZURE_OPENAI_DEPLOYMENT_NAME>&azureOpenAIApiVersion=2023-06-01-preview&temperature=<TEMPERATURE>&top_p=<TOP_P>&max_tokens=<MAX_TOKENS>&stop=&azureSearchFieldsMappingContentFields=content&azureSearchFieldsMappingFilePathField=<INDEX_COLUMN_NAME_FOR_FILE_NAME>&azureSearchFieldsMappingTitleField=<INDEX_COLUMN_NAME_FOR_TITLE>&azureSearchFieldsMappingUrlField=<INDEX_COLUMN_NAME_FOR_URL>

[cg_ds]

I don't see the "Deploy to > A new Power Virtual Agent bot" at all. I didn't come across any prerequisites I needed to be able to see this option. Is this only in a specific region?

[HenryJammes]

---

@cg_ds wrote:

I don't see the "Deploy to > A new Power Virtual Agent bot" at all. I didn't come across any prerequisites I needed to be able to see this option. Is this only in a specific region?

---

The option typically shows up AFTER you have added "on your data"

[cg_ds]

Thank you, Henry. That was it.

[HenryJammes]

Couple of issues I've seen:

• Make sure both the Azure services/subscriptions and Power Platform environment are in the SAME tenant.
• Make sure the Azure OpenAI service doesn't have network restrictions.
• Make sure DLP policies are not blocking the Azure OpenAI connector (it's not listed, so the default behavior should move connectors to Business, so they're allowed).

You can often get additional details on the error by looking at network traces (F12).

[Katerina_Ch]

@HenryJammes you literally made my day! Thanks a million for sharing this! 💖

[YassineI]

Thank you Henry for this very useful helper ! 

If people still struggle to get their Open AI connexion there is a trick that worked for me. 

When i clicked on 

I quickly copied the URL. Then via notepad I edited the environment ID then copy paste the new URL to my browser.

There a loading message saying that it's creating the OpenAI connexion. When it's loaded, close the window and go back to your solution in your environment => the newly created connexion will be visible here 

I hope it helps !

Yassine 

[helal]

Hello,

I have requested my tenant access to Azure Open AI, i do not currentlly have access to.

Hello,

My connection is still not  showing. I believe the AI service and Powerapps tenants are different. I am not sure how to change this?

 

[Hjesus]

Hi Henry, 

I have configured everything and at first glance everything seems correct, but it returns this error. Any idea what could happen?

Thanks in advance