Dynamics 365 Business Central: System tables, Virtual tables and Virtual tables (entities) in Dataverse

Hi, Readers.
Today I would like to briefly talk about System tables, Virtual tables in Business Central and Virtual tables (entities) in Dataverse. Why do I bring this up? Recently, due to the new Business Central Integration with Dataverse, there have been some misunderstandings about Virtual tables.

First, let’s take a look at the System tables. Microsoft does not provide MS Learn (Docs) about the System tables, but we can find some instructions from the link below.
Table extensibility limitations:

System and virtual tables can’t be extended. System tables are created in the ID range of 2.000.000.000 and above. For more information about object ranges, see Object ranges.
Table object – Business Central | Microsoft Learn

So, System tables are created in the ID range of 2.000.000.000 (2 billion) and above. For example, (One part is Virtual tables)

Next, let’s look at Virtual tables. Microsoft provides MS Learn (Docs) for this.
Virtual tables: A virtual table contains system information. You can’t change the data in virtual tables. You can only read the information. Virtual tables aren’t stored in the database, but are computed by Business Central at runtime.

The virtual tables provide such information as:

Integers in the range –1,000,000,000 to 1,000,000,000
Dates in a given period
Overview of the operating system files
Overview of the logical disk drives
Overview of the operating system files that store the database

For example, you can use filters to get subsets or ranges of integers or dates from the Integer virtual table or the Date virtual table.
table 2000000026 Integer:

Like the system tables, their ID range is 2.000.000.000 (2 billion) and above as well.

Note:

The system or virtual table ‘Expanded Permission’ cannot be extended. AL AL0525

So how do you distinguish which are system tables and which are virtual tables? This is not in the table properties. There is actually a simple way. When you download symbol files in VS Code, the following file is automatically downloaded, Microsoft_System_24.0.20409.0.app.

We can unzip this file. Then you can find System Tables and Virtual Tables folders in the folder below.
~.alpackages\Microsoft_System_24.0.20409.0\src

System Tables:

Virtual Tables:

I organized it briefly.
All the 2.000.000.000 (2 billion) tables (175) in Version: W1 24.3 (Platform 24.0.21879.0 + Application 24.3.21374.21517)
System tables: 117
Virtual tables: 58

Type	Id	Name	Type
Table	2000000001	Object	System table
Table	2000000004	Permission Set	System table
Table	2000000005	Permission	System table
Table	2000000006	Company	System table
Table	2000000007	Date	Virtual table
Table	2000000009	Session	Virtual table
Table	2000000020	Drive	Virtual table
Table	2000000022	File	Virtual table
Table	2000000026	Integer	Virtual table
Table	2000000028	Table Information	Virtual table
Table	2000000029	System Object	Virtual table
Table	2000000038	AllObj	Virtual table
Table	2000000039	Printer	Virtual table
Table	2000000040	License Information	Virtual table
Table	2000000041	Field	Virtual table
Table	2000000043	License Permission	System table
Table	2000000044	Permission Range	Virtual table
Table	2000000045	Windows Language	Virtual table
Table	2000000048	Database	Virtual table
Table	2000000049	Code Coverage	Virtual table
Table	2000000050	Language Selection	Virtual table
Table	2000000053	Access Control	System table
Table	2000000055	SID – Account ID	Virtual table
Table	2000000058	AllObjWithCaption	Virtual table
Table	2000000063	Key	Virtual table
Table	2000000065	Send-To Program	System table
Table	2000000066	Style Sheet	System table
Table	2000000067	User Default Style Sheet	System table
Table	2000000068	Record Link	System table
Table	2000000069	Add-in	System table
Table	2000000071	Object Metadata	System table
Table	2000000072	Profile	System table
Table	2000000073	User Personalization	System table
Table	2000000074	Profile Metadata	System table
Table	2000000075	User Metadata	System table
Table	2000000076	Web Service	System table
Table	2000000078	Chart	System table
Table	2000000080	Page Data Personalization	System table
Table	2000000081	Upgrade Blob Storage	System table
Table	2000000082	Report Layout	System table
Table	2000000083	Tenant Profile Setting	System table
Table	2000000084	Tenant Profile Extension	System table
Table	2000000086	Profile Configuration Symbols	System table
Table	2000000095	API Webhook Subscription	System table
Table	2000000096	API Webhook Notification	System table
Table	2000000097	API Webhook Entity	Virtual table
Table	2000000098	API Webhook Notification Aggr	System table
Table	2000000100	Debugger Breakpoint	System table
Table	2000000101	Debugger Call Stack	Virtual table
Table	2000000102	Debugger Variable	Virtual table
Table	2000000103	Debugger Watch Value	Virtual table
Table	2000000104	Debugger Watch	System table
Table	2000000107	Isolated Storage	System table
Table	2000000110	Active Session	System table
Table	2000000111	Session Event	System table
Table	2000000112	Server Instance	System table
Table	2000000114	Document Service	System table
Table	2000000115	Document Service Scenario	System table
Table	2000000120	User	System table
Table	2000000121	User Property	System table
Table	2000000130	Device	System table
Table	2000000132	Entity Text	System table
Table	2000000135	Table Synch. Setup	Virtual table
Table	2000000136	Table Metadata	Virtual table
Table	2000000137	CodeUnit Metadata	Virtual table
Table	2000000138	Page Metadata	Virtual table
Table	2000000139	Report Metadata	Virtual table
Table	2000000140	Event Subscription	Virtual table
Table	2000000141	Table Relations Metadata	Virtual table
Table	2000000142	Query Metadata	Virtual table
Table	2000000143	Page Action	Virtual table
Table	2000000144	Power BI Blob	System table
Table	2000000145	Power BI Default Selection	System table
Table	2000000146	Intelligent Cloud	System table
Table	2000000150	NAV App Object Metadata	System table
Table	2000000151	NAV App Tenant App	System table
Table	2000000152	NAV App Data Archive	System table
Table	2000000153	NAV App Installed App	System table
Table	2000000154	Database Locks	Virtual table
Table	2000000155	NAV App Publish Reference	System table
Table	2000000156	NAV App Published App	System table
Table	2000000157	NAV App Extra	Virtual table
Table	2000000159	Data Sensitivity	System table
Table	2000000160	NAV App	System table
Table	2000000161	NAV App Dependencies	System table
Table	2000000162	NAV App Capabilities	System table
Table	2000000163	NAV App Object Prerequisites	System table
Table	2000000164	Time Zone	Virtual table
Table	2000000165	Tenant Permission Set	System table
Table	2000000166	Tenant Permission	System table
Table	2000000167	Aggregate Permission Set	Virtual table
Table	2000000168	Tenant Web Service	System table
Table	2000000169	NAV App Tenant Add-In	System table
Table	2000000170	Configuration Package File	System table
Table	2000000171	Page Table Field	Virtual table
Table	2000000172	Table Field Types	Virtual table
Table	2000000173	Intelligent Cloud Status	System table
Table	2000000175	Scheduled Task	System table
Table	2000000176	NAV App Resource	System table
Table	2000000177	Tenant Profile	System table
Table	2000000178	All Profile	Virtual table
Table	2000000179	OData Edm Type	System table
Table	2000000180	Media Set	System table
Table	2000000181	Media	System table
Table	2000000182	Media Resources	System table
Table	2000000183	Tenant Media Set	System table
Table	2000000184	Tenant Media	System table
Table	2000000185	Tenant Media Thumbnails	System table
Table	2000000186	Profile Page Metadata	System table
Table	2000000187	Tenant Profile Page Metadata	System table
Table	2000000188	User Page Metadata	System table
Table	2000000189	Tenant License State	System table
Table	2000000190	Entitlement Set	System table
Table	2000000191	Entitlement	System table
Table	2000000192	Page Control Field	Virtual table
Table	2000000193	Api Web Service	Virtual table
Table	2000000194	Webhook Notification	System table
Table	2000000195	Membership Entitlement	System table
Table	2000000196	Object Options	System table
Table	2000000197	Token Cache	System table
Table	2000000198	Page Documentation	System table
Table	2000000199	Webhook Subscription	System table
Table	2000000200	NAV App Tenant Operation	System table
Table	2000000201	NAV App Setting	System table
Table	2000000202	All Control Fields	Virtual table
Table	2000000203	Report Data Items	Virtual table
Table	2000000204	Page Info And Fields	Virtual table
Table	2000000205	Object Access Intent Override	System table
Table	2000000206	Published Application	System table
Table	2000000207	Application Object Metadata	System table
Table	2000000208	Application Resource	System table
Table	2000000209	Application Dependency	System table
Table	2000000210	Tenant Feature Key	Virtual table
Table	2000000211	Feature Key	System table
Table	2000000212	Installed Application	System table
Table	2000000213	Designed Query	System table
Table	2000000214	Designed Query Caption	System table
Table	2000000215	Designed Query Category	System table
Table	2000000216	Designed Query Column	System table
Table	2000000217	Designed Query Column Filter	System table
Table	2000000218	Designed Query Data Item	System table
Table	2000000219	Designed Query Filter	System table
Table	2000000220	Designed Query Join	System table
Table	2000000221	Designed Query Order By	System table
Table	2000000222	Designed Query Permission	System table
Table	2000000223	Designed Query Obj	Virtual table
Table	2000000224	Designed Query Group	System table
Table	2000000225	Designed Query Management	Virtual table
Table	2000000226	Query Navigation	System table
Table	2000000227	Extension Execution Info	Virtual table
Table	2000000228	Report Settings Override	System table
Table	2000000229	Report Printer	Virtual table
Table	2000000230	Page Usage State	System table
Table	2000000231	Report Layout Definition	System table
Table	2000000232	Tenant Report Layout	System table
Table	2000000233	Tenant Report Layout Selection	System table
Table	2000000234	Report Layout List	Virtual table
Table	2000000235	Database Wait Statistics	Virtual table
Table	2000000236	Database Missing Indexes	Virtual table
Table	2000000237	Privacy Notice	System table
Table	2000000238	Privacy Notice Approval	System table
Table	2000000239	Tenant Application Storage	System table
Table	2000000240	External Event Subscription	System table
Table	2000000241	External Event Log Entry	System table
Table	2000000242	External Event Notification	System table
Table	2000000243	Ext. Business Event Definition	Virtual table
Table	2000000244	Extension Database Snapshot	Virtual table
Table	2000000245	External Event Activity Log	System table
Table	2000000250	Metadata Permission Set	Virtual table
Table	2000000251	Metadata Permission	Virtual table
Table	2000000252	Metadata Permission Set Rel.	Virtual table
Table	2000000253	Tenant Permission Set Rel.	System table
Table	2000000254	Expanded Permission	Virtual table
Table	2000000255	Signup Context	System table
Table	2000000400	Inplace Installed Application	System table

Finally, let’s take a look at Virtual tables in Microsoft Dataverse.

Virtual tables in Microsoft Dataverse: Virtual tables (also known as virtual entities) enable the integration of data residing in external systems by seamlessly representing that data as tables in Microsoft Dataverse, without replication of data and often without custom coding.

A virtual table is a custom table in Microsoft Dataverse that has columns containing data from an external data source. Virtual tables appear in your app to users as regular table rows, but contain data that is sourced from an external database, such as an Azure SQL Database. Rows based on virtual tables are available in all clients including custom clients developed using the Dataverse web services. More details: Get started with virtual tables (entities) and Business Central Virtual Table for Microsoft Dataverse Admin Reference

So this kind of tables (virtual tables) is not a table in Business Central (Although there may be an intermediate table, TableType=CDS).
Business Central Virtual Table in AppSource:

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Virtual Tables for Microsoft Dataverse.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Virtual Table is a virtual data source in Microsoft Dataverse allowing Create, Read, Update and Delete operations from Microsoft Dataverse against Dynamics 365 Business Central. Data for virtual tables do not reside in Microsoft Dataverse, but continues to reside in Business Central. Virtual tables are enabled for Business Central APIs, by making them available in Microsoft Dataverse as virtual tables. Custom and Standard APIs exposed in Business Central are consumable on Microsoft Dataverse and can be exposed as virtual tables. The new version adds support for data change events (CUD events) so Dataverse virtual tables can be used in Power Automate flows.

And after you complete the Set up a connection to Dataverse, you can view all available virtual tables in Available Virtual Tables – Dataverse.

And in Power Apps:

For example, account:

All the Virtual tables in Microsoft Dataverse (78) in Version: W1 24.3 (Platform 24.0.21879.0 + Application 24.3.21374.21517)

Name	Display Name	API Route
account	Account	v2.0
accountingPeriod	Accounting Period	v2.0
agedAccountsPayable	Aged Accounts Payable	v2.0
agedAccountsReceivable	Aged Accounts Receivable	v2.0
applyVendorEntry	Apply Vendor Entry	v2.0
attachment	Attachment	v2.0
balanceSheet	Balance Sheet	v2.0
bankAccount	Bank Account	v2.0
cashFlowStatement	Cash Flow Statement	v2.0
companyInformation	Company Information	v2.0
contact	Contact	v2.0
contactInformation	Contact Information	v2.0
countryRegion	Countries Region	v2.0
currency	Currency	v2.0
currencyExchangeRate	Currency Exchange Rate	v2.0
customer	Customer	v2.0
customerContact	Customer Contact	v2.0
customerFinancialDetail	Customer Financial Detail	v2.0
customerPayment	Customer Payment	v2.0
customerPaymentJournal	Customer Payment Journal	v2.0
customerReturnReason	Customer Return Reason	v2.0
customerSale	Customer Sale	v2.0
defaultDimension	Default Dimension	v2.0
dimension	Dimension	v2.0
dimensionSetLine	Dimension Set Line	v2.0
dimensionValue	Dimension Value	v2.0
disputeStatus	Dispute Status	v2.0
documentAttachment	Document Attachment	v2.0
employee	Employee	v2.0
fixedAsset	Fixed Asset	v2.0
fixedAssetLocation	Fixed Asset Location	v2.0
generalLedgerEntry	General Ledger Entry	v2.0
generalLedgerSetup	General Ledger Setup	v2.0
generalProductPostingGroup	General Product Posting Group	v2.0
incomeStatement	Income Statement	v2.0
inventoryPostingGroup	Inventory Posting Group	v2.0
item	Item	v2.0
itemCategory	Item Category	v2.0
itemLedgerEntry	Item Ledger Entry	v2.0
itemVariant	Item Variant	v2.0
journal	Journal	v2.0
journalLine	Journal Line	v2.0
location	Location	v2.0
opportunity	Opportunity	v2.0
paymentMethod	Payment Method	v2.0
paymentTerm	Payment Term	v2.0
pdfDocument	PDF Document	v2.0
picture	Picture	v2.0
project	Project	v2.0
purchaseCreditMemo	Purchase Credit Memo	v2.0
purchaseCreditMemoLine	Purchase Credit Memo Line	v2.0
purchaseInvoice	Purchase Invoice	v2.0
purchaseInvoiceLine	Purchase Invoice Line	v2.0
purchaseOrder	Purchase Order	v2.0
purchaseOrderLine	Purchase Order Line	v2.0
purchaseReceipt	Purchase Receipt	v2.0
purchaseReceiptLine	Purchase Receipt Line	v2.0
retainedEarningsStatement	Retained Earnings Statement	v2.0
salesCreditMemo	Sales Credit Memo	v2.0
salesCreditMemoLine	Sales Credit Memo Line	v2.0
salesInvoice	Sales Invoice	v2.0
salesInvoiceLine	Sales Invoice Line	v2.0
salesOrder	Sales Order	v2.0
salesOrderLine	Sales Order Line	v2.0
salesQuote	Sales Quote	v2.0
salesQuoteLine	Sales Quote Line	v2.0
salesShipment	Sales Shipment	v2.0
salesShipmentLine	Sales Shipment Line	v2.0
shipmentMethod	Shipment Method	v2.0
taxArea	Tax Area	v2.0
taxGroup	Tax Group	v2.0
timeRegistrationEntry	Time Registration Entry	v2.0
trialBalance	Trial Balance	v2.0
unitOfMeasure	Unit Of Measure	v2.0
vendor	Vendor	v2.0
vendorPayment	Vendor Payment	v2.0
vendorPaymentJournal	Vendor Payment Journal	v2.0
vendorPurchase	Vendor Purchase	v2.0

PS: Microsoft Power Platform integration with Business Central via virtual tables and Business Central Virtual Tables FAQ

The new virtual tables are named after the ones in Power Platform, but Business Central already has virtual tables. This is what makes it confusing. Hopefully this post will help you make this clear.

END

Hope this will help.

Thanks for reading.

ZHU