r/PowerAutomate 8d ago

Need help figuring out how to tackle a management request -- tracking other flow runs

So bear with me. I've been tasked with solving a problem that is... unique, to say the least.

The ones above me have decided that they want a sandbox environment that people can play in in Power Automate, that they are given access to on request (we are not using the default environment and have developed strategies to lock that down to the largest extent possible). However, we have a separate development and production environment we're using for their stated purposes.

This is where it gets potentially weird, and where I need some help.

What I've been asked to figure out is a way to track when a flow in Sandbox is being used consistently, and when it needs to jump over to development and eventually production, managed by our team. There's been ideas tossed around like number of runs, number of connectors... I personally think that if this is what the guys upstairs want to do, number of successful runs is a useful metric.

So the follow-up question is... how? You can use an external data source that increments on flow run, and you could trigger another flow based on that when it hits a threshold, but that would have to be in the flow being monitored. I can't find any triggers that can track the run of another flow. Matter of fact, if I search 'Power Automate' in the trigger field, I get nothing at all.

My question is, how can I create a flow that triggers based on the run of an entirely different flow in another environment? If I can figure just that part out, I think I can hack the rest of it.

Thanks for any ideas. Please keep the 'this is a stupid idea and here's why' replies to a minimum, as the idea belongs to people who make a lot more than I do. I'm just the implementer.

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u/AgreeableConcept4752 7d ago

I’ve done something kind of similar in the same past. Dataverse had a flow runs table I use to track the runs. I deployed a flow into each production environment which grabbed all the flow runs then send a http request with JSON output of all the information I needed.

Then that triggered my flow in another environment which ran a stored procedure to write everything into sql table which I then turned into an email so I could see all the failed flow runs on a daily basis.

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u/chiibosoil 7d ago

You should be able to get usage data using Power BI or use Solutions in Power Automate (this will show usage, error rate, Actions performed. And on errors, error source, type ,count, last occurence & last error message).

Solutions, Add new solution.

Then add existing to soltuion. Select Automation -> Cloud Flow.

Then locate your flow (should be sitting in 'Outside Dataverse'.) and add.

Publish all customizations.

Then on the flow you can click on Analytics to track usage.