> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.generalvalidation.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Set up your Environment

> Choose a Fabric capacity and let General Validation create the dedicated workspace, Results Lakehouse, and validation job that your Runs use.

Your Environment is a dedicated General Validation workspace on your existing
Microsoft Fabric capacity. It holds the Results Lakehouse and the validation
job that every Run in your Organization uses. Setup creates it once; each
Organization has one Environment. The Environment is never a source or target
for validation, and it does not appear in the Table Pair pickers.

Only an Owner can set up, reinstall, or remove the Environment. Nothing is
purchased: setup uses a capacity you already have and does not purchase or
resize capacity.

## Before you start

Confirm the following before you begin:

* You are an Owner of your Organization in General Validation.
* An active Fabric capacity that your Microsoft account can see. Only active
  capacities you can see are offered during setup.
* Permission in Fabric to create workspaces and to assign them to that
  capacity.
* Tenant settings that allow Spark Job Definitions and Fabric Runtime 2.0.
  Setup sets the dedicated workspace's default Spark runtime to Fabric
  Runtime 2.0 and installs one Spark Job Definition.
* If your tenant requires an administrator to approve new applications, that
  approval is complete. See
  [Sign-in and team access](/single-sign-on-and-access).
* A Fabric tenant on Microsoft's commercial cloud. Contact
  [support@generalvalidation.com](mailto:support@generalvalidation.com)
  before setting up with Private Link, regional-only endpoints, or a
  sovereign cloud.

## Run setup

1. Open **Environment**. A newly activated Organization opens this page
   automatically.
2. Choose a Fabric capacity. The list shows only active capacities your
   account can see, as capacity name and region. When exactly one capacity is
   eligible, it is selected for you. The hint reads "Uses your existing
   capacity. No new capacity is purchased."
3. Click **Set up General Validation**.
4. Keep the page open. The button changes to **Setting up General
   Validation…** and the page reads "Keep this page open while Fabric
   finishes setup."
5. Watch the Environment map beside the controls. Its heading changes to
   Installation progress and it shows a counter such as 2 of 5, a
   progress bar, and the current step as "Working on:" followed by the step
   name. The five steps are Dedicated workspace, Spark runtime,
   Results Lakehouse, Validation job, and **Connect to General
   Validation. Each step moves from Waiting to In progress** to
   Complete.
6. When the last step completes, the map heading changes to **Your
   validation environment and the control card reads Ready for
   validation**.

The five steps run in order. The first four create the workspace, set its
Spark runtime, create the Results Lakehouse, and install the validation job in
your Fabric tenant. The last step saves a reference to those items in General
Validation so every member of your Organization uses the same Environment.
Every call to Fabric goes directly from your browser to Microsoft with your
own signed-in identity.

If a step fails:

* The step stays marked Needs attention and the map reads "Stopped at:"
  followed by the step name. The reason appears in an alert above the
  controls.
* The button changes to Retry setup with the hint "Retry to continue from
  the resources already created." Click it to continue from the failed step.
  A retry reuses the workspace, Lakehouse, and job that already exist and
  does not create duplicates.
* If you reload or close the page during setup, the progress display resets.
  Click **Set up General Validation** again; setup resumes with the resources
  that already exist.

## What setup creates

| Item                  | Name or setting in Fabric                               | Purpose                                                             |
| --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Workspace             | Named for General Validation, on the capacity you chose | A separate home for validation, apart from your business workspaces |
| Default Spark runtime | Fabric Runtime 2.0                                      | The runtime your validation jobs run on                             |
| Lakehouse             | GeneralValidationResults                                | Stores Results and row evidence for every Run                       |
| Spark Job Definition  | General Validation executor                             | One reusable validation job that every Run submits to               |

Setup never adopts or modifies an existing workspace. Spark compute for your
Runs consumes the capacity you chose. For the full inventory and the
permissions setup uses, see
[What General Validation creates and needs in Fabric](/what-general-validation-provisions).

## After setup

The control card reads Ready for validation and lists Workspace with
the workspace name and Results Lakehouse with GeneralValidationResults.
The Environment map shows each of the five steps as Configured.
Contributors and Readers see the same card with View Table Pairs in place
of Create a Table Pair.

* View in Fabric opens the dedicated workspace in the Fabric portal in a
  new tab, where you can inspect the workspace, the Lakehouse, the job, and
  its run history.
* Create a Table Pair is the next action. See
  [Create Table Pairs](/creating-your-first-test).

Reinstall replaces the validation job in the dedicated workspace and keeps
the Results Lakehouse, so earlier Runs stay readable. The maintenance text
reads "Reinstall restores the validation job and keeps your Results." Use it
after a product update that requires a newer validation job, which the
[release notes](https://generalvalidation.com/changelog/) announce, or when
the job in Fabric was changed or deleted. Reinstall repeats the Spark runtime,
Results Lakehouse, Validation job, and **Connect to General
Validation** steps on the existing workspace and deletes nothing. While it
runs, the card reads Updating your Environment and the button reads
Reinstalling…. On success the page shows "Validation reinstalled. Your
Results are preserved." If it fails, the card reads **Reinstall needs
attention; click Retry reinstall**.

Remove deletes the dedicated workspace. Click it to open the **Remove
Environment?** dialog, which states that this deletes the dedicated workspace
and everything inside it, including validation jobs, Results, and row
evidence, and that any running jobs in the workspace are affected. Click
**Remove Environment** to confirm or **Cancel** to keep the Environment. After
the workspace is deleted, General Validation forgets the Environment and the
page returns to the one-time setup state with the notice "Environment
removed. Set up General Validation again whenever you're ready."

Removing the Environment keeps your Table Pairs, Tests, and Run history in
General Validation, including each Run's verdicts and counts. The exact values
and mismatch evidence that were stored in the deleted workspace are gone and
can no longer be opened from a Run. Source and target Tables in other
workspaces are unaffected. Until an Owner sets up the Environment again,
Run validation and Run all are unavailable.

## Share the workspace with your team

Membership in your General Validation Organization does not grant any access
in Fabric, and access in Fabric does not add anyone to your Organization.
Manage the two separately:

* Invite teammates to the Organization from Organization and give each
  one a role. See [Sign-in and team access](/single-sign-on-and-access).
* Have a Fabric workspace administrator share the dedicated workspace with
  the same people through Fabric. Teammates who run validation need read
  access to the source and target Tables and write access to the Results
  Lakehouse. Teammates who open a Result's details or mismatch evidence need
  read access to the Results Lakehouse, because their browser reads those
  values directly from OneLake.

## Troubleshooting

No capacity is listed. The page reads "No available Fabric capacity found.
Ask your Fabric administrator for permission to assign workspaces to an active
capacity, then refresh." Ask your Fabric administrator to grant that
permission on an active capacity, then click **Refresh**.

A setup step fails. Click **Retry setup**. If the same step fails again,
read the alert:

* "Microsoft denied setup access. Ask your Fabric administrator to allow
  workspace creation and capacity assignment." Your account cannot create a
  workspace on the chosen capacity. Ask your Fabric administrator to review
  your permission on the capacity and the tenant settings for workspace
  creation, the Spark runtime, and Spark Job Definitions.
* "Setup already started on another capacity. Select that capacity to resume
  setup." Choose the capacity that already holds the General Validation
  workspace.
* "Fabric setup is still pending. Retry setup to check the workspace." or
  "Fabric setup could not yet be confirmed. Retry setup to check whether the
  job is ready." Wait a moment, then click **Retry setup**.
* "Fabric could not complete setup. Open the workspace for details." Open the
  workspace in the Fabric portal and inspect the failed operation.
* "Multiple General Validation workspaces were found. Resolve the duplicate
  workspaces in Fabric." Similar messages report duplicate Results
  Lakehouses and duplicate validation jobs. Remove or rename the duplicates
  in Fabric, then retry.
* "The existing General Validation job has a different or unverifiable
  definition. Rename or remove it in Fabric before retrying setup." The job
  in the workspace was modified or is not the one General Validation
  installs. Rename or remove it in Fabric, then retry.

You see "Connect your Microsoft account to Fabric to continue." Click
**Connect Microsoft Fabric** and approve with the same Microsoft account and
directory you used to sign in to General Validation.

Contributors and Readers cannot run setup. They see **Environment not
configured** with "An organization owner can set up validation for your
team." Ask an Owner to run setup, or ask an Owner to change your role.

The workspace was deleted in Fabric outside the app. Click **Remove** to
forget the Environment; a workspace that no longer exists is safe to remove.
Then set up General Validation again.

Setup, Reinstall, and Remove call Microsoft directly from your browser, so a
failure in those calls does not appear in General Validation's logs; the
request is visible in your Fabric monitoring. For errors that General
Validation reports, contact
[support@generalvalidation.com](mailto:support@generalvalidation.com) with the
error code and the request or Run ID shown with the message. See
[Troubleshooting and logs](/troubleshooting-and-logs).