I'm trying to find the best approach to delivering a BI solution to 400+ customers which each have their own database.
I've got PowerBI Embedded working using service principal licensing and I have the PowerBI service connected to my data through the On Premise Data Gateway.
I've build my first report pointing to 1 of the customer databases. Which works lovely.
What I want to do next, when embedding the report, is to tell PowerBI, for this session, to get the database from a different database.
I'm struggling to find somewhere where this is explained, or to understand if this is even possible.
I'm trying to avoid creating 400+ WorkSpaces or 400+ Data Sets.
If someone could point me in the right direction, it would be appreciated.
You can configure the report to use parameters and these parameters can be used to configure the source for your dataset:
https://www.phdata.io/blog/how-to-parameterize-data-sources-power-bi/
These parameters can be set by the app hosting the embedded report:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/power-bi/datasets/update-parameters-in-group
Because the app is setting the parameter, each user will only see their own data. Since this will be a live connection, you would need to think about how the underlying server can support the workload.
An alternative solution would be to consolidate the customer databases into a single database (just the relevant tables) and use row level security to restrict access for each customer. The advantage to this design is that you take the burden off of the underlying SQL instance and push it into a PBI dataset that is made to handle huge datasets with sub-second response times.
More on that here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/enterprise/service-admin-rls
Related
We are having difficulty finding a method of sharing a dataset and allowing users to use that dataset to create and publish their own reports. This would include ability to create new measures (Dax) and then publish themselves. Using the "service" live connection does not seem to allow that and if not using that there seems to be an issue of refreshing the data once that dataset is downloaded and modified with new columns/measures etc.
Greatly appreciate any help on this. So far I have seen nothing that shows how to do any of this so I have to assume it may not be possible? Thank you.
Live Connect to a Power BI Dataset allows for local measures.
If you need more modeling changes when working with a remote Data Set, the DirectQuery for Power BI Datasets and AAS feature (currently in preview) enables you to mash-up remote Data Set tables, with local tables, and allows for adding calculated columns to remote tables.
But you should use this with some care, as the query processing is split between the local model and the remote model(s), which can cause performance issues.
I am new in power bi. I am using SQL connection for data load in power bi.
I created the report in Dev environment. But I want to use the same report in all environment(dev/test/uat/prod).
Question: Is it possible to switch the connection via button click in dashboard?
You'll have to use a parameter to select the connection and store the report in template format - *.pbit. Then you can easily create different versions of the report from the template by specifying the according parameter setting.
The only way to use a slicer for changing the environment would be to load the data from all different environments into the model first - which is clearly not recommended.
Power BI offers Deployment Pipelines for this purpose. This tool will allow you to create 3 workspaces for dev, test and production stages. Then you can deploy from one stage to another by clicking a button in Power BI Service or using the REST API. In the pipeline you can define rules for dataset and parameters, which can be used to automatically change the datasource when deploying to the next stage, i.e. to change the datasource from your dev database to the test database, or from test database to production one.
You can also implement similar functionality using the API. See for example this answer.
Its tricky question.
Try with above answers, if those not work try with these approach.
I don't think for the moment they didn't implement solution for that.
From my experience I had to create 3 dashboards and gateways to dev, test and prod dashboard.
If your dev,test,prod database column names are same you just copy past your dashboard and rename it according to that.
Then go to change data source and add new test env host and change schema to test env.
If you get few errors you have to resolve , check column names, host and finally you have to sync your data.
You can use same approach for the prod env .
once you publish, you can point to gateway for dev,test or prod environment.
Note: Establish gateway on your server.
I am working on a PowerBi project and I need some advice/questions on the best way to approach this project. I am tasked to create a dashboard for employee metrics pulled from an onsite SQL Server database. The managers here are going to have access to the PowerBi cloud, so I will end up uploading this to the cloud. There are 10 or so metrics that need to be shown on the dashboard. We have 5000+ employees. My first thought was to create a table and dump all the metrics into a table and set the PowerBi report to import the data, but that seems excessive and a waste of space to upload all that data to the CLOUD because all of the managers don't need access to every employee. They may want to see 1 or 2 employees' metrics on the dashboard.
My second thought is to (and if this is possible) create a stored procedure that will take the employee id and output a dataset for PowerBi to create a visual for. On the dashboard, have a list of employees and when a manager selects one, PowerBi will call the stored procedure with the employee id and the dataset will be returned for PowerBi to decipher into a visual based on my measurements. I guess I would set the PowerBi report connection type as DIRECT QUERY?
Here are my questions:
Is this possible? Is it possible to what I am thinking for my second plan? Is this how DIRECT QUERY works?
If so, how does DIRECT QUERY work with the PowerBi cloud?
What is setup like? Do I just install the PowerBi Data Gateway/configure it like IMPORT DATA and PowerBi does the rest?
A couple of queries:
What is the frequency of data update ?
In case if it is a batch job, it is ideally preferable to import that data from source into powerbi model and do reporting on the imported data as
a) The performance would be quicker
b) There would be no to and for of data across on prem database and cloud
c) the source would not be impacted constantly
So is the ask to have RLS wherein the managers should see only the employees under them?
Then it is pretty easy to implement RLS in imported version rather than in case of direct query.
Also you won't be able to pass parameters to stored procedures, and you can't execute them in direct query mode. You can however, create table valued functions which give you the ability to use table variables and perform other functions that are more complex in nature in Direct Query mode
you can refer this for additional details :
https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Desktop/Can-i-call-Stored-Procedure-with-Direct-Query/m-p/267141#:~:text=%40Pallavi%20you%20won't%20be,nature%20in%20Direct%20Query%20mode.
I have developed a Power BI report using Power BI Desktop, pointing to a private on premise development database as the datasource so that I was able to develop and test it easily. Then, I published it from my Power BI Desktop pbix to the work area of my customer.
As a result, the work area contains the published report and the dataset. Later, my customer has changed the dataset so that it now points to the correct on premise production database of their own. It works perfectly.
Now, I want to publish a new report for my customer using the previously published and reconfigured dataset. The problem is that I can't see any option in Power BI Desktop to have the report point to the published dataset, nor I can't see any option to avoid creating a new dataset each time I publish a report, nor any way to reconfigure from the web portal the new published report to point to the same dataset as the first one.
Is there any way to do this or any work around for this scenario? I think the most reasonable solution would be to be able to change the dataset of any report, so that the datasets of any report could be interchangeable.
Update:
I had already used connection specific parameters, but I'm not given rights to change the published dataset, so thats a dead end.
Another thing I have come up to is that in Power BI Desktop you cannot change the connection parameters values to those of production enviroment and publish the report if you can't access the target database from your computer, because PowerBI Desktop ask you to apply changes first, and when it tries to apply the values it tries to connect to the corresponding database and, obviously, ends with a network related error or timeout error trying to connect to the database server, therefore cancelling changes and returning to the starting point.
It's always a good practice to use connection specific parameters to define the data source. This means that you do not enter server name directly, but specify it indirectly using a parameter. The same for the database name, if applicable.
If you are about to make a new report, cancel Get data dialog, define parameters as described bellow, and then in Get data specify the datasource using these parameters:
To modify an existing report, open Power Query Editor by clicking Edit Queries and in Manage Parameters define two new text parameters, lets name them ServerName and DatabaseName:
Set their current values to point to one of your data sources, e.g. SQLSERVER2016 and AdventureWorks2016. Then right click your query in the report and open Advanced Editor. Find the server name and database name in the M code:
and replace them with the parameters defined above, so the M code will look like this:
Now you can close and apply changes and your report should work as before. But now when you want to change the data source, do it using Edit Parameters:
and change the server and/or database name to point to the other data source, that you want to use for your report:
After changing parameter values, Power BI Desktop will ask you to apply the changes and reload the data from the new data source. To change the parameter values (i.e. the data source) of a report published in Power BI Service, go to dataset's settings and enter new server and/or database name:
If the server is on-premise, check the Gateway connection too, to make sure that it is configured properly to use the right gateway. You may also want to check the available gateways in Manage gateways:
After changing the data source, refresh your dataset to get the data from the new data source. With Power BI Pro account you can do this 8 times per 24 hours, while if the dataset is in a dedicated capacity, this limit is raised to 48 times per 24 hours.
This is a easy way to make your reports "switchable", e.g. for switching one report from DEV or QA to PROD environment, or as part of your disaster recovery plan, to automate switching all reports in some workgroup to another DR server. In your case, this will allow you (or your customers) to easily switch the datasource of the report.
I think the only correct answer is that it cannot be done, at least at this moment.
The most closest way of achieving this is with Live connections:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/desktop-report-lifecycle-datasets
But if you have already designed your report without using the Live connection but your own development enviroment and corresponding connection parameters then you are lost, your only chance is redo all your report with the Live Connection, or the queerest one solution, to use an alias in your configuration matching the name of the database server and the same database name that in the target production environment.
So, currently I'm having difficulty understanding how Power BI Embedded can be setup so that each customer can access data from their own separate Azure Analysis Service, this is an App Owns Data situation. Analysis Services will be running in In-Memory mode and it will be accessed from Power BI via Live Connect.
Ideally I would like the Power BI Report to be ignorant of the data set/data source until the embedded report is provided with a parameter (e.g. connection string) which the report interprets so that it knows which server to connect to. So, ideally have: one Workspace, one Report, and zero (or a fake) Dataset.
The following is roughly what I'm looking to do (note the Red and Blue flow access a different server):
It looks like if I created both a Report and Dataset per customer I can achieve my goal but this seems like a poor approach since if the Report needs to be updated this involves updating, potentially, hundreds of reports. Also creating hundreds of Reports seems like unnecessary overhead when all Power BI needs to change for each request is the connection string pointing to the data source.
So is it possible to share the Workspace and Report across all customers but having completely separate data sources? Or is my approach in conflict with the way Power BI expects to function?
To date, I've tried using Query Parameters when configuring the data source in Power BI Desktop but I get the following error:
The connect live option for this file is disabled because it already contains data from another data source. You cannot explore live data and connect to another type of data source in the same file.
Please note,
Every report in Power BI can be connected to only one Dataset.
There is NO ability to dynamically change a connection string on the fly.
Currently, and in the foreseeable future, you'd have to clone the report & dataset per customer (or per connection setup) and modify the new dataset's connection string to match.
You can then dynamically choose which report to display based on your customer's needs.
Cloning a report can be done using:
POST https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/reports/{report_id}/Clone
POST https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/groups/{group_id}/reports/{report_id}/Clone
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt784674.aspx
Changing the connection string would be done using:
POST https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/datasets/{dataset_id}/Default.SetAllConnections
(similar API for groups)
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt748181.aspx
using the C#.NET library provided by Power BI team, you'd use
Reports.CloneReport(string reportKey, CloneReportRequest requestParameters)
Datasets.SetAllDatasetConnections(string datasetKey, ConnectionDetails parameters)