Managing a Power BI Environment

Configuring Workspaces

Workspaces are places where users collaborate to create semantical models, reports, dashboards, data flows, ... In this module students will learn about securing and managing workspaces in an enterprise Power BI environment. Topics like how to automate the creation of workspaces, link workspaces to an Azure Data Lake Gen2 storage account, assigning capacity... will be covered in this chapter.

• Creating workspaces
• Set a Workspace OneDrive
• Shared versus dedicated capacity
• Workspace connectivity with the XMLA endpoint
• Configuring Azure Data Lake Gen 2 integration
• Automating Workspace creation using PowerShell
• Creating and working with Service principals
• Power BI Governance
• LAB: Configuring workspaces

Managing Semantical Models

Semantical Models (previously called Datasets) are at the cornerstone of Power BI reporting. This module covers the versioning of semantical models using free and open-source tools.

• Working with Semantical Models in the Power BI Service
• Power BI Projects and source control
• Tabular Model Definition Language (TMDL)
• Using Visual Studio Code
• Git Integration in the Power BI Service
• Creating semantical models in Visual Studio
• Adjusting and deploying semantical models with Tabular Editor
• Versioning and deploying using ALM Toolkit
• Aggregations in semantical models
• Semantical model deployment using PowerShell
• LAB: Deploying and versioning semantical models

Deploying content using Deployment Pipelines

When Power BI reports and dashboards become essential company resources, you don't want to deploy new or updated workspace content directly in production. This module describes how use deployment pipeline to deploy workspace content between development, acceptance and production workspaces.

• The need for different workspaces
• Using Deployment Pipelines
• LAB: Working with Deployment Pipelines

Configuring workspace security

This module discusses the different workspace security roles and the consequences of these roles when sharing dashboards and reports with other users.

• Configuring Workspace security
• Security when sharing Dashboards and Reports
• Securing data at rest
• Securing data in transit
• LAB: Securing workspaces

Refreshing semantical models

Most semantical models in the Power BI service contain a copy of the data from the source systems. This means that you must schedule data refreshes so that reports show the latest data. This module covers the installation and configuration of Data Gateways in Power BI. When you are dealing with large volumes of data, doing a full refresh is not feasible anymore. Incrementally refreshing and partitioning your data are a solution this problem.

• Data Gateways
• Standard versus Personal mode
• Import versus DirectQuery versus live connections
• Configuring Data Refresh Credentials
• Monitoring Gateways and data refresh
• Configuring incremental refresh
• Incremental refreshes and partitioning
• semantical model refresh using the XMLA endpoint
• LAB: Configuring data refreshes

Working with Dataflows

Dataflows bring Power Query to the cloud, allowing for reuse of data preparation logic in multiple semantical models or in other Azure technologies. In this module, we will discuss the concept and usage of dataflows and the Common Data Model. You will not only learn how dataflows are created and leveraged in Power BI, but also how they can be used in other Microsoft Azure technologies like Azure Synapse and Databricks using Spark and the Common Data Model connector.

• What are Dataflows?
• Dataflows, Entities and the Common Data Model (CDM)
• Dataflows and Azure Data Lake Gen 2 storage
• Creating Dataflows
• Working with linked and computed Entities
• Scheduling refreshes for Dataflows
• Using Dataflows in Power BI Desktop
• Dataflow licensing
• LAB: Working with Dataflows

Administering a Power BI Tenant

To enforce company policies, tenant settings need to be properly configured. Which custom visuals can be used? Can reports and report data be shared with external users, ... In this module you will get an overview of the different Power BI tenant settings you can configure.

• Configuring tenant settings
• Sharing settings
• Custom visuals settings
• Managing custom data sources
• LAB: Configuring a Power BI Tenant

Monitoring Power BI

Monitoring the Power BI environment is crucial to spot performance issues, to estimate capacity. Auditing is also important from a security point of view.

• Monitor Power BI via reports
• Monitoring workspace usage
• Customizing workspace usage reporting
• Power BI Premium Capacity Metrics and Alerts
• Integrated Unified Office 365 Audit Logging
• LAB: Monitoring Power BI