Creating a Dataflow to extract Power BI Audit Logs

[Anonymous]

I want to automate the process of pulling Audit Logs data from the Admin portal of Power BI. 

Can I create a dataflow to directly extract the audit log data from the Admin portal and dump it in some sort of a Common Data Model ?

ALSO, CAN A POWER QUERY DIRECTLY EXTRACT DATA FROM THE AUDIT LOGS FROM THE ADMIN PORTAL ?

Is there any way other than writing a PowerShell script to extract the audit log data ?

Please suggest

Thanks in advance.

[v-piga-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous ,

By my research, I have not found the ways getting Power BI Audit Logs with power query or other ways.

So, I'm afraid that we may not create a Dataflow to extract Power BI Audit Logs currently.

Hope @GilbertQ have other ideas.

Best  Regards,

Cherry

[Anonymous]

Hi,

It is no longer needed to be a O365 admin to pull the data using PowerShell.

So far, the only way is to either pull the data using a PowerShell script or by downloading it from the website, but you can still automate it!

I did the following: I wrote a Powershell Script Function pulling data from a given day. This script can now be run automatically from microsoft flow using this method: 
http://johnliu.net/blog/2018/4/run-any-pnp-powershell-in-one-azurefunction-from-microsoft-flow
You can save all the pulled data in a sharepoint folder in whatever format you prefer, and load them all into power bi using this method:
https://devinknightsql.com/2013/08/13/extracting-data-from-multiple-files-with-power-query/

Works great so far.

[v-piga-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous ,

By my research, I have not found the ways getting Power BI Audit Logs with power query or other ways.

So, I'm afraid that we may not create a Dataflow to extract Power BI Audit Logs currently.

Hope @GilbertQ have other ideas.

Best  Regards,

Cherry

[GilbertQ · Accepted solution]

Hi there

Currently you have to extract the Audit Logs out into a CSV, which could then be read into a dataflow.

You would also currently have to be an Office 365 Admin to be able to extract data from the Audit Logs.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the response Gilbert. So, just being a Power BI Service Admin will not work, I will have to be an Office 365 Admin as well. Is that what you meant ?

So, a power query cannot pull the audit logs directly. I will have to use some sort of a powershell script to extract the data in a CSV first. Please correct if my understanding is incorrect Gilbert.

[GilbertQ]

Hi there

Yes all of the above is correct.

You will need an Office 365 Admin account.
And then you can extract it into a CSV.