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Greg_Esres
Helper I
Helper I

Global Datasets and Datasources

I want to define datasources and datasets globally and have them available to all users when the log into Power BI. I also want to have the visibility determined by user id.

I've been told this is possible in Power BI, but I haven't seen yet any features that provides these capabilities. Power BI seems geared mainly towards sharing spreadsheets in a peer-to-peer manner. Can someone point me in the right direction?

16 REPLIES 16

I would "assume" that you should be able to just publish a dataset, however in all the testing I've done with Org Content Packs it would appear you need to include at least one report and dashboard in order for it to work. If you don't include all 3, the dataset and or report show up, but the load spinner just keeps going.

So - as of right now, no you can't do this with Org Content Packs

 

If this is just a bug, and you should be able to just publish a dataset, then the answer changes to "yes" if you are using something like tabular models where you can control the permissions on a different level.


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The person who was telling me how this can work was assuming that the Azure SQL server would be filtering the rows based on the user credentials, so that some users would see a subset of the data.

 

It's not clear to me how this can work; it looks to me that Power BI copies the entire dataset and so SQL server no longer has any ability to filter rows by user id.

 

 

SQL Azure and SQL Analysis Services are a direct connect mode, no data is cashed in PowerBI.com, row level security certainly works with Analysis Services, but I don't think it will work with SQL Azure becuase user name and password are part of the connection information.

I'm not using SQL Analysis Services. I wonder if I need to in order to accomplish my goals? My source is claiming that there is some sort of single sign on capability that would pass through to Azure...haven't seen it yet.

My advice would be to implement Analysis Services.  If you already have a power pivot model, it can be imported into Analys Services in under a minute.  You do need an instance of SQL Server Analysis Services to deploy it on though.

 

Ultimately, Analysis Services is the way to go.

"Ultimately, Analysis Services is the way to go."

 

Argh. My role is data architect and I'm designing the warehouse. I didn't anticipate having to get up to speed on the BI side of things. There's more to it than I expected.

Well, one could argue that data warehouse is not complete without a semantic model, which is what Analysis Services is. Your end users will most likely need data enhanced with calculations (Variance, Year to Date, etc.) so it is always good to think of it as a complete solution and not just data alone.

 

I would need to test it but I believe that identity is not passed to SQL Server databases (Azure or not), only to Analysis Services.

I probably need to educate myself on what Analysis Service provides; perhaps it would make it easier for end users to understand and use the data, which has been a concern.

 

Thanks for your input.

You may be able to get away with a power pivot data model stored on a One Drive so that you can change the model and have the model changes automatically update Power Bi.  I've implemented that for some clients with no Data warehouses.

I've already started building out the DW in Azure SQL. I'm a developer/DB guy and these BI tools are new to me. The interaction between Power View, Power Query, Power BI, Power BI Designer and Power Pivot is pretty confusing, and the descriptions of what they do I find on the web aren't at the level of abtraction I find most useful. Overall, it seems that this technology is mostly geared towards peer-to-peer sharing of spreadsheets, rather than the top-down distribution of data that I'm envisioning.

 

The analysts I'm working with are using Tableau, but there high level encouragement to move away from this tool due, in part, to the challenge of user id management. We'd like single sign on capability so that we don't have to construct a lot of separate user ids and roles. We're already using Office 365 and would rather key access off of these existing ids.

  • Power View - Visualizations (across platforms and apps)
  • Power Pivot - Reporting model (data load, relationships and calculations), same as technology as Analysis Services but running in Excel
  • Power Query - Data Aquisition and massaging (self service ETL if you will)
  • Power BI Desktop (former Designer) - Power View+Power Pivot +Power Query bundled in one tool outside of Excel
  • Power BI - Software as a Service at PowerBI.com that enables content rendering, development and collaboration that leverages all of the items above

 

This is high livel, but directionally accurate.

Power Pivot is the only Excel tool that works the way I think a BI should, but my notes include these problems:

 

  1. Schema name is left off the tables from SQL Database Azure
  2. All non dbo. table imports fail.
  3. Does not pick up relationships among views.
  4. Views show up in the list as both tables and views

BTW, I don't actually need the environment to support row level security....I can implement that myself in a View, for instance, although I do need appropriate user identity.

I just published a content pack with a data set only and was able to connecto to it, not sure why it does not work for you.  I would say the answer is Yes

andre
Memorable Member
Memorable Member

You can create a content pack with a data set only (no dashboards and reports).

 

Here is how:

 

http://businessintelligist.com/2015/07/21/content-packs-can-now-be-created-in-powerbi-com/

That looks promising...thanks!

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