PowerBI Connector

• Requirements
• Metadata Ingestion
• Lineage
• Troubleshooting

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Requirements

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PowerBI Admin and Non-Admin APIs:

• Enabled (Use PowerBI Admin APIs) Using the admin APIs will fetch the dashboard and chart metadata from all the workspaces available in the PowerBI instance.

• Disabled (Use Non-Admin PowerBI APIs) Using the non-admin APIs will only fetch the dashboard and chart metadata from the workspaces that have the security group of the service principal assigned to them.

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PowerBI Account Setup

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Step 1: Enable API permissions from the PowerBI Admin console

• Service principals can access read-only admin APIs
• Service principals can access admin APIs used for updates
• Enhance admin APIs responses with detailed metadata
• Enhance admin APIs responses with DAX and mashup expressions

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Step 2: Create the App in Azure AD

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Step 3: Provide necessary API permissions to the Azure AD app

• Dashboard.Read.All Optional permissions: without granting these permissions, Collate cannot retrieve dataset information, and datamodel and lineage processing is skipped.
• Dataset.Read.All

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Step 4: PowerBI Workspaces

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Entity Mapping

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Example Structure

Workspace: Sales Team
├── Dashboard: Revenue Overview
│   ├── Tile: Monthly Revenue
│   └── Tile: Regional Breakdown
├── Report: Sales Trends
└── Dataset: Sales Data Model

Dashboard: "Revenue Overview" (Project: "Sales Team")
├── Chart: "Monthly Revenue"
└── Chart: "Regional Breakdown"
Dashboard: "Sales Trends" (Project: "Sales Team")
Data Model: "Sales Data Model" (Project: "Sales Team")

• PowerBI dashboards and reports both appear as Collate dashboards
• Tiles on a dashboard appear as charts underneath it
• Datasets, dataflows, and datamarts appear as data models
• PowerBI workspace names are preserved in the project field

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Metadata Ingestion

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Step 1: Add New Service

1. In the left navigation, click Connections.
2. On the Connections page, click Add New Service.

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Step 2: Select a Service and Connector

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Step 3: Add Service Name and Description

• Enter a unique, descriptive Service Name. Collate identifies services by their service name. Enter a name that distinguishes this deployment from other PowerBI services you are ingesting metadata from.
• Optional: Enter a Description for the service.

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Step 4: Configure Connection Options

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Select Ingestion Runner

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Enter Connection Details

• clientId: PowerBI Client ID. To get the client ID (also known as application ID), follow these steps:
  • Log into Microsoft Azure.
  • Search for App registrations and select the App registrations link.
  • Select the Azure AD app you’re using for embedding your Power BI content.
  • From the Overview section, copy the Application (client) ID.
• clientSecret: PowerBI Client Secret. To get the client secret, follow these steps:
  • Log into Microsoft Azure.
  • Search for App registrations and select the App registrations link.
  • Select the Azure AD app you’re using for embedding your Power BI content.
  • Under Manage, select Certificates & secrets.
  • Under Client secrets, select New client secret.
  • In the Add a client secret pop-up window, provide a description for your application secret, select when the application secret expires, and select Add.
  • From the Client secrets section, copy the string in the Value column of the newly created application secret.
• tenantId: PowerBI Tenant ID. To get the tenant ID, follow these steps:
  • Log into Microsoft Azure.
  • Search for App registrations and select the App registrations link.
  • Select the Azure AD app you’re using for Power BI.
  • From the Overview section, copy the Directory (tenant) ID.
• scope: Service scope. To let Collate use the Power BI APIs using your Azure AD app, you’ll need to add the following scopes:
  • https://analysis.windows.net/powerbi/api/.default
  For instructions on adding these scopes to your app, see the Power BI app registration guide.
• authorityUri: Authority URI for the service. To identify a token authority, provide a URL that points to the authority in question. If you don’t specify a URL for the token authority, Collate uses the default value of https://login.microsoftonline.com/.
• hostPort: URL to the PowerBI instance. To connect with your Power BI instance, you’ll need to provide the host URL. If you’re using an on-premise installation of Power BI, this will be the domain name associated with your instance. If you don’t specify a host URL, Collate uses the default value of https://app.powerbi.com to connect with your Power BI instance.
• Pagination Entity Per Page: The pagination limit for Power BI APIs can be set using this parameter. The limit determines the number of records to be displayed per page. By default, the pagination limit is set to 100 records, which is also the maximum value allowed.
• Use Admin APIs: Option for using the PowerBI admin APIs. For more information, see PowerBI Admin and Non-Admin APIs.
  • Enabled (Use PowerBI Admin APIs)
  • Disabled (Use Non-Admin PowerBI APIs)

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Test Connection

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Step 5: Configure Ingestion Options

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How Filter Patterns Work

• Include: Add one or more comma-separated regular expressions. Collate ingests only assets whose names match at least one expression. Leave blank to include all assets.
• Exclude: Add one or more comma-separated regular expressions. Collate skips any asset whose name matches an expression. Leave blank to exclude nothing.

• contains: matches any name containing the value. For example, sales matches my_sales_data and sales_2024.
• starts with: matches names beginning with the value. For example, prod_ matches prod_db and prod_schema.
• ends with: matches names ending with the value. For example, _raw matches events_raw and logs_raw.
• is exactly: matches the exact name only. For example, analytics matches only analytics.
• matches regex: matches names using a regular expression. For example, ^prod_.*_v\d+$ matches prod_events_v1.

• Dashboard: Controls which dashboards Collate ingests from the source.
• Chart: Controls which charts within the ingested dashboards are included.
• Data Model: Controls which data models are included in metadata ingestion.

• Scan Mode: Choose between the following scan modes:
  • Scan all: Ingests every asset of that type the connector can access. This is the default.
  • Only specific: Enables include rules so only assets matching at least one rule are ingested.
• Exclude system toggle: Use this toggle to automatically filter out system-reserved names defined by the connector—for example, Exclude system databases for the Databases section.
• Always exclude: Add permanent exclusion rules (shown in red). Assets matching these rules are never ingested, regardless of include rules.
• Preview: Shows a real-time summary of what will be in scope based on your current rules.
• Include rules (available only in Only specific mode): Click + Add to define a rule. Added rules appear as chips. An asset is included if it matches any rule.

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Step 6: Create & Deploy

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Configure Metadata Agent and Schedule Ingestion

1. In the left navigation, click Connections and select your service.
2. Click the Agents tab.
3. Click Add Agent and select Metadata from the dropdown. For some services, the dropdown is not available and clicking Add Agent takes you directly to the agent configuration page.
4. On the Configure Ingestion page, do the following and click Next.
   • Name this Ingestion: Enter a unique recognizable name for this ingestion pipeline.
   • Agent Setup: Configure ingestion parameters. The following fields are available:

     Field	Default	Description
     Db Service Prefixes	—	List of database service name prefixes used to resolve lineage between dashboards and database assets. Accepted formats: DBService, DBService.Database, DBService.Database.Schema, DBService.Database.Schema.Table.
     Query Parser Type	Auto	Select the SQL parser used for lineage extraction from dashboard queries. Auto selects the best available parser automatically. SqlGlot is a high-performance parser with excellent dialect support; falls back to SqlParse on failure. SqlFluff is a comprehensive parser with strong dialect support; falls back to SqlParse on failure.
     Mark Deleted Dashboards	On	Soft-delete dashboards in Collate when they are removed from the source. Associated lineage is also deleted.
     Mark Deleted Data Models	On	Soft-delete data models in Collate when they are removed from the source. Associated lineage is also deleted.
     Mark Deleted Charts	On	Soft-delete charts in Collate when they are removed from the source.
     Include Data Models	On	Ingest data model metadata.
     Include Draft Dashboards	On	Ingest dashboards that are in draft state.
     Include Usage	On	Collect and ingest usage statistics for dashboards.

     
   • Filter Patterns: Apply include or exclude rules to scope which dashboards, charts, data models, and projects this agent ingests. These follow the same filter options described in Step 5.
   • Scope & Behaviour: Control what metadata to include and how to handle deletions. Toggle each option on or off based on your needs:

     Toggle	Default	Description
     Enable Debug Log	Off	Sets the ingestion log level to DEBUG. Useful for troubleshooting.
     Include Current Owners	Off	When enabled, replaces the current owner with a new owner from the source if the current owner is null. Recommended to keep enabled during the first metadata ingestion to capture owner information.
     Include Tags	On	Ingest tags from the source.
     Override Metadata	Off	When on, source values overwrite existing descriptions, tags, owners, and display names in Collate. When off, Collate only updates fields that have no existing value.
     Override Lineage	Off	When on, existing lineage is replaced with newly extracted lineage on each run.

     
5. On the Schedule Interval page, set when the agent runs:
   • Schedule: Choose a preset interval (Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly) or enter a custom cron expression.
   • On-Demand: No automatic schedule; trigger the agent manually when needed.
   
6. Click Add to deploy the agent.

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Lineage

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Troubleshooting