The course is part of this learning path
Typically the life cycle of a Power BI dataset doesn't end with publishing. This course looks at managing Power BI datasets after they have been deployed. More often than not, the source data changes regularly, so we look at updating functionality available within the Power BI service and other cloud-based methods for keeping your data fresh. Not all source data is cloud-based and readily accessible to the Power BI service, so we'll see how to use data gateways to access on-premises data, which ironically also includes data residing on cloud-hosted virtual machines.
Sometimes you'll need to grant access to datasets beyond just viewing the data. We see how you can permit users and user groups to repurpose a dataset for reports they publish. Row-level security groups are a good way to partition data for different audiences, but assigning domain users to each group can be tedious. You'll see how to assign users to row-level security groups by leveraging Office 365 user group membership. The course finishes by going through the global options in Power BI Desktop to see how to customize the user experience and improve performance.
Learning Objectives
- Learn how to implement a data gateway to access on-premises data sources
- Learn to map Office 365 user groups to Power BI row-level security groups
- Permit other report designers to use a deployed dataset for their own purposes
- Understand the different options for keeping deployed data fresh
- Learn about the global file options in Power BI Desktop
Intended Audience
This course is designed for anyone who wants to learn how to manage their Power BI datasets after they have been deployed.
Prerequisites
To get the most out of this course, you should be comfortable using Power BI desktop and have some knowledge of publishing reports to PowerBI.com
After publishing your dataset to PowerBI.com, you need to keep the data current with regular refreshing from the source data. If your data sources reside in the cloud, whether that's Azure or some other provider's databases or from online storage like OneDrive, connecting to the source data is trivial. However, if your data sources are on-premises or on a virtual machine, you will need to use a data gateway. Microsoft's data gateway, available via a link at PowerBI.com, comes in two flavors, standard and personal, for Windows PCs. Once installed on the same network as your data source, you can set up the Power BI end of the gateway connection by making sure the names of the data source connections are identical to those defined in the dataset.
No matter where the source data is located, regular dataset refreshing is set up through PowerBI.com. A standard account will let you refresh up to 8 times daily, whereas a Premium account will allow up to 48 daily refreshes, which translates into one every 30 minutes. While scheduled refreshes are easy to implement, they are dumb in that they happen regardless of whether the source data changed or not. By utilizing Power Apps Flow, you can trigger refreshes based on source data changes and update the dataset using Power BI's API interface. While triggering a refresh only when needed is more efficient, you are still subject to the daily refresh limits of your Power BI account.
In Power BI Desktop, you can set up row-level security groups to restrict access to subsets of information within a dataset. As well as assigning individuals within your domain to those security groups, you can assign user groups like those found in Office 365 to a dataset's row-level security groups. This can dramatically reduce group administration in organizations with many users.
Sometimes you may need to give access to a report's dataset so others can amend it or use it to author their own reports. You can give access to a workspace containing a dataset or access to an individual dataset. You can assign read, reshare, or build permissions to the new user or group when sharing a dataset.
Power BI Desktop has global options for setting the application's default behavior and how different aspects of data importing and manipulation operate. Some of the global options work in concert with individual file options or, more correctly, are overridden by file options. You can specify default behavior when importing data, like whether or not to automatically detect data types or create date hierarchies. You can specify CPU and memory allocation to parallel data loading processes. Global options are where you tell Power BI Desktop about third-party scripting software and which regional settings and language to use. You can configure how Power BI handles different data sources' security requirements and which mapping software to use. Global options are where you can enable new features before they make it into general release.
My name is Hallam Webber, and I hope you have found this course on managing Power BI datasets as interesting and enlightening to watch as I have found it to present.
Hallam is a software architect with over 20 years experience across a wide range of industries. He began his software career as a Delphi/Interbase disciple but changed his allegiance to Microsoft with its deep and broad ecosystem. While Hallam has designed and crafted custom software utilizing web, mobile and desktop technologies, good quality reliable data is the key to a successful solution. The challenge of quickly turning data into useful information for digestion by humans and machines has led Hallam to specialize in database design and process automation. Showing customers how leverage new technology to change and improve their business processes is one of the key drivers keeping Hallam coming back to the keyboard.