Perhaps the most important decisions business intelligence professionals make is determining which technologies to learn and to what extent or depth should they grow their
Power BI Fraud
This post discusses the forms, origins, and indications of fraud and misrepresentation in the context of Power BI consulting and contract engagements. The intent of
Breaking Changes in Power BI
This post reviews the deployment of common changes to Power BI datasets and the implications for the availability of the affected objects for users and
Common Power BI Admin Scripts Part II
Today’s post builds on top of Power BI Admin Scripts Part I by describing five additional PowerShell scripts that Power BI service administrators can utilize
Common Power BI Admin Scripts Part 1
Between the Power BI PowerShell modules and the Power BI REST APIs administrators have a rich set of tools to efficiently administer Power BI environments.
XMLA-Based PBI Dataset Refresh Automation
Now that read/write XMLA endpoints for Power BI Premium datasets are generally available, along with support for service principals, BI teams have the ability to
Larry Bird vs. Lebron James
The following Power BI dataset and report has been developed to help compare basketball greats Larry Bird and Lebron James across team and individual statistics:
Processes of Power BI
The following document describes several common Power BI processes and considerations for each: Processes of Power BI I hope you find this useful. Thanks for
Automated Index Partition Rebuilds
This post provides an example of a stored procedure which A) identifies the last two partitions of an Azure Synapse Analytics SQL pool table (which
Synapse Columnstore Index Analysis Template
This blog post describes a Power BI template that analyzes the quality of rowgroups within columnstore indexes in Azure Synapse Analytics. The template provides two
Power bi pro guide to Azure synapse analytics
The Power BI Professional’s Guide to Azure Synapse Analytics, a white paper I wrote describing the Synapse Analytics platform and its benefits and use cases
Simple DirectQuery Performance Tips
This blog describes a few simple, easy-to-implement techniques that can be used to increase the performance and scalability of Power BI reports which utilize DirectQuery
Synapse SQL Monitoring Template
This blog post provides two Power BI templates (one import, one DirectQuery) which query common dynamic management views (DMVs) used to monitor Azure Synapse Analytics.
Paginated Report Execution Time
One of the most common requirements for paginated reports, which are often printed or exported, is to note the date and time the report was
Parallel Power BI Scripts
PowerShell 7.0 was made generally available last month and one of it’s new features is pipeline parallelization for the ForEach-Object cmdlet. Scripts running on PowerShell
Dynamic Datasets Part I
The purpose of this post is to introduce a method of making the datasets embedded in paginated reports more dynamic. Specifically, multiple queries reflecting distinct
Power BI Warning Signs
The purpose of this post is to identify a number of behaviors and assumptions which may contribute to suboptimal Power BI projects and overall Power
Retrieve Power BI Pro Licensed Users
Managing the assignment of Power BI Pro licenses is a fundamental task of Power BI administrators. The Power BI admin, the BI team, and possibly
Power BI Activity Log Integration
The new Power BI Activity Log makes it much easier for Power BI administrators to access audit log data to monitor and analyze activities occurring
Find V1 Workspace Owners
As most readers of this blog likely know, there are two very different kinds of workspaces in Power BI – V1 or ‘classic’ workspaces which
Analysis Services vs Power BI Premium Model Feature Matrix
Over two years ago I published a blog and document with a feature matrix comparing modeling features of the different releases of Analysis Services Tabular
Using Get Groups as Admin API
Earlier this year I published a few posts describing approaches for retrieving Power BI artifacts via PowerShell scripts. As a Power BI administrator, the scheduled
Analysis Services DMVs in SSMS
In the previous post we looked at using Registered Servers in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) to quickly and easily connect to Power BI Premium
Power BI Premium Registered Servers
XMLA endpoint connectivity for Power BI Premium represents one the most significant steps in Power BI becoming an enterprise BI platform as it exposes Power
Time Dimension Table via Power Query
Given the nearly universal application of date and time dimension tables to business intelligence projects it’s generally understood that these tables should be maintained as
Power BI Paginated Premium Metrics Report
If your organization has provisioned Power BI Premium capacity then you’re probably already familiar with the Power BI Premium Capacity Metrics app for monitoring performance
Analyze SQL Agent Job History with Power BI
The purpose of this post is to share and describe a Power BI-based solution for analyzing SQL Server Agent job history data. SQL Server Agent
Power BI Artifact to Workspace Relationships
As a Power BI admin, particularly when you’re responsible for a large deployment with many teams using the Power BI service in different ways, you
Tabular Model Schema Reference v2.0
Today I’m pleased to share a rebuilt Tabular Model Schema Reference – now a Power BI-based tool designed to assist with the analysis of Tabular
New Gateway Monitoring
A new feature for monitoring the On-premises data gateway was made available for public preview in last week’s release of the May 2019 update. Per
Ten Power BI Ideas
The following post describes ten ideas that I believe would benefit Power BI in addressing common and impactful scenarios, particularly from an enterprise BI and
Power BI Artifacts Per Workspace
In response to last week’s post regarding the retrieval of the artifacts (reports, dashboards, datasets) within a premium capacity via the Power BI PowerShell cmdlets,
Premium Capacity Contents
Earlier today someone from one of the largest companies in the world asked “Is there any script for counting reports and dashboards in each workspace
Power BI Admin Datasets
If you’re a Power BI Administrator, and particularly if you’re responsible for administering a large and varied Power BI environment, you may consider investing time
Refresh Power BI Datasets with PowerShell
This post contains a PowerShell script that triggers a refresh process for three Power BI datasets. Additionally, this script is called/executed as part of automated
Group Email Notification for Dataset Refresh Failure
New Refresh Notification Feature There’s now a feature in Power BI which allows dataset owners to specify multiple users or groups to receive an email
Power BI Workspace Scripts
If you’re a Power BI administrator you’re probably already familiar with the Power BI Management module of PowerShell cmdlets. Additionally, as an alternative to PowerShell,
Analysis Services Monitoring Report v1.0
In addition to the TMSCHEMA DMVs utilized by the Tabular Model Schema Reference v1.1, several of the ‘DISCOVER’ DMVs such as DISCOVER_CONNECTIONS can be useful
Models on a String
Let’s say you’re a senior BI developer responsible for several Analysis Services Tabular instances (Dev, Test, Prod), each of which may host multiple databases. Each
Azure BI Resource Management via SSIS and PowerShell
In this week’s episode of Insight Quest, Brett, a BI consultant from Frontline Analytics, has been assigned tasks related to the programmatic management of Azure
Managing Azure Analysis Services and Power BI Embedded Resources
In this week’s episode of Insight Quest, Brett, the team BI lead, has been assigned three work items related to the programmatic management of Azure
Three BI Admin Work Items
In this week’s episode of Insight Quest, Brett, the team’s lead BI developer and admin, has returned from a trip to the Power BI World
Husker Power BI Preview
On October 25th, 1997, I attended a football (American) game in Lawrence, Kansas between the number 1 ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Kansas Jayhawks. It
Power BI Tooltip and Drillthrough Pages
Since last week’s episode of Insight Quest, a primary business stakeholder has reached out to Anna, the BI team manager, and asked if they could
Parent-Child RLS and Semi-Additive DAX
In this week’s episode of Insight Quest, Anna, the team BI manager, has assigned two work items to Brett, the BI developer, as part of
Ten Lessons in Finance (and BI)
Jim Grant, editor of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer and financial news contributor (you may have seen him on CNBC), recently shared 10 of the most
BI Function Reference Solutions
Have you ever wanted to run an example of a function to refresh your memory on the value returned, or the function’s behavior and/or input
Event Pizza Order Calculator
For this week’s blog post I’ve created the following event pizza order calculator: Event Pizza Order Calculator If it’s not self-evident, you can use
Insight Quest 