Power BI Integration Requirements
The following are the prerequisites necessary for IBM Manta Data Lineage to connect to this third-party system, which you may choose to do at your sole discretion. Note that while these are usually sufficient to connect to this third-party system, we cannot guarantee that the connection or integration will be successful since we have no control, liability, or responsibility for third-party products or services, including for their performance.
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Power BI Service (Azure)
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Power BI Server (On-Premises)
Manta Data Lineage supports these two extraction modes with different approaches to extracting report definitions: Azure and on-premises. Power BI Service is hosted in Azure, and it provides data lineage information more readily. Power BI Server requires the manual extraction of the Power Query information stored within the PBIX files. Each mode has different requirements and limitations as described below.
The extraction via Manta Flow Agent is supported as of version R42.2. See Manta Flow Agent Configuration for Extraction for details.
Manta Data Lineage relies on Java default truststore (usually known as cacerts) to validate certificates for PowerBI API URLs. This is generally fine as the Java default truststore contains the required certificates. However, some organizations choose to modify (empty) the default truststore and in such cases the certificates for both api.powerbi.com and login.microsoftonline.com need to be imported into Java default truststore (note that this may not survive update of Java).
Azure Extraction Mode
Azure extraction mode allows automatic extraction using a REST API to connect to Power BI Pro/Premium through Azure Active Directory.
The recommended way to set up a Power BI Azure scan is documented in Power BI Azure Setup.
Limitations
Manta Data Lineage uses Power BI metadata scanning to obtain metadata needed for creating the correct lineage. The main limitation of Power BI metadata scanning is that it doesn’t work for datasets that haven't been refreshed or republished (as documented in Metadata scanning overview). This means that Manta Data Lineage cannot properly analyze reports that haven’t been refreshed or republished (since enabling the metadata scanning in Power BI settings).
The best way to mitigate this limitation is to refresh datasets for all reports that you want Manta Data Lineage to analyze. The refresh can be a one-time event (after enabling the metadata scanning) or a scheduled periodical event. The official guide for configuring scheduled refresh (Configure scheduled refresh) describes how to establish periodical refreshes.
Local Extraction Mode
Local extraction mode allows automatic extraction using a REST API to connect to a Power BI Report Server.
The recommended way to set up a Power BI Local scan is documented in Power BI Local Setup.
Limitations
When you use the local extraction mode, it’s necessary to manually input the Power Query script for each scanned report. See How to Manually Insert Power Query Script for more details.
Supported Features
This is a list of Power BI features that Manta Data Lineage supports. There may be features that aren’t explicitly named but are included in the named items, as this list aims to be a high-level overview. Other than that, features that are not listed are primarily considered not supported.
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Reports consisting of data from:
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Databases
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Uploaded files such as XSLX, CSV, and others
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Reports in .PBIX format
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Report visualizations including these features
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Slicers
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Measures *
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Calculated columns *
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Calculated tables
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Aggregations and data hierarchies
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Metadata visualizations
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Power Query scripts
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Endorsement level, DAX formulas, author, last modification, etc. *
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Automatic extraction of Power Query scripts *
- A manual workaround if you are not using the Scanner API as described in How to Manually Insert Power Query Script
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Parameters *
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Dataflows *
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Datasets and dataflows from different workspace than the report (as of 42.3)
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Paginated reports
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Support for RDL files: paginated reports
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Support for RDS files: shared data sources
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Support for RSD files: shared datasets
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Outbound Proxies affecting communication with PowerBI Azure (as of 42.8). See Common Scanner Properties.
*These features are only supported in the Azure extraction mode when access to the Scanner API is set up correctly.
Known Unsupported Features
IBM Manta Data Lineage does not support the following Power BI features. This list includes all of the features that IBM is aware are unsupported, but it might not be comprehensive.
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Power BI Azure
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Reports that cannot be automatically downloaded (because Manta Data Lineage needs to download a report to analyze it)
- The full list is in Limitations when downloading a report .pbix file
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Dashboards, datamarts, and scorecards
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Streaming dataflows and streaming semantic models
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Recursive dataflows
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Relation of reports to apps (reports themselves are supported just fine)
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Automatic connection to SSAS source, when using Live connection method
- Caused by PowerBI APIs limitations (see Metadata scanning overview section Consideration and Limitations)
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Unsupported use cases of paginated reports
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Paginated reports based on a Power BI Azure shared dataset
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Mobile reports
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KPIs
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Windows authentication in local extraction mode