Adding a Microsoft Fabric Connection¶

Prerequisites¶

• A user with sufficient permissions is required to establish a connection with Microsoft Fabric.
• The Fabric connector uses Fabric and Power BI APIs to obtain metadata.
  The main metadata scan is performed using Power BI APIs, and most of the setup for the Fabric connector is common with the Power BI connector.

• Zeenea's scanner traffic flows towards PowerBI/Fabric's instance and Azure must be open. See following:

  • https://login.microsoftonline.com
  • https://api.powerbi.com

Supported Versions¶

The Microsoft Fabric connector is compatible with the product online version.

Installing the Plugin¶

You can download the Microsoft Fabric plugin from Zeenea Connector Downloads.

For more information about how to install a plugin, see Installing and Configuring Connectors as a Plugin.

Declaring the Connection¶

Connectors are created and configured through a dedicated configuration file located in the /connections folder of the relevant scanner. The scanner frequently checks for any change and resynchronises automatically.

For more information about managing connections, see Managing Connections.

To establish a connection with a Microsoft Fabric instance, fill in the following parameters in the dedicated configuration file:

User Permissions¶

To collect metadata, the running user's permissions must allow them to access and read reports that need cataloging. A Service Principal account is needed to authenticate to MS Azure via a registered application using OAuth 2.0, an application ID, and a secret key.

To create a service principal in Azure, you will first need to register an application in Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). This application registration will automatically create a corresponding service principal, which represents the application's identity in your Microsoft Entra tenant. You'll need to note the Application (client) ID and the Client Secret from the app registration, which will be needed for the Zeenea Scanner configuration. Finally, you'll need to grant the service principal the necessary roles and permissions to access the resources it needs.

Access to the PowerBI Admin API must be enabled for service principals using the Microsoft Fabric Admin Portal or Power BI Admin Portal and linked to a security group created using the Microsoft Entra Admin Center

To configure Admin API settings in Azure, you typically need to enable service principal authentication for admin APIs within the Admin portal, especially when using features like Microsoft Fabric. This involves signing into the Microsoft Fabric Admin Portal, navigating to tenant settings, and enabling the switch for service principal access to read-only admin APIs. You also need to assign a specific security group created during application creation to the Admin API settings.

Detailed PowerBI/Fabric Setup¶

Microsoft Azure Portal : https://portal.azure.com/¶

1. Register an Application in Azure Entra ID (fka Active Directory):
   • Log in to the Azure portal.
   • Go to Azure Entra ID.
   • Select App registrations.
   • Click New registration.
   • Enter a name for your application.
   • Choose the appropriate supported account types.
   • Select the redirect URI.
     • Example: https://login.microsoftonline.com/20057ce9-1386-4770-8b04-e7824ef632be/oauth2/v2.0/token
   • Click Register.
2. Note the Application (client) ID:
   • Once the app registration is complete, note the Application (client) ID. You'll need this later to authenticate with the service principal.
3. Add a Client Secret:
   • You can add a client secret to provide a password-based credential for authentication.
   • Go to Certificates & secrets under the app registration.
   • Click New client secret.
   • Enter a description and expiry date, then click Add.

     Important: Copy the value of the client secret immediately after creation, as you won't be able to retrieve it later.

4. Grant Permissions:
   • Go to the Azure resource you want the service principal to access.
   • Select Access control (IAM).
   • Click Add role assignment.
   • Choose the appropriate privileged administrator role (for example, "Contributor").
   • Add members by selecting the service principal created by the registered application.
   • Click Save.

Microsoft Entra Admin Center: https://entra.microsoft.com/¶

Create Security Group using the Microsoft Entra Admin Center:

• Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center. Access the Entra admin center with appropriate permissions (at least a Groups Administrator role).
• Navigate to Groups: Go to Identity > Groups > ALL groups.
• Create a new group: Click on New group.
• Provide Group Details:
  • Group type: Select Security.
  • Group name: Enter a descriptive name for the group.
  • Description: (Optional) Add a description for the group.
  • Membership type: Choose Assigned for manually assigned members or Dynamic for automatically managed members based on rules.
• Choose Create: Select Create to finalize the group creation.
• Add previously created service principal to the security group as a direct member.

Microsoft Fabric Admin Portal or PowerBI Admin Portal : https://app.powerbi.com/admin-portal/tenantSettings?experience=power-bi¶

Configure Admin API Settings:

• Access the Admin Portal: Navigate to the Admin portal within your Azure subscription.
• Navigate to Tenant Settings:
  • Within the Admin portal, locate the Tenant Settings section.
• Locate Developer Settings:
  • Find the Developer settings section within the tenant settings.
• Enable Service Principal Authentication:
  • Enable the switch that allows service principals to call Fabric public APIs.
• Locate Admin API Settings:
  • Find the Admin API settings section within the tenant settings.
• Enable Service Principal Authentication:
  • Enable the switch that allows service principals to access read-only Admin APIs.
  • Enable the switch that allows service principals to access read-only Admin APIs used for updates
  • Enable the switch that allows for enhanced Admin API responses with detailed metadata.
    • Assign the security group created in the previous step to the Admin API settings enabled.

PowerBI Online Application : https://app.powerbi.com¶

Give permission to PowerBI Workspaces:

• Access PowerBI Online Application.
• Navigate to Workspaces section.
• Grant the Member permission set to the service principal for every Workspace that you want to catalog.

  Note: Do not grant the Member permission set to a security group; otherwise, it will not work correctly.

Rich Filters¶

Filter and extract only the contacts that do have a role matching the filter.

For example:

contact.role_filter = "role in ('Owner', 'Read')"

For more information about filters, see Filters.

Universal Filters¶

Use the universal filter language to filter and root items based on the following criteria:

For example:

filters = [
  {
    id = "accept_zeenea_workspace"
    action = ACCEPT
    catalog = "Zeenea Catalog"
    rules {
      workspace_name = "Zeenea"
    }
  },
  {
    id = "default_reject"
    action = REJECT
  }
]

For more information about universal filters, see Universal Filters.

Data Extraction¶

To extract basic metadata information, the connector runs successively the following API requests:

• GET https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/admin/workspaces/modified:
  • Response: To get the workspaces list excluding personal workspaces.
• POST https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/admin/workspaces/getInfo:
  • Parameter: Workspaces list (100 workspaces limit)
  • Response: Scan identifier
• GET https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/admin/workspaces/scanStatus/:
  • Parameter: Scan identifier
  • Response: Scan status: NOT_STARTED, RUNNING, SUCCEEDED
• GET https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/admin/workspaces/scanResult/:
  • Parameter: Scan identifier
  • Response: Object with all the metadata of report from scanned workspaces

To get PowerBI reports, the connector runs these API requests:

• GET https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/admin/apps:
  • Response: Object with all the apps in the organization
• GET https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/groups/<workspace_id>/reports/<report_id>/pages:
  • Parameters: Workspace ID and Report ID
  • Response: Object with all the pages within the specified report from the specified workspace
• GET https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/groups/<workspace_id>/reports/<report_id>/export:
  • Parameters: Workspace ID and Report ID
  • Response: PBIX file of the specified report from the specified workspace

To get additional Fabric metadata, the connector runs these API requests:

• GET https://api.fabric.microsoft.com/v1/admin/domains:
  • Response: Domain metadata
• GET https://api.fabric.microsoft.com/v1/workspaces/<workspace_id>/warehouses/<warehouse_id>:
  • Parameters: Workspace ID and Warehouse ID
  • Response: Metadata about the warehouse
• GET https://api.fabric.microsoft.com/v1/workspaces/<workspace_id>/lakehouses/<lakehouse_id>:
  • Parameters: Workspace ID and Lakehouse ID
  • Response: Metadata about the lakehouse
• GET https://api.fabric.microsoft.com/v1/workspaces/<workspace_id>/items/<item_id>:
  • Parameters: Workspace ID and Item ID
  • Response: Metadata about the specified item
• GET https://api.fabric.microsoft.com/v1/workspaces/<workspace_id>/items/<item_id>/shortcuts:
  • Parameters: Workspace ID and Item ID
  • Response: Shortcut metadata
• GET https://api.fabric.microsoft.com/v1/workspaces/<workspace_id>/reports/<report_id>/getDefinition:
  • Parameters: Workspace ID and Report ID
  • Response: Additional metadata about a report in Fabric

Collected Metadata¶

Inventory¶

The inventory collects the list of reports accessible by the user.

Lineage¶

The Microsoft Fabric connector is able to retrieve the lineage for these scenarios:

• Reports → Semantic model (dataset)
• Semantic model → Fabric dataset (for example, warehouse or lakehouse table)
• Shortcut dataset → Fabric dataset (if the shortcut is to a warehouse or lakehouse table)

Visualization¶

A visualization object is a Power BI report.

• Name
• Source Description
• Contacts

• Technical Data:

  • Report WebURL: Link to the report.
  • Report Type
  • Workspace Name
  • Application: URL to the PowerBI application which this report is attached.
  • Source Server Name
  • Created By
  • Creation Date
  • Modified By
  • Modified Date
  • Report's page

Dataset¶

A dataset is a table inside a Power BI semantic model, a Fabric warehouse table, a Fabric lakehouse table, or a Fabric shortcut.

Semantic Model Table¶

• Name
• Source Description

• Technical Data:

  • PowerBI Dataset: Name of the PowerBI dataset.
  • Workspace: Link to PowerBI workspace.
  • Semantic Model: Link to PowerBI semantic model.
  • Power Query

Warehouse Table¶

• Name
• Source Description

• Technical Data:

  • Workspace URL: Link to PowerBI workspace.
  • Workspace: The name of the workspace.
  • Domain: The name of the domain to which the workspace belongs.
  • Domain path: The domain hierarchy if sub-domains are utilized.
  • Warehouse: The name of the warehouse.

Lakehouse Table¶

• Name
• Source Description

• Technical Data:

  • Workspace URL: Link to PowerBI workspace.
  • Workspace: The name of the workspace.
  • Domain: The name of the domain to which the workspace belongs.
  • Domain path: The domain hierarchy if sub-domains are utilized.
  • Lakehouse: The name of the lakehouse.
  • Shortcut type: The type of the target for a shortcut.
  • Shortcut target location: The location of the dataset.

Field¶

Fields are fields or measures in a semantic model table, or a field in a warehouse or lakehouse table.

Semantic Model Table Field¶

• Name
• Source Description
• Type
• Can be null: Not supported. The default value is false.
• Multivalued: Not supported. The default value is false.
• Primary Key: Not supported. The default value is false.

• Technical Data:

  • Technical Name
  • Native type
  • Type
  • Expression

Warehouse Table Field¶

• Name
• Source Description
• Type
• Can be null
• Multivalued: Not supported. The default value is false.
• Primary Key

• Technical Data:

  • Native type
  • Type

Lakehouse Table Field¶

• Name
• Source Description
• Type
• Can be null
• Multivalued: Not supported. The default value is false.

• Technical Data:

  • Native type
  • Type

Object Identification Keys¶

Each object in the catalog is associated with a unique identifier key. When the object is imported from an external system, the key is generated and provided by the connector.

For more information about identifier keys, see Identification Keys.