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How to Track User Activities in Power BI

Monitoring Power BI user activities is essential for optimizing license usage, as not all licensed users fully utilize Power BI’s capabilities. In this guide, you’ll learn how to track user interactions across Power BI, from dashboard usage to dataset creation. Also, this guide will help you analyze user interactions, report usage, and data access, allowing for more effective license allocation based on actual needs.

Solution 1
Solution 2
Solution 3
Solution 4
Important Tips
Errors and Resolution Steps
FAQs

Using Microsoft Purview Compliance Portal

Microsoft 365 Permission Required
View-Only Recipients Role Least Privilege
Global Admin Most Privilege
  • Log in to the Microsoft Purview compliance portal and go to the Audit tab under the Solutions section.
  • Select the desired date range and filter the Record types by 'PowerBIAudit' to get all Power BI user activities.
  • If you wish to track specific Power BI user activities, you can specify the required actions in the Activities field.
  • Finally, hit the Search button to get the Power BI activity log for a specified timeframe.
Using Microsoft Purview Compliance Portal

Using Windows PowerShell

Microsoft 365 Permission Required
View-Only Recipients Role Least Privilege
Global Admin Most Privilege
  • Connect to the MicrosoftPowerBIMgmt PowerShell module using the below cmdlet.
  • Windows PowerShell Windows PowerShell 
     Connect-PowerBIServiceAccount
  • Run the below PowerShell cmdlet to get Power BI activities for a specific day within the last 30 days.
  • Windows PowerShell Windows PowerShell 
     Get-PowerBIActivityEvents -StartDate "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss" -EndDate "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss"
Using Windows PowerShell
  • The above cmdlet retrieves the list of Power BI activities along with details such as activity ID, creation time, operation, workload, user ID, client IP, record type, etc.

Using Exchange Online PowerShell

Microsoft 365 Permission Required
View-Only Recipients Role Least Privilege
Global Admin Most Privilege
  • Since the above Power BI management module provides logs only for a specific date, you can use the following cmdlets to track user activity in Power BI for a desired date range.
  • Connect to the Exchange Online PowerShell module using the below cmdlet.
  • Windows PowerShell Windows PowerShell 
     Connect-ExchangeOnline
  • Run the below PowerShell cmdlet to get Power BI activity logs from Exchange Online for the last 180 days.
  • Windows PowerShell Windows PowerShell 
     Search-UnifiedAuditLog -StartDate "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss" -EndDate "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss" -RecordType PowerBIAudit | Format-Table
Using Exchange Online PowerShell
AdminDroid Power BI Reporter

Precisely audit Power BI usage metrics with in-depth reports!

The AdminDroid’s Microsoft 365 Power BI monitoring tool provides comprehensive insights into how users interact with reports, dashboards, datasets, etc. It helps to promptly address unusual activity events and optimize the overall user engagement in Power BI.

Detailed Analysis of User Activities in Microsoft 365

Access AdminDroid's comprehensive report on user activities across Microsoft 365 services and quickly identify security risks like unauthorized logins, data sharing, etc.

Track Usage and Adoption Across Various Metrics

Gain advanced analytics and classifications on Power BI usage and adoption by users across departments, job titles, cities, and more, all presented through detailed dashboards.

Monitor Scheduled Refresh Issues in BI Datasets

Make use of Power BI scheduled refresh settings report to identify the issues with scheduled refreshes by undesired dataset refresh changes in Power BI datasets.

Schedule Power BI Reports for Regular Updates

Automate Power BI activity reports using AdminDroid's scheduling feature with required frequency such as daily, weekly, or monthly and eliminate the need for manual intervention.

Audit Admin Role Assignment for Power BI

AdminDroid enables you to track Power BI admin role assignments, ensuring that only authorized users have access to manage critical Power BI reports.

Monitor Changes in Power BI Dataflows Effectively

Utilize the Power BI dataflow modification report to track changes made to dataflow that helps admins prevent unauthorized changes on dataflow in the Power BI workspace.

In conclusion, AdminDroid offers comprehensive insights into Power BI usage metrics. It simplifies Power BI management by tracking user activity through dedicated reports and dashboards. Its unique capabilities and advanced features help you efficiently manage your Microsoft 365 environment.

Explore a full range of reporting options
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Important Tips

Optimize Power BI performance by adjusting evaluation settings like simultaneous evaluations based on memory allocation. This improve query speed and manage resources efficiently.

Use the Microsoft Fabric Capability Metrics app to monitor your capacity consumption and make informed decisions on how to use your capacity resources.

Utilize Power Automate to set custom refresh intervals for your Power BI datasets and ensure your reports always display the latest data aligned with your business needs.

Common Errors and Resolution Steps

The following are the possible errors and troubleshooting hints while tracking user activity in Power BI.

Error Get-PowerBIActivityEvents : The term 'Get-PowerBIActivityEvents' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program.

This error can occur if the MicrosoftPowerBIMgmt PowerShell module is not installed or updated properly.

Fix Install the MicrosoftPowerBIMgmt PowerShell module. If the module was already installed, updating this module will resolve the issue. 
// Run the below cmdlet to install the Power BI management module.
Install-Module MicrosoftPowerBIMgmt
// Run the below cmdlet to update the Power BI management module.
Update-Module MicrosoftPowerBIMgmt

Error Let's get you permission to view this report.

This message appears when a user tries to access a Power BI report but lacks the required permissions.

Fix The user should request permission from the report owner or admin by clicking "Send request" and adding a note if needed.

Error Admin monitoring workspace is missing.

Admin monitoring workspace is only visible to Fabric admin or M365 global admin unless or until the workspace is shared among the users or other admins.

Fix Login with the global admin account or Fabric admin to access the Power BI admin monitoring workspace.

Error Get-PowerBIActivityEvents : Operation returned an invalid status code 'BadRequest'.

This error occurs when you try to retrieve Power BI activity logs with a date range longer than one day using the Power BI management cmdlet, as shown below: 

Get-PowerBIActivityEvents -StartDate 2024-08-01T00:00:00 -EndDate 2024-08-30T00:00:00

Fix To resolve this issue, set the 'StartDate' and 'EndDate' to the same day as the MicrosoftPowerBIMgmt module can only retrieve data for one day at a time, even if you have access to 30 days of logs.

1. What are the Power BI activity events available in the Microsoft Purview portal?

Microsoft Purview compliance portal offers detailed records of Power BI user activities and interactions. By analyzing these activity events, you gain insights into user adoption, identify top activities, and evaluate user engagement levels. This information also helps to pinpoint users who are actively involved in sensitive actions and those who are less engaged.

Some of the key Power BI activity events are categorized and listed below.

Power BI Management Activities

  • Workspace Management: This event type includes activities related to managing Power BI workspaces, such as CreateWorkspace, UpdateWorkspace, GetWorkspaces, etc. It will offer clear insights into how Power BI workspaces are being created and managed.
  • Access Management: Activities related to this event type involve managing user access and permissions, such as UpdateFolderAccess, and UpdateWorkspaceAccess, helping track changes to user permissions in Power BI.
  • App Management: This category of events includes actions related to Power BI app management, such as CreateApp, UpdateApp, and InstantiateApp. It helps you monitor how Power BI apps are created and updated within the organization.
  • Data Source Management: Actions included in this event type are related to managing your data sources, like CreateCloudDataSource, UpdateDataSource, and TakeOverDatasource. It helps you maintain reliable data connections.

Dashboard and Report Activities in Power BI

  • Viewing: This category involves actions like ViewReport and ViewDashboard, which provides insights into how users access and engage with reports and dashboards.
  • Editing: This event type covers actions like EditReport and EditDashboard, helping track changes made to important reports and dashboards.
  • Sharing: This event type involves actions like ShareReport and ShareDashboard, helping to ensure that important reports and dashboards are shared only with authorized users.
  • Exporting: This event category includes activities like ExportReport and enables you to track users who are accessing and exporting data outside of Power BI.

Dataset and Dataflow Activities in Power BI

  • Viewing: This category includes actions like ExploreDataset and ViewDataflow, which will offer insights into how users are accessing the Power BI datasets and dataflows.
  • Refreshing: This event type covers activities like RefreshDataset and RequestDataflowRefresh. It helps to track when datasets and dataflows are refreshed.
  • Modifying: This event type includes activities like EditDataset and UpdateDataflow, etc. This shows when users modify datasets and dataflows and helps managing these data resources.
  • Creating Dataflows: This event category includes activities like CreateDataflow and allows you to track newly created dataflows in Power BI.

2. How to track Power BI user activity using admin monitoring workspace?

The admin monitoring workspace provides comprehensive insights into activities performed in Power BI. It will help you to monitor user performance, capacity management, and more in Power BI. It will also help to identify specific actions that are highly adopted by users and enables the admins to allocate resources efficiently.

Follow the below steps to access the Power BI admin monitoring workspace.

  • Log in to Microsoft Power BI.
  • Click on Workspaces in the left navigation pane, then select Admin monitoring.
  • Once the page refreshes, choose Feature Usage and Adoption Report to view detailed insights into Power BI usage metrics.
feature-and-usage-adoption-dashboard-in-power-bi

However, the admin monitoring workspace only provides statistical data such as activity counts and top activities, which lacks detailed insights into each activity.

AdminDroid delivers detailed insights into each activity and allows you to analyze the activities in a more granular way with just a few clicks!

  • AdminDroid provides insights on Power BI management activities, that includes reports such as report creation, sharing, and Power BI Pro trial adoption. This helps you to ensure that only authorized users are handling sensitive actions and safeguards against data loss.
  • With AdminDroid, gain visibility into Power BI report activities, such as report creations, deletions, modifications, publications, viewing history and many more. This helps admins to identify the high-value reports.
  • AdminDroid provides a clear view of Power BI dashboard activities, that includes reports such as dashboard creation, deletion, modification, and viewing history. This helps for a better understanding of the dashboard's usage and performance.

Pro Tip: Use the combination of 'Ctrl + Shift + F' to find any Microsoft 365 report in the AdminDroid portal.

3. What are the different types of Power BI licenses are available in Microsoft 365?

Understanding the different Power BI licenses available in Microsoft 365 helps organizations to assign the right licenses based on each user's activity level and data access needs. For instance, by monitoring user interactions with reports and datasets, admins can ensure that only active users are assigned with premium licenses.

Power BI offers several types of licenses tailored to different user needs:

  • Power BI Free: Users with a Power BI Free license can create reports and dashboards for personal use, but they lack the ability to share, collaborate, or publish them to others' workspaces. However, Pro and Premium Per User (PPU) license holders can share content with free users if it's stored in Premium capacity.
  • Power BI Pro: The Power BI Pro license is a per-user based license that offers advanced features for collaboration, sharing, and publishing reports within an organization. Pro users can create content and share it only with other Pro users, unless a Power BI Premium capacity hosts that content.
  • Power BI Premium: The Power BI Premium license includes all the features of Power BI Pro, along with access to Premium capacity features and content types available with a paid license. It offers advanced capabilities like AI, autoscaling, dataflows, datamarts, paginated reports, multi-geo, report server, BYOK, and unlimited content sharing. It includes two subtypes:
    • Per User (PPU): Premium features on a per-user basis.
    • Per Capacity: Dedicated resources for large-scale deployments.

These licenses cover various organizational needs, from individual use to large-scale enterprise deployments.

With AdminDroid, you can easily identify the users assigned with different Power BI licenses and ensure effective license allocation.

  • Access AdminDroid’s detailed report on M365 licensed users and use the Product Licenses easy filter to view users assigned with Power BI licenses such as Power BI and Power BI Pro.
  • This report provides you the visibility of your Power BI license utilization and helps to ensure the licenses are allocated only to required users.
power-bi-licensed-users-m365

Handy Tip: Use advanced column customization to integrate data from other report sources, which will provide deeper insights into users assigned with Power BI licenses.

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Stay informed of critical activities like suspicious emails and high-risk logins, bulk file sharing, etc. Through creating and validating ideal alert policies, AdminDroid provides a comprehensive approach to real-time monitoring and management of potential threats within your organization.
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Get a quick and easy overview of your tenant's activity, identify potential problems, and take action to protect your data with AdminDroid’s Charts and Dashboards.
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