Power BI setup

Creating Azure AD app for Power BI access

1. Log into Azure portal and search for "Microsoft Entra ID"

2. Under "Manage -> App registrations" create a new registration

   • Name - choose an app name for integration with SelectZero

   • Supported account types - Choose "Accounts in this organizational directory only (YourCompany only - Single tenant)"

   • Redirect URI - can be left empty

3. Navigate to "Manage -> API Permissions"

   • Add a new permission

   • Choose "Power BI Service"

   • Choose "Delegated permissions"

   • Enable required permissions for reading workspace and dataset metadata

   • From "Configured permissions" view you also have to "Grant admin consent for YourCompany "

4. Navigate to "Overview"

   • Copy "Application (client) ID" and "Directory (tenant) ID" which we will need for SelectZero integration

Adding Power BI cloud connection

1. From connections page add a new Power BI connection

   

   • Connection name - Name for connection

   • Server type - Cloud

   • Tenant id - Directory ID from previous step

   • Client id - Application ID from previous step

2. After connection is added, certificate key pair is automatically generated

3. Download connection public certificate from connection view

   

Uploading certificate to Azure

1. After we have downloaded our public certificate we will navigate back to Azure portal "Microsoft Entra ID"

2. Under "Manage -> App registrations" find your app registration

3. Navigate to "Certificates & secrets"

   • Select "Certificates" tab

   • Press "Upload certificate"

   • Upload the public certificate from SelectZero Power BI connection

   • Description can be left empty

4. After certificate upload you can go back to your Power BI connection and press "Test" button to check connection

Prerequisites

• Power BI Report Server installed and accessible over the network

• A service account with read access to reports on the Report Server

Create a service account

1. In Active Directory, create a new service account (or use an existing one)

2. On your Power BI Report Server, ensure the service account has Browser role access to the folders containing reports you wish to catalog

Adding connection

1. From connections page add a new Power BI connection

   

   • Connection name - Name for connection

   • Server - Power BI Report Server URL (e.g. https://reportserver.company.com/Reports)

   • Server type - On-premise

   • NTLM user - Domain user from previous step

   • NTLM password - Domain user password

   • Domain - User domain

How on-premise metadata works

SelectZero connects to Power BI Report Server's REST API to extract metadata and lineage information from your published reports:

• Reports are synced as schema-level objects

• Report columns are extracted from the report layout, representing the data fields used in report visuals

• Lineage is automatically built by matching the data source connections defined in Power BI reports to existing SelectZero database connections. The matching is done by database server URL and database name — when a Power BI report's data source references a server and database that match an existing SelectZero connection, lineage is established automatically