Azure Portal Administration
Understanding key aspects of Azure as it relates to the Reporting Hub
Last updated
Understanding key aspects of Azure as it relates to the Reporting Hub
Last updated
Now that you've completed deployment, there are some key aspects of the Azure Portal you'll need to know.
To get started, log on to: portal.azure.com
Within the Azure Portal, you won't need to do too much to administer the Power BI Embedded Capacity. This will be managed programmatically by the Reporting Hub application. You will need to ensure that people in your organization who need to add Power BI workspaces to the embedded capacity are set as Power BI Capacity Administrators.
Once signed into the Azure Portal, search for and select Power BI Embedded Capacity:
To add an Administrator, the Power BI Embedded Capacity needs to be active. Once active, you'll find Power BI capacity administrators under Settings. Now you can add the users who will be assigning the Embedded capacity to Workspaces in app.powerbi.com. Don't forget to click "Save" before closing this blade and pausing the Embedded capacity.
Good to know: Power BI Embedded Capacity management can be disabled in the Reporting Hub. This is useful if you use your Power BI Embedded capacity for more than just the Reporting Hub. To find out more, go to Embedded Capacity Admin article.
You can manually make changes to your capacity status from the Azure Portal.
If your Embedded Capacity status is Paused, you can manually activate it by clicking on the 'Start' button as shown below:
If your Embedded Capacity is Active, you can manually pause it clicking on the 'Pause' button as shown below:
Although a rare occurrence, from time-to-time your Embedded Capacity may get stuck or hung-up in the Resuming status as shown in the image below:
If your capacity maintains the 'Resuming' status for more then a minute or so, it's likely hung up. You can attempt to resolve this by simply giving it time to correct itself, or temporarily removing the load from the capacity and giving it time to correct itself. To accomplish this, you can try the following:
Let the Reporting Hub go inactive or temporarily disable the capacity manager from the Power BI settings page.
Ensure scheduled report refreshes running on the capacity are not active in the Power BI Service.
After removing the load from the capacity, the issue should correct itself after several minutes but may potentially take longer. Following this, it's a good idea to Pause, then Restart your capacity to cycle it. If the problem persists you will need to contact Microsoft Support.
Microsoft Entra ID (formerly called Azure Active Directory) is where users and security groups are created and managed. You can add users to your domain or you can invite guest users who also have Office 365 (Entra ID B2B). You can also create security groups that make it easier to manage access in the Reporting Hub.
To add a user, open your Azure Portal. Navigate to Entra ID, select Add, and choose User. You can also get to Users via the Settings on the left of the page. For detailed instructions go to:
Note: Users only need to be added within your Entra ID, they do not require any licenses to access the Reporting Hub.
We recommend using security groups for managing users and assigning permissions within the Reporting Hub. While you can add individual users to each report, it does increase the administrative workload. For every new user, you would need to add them to each report. If you use security groups, once a user is assigned a security group, the user will have access to all reports within the Reporting Hub to which the security group has been assigned.
For Microsoft documentation on how to create security groups and assign users please visit below:
Note: The Reporting Hub only looks for groups of security type. Microsoft 365 groups are ignored. You can also nest security groups and the Reporting Hub will traverse the hierarchy to ensure users are given access to only the reports to which their security has been assigned.
Your Azure App Service is where the Reporting Hub web application is deployed/hosted within your Azure environment. If you are experiencing issues with performance or application response times, you will need to investigate your App service. If you are experiencing poor response times, we recommend performing a restart of your App Service as shown below:
Your Reporting Hub application creates and stores log files based on activity of the application itself and underlying Azure resources. The Reporting Hub license manager can request and read the locally deployed Reporting Hub instance application log files by default. Application log files are not saved or stored within the license manager application. The application log files are used in the event of support requests to identify and troubleshoot potential issues with your application or supporting Azure resources. Read access to the application log files can be disabled and blocked by the customer if desired.
Important: If you submit a support request and are requesting technical support from the Reporting Hub, the application logs must be enabled.
From within the Azure Portal, access your Azure App Service and navigate to Environment Variables
Within the App Settings tab you will see a sharelogswithtrh setting. Change value to "DoNotShare"
We recommend setting up monitoring and alerts for your Azure App Service. This will allow you to proactively manage your App Service should any performance issues arise. Please see Microsoft's documentation for more information:
When the Reporting Hub application is installed in your Azure subscription, the App Service is assigned a https://<insert unique name>.azurewebsite.net DNS. You can add your own custom DNS in the App Service. This requires someone who has access to your DNS provider and has the permissions in the Azure Portal to add a DNS to the App Service. You'll also want to add an SSL certificate to secure the site (https instead of just http).
For Microsoft documentation on how to add a Custom DNS and and SSL certificate, please visit below:
Note: Customizing the DNS is not included in our standard deployment but is available at an extra charge upon request.
