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Enrich Power BI OLS datasets
App

You can create missing Power BI tables and columns and restore upstream lineage to your data warehouse by using the PBI OLS Dataset Enricher app. The Power BI Admin APIs used by Atlan's native crawler don't return table metadata when Object Level Security (OLS) is applied to a semantic model, so those assets are missing in Atlan and lineage is broken. This app reads the semantic model's BIM file from an AWS S3 bucket and uses it to create the missing assets and lineage.

This guide walks you through preparing the BIM file with Tabular Editor, uploading it to S3, and configuring the app to run the enrichment workflow.

Prerequisites​

Before you begin, make sure you have:

  • Access to the PBI OLS Dataset Enricher app in your Atlan workspace. If you don't have access, contact Atlan support or your Atlan customer team.
  • A Microsoft Power BI connection set up and crawled in Atlan.
  • The data warehouse connection (for example, Snowflake, BigQuery) crawled in Atlan so that upstream assets are available for lineage.
  • Tabular Editor installed and accessible from the machine where you run the extraction script.
  • A Service Principal authorized to authenticate Tabular Editor with the Power BI workspace and semantic model.
  • A Premium Capacity or Fabric Workspace.
  • An AWS S3 bucket with access configured so that a non-AWS application can read and write objects. For setup instructions, see:

Prepare BIM file​

Before running the workflow, extract the BIM file from the Power BI semantic model (also called a PBI dataset) and upload it to your S3 bucket. The workflow reads the BIM file from S3 and uses it to create assets and lineage in Atlan.

  1. Use Tabular Editor to connect to the Power BI workspace and semantic model (using the Service Principal).
  2. Run a script to export the semantic model as a BIM file.
  3. Upload the BIM file to your S3 bucket in the path you configure in the workflow (for example, under a prefix such as exports/sales-workspace/).

For authentication patterns and S3 setup, see Object storage for apps.

Set up workflow​

After your BIM file is available in S3, configure the workflow.

  1. Go to the homepage and click New workflow in the top navigation bar.
  2. Search for PBI OLS Dataset Enricher, and then select Set up workflow.
  3. Configure credentials so the workflow can read from your S3 bucket. Choose one of:
    • User-based: Enter AWS Access Key ID and AWS Secret Access Key for an IAM user with access to the bucket. Create an IAM user and attach your IAM S3 policy.
    • Role-based: Attach your IAM S3 policy to the EC2 role used by Atlan's EKS cluster. Raise a support ticket to enable role-based authentication for your instance.
    • Role delegation-based: Create an IAM role in your AWS account with a trust policy allowing Atlan's node instance role to assume it. Raise a support ticket to get the Node Instance Role ARN, then create the role and share the role name and AWS account ID with Atlan support.
  4. In Connection, select the Power BI connection in Atlan where the OLS-protected datasets are cataloged.
  5. In Source (or the equivalent S3 section), enter the bucket name, optional prefix (path) where the BIM file is located, and region. If using user-based auth, enter the access key and secret key.
  6. Review the configuration and save the workflow.
  7. Run the workflow once to create the missing tables, columns, and lineage.

Verify lineage​

After the workflow finishes, validate that assets and lineage have been created as expected.

  1. From the left navigation, click Assets.
  2. Search for a Power BI dataset that was in scope and open its asset profile.
  3. Click the Lineage tab and confirm that:
    • The missing Power BI tables and columns now appear.
    • Upstream lineage to the data warehouse tables and columns is present.
    • Downstream lineage from tables to the parent dataset is present.
  4. Repeat for a few datasets to confirm coverage matches your expectations.

If you need to adjust which semantic models are enriched, update the BIM files in S3 or the workflow configuration and rerun.

Need help?​

If you have any issues while configuring or running the app, contact Atlan support.

See also​