Support SSAS connection using HTTP data pump (msmdpump.dll)

[tony_valentine1]

I know its a bit strange that we would want to configure the Power BI SSAS connector to point to an HTTP msmdpump, but it allows us to do something we can't do when going directly to the server. However, when I get to the last phase where it creates the connection in Power BI, it returns a strange "The remote server return an error: (404) Not Found....." that I do not get when going directly to the server. Could you validate my results and perhaps fix?

[mstacey]

Definitely something I'd like to see

[john_bacan]

Where do I vote for this ?? This is something we really could use ?

[mininair]

Hey Tony, Thank you for the feedback. We understand the consistency part and this feature is on the backlog. User voice is a great way for us to figure out the priority in which we should execute & release features. So keep voting 🙂 Mapping identities is a tricky feature but we understand the power/benefit it has. We hope to enable it soon.

[mininair]

Hi, What is your scenario? Can you share more details? Can you access the AS server from Excel or SSMS?

[rob15]

I asked Power BI uservoice about msmdpump.dll support, and the response was as follows: "At the moment we don't support connecting via msmdpump. Please go ahead and suggest it in our forum!" We are using the Telerik Pivot Grid which uses msmdpump.dll, and I also believe infragistics uses it also. Having this support in Power BI is also good for demos and testing SASS scenarios without going through a Federation process. Excel supports msmdpump.dll. msmdpump.dll can be setup as anonymous for quick testing of a new SSAS service, and have basic authentication added.

[mininair]

Hi Tony, At the moment, the msmdpump is not a supported scenario for the AS Connector. We have it on our backlog & we'll prioritize it accordingly. For your scenario to work, we need to provide a way for you to provide a custom mapping of user identities. As you pointed out, the Connector currently is locked down to work with the effective user name passed from Power BI only. It cannot accept requests from other applications (or proxies) & hence you cannot provide a custom mapping. It is not something we plan to get started on soon, but if we receive feedback from multiple users we'll definitely expedite this scenario. Hope this helps! Thanks.

[mininair]

Hi John, You should see an option to vote next to the main title of this suggestion.

[tony_valentine1]

Thanks for the response. I would think it is minimal work to make msmdpump.dll work, but I can't say since it's not my code. As far as I know, all other Microsoft products that work with SSAS connections support msmdpump.dll, so for consistency alone I think it would good. Translating identities would be nice because it provides any provider who is hosting an SSAS based solution for a client to provide data via Power BI without having a robust and expensive web API that the big guys have (SendGrid, Zendesk, etc).

[tony_valentine1]

Yes, I can access the AS server using the HTTP pump in Excel and SSMS. It's bit complicated, but the reason I want the pump is I want to allow users on external domains to access our data warehouse. We provide our clients a hosted BI solution. I can easily write a proxy web application for the pump that will take the EffectiveUsername from their domain (client\username) and convert it to our domain via a lookup in LDAP (we can store their local AD name in a AD field in our domain). I have done a similar proxy in the past to add certificate based authentication for the pump. However, if the Power BI will not allow me to use the pump, then I have no way hijack via a proxy to convert the EffectiveUsername to our domain. Here is a link to someone who did something similar to my proxy... https://code.msdn.microsoft.com/SSASProxy-Custom-HTTP-7db6d016#content

[tony_valentine1]

This still does not work with the release version of Power BI Analysis Services Connector. It fails with the same 404 error. Any update on where this feature is on the priority list?