(Near) real-time capacity consumption monitoring

[NotebookEnjoyer]

Hello,

the Fabric Capacity Metrics App is alright, I guess, but it is rather slow. I need to refresh the model first (which ironically consumes capacity), the visuals take a lot of time to open (because they reflect a lot of data). By the time I see it, the data is already several minutes old. However, a question that arises often recently is: I get an email notification about the capacity load hitting the threshold and want to know whether this was because of temporary interactive load or if base load overage is accumulating.

So I ask quite open ended: Is there an option to see the (nearly) real-time current capacity consumption/load? Or how would I get that info without using the metrics app. I just need that one percentage, not the list of the thousands of processes and their metadata.

Is there maybe an option in Azure directly?

Thanks for any hint!

[burakkaragoz · Accepted solution]

Hi @NotebookEnjoyer ,

You're absolutely right that the Fabric Capacity Metrics App, while useful, isn't ideal for real-time monitoring due to its refresh latency and overhead.

✅ Here are a few alternative approaches you can consider:

1. Microsoft Fabric REST API (Capacity APIs)
   You can use the Power BI REST API to query capacity utilization. While not truly real-time, it provides more up-to-date metrics than the Metrics App and can be automated via scripts or dashboards.

2. Azure Monitor + Log Analytics (if integrated)
   If your Fabric capacity is linked to Azure Monitor, you can set up custom alerts and dashboards using Log Analytics. This allows you to track metrics like CPU, memory, and query load in near real-time.

3. PowerShell or Azure CLI Automation
   You can script periodic checks using PowerShell or Azure CLI to fetch capacity usage and send alerts or logs to a dashboard.

4. Custom Dashboard with Direct API Polling
   If you only need that one percentage (current capacity usage), you could build a lightweight custom dashboard that polls the API every few minutes and displays just that metric.

[ThornKevin]

I would love to see an Open Telemetry Section in the Microsoft Fabric Tenant Settings! There we could specify our observability platform in order to have the same visibility and alerts like with all other Platforms and tools.

[v-veshwara-msft]

Hi @NotebookEnjoyer 

Thanks for posting your question in Fabric Community,

As suggested by @nilendraFabric , the Fabric Capacity Metrics App is currently the supported way to view actual capacity consumption (CPU, memory, load %). It provides data with a few minutes of latency, which is generally sufficient for retrospective analysis, though not ideal for near real-time diagnostics.

While tools like the Power BI Activity Log or Microsoft 365 audit logs can provide visibility into user and system actions (such as dataset refreshes, report views, or exports), they do not include actual capacity metrics. Specifically:

1. They do not show CPU usage, memory consumption, or percentage of capacity used.

2. They are focused on activity tracking, not resource monitoring.

At this point, Fabric Capacity Metrics App remains the direct method for analyzing load behavior.

Hope this helps. Please reach out for further assistance.
If this post helps, then please consider to Accept as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly and a kudos would be appreciated.

Thank you.

[nilendraFabric]

Hi @NotebookEnjoyer 

to monitor capacity usage, as of today capacity Metric app is the only viable option. 

As of now, you cannot use Azure Monitor Metrics in the Azure portal to get direct, real-time CPU or memory metrics for Fabric capacity resources

The Capacity Metrics App provides data that is updated every few minutes, but it is not true real-time (i.e., second-by-second). The typical latency is a few minutes, which is sufficient for most operational monitoring and troubleshooting