Connect Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 with PowerBI

[constantLearner]

Hi All,

Can someone let me know how to connect PowerBI with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3?

Since Dynamics AX 2012 has SQL Server at the backend will SQL replication work to create custom reports?

Does this mean that there will no out of box reports when connecting Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 with PowerBI?

Regards.

[Seth_C_Bauer · Accepted solution]

@constantLearner Looks like Dynamics AX 7 is the only one supported in the Content Pack. I'm not an AX guy, but from a quick check, it looks like you can create a seperate Entity Store (SQL Server) for reporting purposes. Then you can use Power BI to connect to that.

[v-qiuyu-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @constantLearner,

I agree with @Seth_C_Bauer that available Dynamics CRM content pack requires Dynamics AX 7 environment currently. In your scenario, please use OData data source type in Power BI Desktop to retrieve data from Dynamic AX 2012 R3. For more information, please refer to links below:

Create a Power BI report by using Microsoft Dynamics AX data

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 integration with Power BI for Office 365

Regarding the question about whether backend SQL Server will generate cutom reports, I would suggest you post a thread in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012: Reporting and BI forum.

Best Regards,
Qiuyun Yu

[Anonymous]

Hi,

You can certainly connect to the back-end SQL database and create reports in Power BI. Obviously, you would connect in a Development/Test environment. It wouldn't be too ideal in a production environment, as you can imagine. The entity store update was released for R3, which allows you to connect to them and report from them. The entity store is simply a separate database of entities (views) that are optimized for DirectQuery and reporting with Power BI.

AX 2012 R3 also supports OData feed, which enforces AX security inherently. However, it is quite a bit slower when handling larger data sets. You can also connect to the AX cubes using SSAS.

There are no content packs that I am aware of (out of the box).

Cheers,

Mark

[ankit2747]

Hi @Anonymous,

 Connecting AX 7 (Dev/Test) with power BI using SQL server connection works fine. But is it possible to connect Production server with it? Not sure if proper privileges are provided by Micorosft on the production server to use the SQL server credentials to connecto to Power BI desktop.

[mwoelzmueller]

Please see my latest blog post to see how to connect AX 2012 R3 Data Feed to Power BI

http://immerhier.com/connect-microsoft-power-bi-to-ax-2012-odata-query-service/

[Seth_C_Bauer · Accepted solution]

@constantLearner Looks like Dynamics AX 7 is the only one supported in the Content Pack. I'm not an AX guy, but from a quick check, it looks like you can create a seperate Entity Store (SQL Server) for reporting purposes. Then you can use Power BI to connect to that.