Power BI Help

[SB267]

Hi,

Coming from OBIEE background, and wishing to learn Power BI, what are the components do I need to install? My intention is to understand the whole Power BI stack, such as backend server, data model, report building, ETL etc. I am trying to establish what the Power BI equivalent components are of OBIEE Server, Data Modeller (Repository), Analystics, Enterprise Manager. I would really appreciate if someone could help... Thanks

[edhans · Accepted solution]

Power BI is a stand-alone app. No backend server or anything. It has connectors though for dozens of servers and files (Excel, JSON, Access, text, etc.) that you connect to mostly through Power Query (included in the install) that lets you transform data before loading into the model. Some servers like SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) bypass Power Query and load directly into the model.

And the model is a single instance of SSAS running on your PC - again, included in the install. It is just there. You can read more about it here. All visuals are on the report layer and you create measures (formulas) to get the right data into your visuals. Modeling is key. A bad model will make your life miserable trying to write measures.

The file you work with is a PBIX file and you can leave it at that, or publish it to the Power BI Service here. You can do that standalone, but it works more seamlessly if it is added to your business Office 365 subscription account. You then have to dig a bit deeper into licenses to determine when you need to pay to publish and share data.

There are a ton of books on Power BI or its components - DAX (the formulas and model), Power Query, visualizations, etc. Probably the best for you is a good overview of the entire things. All of SQLBI's books are worth owning. This one is an overvew of the entire Power BI app and related concepts.

[SB267]

Thank you very mcuh. Much appreciated.