Application Name in Extended Events

[vickyd]

Our environment currently consists of Power BI Report server connected to SSAS. 

We are capturing Extended Events from SSAS to track performance of all queries. The extended event logs have a column from "ApplicationName" that shows where the query originated from. 

However, it's empty for anything queries orginating from Power BI reports, SSRS reports or Excel. It shows up for Power BI Desktop. 

Is there a way we can set the Application Name in Power BI Report Server so the PBI and SSRS reports show a name under Application name? 

[d_gosbell]

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@vickyd wrote:

Is there a way we can set the Application Name in Power BI Report Server so the PBI and SSRS reports show a name under Application name? 

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Unfortunately not. This property is set in the connection string so it needs to be set per connection.

For SSRS reports you can set this in the connection string or probably also in share Data Sources, but for PBIX based reports the raw connection string is not exposed. And you cannot add properties like this. I tried this myself using API calls to update the connections so that I could enforce this, but the PBIX files just ignore properties on the connection that they do not support.

[Vasavi]

How about identifying the excel application - does anyone know how to make it visible or identifiable as the application name for queries that are executing using it. We still see empty results for application names in the diagnostic logs of azure analysis services - though we can see few names like ssms and power bi desktop.

[d_gosbell]

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@Vasavi wrote:

How about identifying the excel application - does anyone know how to make it visible or identifiable as the application name for queries that are executing using it. 

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So it's the same as SSRS, your users would need to go into the connection properties in Excel and edit the connection string to add "Application Name=Excel". Unfortunately Excel does not automatically insert this when making a new connection, so it would be up to your users to remember to do this every time they make a new pivot table, which is not really practical.

I have done things in the past where we supplied the users with an ODC file where which they could open to create a new Excel file with a new pivot table and you could insert the "Application Name=" setting in there. But if you have existing reports without the "Application Name=" setting in the connection string this will not fix those.

[Vasavi]

Hi thanks a lot, it worked and helps to identify the excel application in the diagnostic logs or traces.

[Greg_Deckler]

You could check the Issues forum here:

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Issues/idb-p/Issues

And if it is not there, then you could post it.

If you have Pro account you could try to open a support ticket. If you have a Pro account it is free. Go to https://support.powerbi.com. Scroll down and click "CREATE SUPPORT TICKET".