Forum Discussion

SQLbyoBI's avatar
SQLbyoBI
Advocate I
4 years ago

Capturing User Information from MdxQuery events in Log Analytics

Is it possible to see the end user associated with an MDX query events captured in Log Analytics attached to a Power BI (premium) workspace?
 
Currently working w/ a client where we've attached Log Analytics to one of the Power BI (premium) workspaces and are using the event data to measure user adoption. One peculiarity we've noticed is that while we can track both MDX & DAX queries, we are unable to determine the end-user associated with the MDX queries (no issues with DAX queries). It seems all MDX query events are tied to the Power BI Service account.

 

This client (finance department) makes very heavy use of Excel pivot tables connected to the PBI dataset... as such nearly 90% of all query events are MDX. 
 
I've tried projecting all documented columns in Kusto queries (ExecutingUser, Identity, User) even parsed through the XmlaProperties on the QueryBegin event... but not finding any actual end user names/emails tied to MdxQuery operations.
 
Perhaps there's a configuration issue or something else I've missed when setting everything up?
Or perhaps this is simply not possible and just a subtle difference between Azure AS and PBI?
Need Help

4 Replies

  • lbendlin's avatar
    lbendlin
    Super User
    4 years ago

    I'll ask around. We have the same problem with our finance users. They have discovered that they can use CUBEMEMBER etc functions and are doing that excessively, leading to thousands of concurrent MDX queries from a single Excel file (for example) which make the capacity rather sad.  You may want to plan for the re-education sessions already.

    • SQLbyoBI's avatar
      SQLbyoBI
      Advocate I
      4 years ago

      thank you. 

       

      we've already had several discussions w/ the "report builders" on the dos/don'ts w/ the dataset (i.e. "don't use a bunch of giant pivot tables to dump data from the PBI dataset, we can provide you with whatever extract you need using a more appropriate method")

      • lbendlin's avatar
        lbendlin
        Super User
        4 years ago

        Let me know what works for you. We are having a hard time fighting the stubborn. Short of cutting their Power BI access there's nothing you can technically do in the tenant/capacity.