Tag: Azure

Configure PowerBI for Dynamics 365 for operations

Today I helped two of my colleagues setting integrating Power BI for Dynamics 365 for operations. There are a couple of guides online which I have used to create this post, but I thought I would create one from my experience.

There are a couple of main steps we need to go through:

Create a Azure AD Application
Configure Dynamics 365 for operations for Power BI
Configure Power BI
Configure your workspace

Create a Azure AD Application

There are two ways of doing this… you can do it using the Power BI Developer registration tool or you can do it directly from the Azure Portal. We did it from the Azure Portal like this:

  1. Log into the Azure potal… You can use both the old and the new one
  2. Goto Azure Aztive Directory and select your Azure Active Directory Instance
  3. Go to Applications/App Registrations
  4. Create a new application with these settings:
    1. Name: ChooseYourName
    2. Application Type: Web app/API
    3. Sign-on URL: https://theadressforyourdynamics365foroperationsinstance/oauth
    4. App ID URI: https://theadressforyourdynamics365foroperationsinstance  Anything EXEPT https://theadressforyourdynamics365foroperationsinstance . You can for instance use https://DynamicsBI, it only has to be unique for each Azure AD Application
      Edited 27/1 2017
    5. Reply URL: https://theadressforyourdynamics365foroperationsinstance/oauth
  5. When this is created you will get a Client ID/Application ID and you will create a key. You need to save these because you will need the later. Note that the keys are only visible when they are created, Once you leave the page and go back you cannot see them again. If this happens and you have not saved it you can simply create an new one.Old portal
    SNAGHTML221ce22New Portal:
    SNAGHTML22b2d3e
  6. Once you have set up the application in Azure ID you will need to give it some permissions. This is where we got stuck because in one of the guides there was a screenshot which showed to few permissions and it simply did not work. You add the application Power BI Services and give it the correct permissions. We used the following permissions:
    1. View all Groups
    2. View All Reports
    3. Create Content
    4. View content Properties
    5. Read and Write all datasets
    6. View All Datasets
    7. View All Dashboards
    8. Add Data to User’s Dataset

Configure Dynamics 365 for operations for Power BI

  1. In Dynamics 365 for Operations, go to System Adminstration – Power BI
  2. You need to Enable the configuration and then you change these values
    1. Azure AD Tennant (this you will find in the Azure Portal)
    2. Client ID (you saved it above)
    3. Application key(you saved it above)
    4. Redirect URL: ps://theadressforyourdynamics365foroperationsinstance/oauth (This one is incorrect and will not work… ever… I do not understand how there can be an incorrect default value)The other values are correct

Configure Power Bi

  1. Every user that is going to use Power BI (more or less every user that is usign AX) will need at least a Power BI free License. As the name implies it is actually free and you addit in the Office 365 Admin Portal. Once you have added the wou will have to do this for every user:
  2. Log into Power BI (https://powerbi.microsoft.com)
  3. Click Get Data in the lower left corner
  4. Click Services – Getimage
  5. Click Get it now on each of  the three (for now) AX Apps
    image
  6. On each of the Apps enter the URL for your AX instance (https://theadressforyourdynamics365foroperationsinstance ) and flick next. If you get prompted for authetication select OAuth2image   image

Configure your workspace

  1. Log into Dynamics 365 for operations
  2. Go to the Workspace called Cost Administration
  3. Scroll to the right and click on the Power BI paneimage
  4. If this is your first time you need to authorize Power BI. Click the link, log in using your credentials and approve the permissions.image   image
  5. Return to the Dynamics Tab and click closeimage
  6. Select the Power BI tiles you want from the Tile catalog and click OK to add them to your workspaceimage    image

This should be it… Business Intelligence glory!

Links:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/unified-operations/dev-itpro/analytics/configure-power-bi-integration

 

Adding users from another AAD tenant to AX7

In AX 2012 and prior it was a little tricky to add external users. You basically could not, so you needed to add an Active Directory Account to your AD and import it as a AX user. You might not want to add external users in your AD.

This is much easier in AX7 (it should be Dynamics AX but it is much harder to search for on the internets)… much, much easier… you see AX 7 does not handle identity at all…  it trusts Azure Active Directory for this. A requirement is that the external company uses Azure Active Directory.

Note (Added later): If you have set up the AX install in Azure using LCS the “default” Azure Active Directory is the one connected for your Azure tenant. These users are not treated as external users and do not need the modification below.

So, to add an external user to AX you go to System Administration – Users and click New to add a new user. The user we want to add in our example is Kalle Kula, Kalle has the email address kalle.kula@innoworks.com

image

The only thing missing is that we need to specify the Azure AD tenant in the domain field and set it to https://sts.windows.net/innoworks.com (which is not completely visible in the screenshot)

image

Save the user and add roles and we are all set!

/Johan

Configuring Filtering in AADSync

If you don’t want to sync your entire Active Directory to Azure/Office 365 you can in the new AADSync set up a OU filter. Here is a short Checklist

  1. Start Synchronization Service Manager
    1. Go to Connectors
    2. Select Properties on your AD Connector
    3. Select Configure Directory Partitions
    4. Click Containers (Enter Credentials)
    5. Select OUs to Sync
    6. Exit Properties
  2. Initiate sync
    1. Right-click AD Connector and select Run – Full Import
    2. Right-click AD Connector and select Run – Delta Sync
    3. In Task Scheduler run the Azure AD Sync Scheduler or wait max of 3 hours
  3. Verify in Azure AD/Office 365 that the sync was OK…

Links
http://andersonpatricio.ca/how-to-force-the-synchronization-using-aadsync/
http://oddytee.wordpress.com/2014/09/24/configure-filtering-with-aadsync/