Outputting data from an Azure Function to Power BI with PowerShell

24th of April, 2019 / / No Comments

Last week I wrote this post that detailed how to use the Azure Table Storage output binding in an Azure PowerShell Function. As part of the same solution I’m working on, I also need to get data/events into Power BI for reporting dashboards. An Azure Function (PowerShell) has the ability to obtain the data but the path to Power BI requires a number of steps that start with using the Azure Function Event Hub output binding.… [Keep reading] “Outputting data from an Azure Function to Power BI with PowerShell”

Using your Voice to Search Microsoft Identity Manager – Part 2

5th of July, 2018 / / No Comments

Introduction

Last month I wrote this post that detailed using your voice to search/query Microsoft Identity Manager. That post demonstrated a working solution (GitHub repository coming next month) but was still incomplete if it was to be used in production within an Enterprise. I hinted then that there were additional enhancements I was looking to make. One is an Auditing/Reporting aspect and that is what I cover in this post.

Overview

The one element of the solution that has visibility of each search scenario is the IoT Device.… [Keep reading] “Using your Voice to Search Microsoft Identity Manager – Part 2”

Geographically Visualizing your workforce using Microsoft Identity Manager, xMatters and Power BI

30th of November, 2017 / / No Comments

Introduction

In the last couple of weeks I’ve posted about visualizing relationships of data from Microsoft Identity Manager using Power BI. Earlier this week I posted about building a Management Agent for Microsoft Identity Manger to integrate with xMatters.
In this post I combine data from the last two in order to allow us to visualise the geographic office locations for an organisation and then summary data about it (how many employees are located there, and what departments).… [Keep reading] “Geographically Visualizing your workforce using Microsoft Identity Manager, xMatters and Power BI”

A modern way to track FIM/MIM Attribute Value History utilizing Power BI

20th of November, 2017 / / No Comments

Introduction

Microsoft Identity Manager is fantastic for keeping data consistent between connected systems. Often however you want to know what a previous value of an attribute was. FIM/MIM however can only tell you the current value and the Management Agent it was received on and when.
In the past where I’ve had to provide a solution to either make sure an attribute has a unique value forever (e.g email address or loginID (don’t reuse email addresses or loginID)) or just attribute value history I’ve used two different approaches;

  • Store previous values in an SQL Table and have an SQL MA that flows out the values
  • Store historical values in a Multi-Valued attribute on the user object in the Metaverse

Both are valid approaches but often fall down when you want to quickly get a report on that metadata.… [Keep reading] “A modern way to track FIM/MIM Attribute Value History utilizing Power BI”

How to embed Power BI Reports into the Microsoft Identity Manager Portal

24th of January, 2017 / / No Comments

About seven years ago at a conference in Los Angeles I attended I remember a session where a consultant from Oxford Computer Group gave a presentation on integrating Quest Identity Manager (now Dell One Identity Manager) with the Forefront Identity Manager Portal. I’ve recently had a requirement to do something similar and Carol pointed me in the direction of her experiments with doing something similar based off inspiration from that same presentation/session.
Well it is now 2017 and FIM and SharePoint have all moved through a few versions and doing something similar has changed.… [Keep reading] “How to embed Power BI Reports into the Microsoft Identity Manager Portal”

How to use a Powershell Azure Function App to get RestAPI IoT data into Power BI for Visualization

29th of November, 2016 / / No Comments

Overview

This blog post details using a Powershell Azure Function App to get IoT data from a RestAPI and update a table in Power BI with that data for visualization.
The data can come from anywhere, however in the case of this post I’m getting the data from WioLink IoT Sensors. This builds upon my previous post here that details using Powershell to get environmental information and put it in Power BI.  Essentially the major change is to use a TimerTrigger Azure Function to perform the work and leverage the “serverless” Azure Functions model.… [Keep reading] “How to use a Powershell Azure Function App to get RestAPI IoT data into Power BI for Visualization”

Leveraging the PowerBI Beta API for creating PowerBI Tables with Relationships via PowerShell

31st of August, 2016 / / No Comments

If anyone actually reads my posts you will have noticed that I’ve been on a bit of a deep dive into PowerBI and how I can use it to provide visualisation of data from Microsoft Identity Manager (here via CSV, and here via API). One point I noticed going direct to PowerBI via the API (v1.0) though was how it is not possible to provide relationships (joins) between tables within datasets (you can via PowerBI Desktop).… [Keep reading] “Leveraging the PowerBI Beta API for creating PowerBI Tables with Relationships via PowerShell”

Simple reporting from the FIM/MIM Metaverse to PowerBI using the Lithnet FIM/MIM Sync Service PowerShell Module

28th of July, 2016 / / 9 Comments

I have a customer that is looking to report on FIM/MIM identity information. The reports they are looking for aren’t overly complex and don’t necessarily justify the need the full FIM/MIM reporting infrastructure. So I spent a few hours over a couple of days looking at alternatives. In this blog post I give an overview of using the awesome Lithnet FIM/MIM Sync Service PowerShell Module recently released from Ryan Newington to do basic reporting on the Microsoft (Forefront) Identity Manager Metaverse into PowerBI.… [Keep reading] “Simple reporting from the FIM/MIM Metaverse to PowerBI using the Lithnet FIM/MIM Sync Service PowerShell Module”

Big Dater – Finding the biggest cheaters with Power BI

25th of October, 2015 / / 4 Comments

Hacking of commercial enterprises is never a good thing and in no way would I condone the dubious logic that was the basis behind the hack and release of the Ashley Madison database. There was no doubt a lot of personal and commercial damage caused.

But with every one of these hacks, there is opportunity. The hack has arguably done more for marriage fidelity than Fatal Attraction and has also given us a chance to relook at data security practices, personal data storage and password management practices.… [Keep reading] “Big Dater – Finding the biggest cheaters with Power BI”