Question

Accessing a Data Catalog from Power BI – Is it possible to connect Power BI to a data catalog? Looking for a way to manage metadata efficiently.

I want to integrate Power BI with a data catalog to manage metadata efficiently. Ideally, I’d like to enable easy search, classification, and governance of data assets within Power BI. Is there a way to achieve this integration? What tools or connectors are recommended?

Answer 1

The assimilation of Power BI with a data catalog encompasses metadata management, data discovery, and data governance. Even though Power BI does not possess an in-built catalog for data, various methods are available to achieve that integration.

Possible solutions:

Using Microsoft Purview—Microsoft Purview is the best enterprise-grade overall recommended for metadata management across Power BI, Azure, and other data sources. While the government allows users to search for datasets directly from Power BI, it has provisions for data lineage and classification.

Power BI Dataflows uses External Metadata Repositories. External catalogs such as Azure Data Catalog, Collibra, or Alation can then be tied into datasets because Power BI Dataflows store metadata. Each of these platforms helps manage dataset descriptions, relationships, and lineage.

Custom Metadata Management through Power BI APIs—The Power BI REST API can be used to collect metadata about datasets from tables, columns, refresh schedules, and lineage data. This data can be entered into a SharePoint list, an SQL database, or a custom-built data catalog.

Basic Metadata Management through Excel or SharePoint—In simple cases, metadata can be maintained in Excel, SharePoint, or Google Sheets and linked back to Power BI using Power Query as an alternative catalog.