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Microsoft Power BI Blog

Premium Capacity Metrics app – new health center with KPIs to explore relevant metrics and steps to mitigate issues

Headshot of article author Swati Gupta

Power BI Program Manager
13 January, 2020

We have added Capacity Health Center to the Power BI Premium capacity metrics app (version 2.0 ), making it a one-stop-shop for admins. Upon opening the report, the admin lands on a page called the “Health Center” and learns about its 3 key performance indicators(KPIs) : capacity planning, refresh wait, and query wait. These KPIs allow admins to further explore the current state of their capacity, through specific visualizations of the relevant metrics, following a troubleshooting guide to get a detailed explanation as to what the metrics mean to better understand the state of the capacity and what can be done to mitigate any issues. In this version of the app, we have added also support for local time zone which is configurable at installation ( instructions shared below in the installation section)

Today we want to highlight the KPIs in the Capacity Health center, which provide an easy and informative way to monitor and identify potential issues.

 Capacity Health Center

When you open the Power BI Premium metrics app you’re presented with the Capacity health center as the new landing page.  On this page, the admin will first select the capacity of interest and deep dive into KPIs to better understand the current state of their capacity (healthy vs not healthy).

Capacity health center – top section of the new landing page in the report

To learn the details of the KPI, click on the “Explore” button. This will take you to a page ( below image) with shows specific visualization of the relevant metrics following a troubleshooting guide on the right column of the page to get a detailed explanations as to what the metrics mean to better understand the state of the capacity and what can be done to mitigate the issue.

Active Memory

This KPI measure if capacity’s active memory crossed 70% threshold 50 times (30% of the last seven days) indicating that the capacity is closing in on a tipping point when you might start seeing performance issues being reported by your users. The gauge visual shown below indicates that, in the last seven days from the time the report was last refreshed, the capacity has crossed the 70% threshold 4 times, split by hourly buckets. The maximum value of the gauge, 168, represents the last seven days, in hours.

Active memory metric in the capacity health center

To learn the details of the KPI, click on the “Explore” button. This will take you to a page ( below image). There are two scenarios explained, which you can show on the report page by selecting Scenario 1 or Scenario 2 on the page. with shows specific visualization following a troubleshooting guide on the right column of the page to get a detailed explanations as to what the metrics mean to better understand the state of the capacity and what can be done to mitigate the issue.

Exploring active memory metrics

Query Wait

This KPI measure if 25% or more of the selected capacity’s queries are waiting 100 milliseconds or longer to execute. This waiting occurs when there is not enough available CPU to execute all the queries.

Query wait metric in the capacity health center

The above gauge shows that in the last 7 days from the time the report was last refreshed, 17.32% of the queries waited more than 100 milliseconds. To learn more about the reports running slow queries click on “Explore” and select Scenario 1 or Scenario 2  to identify the reports waiting because of too many queries vs long duration queries and next steps.

Exploring the what and why behind query waits in the capacity

Refresh Wait

This KPI measure if 10% or more of the refreshes are waiting 10 minutes or longer. Waiting generally occurs when there is not enough available memory or CPU.

Refresh wait metric in the capacity health center

The above gauge shows that in the last 7 days from the time the report was last refreshed, 3.18% of the refreshes waited more than 10 minutes. To learn more about the slow refreshes, click on “Explore” and select Scenario 1 or Scenario 2  to deep dive into which datasets has been waiting because of many large datasets( Out of memory)  or too many refreshes being running together(Max concurrency) and next steps to mitigate any issues.

Exploring the what and why behind the refresh waits in the capacity

Installing the app

Let’s get started by installing the service app. If you have a previous version of the app already installed, it’s best to delete it from your apps and then hit refresh to avoid confusion with versions.

The app can be installed by searching for “Power BI Premium Capacity Metrics” in the Power BI AppSource or by clicking here to get it now.

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Setup Time zone

At installation , a dialog(screenshot below) will appear asking for the UTCOffset . To view the contents in the report in your preferred time zone , we will need to enter an integer e.g. to view in UTC enter 0 ,  in PST enter -8 etc. and click “Next”

Be patient. It takes a few minutes to install and refresh metrics. If the app shows blank metrics, press F5 to refresh your browser.

Additional steps to use the Premium Capacity Monitoring app with Power BI Embedded

This same app can be used to monitor any A SKU capacities you may have in Power BI Embedded. They will appear in the report provided you’re an admin of the capacity. Refresh of the report can fail unless you grant certain permissions to Power BI on your A SKUs. This can be done by opening your capacity in the Azure portal, clicking on Access control (IAM) and adding the “Power BI Premium” app to the Reader role. If you’re unable to find the app by name, you can also add it by its client Id: cb4dc29f-0bf4-402a-8b30-7511498ed654.

Moving forward

Be sure to submit your ideas for new features. Learn more about Power BI Premium and monitoring premium capacities. To install the Power BI Premium Capacity Metrics app, click here.