Analysis Models - Power BI¶

IFS Analysis Models - Power BI consists of a framework that supports transferring data from IFS Cloud Information Sources to a Cloud-hosted Data Lake, with a set of Analysis Models connecting to this Data Lake.

Once the BI infrastructure and environment are set up in the own tenant, the services can be utilized.

Please refer to the installation guide for environment setup.

The deployment of the Analysis Models and relevant Data Sets is done through IFS Cloud Web.

Further functions such as

Data Loading
Data Configuration
Scheduling
Monitoring and Processing

of Analysis Models are also achieved through the IFS Cloud Web.

High-Level Architectural Overview¶

Definition of Scheduler Pod¶

The Scheduler Pod service is triggered in the background to run every minute. This service will check if data needs to be refreshed based on the refresh info. This info will be configurable in the Analysis Model configuration in IFS Cloud Web. To accomplish the said refresh, the Scheduler Pod will check which data sources have been used by the Analysis Model and refresh them.

After the Data Sources are refreshed, the Scheduler Pod subsequently refreshes the Analysis Models Dataset.

Definition of Data Pump Pod¶

The Data Pump Pods will do the actual data movement and parquet file generation. It reads the data from the Fact and Dimension Information Sources in Oracle. These pods can scale horizontally and scale to 0 when there are no jobs in the queue, this will be done using KEDA.

Definition of Data Lake Gen 2¶

An Azure Data Lake Gen 2 storage account (ADLS Gen2) is used to host the Parquet files. The created .parquet files will be loaded into the folders in the ADLS Gen 2 storage account.

Definition of Parquet Files¶

A Parquet File is a column-orientated file format supporting complex data-types. The benefits are efficient data compression with high-speed data storage and retrieval.

The Parquet Analysis Model data set is a collection of Parquet Data Sources which sits in the ADLS Gen2 folder. The connection between an Analysis model and a Parquet Data Source is determined automatically during refresh by analyzing the semantic model and the Parquet Data Source definition.

Through IFS Cloud Web, Parquet Data Sources can be created and loaded into the ADLS Gen 2 based on the Information Sources in Oracle. All the available pre-packaged data sources are listed; and Column inclusion, exclusion, defining load types, and defining a Max age also can be done via the Parquet Data Sources page.

On-Prem Data gateway¶

All the main features of the Analysis Models - Power BI; which are Publishing Analysis Models and uploading own/customized Analysis Models use Power BI datasets. These datasets use the parquet files in the ADLG2 as the data sources.

The connection between ADLS Gen 2 and the Power BI dataset (PBI Workspace) is accomplished via the Power BI Data Gateway.

Publishing and Uploading a Model into the Power BI Workspace¶

Publishing and Uploading processes through the IFS Cloud Web facilitates the Parquet Analysis Model to be available in the target Power BI Workspace. These Power BI reports can be utilized through IFS Cloud Web Lobby elements or any other desired way.

Publishing an Analysis Model¶

Publishing is making the latest version of a given model from the Golden workspace, available in the desired Power BI target Workspace via IFS Cloud Web by following a few steps.

Customizing an Analysis Model¶

Analysis Models - Power BI provides the capability to customize a model and upload it via IFS cloud Web to the Power BI target workspace. A model can be customized with basic editing as well as by modifying the data set (adding new data sources). Uploading a model is done when,

A Published /Downloaded IFS-Core model is customized.
Own model is created.

Analysis Model and Data Source Functional Areas¶

Area refers to the main functional areas for each Data Source and Analysis Model.

Data source functional areas - It specifies the folder in ADLS Gen 2 into which this data source is added.
Analysis Model functional areas- It specifies the Power BI workspace in which the particular Analysis Model should be published or Uploaded.

Analysis Models Areas	Parquet Data Sources Areas
CRM	CRM
ESG	ESG
Finance	Finance
HCM	HCM
Inventory	Inventory
Maintenance	Maintenance
Other	Other
Procurement	Procurement
ProductionPerformance	ProductionPerformance
Projects	Projects
Sales	Sales
	Shared

Note

Area values are applicable during the creation process. Refer to Publish and Upload related content for available provisioned workspaces during this release.

Shared Access Signature Token and IP whitelisting¶

To access the ADLS Gen 2 folder via Power BI desktop and connect to a Parquet Data Source, a Shared Access Signature (SAS) token is required.

This can be done via the Shared Access Signature page in IFS Cloud Web. This page will list all the whitelisted IPs along with the expiry date. Accessing this page is limited for privileged users, and creating a SAS Token is available only through the CFG environment.

Analysis Models Power BI Logs¶

Logs provide information on Parquet data source load/refresh history and Analysis Model refresh history which can be useful when identifying execution errors and other details.

Import and Export¶

Data Source definitions can be moved in between environments via the Export and Import function. Export downloads a .json file of the Parquet Data Source definition, and it can be imported into another environment through the Import Parquet Data Sources assistant.

External tools¶

Along with Power BI Desktop; there is a set of free tools that can be used during the Data Modelling and Report Generation activities.

Setup Environment and User Mappings¶

Analysis Models - Power BI supports deployment scenario 3 where your own BI infrastructure needs to be set up before setting up the environment. The Service Principal needs to be created in the customer tenant and the installation setup should be followed.

The main permission sets of Analysis Models - Power BI are AAAS_ADMINISTRATOR, AAAS_DL_USER and AAAS_UPLOAD_USER. The designated projections for each permission set are in the below link.