Visualize Live Active Directory Data in Power BI (via CData Connect AI)

Power BI transforms your company's data into rich visuals for you to collect and organize so you can focus on what matters to you. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get access to Active Directory data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to use CData Connect to create a live connection to Active Directory, connect to Active Directory data from Power BI and then create reports on Active Directory data in Power BI.

Configure Active Directory Connectivity for Power BI

Connectivity to Active Directory from Power BI is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Active Directory data from Power BI, we start by creating and configuring a Active Directory connection.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a Connection

2. Select "Active Directory" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Active Directory.

   To establish a connection, set the following properties:

   • Valid User and Password credentials (e.g., Domain\BobF or cn=Bob F,ou=Employees,dc=Domain).
   • Server information, including the IP or host name of the Server, as well as the Port.

   • BaseDN: This will limit the scope of LDAP searches to the height of the distinguished name provided.

     Note: Specifying a narrow BaseDN may greatly increase performance; for example, cn=users,dc=domain will only return results contained within cn=users and its children.

   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Active Directory Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions
   

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Active Directory data from Power BI.

Query Active Directory Tables

Follow the steps below to build a query to pull Active Directory data into the report:

1. Open Power BI Desktop and click Get Data -> Online Services -> CData Connect AI and click "Connect"
2. Click "Sign in" and authenticate with your CData Connect AI account 👁 Authenticating with Connect AI
   
3. After signing in, click "Connect" 👁 Connecting to Connect AI
   
4. Select tables in the Navigator dialog 👁 The available tables. (Salesforce tables are shown)
   
5. Click Load to establish the connection to your Active Directory data from Power BI

Create Active Directory Data Visualizations

After connecting to the data into Power BI, you can create data visualizations in the Report view by dragging fields from the Fields pane onto the canvas. Select the dimensions and measures you wish to visualize along with the chart type.

Click Refresh to synchronize your report with any changes to the data.

Live Access to Active Directory Data from Data Applications

With CData Connect AI you have a direct connection to Active Directory data from Power BI. You can import more data, create new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating Active Directory data.

To get SQL data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources (including Active Directory) directly from your on-premise BI, reporting, ETL and other data applications, visit the CData Connect AI page and start a free trial.