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Category: Microsoft Fabric

Using the Microsoft Fabric Data Gateway

Published 2023-08-03 by Kevin Feasel

Reitse Eskens uploads some data:

In a blog from a few weeks ago, I wrote about getting data from your on-prem SQL Server into Fabric. At the time, the only option for a copy dataflow was using a direct connection over the internet. It still is, but now you can also use the PowerBI Data Gateway to get data from your SQL Server into Fabric.

In this blog, I’ll take you through the steps needed and an issue I ran into.

Read on for Reitse’s instructions and how to avoid the issue he ran into.

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Trying Fabric Data Wrangler

Published 2023-07-31 by Kevin Feasel

Reza Rad looks at a new tool:

There is a tool (or you can consider it as an editor) in Fabric for data scientists. As a data scientist, you must work with the data, clean it, group it, aggerate it, and do other data preparation work. This might be needed to understand the data or be part of the process you do to prepare the data and load it into a table for further analysis. Data Wrangler is a tool that gives you such ability. You can use it to transform data and prepare and even generate Python code to make this process part of a bigger data analytics project.

Data Wrangler has a simple-to-use graphical user interface that makes the job of a data scientist easier.

Read on for a video as well as a demo in written format.

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An End-to-End Microsoft Fabric Implementation

Published 2023-07-24 by Kevin Feasel

Jordan Witcombe takes us through an example:

This blog will walk you through the entire data lifecycle of ingesting data from SharePoint and Azure Blob Storage, through the lakehouse pattern, and finally to the reporting stage – all using Microsoft Fabric.

As we’re well into summer now, festivals can be a great way of spending time with friends and family. But all too often, we each want to see various acts and activities. How can we make this easier? With this dataset I created, it takes a simple Excel / CSV file with acts, stages, who wants to see this, and a personal rating. We will run this through the lakehouse pattern and finish with a curated/gold layer which can be used for reporting directly on top of. For more information on lake layers, you can see Ed’s blog Medallion Architecture: What is it?. So, you can highlight those clashes and keep everyone happy during your festival fun!

Read on for the showcase.

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A First-Pass Approach to Migrating Dedicated SQL Pool Schemas to Fabric

Published 2023-07-20 by Kevin Feasel

Kevin Chant gets a jump on a big problem:

To manage expectations, this post only covers database schema objects. Plus, I need to highlight the fact that this solution has some interesting quirks. Some of which I highlight in this post.

Even though there are some quirks, I still want to show this solution. So that others can see it working and I can highlight a few important facts. Plus, share a template you can use to test this yourself.

The current lack of a good migration strategy is a real challenge for anyone thinking of moving from Azure Synapse Analytics to Microsoft Fabric. Serverless SQL pools and Spark pools are an easy transition, but dedicated SQL pools are a tough nut to crack.

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An Overview of Semantic Modeling in Microsoft Fabric

Published 2023-07-17 by Kevin Feasel

Teo Lachev talks semantic modeling:

In retrospect, I’d say I owe 50% of my BI career to Analysis Services and its flavors: Multidimensional, Tabular, and later Power BI. This is why I closely follow how this technology evolves. Fast forwarding to Fabric, there are no dramatic changes. Unlike the other two Fabric Engines (Lakehouse and Warehouse), Power BI datasets haven’t embraced the delta lake file format to store its data yet. The most significant change is the introduction of a new Direct Lake data access mode alongside the existing Import and DirectQuery.

Read on for Teo’s thoughts. I think there’s a good chance that the Bad/Ugly points will be eliminated by the time Fabric goes GA, though we’ll have to wait and see if that’s the case.

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Shortcuts and Table Clones in Microsoft Fabric

Published 2023-07-13 by Kevin Feasel

Reitse Eskens takes a shortcut:

A few days ago, I heard the term table clone for the first time, it’s preview release date was to be confirmed and I had no idea what it was about. Two days later, a video emerged where the table clone was explained on a high level. At that point, I started to wonder what the differences are between a table clone and a shortcut. So let’s dig a little into that question!

First I’m going to create a shortcut, then a clone and finally compare the two.

Read on for the comparison, as these are quite different things.

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Fabric Data Integration

Published 2023-07-11 by Kevin Feasel

Teo Lachev reviews the primary methods for data ingestion in Microsoft Fabric:

Fabric supports three options for automated data integration: Data Pipeline (Azure Data Factory pipeline), Dataflow Gen2 (Power BI dataflow), and Notebook (Spark). I summarize these three options in the following table, which loosely resembles the Microsoft comparison table but with my take on it.

Read on for Teo’s thoughts on the matter.

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Microsoft Fabric Architectural Icons

Published 2023-07-11 by Kevin Feasel

Marc Lelijveld imports some icons:

In the past, I’ve made a draw.io file for Power BI to help you using the right icons to design your solutions and make architectural diagrams. With Fabric, a bunch of new services and icons have been introduced. This asks for a new draw.io file.

With this blog, I will provide the draw.io file for all new icons and elements of Fabric.

Click through for that link. Also note that you might be more familiar with the new name of draw.io, diagrams.net.

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Tips for Performance Testing Direct Lake Mode in Power BI

Published 2023-07-10 by Kevin Feasel

Chris Webb gives us some performance testing advice:

If you’re excited about Direct Lake mode in Fabric you’re probably going to want to test it with some of your own data, and in particular look at DAX query performance. Before you do so, though, there are a few things to know about performance testing with Direct Lake datasets that are slightly different from what you might be used to with Import mode or DirectQuery datasets.

Chris shares some great advice and takes us through a good approach for testing. This post is all about the how, not the results.

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An Overview of Microsoft Fabric Terminology

Published 2023-07-10 by Kevin Feasel

Soheil Bakhshi takes us through some terms:

In this blog post, I will explain some of the key concepts, personas, and terminologies related to Microsoft Fabric, a SaaS analytics platform for the era of AI. If you are not familiar with the basic concepts of SaaS analytics platforms and how Microsoft Fabric fits in, I recommend you read my previous blog post, where I explain them in detail.

Click through to learn more about what terms like “tenant,” “capacity,” and “persona” mean in the context of Microsoft Fabric.

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