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Monitoring and Reporting in Microsoft Fabric

Monitoring and reporting are essential components of a Microsoft Fabric deployment strategy. Unlike traditional IaaS or PaaS environments, Fabric provides an integrated, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) experience that includes its own telemetry, cost usage patterns, and built-in administrative views via the Power BI Admin Portal and Fabric Admin APIs.

This guide expands the Azure monitoring best practices with Fabric-specific guidance, focusing on:

  • Observability of Capacity usage across multiple Workspaces
  • Integration with centralized tools like Azure Monitor and Microsoft Defender for Cloud
  • Real-time insights using the Performance Dashboard and Activity Log
  • Tracking usage per Workspace and per Artifact Type (e.g., Lakehouses, Warehouses, Eventstreams)

Azure Monitor​

Azure Monitor provides a comprehensive solution for collecting, analyzing, and acting on telemetry from your cloud and on-premises environments. It can be integrated with Microsoft Fabric for unified monitoring.

Microsoft Fabric Monitoring​

Microsoft Fabric provides monitoring tools that are tailored to its SaaS nature:

  • Capacity Metrics App: Available from the Fabric Admin Portal, this Power BI app helps track usage patterns across capacities and workspaces. It is essential for identifying performance bottlenecks and cost drivers. Learn more
  • Activity Logs: Every action taken within a workspace (such as creating or deleting a Lakehouse or Notebook) is logged and can be analyzed using the Microsoft Fabric Activity Log.
  • Performance Dashboard: A live dashboard showing usage and performance data. It is particularly useful in multi-capacity environments to detect noisy neighbors and optimize allocation.

Consider integrating Fabric's telemetry endpoints with Azure Monitor or Microsoft Sentinel for end-to-end observability across your cloud estate.

Report Usage Tracking in Power BI​

Power BI bietet integrierte Funktionen zur Überwachung der Berichtsverwendung. Diese ermöglichen es Fabric-Administratoren und Workspace-Ownern, nachzuvollziehen, welche Berichte wann und von wem genutzt wurden.

Die Berichtsverwendung kann über den Bereich "Berichtsnutzung" innerhalb eines Reports im Power BI Service eingesehen werden. Alternativ lässt sich im Power BI Admin Portal über "Usage Metrics" ein standardisierter Bericht generieren.

Diese Informationen sind nützlich für:

  • die Identifikation ungenutzter Berichte (zur Archivierung oder Löschung),
  • das Monitoring der Berichtsreichweite (wer verwendet welche Insights?),
  • die Priorisierung bei der Weiterentwicklung von Inhalten.

Mehr dazu hier: Verwendungsmetriken in Power BI

Fabric-specific Security Monitoring​

Fabric integrates with Microsoft Defender for Cloud to provide baseline security posture management, particularly in terms of identity access and data flows. Consider enabling Defender integration across your Azure tenant and linking it with Fabric capacities via Azure Policy and Entra ID settings.

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