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Introduction

MetaMiner Administrator (MMA) is the Windows desktop application you use to configure the MetaMiner Server (MMS), its Power BI environments, the MetaMiner Database (MMDB) and server-wide settings.

How it works

MMA runs on the MetaMiner Server machine and edits the same configuration the server reads. Most changes do not need the server to be running: you can add environments, change settings and configure the database while the metaminer service is stopped.

flowchart LR
  MMA[MetaMiner Administrator] -->|save| MMS[MetaMiner Server]
  MMA -->|save when MMS is stopped| CFG[(server\config\config.json)]
  MMS --> CFG
  MMA -->|start / stop| SVC[Windows services]
  MMA -->|validate| MS[Microsoft Entra ID, Power BI, Fabric, Graph]
  MMS --> MMDB[(MMDB)]

When you save a change, MMA first hands it to the running MMS, which applies and stores it. If MMS is not running, MMA writes server\config\config.json itself. If MMS refuses a change, MMA shows the error and writes nothing, so the file and the running server never disagree.

When you validate a Power BI environment, MMA itself calls Microsoft Entra ID and the Power BI, Fabric and Microsoft Graph APIs from the MetaMiner Server machine. Validation details are therefore written to admin.log, not server.log.

Closing MMA waits for the last save

When you quit, MMA waits until the last change is stored. If the save fails, MMA asks whether to exit without saving or to stay open.

Start MMA

  1. Sign in to the MetaMiner Server machine with a Windows account that is a local administrator.
  2. Open the Windows Start menu entry MetaMiner Admin, or run MetaMinerAdmin.exe from the server folder of the installation, for example C:\Program Files\Infolytik\MetaMiner\server\.
  3. If the configuration is encrypted, enter the configuration password.

On the first start after installation MMA asks for a license file if none is configured.

Run as administrator

MMA starts and stops Windows services and updates the metaminer service command line. Without administrator rights these actions fail with "Access is denied. Run MetaMiner Admin as Administrator."

Image of the MMA main window with one Power BI environment and the server running

../images/admin/mma-introduction.png

What MMA manages

Area Where in MMA Page
Power BI environments (tenants) BI Environments table Add an Environment
Server start and stop Start Server / Stop Server button Start and Stop the Server
Server health Health indicator in the main window Server Health Indicator
MetaMiner Database Configure MMDB MMDB Overview
Server-wide settings Preferences > Settings... Settings Overview
Logs and diagnostics File menu Log Bundle for Support
Users, roles, Power BI SSO, configuration encryption Security menu User-Based Security
License License section Apply a License Key

Key terms

Term Meaning
Environment One connected Microsoft Fabric / Power BI tenant, reached through one service principal
Service principal The Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) app registration MetaMiner signs in with
Collector A background task in MMS that reads one kind of data from Microsoft, for example activity events or workspace scans
config.json The server configuration file in server\config\ that MMA edits
MMDB The PostgreSQL database where MetaMiner stores collected metadata