MetaMiner Client

The MetaMiner Client (MMC) is the desktop application for browsing, analyzing and managing your Microsoft Fabric and Power BI tenant metadata through the MetaMiner Server (MMS). This chapter covers every Power BI feature of the client.

Which tabs you see depends on your license, your MetaMiner role and the environments you load. The table below lists every tab a Power BI user can see.

Tabs and when they show

Tab	Shown when	Page
Power BI Explorer	Power BI is enabled on the MetaMiner Server and you load at least one Power BI environment	Power BI Explorer
Power BI Backup	Same as Power BI Explorer	The Power BI Backup Tab
Entra Users/Groups	Same as Power BI Explorer, and your role grants Tenant Admin in at least one loaded Power BI environment	Entra Users and Groups
Meta Query	Your license edition includes Meta Query, and your role grants Tab: Meta Query in every loaded environment	Meta Query
Alerts	Your license edition includes alerting, and your role grants Tab: Alerts in every loaded environment	Not covered on this site

Some windows open as extra, closable tabs from a context menu: Power BI IA (impact analysis), the security matrix, and copies of the explorer made with Open in New Tab.

When MetaMiner user security is off on the server, every permission is granted. See User-Based Security and Permissions Reference.

TODO: confirm the customer-facing description of the Alerts tab for Power BI-only installations

The tab can appear with Tab: Alerts. Product team to confirm whether it should be documented or hidden for Power BI-only installations.

Basics

• Introduction

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  What the client does for Power BI, how it gets its data, and what needs extra setup.

• Connect to a Server

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  Connection Manager, MetaMiner sign-in, Microsoft sign-in, loading progress.

• Main Window Tour

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  Menus, tabs, status bar.

• Filters and Search

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  Quick search, Strict mode, the filter pane.

• Toolbar and Export

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  Tree navigation, selection drop-down, export to CSV, Excel and a Fabric lakehouse.

• Refresh and Background Tasks

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  F5 reload, Force On Demand Pull, Run in Background, Task History.

• Preferences and Shortcuts

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  Every preference with its default, keyboard shortcuts, client files.

Power BI Explorer

• Overview

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  The tree of environments, workspaces, apps, reports, dashboards, semantic models, dataflows and Fabric items.

• Tree and Filters

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  Columns, filter panes and workspace options of the Power BI Explorer.

• Object Actions

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  Every right-click action and the permission it needs.

• Export PBIX Files

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  Download reports as .pbix files in a ZIP archive.

• Manage Workspace Access

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  List, add, change and remove workspace members from the client.

• Restore Deleted Workspaces

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  Bring back a workspace that was deleted in Power BI.

Analysis

• Impact Analysis

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  Follow dependencies from a workspace, report, semantic model or data source in a graph.

• Security Matrix

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  Who has which access to the selected items, including access inherited through groups.

• Entra Users and Groups

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  Group hierarchy, users by group, user profiles, effective access and group blast radius.

• Licenses

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  License assignments by SKU, direct or through groups, and licensed users with no activity.

• Meta Query

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  Run SQL against the MetaMiner Database, including the pbi schema.

Chapter status

• index.md - Alerts tab wording for Power BI-only installations.
• connect.md - Host and Version column values for Power BI environments; screenshots of the Microsoft sign-in dialogs.
• export-pbix.md - Microsoft limits on report download to link or summarize.
• manage-access.md, restore-deleted-workspaces.md - confirm the delegated permission list against the final app registration guide.
• licenses.md - confirm the meaning of the Assigned, Total and Available counts against Microsoft Graph documentation.
• All pages - screenshots.