FAQ¶
Short answers to the questions Power BI and Fabric administrators ask most often about MetaMiner.
Microsoft access¶
Which identity does MetaMiner use to read our tenant?
An app registration (service principal) in Microsoft Entra ID, with a client secret. It reads through the Power BI and Fabric read-only admin APIs and Microsoft Graph. See Register the Application and Microsoft Permissions Overview.
Does MetaMiner need a Fabric administrator account?
Not for collection. The service principal needs the tenant settings that allow service principals to use read-only admin APIs and Fabric APIs, through a security group. A person with the Fabric administrator role is needed for the tenant admin view in the MMC. See Tenant Settings and Tenant Admin View.
Does MetaMiner change anything in Power BI?
Collection is read-only. Content changes only when an MMC user runs an action that changes Power BI, such as managing workspace access or restoring from a backup; those actions use that user's own Microsoft sign-in and permissions. See Security Model.
Which Graph permissions are needed?
User.Read.All, Group.Read.All, GroupMember.Read.All, Application.Read.All and LicenseAssignment.Read.All, or Directory.Read.All instead of all five, as application permissions with admin consent. Validation checks them. See API Permissions.
Can we connect a government cloud tenant?
Yes. Pick the Endpoint Set (US Government, US Government High or US Government Military) in the environment. See Sovereign Clouds.
Can we connect the same tenant twice?
No. Each tenant is configured in one Power BI environment; the MMA refuses a second one. A second environment on the same tenant would also share Microsoft's per-tenant API limits.
Will MetaMiner's calls show up in our activity log?
Yes. The scanner and admin API calls appear as activity of MetaMiner's service principal. The usage dashboards label it MetaMiner SP / MM Scanner so you can tell it apart.
Collection and data¶
How often does MetaMiner collect?
Each collector has its own cadence: changed workspaces every 5 minutes, activity and refresh history every 10 minutes, Entra users and groups every 30 minutes, capacity metrics hourly, Fabric items and definitions every 3 hours, the full workspace list daily. See Collection Processors.
How far back does activity history go?
About 28 days before the first collection, because Microsoft keeps the activity log for about 30 days. From then on MetaMiner keeps activity events for 104 weeks by default. See Data Freshness.
Why is a new workspace not shown yet?
It appears after MetaMiner sees it (within 5 minutes if it changed, otherwise at the daily workspace list), scans it, and rebuilds the MMC view (every 10 minutes). See Collection Problems.
What happens when Microsoft throttles MetaMiner?
The throttled collector waits as long as Microsoft asks and then continues; the others keep running. Nothing is lost. See Collection Problems.
What happens to collection when the service restarts?
Collectors resume from the progress saved in the MetaMiner Database. Nothing needs to be reset.
Usage dashboards¶
Where are the usage dashboards?
At https://<mms-host>:<port>/web/pbiusage/, or File > Launch Power BI Usage... in the MMC. They are on by default. See Enable the Dashboards.
Who can open the dashboards?
Anyone who can reach the MMS port; the dashboards do not ask for a sign-in. Restrict the port in your firewall and turn on MMS SSL. See Scope and Sign-In.
Why does a panel say "Analytics data is being prepared for first use."?
The rollup job has not finished its first run. It runs every 5 minutes; the licence figures every 6 hours. See Data Freshness.
Are the dollar figures our real costs?
No. They are estimates from list prices you configure. See Users and Licenses and Executive.
Why does the Capacity page stay empty?
It needs the Fabric Capacity Metrics app and its semantic model configured in the environment. See Capacity Metrics.
Installation, upgrade and operation¶
Which database does Power BI need?
PostgreSQL 16 or newer for the MetaMiner Database. The embedded MMDB meets this. See Choose the MetaMiner Database.
Do the installers start MetaMiner?
No. Neither the full nor the update installer starts the services or the MetaMiner Database. Start MetaMiner from the MMA after the installer finishes. See Start and Stop the Server.
Must the MetaMiner Client and Server be the same version?
Yes. The MMC refuses to connect to a server from a different release. See Client Connection Problems.
Which port do clients and browsers need?
TCP 49714 to the MetaMiner server, unless you changed it. See Ports and Endpoints.
Do I need to restart after changing a setting?
Changes to a Power BI environment and to MetaMinerServer.properties need a restart of the MetaMiner Server. Dashboard switches and web.apps.pbiusage.* settings apply without one. See Server Properties.
Are the passwords in the configuration protected?
Client secrets and passwords in config.json are stored encrypted. Restrict access to the server\config\ folder to administrators. See Secrets and Configuration Encryption.
Our client secret expires soon. What do we do?
Create a new secret on the app registration, enter it in the environment in the MMA, validate, and restart the MetaMiner Server. See Client Secret.
Support¶
Where are the log files?
Server logs are in server\logs\; client logs are in %APPDATA%\MetaMiner\logs\. See Log Files.
How do I send logs to Infolytik Support?
In the MMA, choose File > Create Log Bundle... and attach the ZIP to your support request. See Contact Support.