How do I display and publish metrics data with Microsoft Power BI? - Part 2

[Daniel.Odievich]

Now that I have downloaded metrics from AppDynamics’ Metrics and Snapshots API and converted them into a useful Microsoft Power BI data source, how do I visualize and publish that data?

Part 2 of 2

In Part 1 of this series, we retrieved the metric data from AppDynamics REST API, and then converted JSON into a table in Power Query Editor. In this article (Part 2), we will add visualizations to that table and publish the results to Power BI Online.

In this article...

Visualize the Data in Power BI

• Build the line graph visualization
• Experiment with updating of the query parameters
• Change Application Parameter
• Change Metric Path Parameter

Publishing your report to Power BI Online

• Power BI Online Settings for publication
• Updating the report in Power BI
• Settings for an automatic refresh
• Refresh your report in Power BI Online

Resources

Visualize The Data in Power BI

Build the line graph visualization

1. In Visual Designer, insert new Line Chart visual from the Visualizations pane
   
   
2. Resize the visual to your desired shape
   
   
3. Add the value field to Values property of Line Chart visual
   
   
4. Add EventTime field to Axis property of Line Chart visual
   
   
5. Click on the down-pointing arrow on EventTime in Axis property of Line Chart visual and change selection to EventTime
   
   The Results should look like this:
   Power BI Visual Designer: building the line graph visualization

You can adjust visualization properties on the Format section of the Line Chart visual to move Legend.

Congratulations, your visualizations are now complete.

Experiment with updating of the query parameters

You can now experiment with changing of APM Application, Metric Path, and Time Range

1. Click the Home\Queries\Transform Data\Edit Parameters button on the ribbon
   
   
2. Adjust the parameters as needed:
   Power BI Visual Designer: Modify parameters as needed
3. Click Apply Changes on the Pending Changes gold bar or click Home\Queries\Refresh to retrieve data from API call again

Change Application Parameter

The application ID can either be the name or the ID of an application. You can retrieve the application ID from the URL of your browser, or from Application Model API. 

For example, here is the use of ApplicationID:

Change Metric Path Parameter

You can change Metric Path to use any explicit or wildcard metric path (See Metric and Snapshot API, Using Wildcards). 
In Edit Parameters, adjust the MetricPath field as needed

The results of this should look like this for all Tiers:
MetricPath Parameter change results - Tiers

Or like this for Backends:
Changed MetricPath parameter results - Backends

Examples of relevant Metric Path wildcards

Metric	Purpose
Overall Application Performance|Calls per Minute	CPM for entire Application
Overall Application Performance|*|Calls per Minute	CPM for all Tiers in Application
Overall Application Performance|*|*	All metrics for all Tiers in Application
Application Infrastructure Performance|*|Hardware Resources|CPU|%Busy	CPU Usage for All Tiers in Application
Overall Application Performance|*|Individual Nodes|*|Calls per Minute	CPM for all Nodes in all Tiers in Application
Application Infrastructure Performance|*|Individual Nodes|*|Hardware Resources|CPU|%Busy	CPU Usage for all Nodes in all Tiers in Application
Backends|*|Calls per Minute	CPM for all Backends in Application
Business Transaction Performance|Business Transactions|*|*|Calls per Minute	CPM for all Business Transactions in all Tiers in Application
Service Endpoints|*|*|Calls per Minute	CPM for all Service Endpoints in all Tiers in Application
Errors|*|*|Errors per Minute	CPM for all Errors in all Tiers in Application
Information Points|*|Calls per Minute	CPM for all Information Points in Application

Change Time Range Parameter

You can expand the time range by adjusting NumberOfMinutes parameter:
Edit Parameters - time range in minutes

The results should look like this:

Resulting report in browser in PowerBI Online

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Publishing your report to Power BI Online

Microsoft Power BI Online service can display results of the PBIX file in a web browser after you publish. For this to work, your organization must be licensed for Power BI Online, and you must sign into that service with valid credentials from inside Power BI Desktop.

• Power BI Online Settings for publication
• Updating the report in Power BI
• Settings for an automatic refresh
• Refresh your report in Power BI Online

Power BI Online Settings for publication

1. Click Home\Share\Publish button on the ribbon
   
   
2. Specify the Power BI Online workspace from the list of those to which you have permissions
   
   
3. Wait until publish is complete
   
   
   
4. After publishing, you can open your report in the web browser:
   

Updating the report in Power BI

1. If you want to update the report in Power BI Online, you’ll need to specify credentials as described on https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/connect-data/service-parameters in Settings\Datasets\<yourdatasetname>\Data source credentials\Web\Edit credentials
   
   
2. Then, you can update parameters in Settings\Datasets\<yourdatasetname>\Data source credentials\Parameters
   

Settings for an automatic refresh

You can also schedule an automatic refresh using the "Settings\Datasets\<yourdatasetname>\Data source credentials\Scheduled refresh" feature:

Refresh your report in Power BI Online

1. Navigate to the Datasets tab
   
   
2. Click the Actions\Refresh button
   Manual data refresh
   
   
3. Finally, refresh the actual Report using the "Refresh" icon on the ribbon
   

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Resources

Tutorial Part 1: How do I retrieve metrics and so I can display them with Microsoft Power BI? - Part 1

[apm.turkey]

Hi Claudia,

Example link is broken.Can you update link?

I have a question.
In an example application, can I see the output of Avg resp time > 3000ms and call/min < 10 as an operation? Can we plot this according to the response time call min values ​​that I will specify as api?

[Claudia.Landivar]

Hi, @apm.turkey 

Thanks for pointing out that broken link. I'll hunt down an update, as well as an expert to answer your question.

Claudia

[Bill.Anderson]

Is anyone using this? Looks interesting but would like some real world examples. Pluses and minuses compared to Appdynamics custom dashboards?