How do you connect Power BI to Dataverse?

Required tools

• Power BI Desktop — Free, and runs on Windows. The connection itself is configured here.
• Access to the Dataverse environment — You must have read access to the tables you want to retrieve.
• Power BI license — Power BI Pro or Premium Per User when the report needs to be shared with others.

Before you start

1. 1.Check that the TDS endpoint is enabled

   The Dataverse connection requires the TDS endpoint setting to be enabled in the environment. If it is disabled, the connection fails without an obvious reason. The setting can be found under the feature settings in the Power Platform admin center, and it typically needs to be enabled by a Power Platform administrator.

2. 2.Check that the port is open

   The connection uses TCP port 1433 by default. If it is blocked on the corporate network, you can use port 5558 instead by appending the port number to the environment address, in the format environmentid.crm.dynamics.com,5558. The error message you receive when the port is blocked refers to SQL Server and almost never to Dataverse, so it is easy to misinterpret.

3. 3.Find the environment URL

   The address has the format environmentid.crm.dynamics.com. You can find it by opening make.powerapps.com, selecting the correct environment in the upper-right corner, and going to Advanced Settings. Copy the root of the address from the tab that opens, without https:// or a trailing slash.

Connect

1. 4.Select Dataverse under Get data

   Open Power BI Desktop, select Get data on the ribbon, and find Dataverse in the list of connectors. Do not select Common Data Service (Legacy)—it is being phased out, and Dataverse is its direct replacement.

2. 5.Sign in with your work account

   The first time you connect to the environment, select Sign in, enter your work account, and then select Connect. The authentication type is Organizational account.

3. 6.Select the tables you need in Navigator

   Navigator displays all the tables in the environment. Select only the ones you actually need. The Dataverse connector retrieves around 500 rows per second, so every unnecessary table adds to the refresh time each time the report runs.

4. 7.Select Import or DirectQuery

   Power BI Desktop asks which data connectivity mode you want to use, and the choice is difficult to change later. Import loads the data into the model and provides fast reports, but the figures are only as current as the latest refresh. DirectQuery queries Dataverse with every click and provides real-time data, but the report becomes slower and puts a load on the environment. Choose Import unless someone actually needs to see changes the moment they happen.

After connection

1. 8.Disable relationship columns if the model is slow

   Dataverse includes columns that reference other tables. This is convenient, but it affects performance and may result in an error message stating that the preview value is too complex to display. In that case, you can turn off Include relationship columns and build the relationships yourself in the model.

2. 9.Assess whether the amount of data has increased since the connection was established

   The Dataverse connector is designed for analyzing moderate amounts of data, not for bulk extraction. When refreshes start taking disproportionately long or time out, that is a sign that you should switch to Azure Synapse Link, which is specifically designed for this purpose.