What is Power BI administration

Power BI administration is the management of the organization-wide settings that control how Power BI works. Users that are assigned to admin roles configure, monitor, and provision organizational resources. This article provides an overview of administration roles, tasks, and tools to help you get started.

Administrator roles related to Power BI

There are several roles that work together to administer Power BI for your organization. Most admin roles are assigned in the Microsoft 365 admin center or by using PowerShell. The Power BI Premium Capacity and Power BI Embedded Capacity admin roles are assigned when the capacity is created. To learn more about each of the admin roles, see About admin roles. To learn how to assign admin roles, see Assign admin roles.

Type of administrator	Administrative scope	Power BI tasks
Global admin	Microsoft 365	Has unlimited access to all management features for the organization
		Assigns roles to other users
Billing admin	Microsoft 365	Manage subscriptions
		Purchase licenses
License admin	Microsoft 365	Assign or remove licenses for users
User admin	Microsoft 365	Create and manage users and groups
		Reset user passwords
Power Platform admin	Power Platform	Full access to Power BI management tasks
		Enable and disable Power BI features
		Report on usage and performance
		Review and manage auditing
Power BI admin	Power BI service	Full access to Power BI management tasks
		Enable and disable Power BI features
		Report on usage and performance
		Review and manage auditing
Power BI Premium Capacity admin	A single Premium capacity	Assign workspaces to the capacity
		Manage user permission to the capacity
		Manage workloads to configure memory usage
		Restart the capacity
Power BI Embedded Capacity admin	A single Embedded capacity	Assign workspaces to the capacity
		Manage user permission to the capacity
		Manage workloads to configure memory usage
		Restart the capacity

Administrative tasks and tools

Power BI admins work mostly in the Power BI admin portal. You should, however, be familiar with related tools and admin centers. Look at the table above to determine which role is required to do tasks using the tools listed here.

Tool	Typical tasks
Power BI Admin portal	Acquire and work with Premium capacity
	Ensure quality of service
	Manage workspaces
	Publish Power BI visuals
	Verify codes used to embed Power BI in other applications
	Troubleshoot data access and other issues
Microsoft 365 admin center	Manage users and groups
	Purchase and assign licenses
	Block users from accessing Power BI
Microsoft 365 Security & Compliance Center	Review and manage auditing
	Data classification and tracking
	Data loss prevention policies
	Information governance
Azure Active Directory in the Azure portal	Configure conditional access to Power BI resources
	Provision Power BI Embedded capacity
PowerShell cmdlets	Manage workspaces and other aspects of Power BI through scripts
Administrative APIs and SDK	Build custom admin tools. For example, Power BI Desktop can use these APIs to build reports based on data related to administration.

Next steps

Now that you know the basics of what’s involved with Power BI administration, consult these articles to learn more:

• Use the Power BI admin portal
• Tenant settings guidance
• Use PowerShell cmdlets
• Power BI administration FAQ
• Licensing the Power BI service for users in your organization
• Questions? Try asking the Power BI Community
• Suggestions? Contribute ideas to improve Power BI