This tutorial will cover how you can create beautiful custom reports and analytics in Power BI Desktop using the Domotz custom connector. Learn how to use the Power BI API and Domotz network monitoring system to create custom reports on speed tests, RTD information, SNMP sensor charts, network and device status and more.
Introduction to using the Power BI API and the Domotz connector
Power BI is a business analytics tool by Microsoft. It helps access data from hundreds of sources (Dynamics 365, Salesforce, Azure SQL DB, Excel, SharePoint and more). With Power BI you can transform and clean the data into a data model and create charts or graphs to provide visuals of the data.
Power BI integrates seamlessly with existing applications so that organizations can create personalized dashboards starting from data aggregated through different sources. The technical skills required to create dashboards and reports on those data, including the data coming from the Domotz platform are minimal: no specialized technical support is required. On the other hand, a powerful natural language interface and the use of an intuitive graphical designer tool make the platform very easy to be used.
In this way, practically anyone in the organization can easily create and securely publish business-related reports to the rest of the organization. Starting from today, these reports can also include data coming from the Domotz platform.
The Domotz custom connector allows you to gather data from the Domotz public API and create visually rich reports.
Download the Domotz connector to get started with Power BI and Domotz.
What kind of reports can you create using the API?
Basically, everything that can be obtained through the Domotz Public API can be included in a Power BI.
This means reports can include speed tests, round trip delay information and SNMP sensors charts. You can also create reports on the status of networks and devices over time. For instance, you could create a timeline of up/down events for the network.
How to install the Domotz connecter for Power BI
First, you need to enable support for custom connectors. Create a folder with the following path (if it does not exist): \User\Documents\Microsoft Power BI Desktop\Custom Connectors and copy the file domotz.mez there.
Start Power BI Desktop and from Options → Security → Data Extensions select Allow any extension to load without validation or warning.
Then when you select Get data you will find the Domotz (Beta) extension.
To complete the configuration you will need to provide the API Endpoint and API Key (obtained from the Domotz Portal, under Settings -> API Keys).
When the configuration is complete you will have access to a subset of (read-only) endpoints of the Domotz Public API. Keep in mind that some data might require some transformation (expanding nested objects, data conversion) before being usable from Power BI visualization tools.
In the following image, you can see a visualization example of data obtained from the Public API. The example includes the agents’ list (on a map) with their status, and two charts for network speed and device round trip delay.
In this tutorial, we’ve covered how to install and use the Domotz Custom Connector for the Power BI API.
With little effort you can create beautiful custom reports and analytics based on the data Domotz collects for you.
Further reading:
