The Power BI service provides standard usage metrics reports for both dashboards and reports. These reports, which themselves are Power BI reports, provide quick insights to fundamental user adoption questions, such as how often the published content is being viewed and which users are viewing the content the most. These read-only reports can be generated for specific dashboards and reports and can also be personalized (edited) by saving a copy. Once a copy of a usage metrics report has been saved, a Power BI dataset of usage metrics will be created for either all the dashboards or all the reports in the app workspace. The usage metrics datasets, which are updated by the Power BI service for the last 90 days of activity, and the saved usage reports can then serve as a foundation for a lightweight but robust monitoring solution for the app workspace. 

For example, the Global Sales app described in the previous chapter contains several dashboards and reports with some of the reports containing multiple report pages. The following 11-step process and supporting diagram walk through the creation of two usage metrics datasets (dashboards and reports), two usage metrics reports, and a dashboard summarizing usage metrics for the app workspace across dashboards and reports:

1. Access the app workspace in the Power BI service containing the content to monitor:
   • A Power BI Pro license and edit rights to the app workspace are required to access usage metrics data.
2. From the Dashboards page, select the View usage metrics report icon (line chart symbol) under ACTIONS for one of the dashboards, as shown in the following screenshot:

3. Once prompted, click the View usage metrics button on the Usage metrics ready popup textbox:
   • Alternatively, click the View usage metrics report icon again for any of the dashboards in the workspace.

A Power BI report containing usage metrics for the selected dashboard will be displayed, such as the following:

In addition to the slicers and visuals in the preceding screenshot, the usage metrics report page includes visuals for total views, total viewers (users), and views by user table that identifies the User Principal Name (login) and display name of the user.

At this point, usage metrics reports specific to each dashboard in the workspace will be accessible on demand via the View usage metrics report icon.

4. With the usage metrics report opened, click Save as from the File menu dropdown to save a copy of the report:
   • A report named Dashboard Usage Metrics Report - Copy will be saved in the reports group.
   • Additionally, a dataset will be created named Dashboard Usage Metrics Model - Copy.
5. Open the report saved from step 4 and click Edit report.
6. In edit mode, remove the Report level filters that are specific to a single dashboard, as identified in the following screenshot:

7. Create a separate report page that uses the DisplayName column of the Dashboards table to analyze usage of the dashboards within the workspace. 
8. Save the modifications from the file menu dropdown (File | Save). 
9. Repeat steps 1 through 8 for a Power BI report in the same app workspace:
   • Use the DisplayName column from the Reports table and the ReportPage column from the Views table to design a usage metrics report for the reports in the workspace.
10. Create a new dashboard named Usage Metrics.
11. Pin report visuals from both the dashboard usage metrics report and the report usage metrics report to the Usage Metrics dashboard:
    • By default, the included in app property will be disabled for usage metrics reports, and the dashboard containing visuals from the usage metrics reports.

At this point, the workspace will include one usage metrics report for dashboards, one for reports, and two Power BI datasets supporting these usage reports, as shown in the following screenshot:

Via the Create report action icons (chart symbol) included in the preceding screenshot, additional usage reports can be created in the Power BI service. Additionally, new reports can be created in Power BI Desktop by connecting to either of these two datasets, as described in the Live connections to Power BI datasets section of Chapter 5, Creating and Formatting Power BI Reports.

Excluding any new reports or dashboards, the monitoring solution for the Global Sales workspace is structured as follows:

Depending on the importance and size of the workspace, more reports and dashboards can be created to provide further insight into the adoption of the content. For example, the usage metric reporting may indicate that only one or two reports of an app workspace are being utilized, or that one particular report page of a report is most important to users. The BI team can use this information to engage with business stakeholders to better understand the reasoning behind the usage patterns reported. 

The usage metrics data includes both Power BI Pro and Power BI Free users. For example, this includes Power BI Pro users who are members of the app workspace with edit rights to the content, as well as Power BI Free users who only access the content via a Power BI app. A DistributionMethod table in both the dashboard and report usage metrics datasets contains a Name field, which identifies how the user obtained access to view the specific item. This access will be one of the following three methods—as a member of the app workspace, as a recipient of a shared dashboard or report, or by installing an app.

Although very useful for app workspaces that support many users or important scenarios (such as executive dashboards), usage metrics reports are ultimately limited to individual workspaces. Additionally, the usage metrics don't include other activities of interest to administrators, such as when the newly scheduled refresh is configured or when a data source from a gateway is removed. A more comprehensive monitoring dataset inclusive of all app workspaces and all Power BI activities is available via the Office 365 audit logs for Power BI, as described in the following section.