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Configure Data Explorer dashboard

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Azure Data Explorer is a fast and highly scalable data exploration service. You can explore data in the Azure Data Explorer web application by running queries or building dashboards. A dashboard is a collection of queries visualized as tiles and organized into pages. The FinOps toolkit provides a custom dashboard with pages design to facilitate FinOps capabilities. This article walks you through the process of deploying and configuring this dashboard.


Prerequisites

Before you begin, you must have:

  • Deployed a FinOps hub instance with Data Explorer.
  • Configured scopes and ingested data successfully.
  • Database viewer or greater access to the Data Explorer Hub and Ingestion databases. For details, see Database level security role.
    • Option 1:
      1. Open the Data Explorer cluster in the Azure portal.
      2. In the menu, select Data > Databases.
      3. Select the Hub database.
      4. In the menu, select Overview > Permissions.
      5. Select the Add command, then the desired security role. Viewer is the least-privileged role.
      6. Select the desired users, groups, and applications, then select the Select button.
      7. Repeat steps 3-6 for the Ingestion database.
    • Option 2:

      1. Open the Data Explorer cluster in the Azure portal.

      2. In the menu, select Data > Query.

      3. Use the following commands to add users, groups, and applications as needed. For more information, see Database level security role.

        .add database Hub viewers ('aaduser=<email>', 'aadGroup=<group-id>', 'aadapp=<app-id>;<tenant-id-or-domain>')

.add database Ingestion viewers ('aaduser=<email>', 'aadGroup=<group-id>', 'aadapp=<app-id>;<tenant-id-or-domain>')

This walkthrough does not incur any cost; however, maintaining an active Data Explorer cluster does incur cost.


Deploying the dashboard

  1. Download the latest dashboard template.
  2. Copy the Data Explorer cluster URI:
    1. Go to the list of resource groups in the Azure portal.
    2. Select the resource group where your FinOps hub instance was deployed.
    3. Select Settings > Deployments > hub > Outputs.
    4. Copy the clusterUri output value.
  3. Create a dashboard from the template:
    1. Go to Azure Data Explorer dashboards.
    2. Select the down arrow next to the New dashboard button.
      Screenshot of the new dashboard menu with an Import dashboard from file menu item.
    3. Select the Import dashboard from file option.
    4. Browse to and select the finops-hub-dashboard.json file from step one.
    5. Specify the desired name and select Create.
  4. Connect the dashboard to your cluster:
    1. At the top of the page, select Data sources.
    2. In the pane on the right, select the pencil under Hub.
    3. Paste the Cluster URI from step 2.4.
    4. Select the Connect button and then select the Hub database.
    5. Select Apply and then Close.

You can now explore the FinOps hub dashboard. Data Explorer dashboards are only accessible to the person who creates them by default. And access to the data is controlled at the database level, so access to a dashboard does not grant access to the underlying data. Be sure to share access to the dashboard and the Hub and Ingestion databases in order for people to see the functional dashboard.


Customizing the dashboard

The FinOps hub dashboard is a sample dashboard that is intended to be customized. We encourage you to customize the dashboard to meet specific stakeholder needs and copy queries to other dashboards. To learn more about creating and customizing dashboards, see Visualize data with Azure Data Explorer dashboards.

Note that customized dashboards can't be merged from the Data Explorer dashboard editor. If you need to customize the dashboard, consider using Git or another source control solution.


Alternatives to Data Explorer dashboards

While Data Explorer dashboards are free and simple to configure, you may have requirements that necessitate another reporting solution. Some examples might be bringing in data outside of Data Explorer or merging with existing reports used by stakeholders across the organization. We recommend everyone deploy the FinOps hub dashboard, but if you need other options, consider utilizing the FinOps toolkit Power BI reports.

The KQL reports are tuned to take advantage of the performance enhancements offered by Azure Data Explorer. This is the fastest, most scalable option for organizations analyzing over $2 million per month in spend or more than one year of data in Power BI.

You may also consider using Azure workbooks in the Azure portal or utilizing other tools that support connecting to Azure Data Explorer, like Excel, Grafana, and Tableau. To learn more about these and other tools that support Azure Data Explorer, see Visualization integrations overview.


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