SummitView

Agent Installation Guide

The SummitView Agent is a lightweight Windows application that connects to your Power BI environment and sends monitoring data to SummitView.

Overview

The SummitView Agent runs on a Windows machine in your environment and connects to Power BI on your behalf. It collects metadata only — refresh timing, workspace inventory, row counts, and schema information — and sends it securely to SummitView via HTTPS.

Security: The agent never accesses your actual report data, business information, or row-level data. Only performance metadata is collected.

What the Agent provides

  • Reliable refresh status for all workspace types (Pro, PPU, Fabric)
  • Per-table refresh timing for PPU/Premium/Fabric workspaces
  • Row count tracking with anomaly detection
  • Schema change monitoring (tables, columns added or removed)
  • Processing timeline visualization showing parallel/sequential table processing

System Requirements

Operating System

  • Windows 10 or later
  • Windows Server 2016 or later
  • .NET 6.0 Runtime (included in the download)

Power BI

  • Power BI Pro, Premium Per User (PPU), or Fabric capacity
  • For per-table timing: PPU, Premium, or Fabric with XMLA read/write endpoint enabled
  • Contributor access (minimum) to the workspaces you want to monitor

Network

  • Outbound HTTPS (port 443) to *.analysis.windows.net (Power BI XMLA endpoints)
  • Outbound HTTPS (port 443) to summitview.app (SummitView cloud API)

Authentication

  • Azure AD (Microsoft Entra ID) account with Power BI access
  • For usage analytics and capacity metrics: the signed-in user must have the Power BI Admin role

See full requirements for details.

Installation Steps

  1. 1

    Download the Agent

    Download SummitView Agent v0.1.19 (11 MB) from your onboarding page or the agent settings.

  2. 2

    Extract the ZIP

    Extract SummitViewAgent-v0.1.19.zip to a folder on your Windows machine, for example C:\SummitView\.

  3. 3

    Run the Agent

    Double-click SummitView.Agent.exe. On first launch, a console window will appear showing the agent startup banner.

    Windows SmartScreen: You may see a "Windows protected your PC" warning. Click More info then Run anyway to proceed.
  4. 4

    Sign In

    The agent will prompt you to sign in with your Microsoft work account. A browser window will open for authentication. See the Sign In section below for details.

  5. 5

    Automatic Registration

    Once signed in, the agent automatically registers with SummitView and begins discovering your Power BI workspaces. You'll see it appear on your Agents page within seconds.

Sign In & Authentication

The agent uses Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) authentication with delegated permissions. This means the agent acts on behalf of the signed-in user.

How sign-in works

  1. The agent opens a browser window to the Microsoft sign-in page
  2. You sign in with your work or school account that has Power BI access
  3. You consent to the permissions the agent needs
  4. The browser confirms success, and you can close it
  5. The agent securely caches the token for subsequent runs

Token caching

The agent stores authentication tokens securely at:

%LocalAppData%\SummitView\summitview_token_cache.bin

Tokens are refreshed automatically. You only need to sign in once unless you explicitly clear the cache.

Re-authentication

If you need to sign in with a different account or force a fresh login, run:

SummitView.Agent.exe --reauthenticate

Permissions & Admin Consent

The agent uses three tiers of permissions. You can start with Tier 1 and grant additional permissions later — the agent will automatically pick them up.

Tier 1: Basic Monitoring (No Admin Consent)

  • Dataset.Read.All — Read datasets and semantic models
  • Workspace.Read.All — List and access workspaces
  • Dataflow.Read.All — Read dataflows and refresh history

Provides: refresh monitoring, inventory sync, per-table timing

Tier 2: Usage Analytics (Admin Consent Required)

  • Tenant.Read.All — Access tenant-wide activity and usage data

Requires: Power BI Admin role for the signed-in user + admin consent in Azure AD

Tier 3: Capacity Monitoring (Admin Consent Required)

  • Capacity.Read.All — Read capacity metrics for Fabric/Premium

Requires: admin consent in Azure AD + Fabric or Premium capacity

Automatic Permission Recovery

You can install the agent first and grant admin consent later. The agent automatically detects newly granted permissions every 15 minutes — no reinstall or cache clearing required.

Granting Admin Consent

  1. Go to Azure Portal → Entra ID → Enterprise Applications
  2. Find the "SummitView Agent" application
  3. Go to Permissions → Grant admin consent
  4. The agent will automatically pick up the new permissions within 15 minutes

Configuration

The agent is configured via appsettings.json in the installation folder. Most settings work out of the box.

{
  "SummitView": {
    "ApiBaseUrl": "https://summitview.app"
  },
  "AzureAd": {
    "AuthMode": "Delegated",
    "TenantId": "common"
  },
  "Monitoring": {
    "AutoDiscoverWorkspaces": true,
    "ExcludeWorkspaces": [],
    "WorkspaceDiscoveryIntervalMinutes": 60,
    "PollIntervalSeconds": 30,
    "CollectRowCounts": true,
    "CollectFreshness": true
  }
}

Key settings

SettingDefaultDescription
AutoDiscoverWorkspacestrueAutomatically find all workspaces the user has access to
ExcludeWorkspaces[]List of workspace IDs to exclude from monitoring
PollIntervalSeconds30How often to check for new refreshes
CollectRowCountstrueTrack row counts per table after refresh
CollectFreshnesstrueMonitor data freshness (max date columns)

Auto-generated credentials

After first registration, the agent creates appsettings.local.json with your AgentId and API key. Do not delete this file — the agent needs it to authenticate with SummitView.

Running as a Windows Service

For production use, you can run the agent as a Windows Service so it starts automatically and runs in the background.

Install the service

sc create SummitViewAgent binPath= "C:\SummitView\SummitView.Agent.exe" start= auto
sc start SummitViewAgent

Remove the service

sc stop SummitViewAgent
sc delete SummitViewAgent
Note: When running as a service, you must authenticate once interactively (run the exe manually) before installing the service, so the token cache is populated. The service will use the cached token for subsequent runs.

What Data is Collected

Collected (metadata only)

  • Workspace names, IDs, capacity info
  • Dataset names, IDs, refresh timestamps, duration
  • Table names, row counts, schema structure
  • Report names, IDs, types
  • Refresh status (success/failure) and error messages
  • Per-table processing times (PPU/Fabric)
  • Activity events: report views, dataset refreshes
  • Gateway names and datasource connections

Never Collected

  • Actual report data or business information
  • User passwords or credentials
  • Report content or visuals
  • Row-level data from tables
  • DAX queries or results
  • Sensitive business metrics

Updating the Agent

  1. Download the latest version from your agent settings
  2. Stop the running agent (close the console window or stop the service)
  3. Extract the new ZIP to the same folder, overwriting existing files
  4. Start the agent again — it will use the existing appsettings.local.json credentials

Your AgentId and token cache persist across updates. No re-authentication needed.

Troubleshooting Guide →Full Requirements →