How to Refresh Power BI Reports from Azure Data Factory (ADF)

Automating your Power BI dataset refresh can save time and ensure your reports always stay up to date. In this post, we’ll walk through how to trigger a Power BI report refresh directly from Azure Data Factory (ADF) using an App Registration in Azure Entra ID.

Phase 1: Register an Application in Azure

Step 1: Go to the Azure Portal.
Step 2: Navigate to Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory).

Step 3: Click the Add button and select App Registration.

Step 4: Enter a name for your application and click Create.
Step 5: After creation, note the following values from the overview page:

• Application (Client) ID
• Directory (Tenant) ID

You’ll need these later in ADF.

Phase 2: Create a Client Secret

Step 6: From the application’s overview page, go to Certificates & Secrets.
Step 7: Click New Client Secret.
Step 8: Enter a description (e.g., ADF Power BI Refresh Secret) and click Add.
Step 9: Copy the Secret Value and store it securely , you won’t be able to retrieve it again after leaving the page.

Phase 3: Grant Power BI API Permissions

Step 10: In the same application, go to API Permissions.
Step 11: Click Add a Permission → APIs my organization uses.
Step 12: Search for Power BI Service and select it.
Step 13: Choose Application Permissions.
Step 14: Select the available checkboxes for Power BI permissions, then click Add Permissions.

Once granted, you’re done with the Azure app setup!

Phase 4: Build the ADF Pipeline

Step 15: Open Azure Data Factory.
Step 16: In the Author section, click the + icon → Pipeline → Pipeline.
Step 17: Name your pipeline: Power BI Report Refresh.

Create Variables

Create three variables in ADF to store your app credentials:

• ClientID
• ClientSecret
• TenantID

Populate them with the values you noted earlier.

Step 18: Get the Access Token

Step 18: Drag and drop a Web Activity and name it AccessToken.

Settings:

• URL:

@concat(‘https://login.microsoftonline.com/’, variables(‘TenantID’), ‘/oauth2/v2.0/token’)

• Method: POST
• Body:

@concat(

‘grant_type=client_credentials&client_id=’,

variables(‘ClientID’),

‘&client_secret=’,

variables(‘ClientSecret’),

‘&scope=https://analysis.windows.net/powerbi/api/.default’

)

• Headers:
  • Name: Content-Type
  • Value: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

Step 19: Trigger the Power BI Refresh

Step 19: Drag another Web Activity into the pipeline and name it PBI Dataset Refresh.
Connect it to the AccessToken activity.

Settings:

• URL:

@concat(

 ‘https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/groups/’,

 ‘<Workspace ID>’,

 ‘/datasets/’,

 ‘<Dataset ID>’,

‘/refreshes’

)

• Method: POST
• Body:{}
• Headers:
  • Name: Authorization
  • Value: @{concat(‘Bearer ‘, activity(‘AccessToken’).output.access_token)}
  • Name: Content-Type
  • Value: application/json
  • Name: Accept
  • Value: application/json

Step 20: Test the Pipeline

Click Debug to test your pipeline.
If everything is set up correctly, the pipeline will call the Power BI REST API and trigger a dataset refresh in your specified workspace.

Conclusion

You’ve now successfully automated Power BI dataset refresh directly from Azure Data Factory! This integration is perfect for end-to-end data workflows, for instance, after your data transformations are complete, you can automatically trigger Power BI to refresh reports, keeping everything synchronized without manual intervention