Manual Publish

1. Overview

This section describes how to manually publish Centrify 360 Reports to Power BI Online using Power BI Desktop.
Manual publishing gives you full control over the publish process and is suitable for initial setup or ad-hoc deployments.

Any change to the Semantic Model triggered by a configuration update in Centrify 360 requires a republish of the Semantic Model (Step 1).
Skipping this step will result in reports referencing an outdated model.

2. Step 1: Publish Semantic Model

  • Ensure PowerBI.zip is already extracted.

  • Navigate to PowerBI/SemanticModel.

  • Open SemanticModel.pbip in Power BI Desktop.

  • Refer to Microsoft Docs: Publish from Power BI Desktop for instructions on how to publish the semantic model to your target workspace.

  • Once published, the Semantic Model will be visible in Power BI Online under the selected workspace.

Power BI Online - Published Semantic Model

3. Step 2: Link Modules to Published Model

After publishing the Semantic Model online, all local report modules must be rebound to reference the published model instead of the local one.

  • Navigate to the PowerBI root folder.

  • Run BindReportsToPBIOnline.ps1 in PowerShell with administrator privileges.

  • The script accepts the following parameters:

    • RootPath — The full path to the PowerBI folder where modules exist (example: C:/Centrify360/PowerBI)

    • WorkspaceName — The exact name of the workspace in Power BI Online where the Semantic Model was published

  • The script will prompt for an interactive sign-in to Power BI.

  • Upon completion, the script will confirm that all report bindings were updated successfully.

Power BI Online - Script Binding Completed

4. Step 3: Publish Individual Reports

Once all modules are bound to the published Semantic Model, each report can be published in report-only mode.

  • Open each individual report .pbir file in Power BI Desktop.

  • Verify that the report is already linked to the published Semantic Model — a live connection indicator should appear in the bottom right corner of Power BI Desktop.

Power BI Desktop - Live Connection to Published Model

  • Publish all required reports to the same workspace.

  • In Power BI Online, confirm that all published reports are linked to the single published Semantic Model, ensuring consistent data across all reports.

Power BI Online - Report Linked to Semantic Model

5. Next Steps

After publishing, complete the following configuration tasks in Power BI Online: