Microsoft Power BI

Visualize your time series data from InfluxDB 3 directly in Microsoft Power BI.

The InfluxDB 3 Power BI Connector allows you to use DirectQuery to run SQL queries against your InfluxDB databases and load the results into Power BI Desktop for visualization and analysis. The connector uses the high-performance Arrow Flight SQL ODBC driver to efficiently retrieve your data.

Prerequisites

• Microsoft Power BI Desktop installed on a Windows machine
• A running instance of InfluxDB 3.0 (Core, Enterprise, or Cloud)
• An InfluxDB Host URL, Database Name, and read-permission API Token

Setup and Configuration

Follow these steps to connect Power BI to InfluxDB.

1. Install the Arrow Flight SQL ODBC Driver Open PowerShell and run the following commands to download, trust, and install the latest driver. Make sure to replace <YOUR USER> with your Windows username. PowerShell

   # 1) Download the driver
   Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://download.dremio.com/arrow-flight-sql-odbc-driver/arrow-flight-sql-odbc-LATEST-win64.msi" `
     -OutFile "C:\Users\<YOUR USER>\Downloads\arrow-flight-sql-odbc-win64.msi"
   
   # 2) Mark the file as trusted
   Unblock-File "C:\Users\<YOUR USER>\Downloads\arrow-flight-sql-odbc-win64.msi"
   
   # 3) Run the installer
   Start-Process msiexec.exe -Wait -ArgumentList '/i "C:\Users\<YOUR USER>\Downloads\arrow-flight-sql-odbc-win64.msi"'
   

   Follow the prompts in the installation wizard, using the default settings.
2. Install the Power BI Connector
   1. Download the InfluxDB Power BI connector (.pqx file).
   2. Place the .pqx file into the Power BI Custom Connectors folder. If the folders don't exist, create them. The path is: [Documents]\Microsoft Power BI Desktop\Custom Connectors.
   3. In Power BI Desktop, go to Options and settings > Options.
   4. Navigate to Security, and under Data Extensions, select the option to "(Not Recommended) Allow any extension to load without validation or warning".
   5. Restart Power BI Desktop for the changes to take effect and enable the custom connector.
3. Connect to and Query InfluxDB
   1. In Power BI, select Get Data from the Home page. Search for and select the InfluxDB 3.0 connector.
   2. Enter your connection details. For a local Docker instance, the server might be http://localhost and the port might be 8181.
   3. Enter a Native Query to select your data.
      Important: To manage data volume, always filter your query with a WHERE clause on a time range or use a LIMIT clause.
   4. SQL

      SELECT *
              FROM <my table>
              WHERE time > now() - interval '1 hour'
              LIMIT 1000;

   5. When prompted for Data Connectivity mode, select DirectQuery.
   6. On the next screen, enter your InfluxDB API Token to authenticate.
   7. Click Load to bring the data preview into your report.

Pro Tip: By default, Power BI summarizes numeric fields (e.g., SUM). To view raw values, select the field in the Data or Visualizations pane, go to the Column tools tab, and change Summarization to Don’t summarize.

Next Steps

Now you can build reports and dashboards in Power BI with your real-time InfluxDB data.

• Read the full Power BI Connector Documentation for more detailed instructions.