Know what admin settings to configure in Microsoft Fabric to ensure security, efficiency, and scalability within your organization. In Part 1, I explored tenant settings and various structural options. In this blog, I’ll discuss usage metrics, domains, capacity management, tags, and other workspace-level settings.
Table of Contents
Admin Settings: Usage Metrics and Monitoring
The usage metrics section in the Fabric admin settings is no longer sufficient, as the Office 365 team now manages most of this information. Admins should now rely on the Admin Monitoring Workspace, which includes reports for feature usage, adoption, and Purview integration.
Well-known features:
- Feature Usage and Adoption Report: Tracks active users and adoption trends (though limited to 90 days of data).
- Purview Report: Provides governance insights on sensitivity labels, endorsements, and domain-level organization.
These reports are the backbone of monitoring adoption, but keep in mind the limitations of data retention. To get long-term analytics, you need to export logs to Azure Data Lake or a database.
User Management
Users in Microsoft Fabric are managed through Microsoft Intra (Azure AD) or the Office 365 Admin Center. A best practice is to manage access through security groups instead of assigning permissions individually. It’s a huge timesaver when an employee moves to a different department, gets fired, or leaves the company.
Domains: Structuring Workspaces in Microsoft Fabric Admin Settings
The domains feature allows admins to logically group workspaces by department (e.g., Sales, Marketing, IT) or by data type (e.g., customer data, financial data).
It’s really beneficial because it makes access management a lot easier, allows for easier alignment with the way the business is organized, and gives you the flexibility to mix functional domains with organizational ones.
Although not yet widely adopted, domains are particularly useful for large enterprises seeking structured governance.
Workloads and Custom Experiences
Workloads enable you to create custom experiences within Fabric. While still in the preview stage, this feature lets advanced teams build workloads tailored to their specific business processes.
Keep in mind:
- This is a feature that’s best left to experienced developers.
- Requires coding expertise and ongoing maintenance.
- It is better suited for organizations with high levels of data maturity.
- Consider domains, apps, and built-in governance tools before exploring or adding custom workloads; otherwise, you may encounter problems.
Tags: Improving Data Discovery
Tags are a powerful way to help users find and sort through what they need. Admins can assign labels such as “Sales” or “Finance” to reports, datasets, and dataflows.
Advantages of tags include:
- Faster resource discovery
- Improved searchability
- Governance-friendly classification.
Although some limitations exist (not all resources fully support tags), they are still highly effective for improving metadata organization.
Capacity Settings: The Heart of Admin Settings
Regarding managing Microsoft Fabric, one of the top admin settings is capacity management. Here’s what you should know:
Trial and Fabric Capacities
- Trial capacities provide 64 units for a 15-day period.
- Useful for testing workloads before moving into production.
Capacity Usage Reports
- Deploy the Fabric Capacity Metrics App or the Fabric Unified Admin Monitoring to track usage. This is not something you find as part of your admin workspace.
- – Unfortunately, monitoring is still fragmented, and may require you to deploy three different things to manage.
Managing Operations
- Admins can control background operations to prevent overloading capacity units.
- Enable notifications you can monitor proactively. For example, when the system reaches 80% capacity.
Contributor Permissions
- Restrict who can assign workspaces to a capacity.
- Avoid enabling permissions for all. Limit it to specific users or groups.
Power BI Workloads and Spark Pools
- If you are planning to use any of the new Python libraries, you will have to configure XMLA endpoints to enable read and write.
- Set up small starter Spark pools for testing before scaling.
- Use auto-scaling wisely to optimize compute costs.
Branding and User Experience
Talking about getting users to adopt a new platform, a well-designed brand can make a huge difference. Admins can upload a corporate logo, apply brand colors to the Fabric interface, and customize the landing page with organizational visuals.
All of which contribute to enhancing the user’s perception of the product and company identity.
Fabric Identities and Security
Microsoft Fabric now allows admins to create workspace identities, making it easier to connect securely to external Azure resources. For example, you can grant a workspace identity to an Azure Storage Account, without exposing individual credentials. This supports least-privilege access control and enhances network security.
Featured Content for Adoption
To increase visibility of your content, you or an admin can designate featured reports on the homepage. Although not all users visit the homepage frequently, featuring content is valuable when linked via intranet portals or bookmarks. It’s a subtle way to ensure employees see the most critical resources.
Workspace-Level Admin Settings
At the workspace level, admins have additional settings to configure.
- Licensing Options: Apply Fabric capacity, Power BI Pro, or Premium per User licensing.
- Git Integration: Connect to GitHub or Azure DevOps for version control.
- Network Security: Use private endpoints for secure connections to Azure SQL, storage, and other resources.
- Monitoring and Logs: Send insights to databases or event hubs for custom analysis. Custom analysis is within the purview of workspace admins.
- Spark and Airflow Settings: Optimize node sizes, job concurrency, and session timeouts to minimize wasted capacity units.
Correctly configuring these workspace admin settings ensures efficiency, cost control, and security across teams.
Key Takeaways
Microsoft Fabric offers a wide range of admin settings, but understanding which ones to prioritize is essential. As an administrator, you should focus on:
- Structuring workspaces with domains and tags.
- Optimizing Fabric capacity to balance cost and performance.
- Enabling branding and featured content for quick adoption wins.
- Securing external integrations with workspace identities.
By mastering these settings, you’ll set up Microsoft Fabric to support long-term scalability and organizational success.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: How often should I review and update my Microsoft Fabric admin settings?
Answer: It’s best practice to review admin settings at least quarterly or whenever Microsoft releases major updates. Regular audits help ensure compliance, security, and optimal performance.
Question: Can I delegate specific admin roles in Microsoft Fabric instead of giving full access?
Answer: Yes, you absolutely can delegate specific admin roles in Microsoft Fabric without granting full access to Microsoft 365 or tenant-wide controls. Microsoft Fabric supports role-based administration, allowing organizations to assign targeted responsibilities across different layers of the platform.
Question: What happens if I misconfigure a security-related admin setting?
Answer: Misconfigured settings, like open network access or excessive contributor permissions, can expose data or overload capacity. Always test changes in a sandbox workspace before applying them organization-wide.
