Quick Start Guide
Welcome to DataCentral! This guide will help you set up your first Tenant, connect to your data, and invite your first users.
Whether you are an administrator setting up the platform or a developer looking to embed reports, follow the path below that best describes your role.
1. For Administrators: Setting Up Your Tenant
If you are responsible for configuring DataCentral for your organization, you will need to complete the following steps:
Step 1: Initial Setup
When your Tenant is provisioned, you will receive an invitation email. Open your new subdomain (for example, yourcompany.datacentral.ai) and sign in with the Tenant Administrator's email address. The Host Administrator may configure the initial account to use User Pass, One-time Password (OTP), or Microsoft Entra ID.
Step 2: Configure Authentication
Decide how your users will log in. You can use Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD), local User Pass credentials, Mobile ID, or OTP.
Step 3: Connect Your Data
To display Power BI reports, DataCentral needs permission to access your workspaces. You will need to create a Service Principal in Azure and grant it access to the relevant Power BI workspaces.
Step 4: Import Reports and Set Up Security
Once connected, you can import reports into DataCentral and define who can see what.
Step 5: Invite Users
Create Organizational Units (OUs) to group your users, then invite them to the platform.
Step 6: Review the Admin Report
Use the built-in Admin Report to review report activity, adoption, and access. It is available to the static Admin role by default for tenants created in DataCentral 3.0.0 or later. Existing tenants require a one-time host and tenant configuration update.
2. For End Users: Viewing Your Data
If you have been invited to view reports on DataCentral, your experience is designed to be simple and intuitive.
Step 1: Log In
Navigate to the URL provided in your invitation email (e.g., partner.datacentral.ai). Depending on how your administrator has configured the system, you will log in using your Microsoft account, a username and password, Mobile ID, or a one-time password sent to your email.
Step 2: Navigate Your Dashboard
Once logged in, you will see the reports and dashboards that you have been granted access to. You will only see the data relevant to you, as configured by your administrator.
Step 3: Export Data
If permitted by your administrator, you can export data from the visuals in your reports for further analysis in Excel or CSV format.
3. For Developers & ISVs: Embedding DataCentral
If you are a developer looking to embed DataCentral reports into your own custom web application or portal, you will use our REST API.
Step 1: Generate API Keys
As a Tenant Administrator, navigate to the Settings panel to generate an API Key and a Tenant Passphrase. Keep these secure; they are required to authenticate your API requests.
Step 2: Request an Embed Key
Your backend server will call the DataCentral Encryption API, passing the ID of the report you want to embed and your Tenant Passphrase. DataCentral will return a secure, encrypted embed key.
Step 3: Render the iframe
Pass the encrypted embed key to your frontend application and use it to construct the URL for an iframe. The report will render securely within your application, applying all DataCentral security and RLS rules automatically.
Need Help?
If you encounter any issues during setup, please review our FAQ or contact support at support@datacentral.ai.