This section describes how to edit the DSN configuration and then authenticate and connect to Microsoft Active Directory APIs.

DSN Configuration

You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to edit the DSN configuration. Note that the installation process creates a both a user DSN and a system DSN, as described in Installing the Connector.

Note: The connector stores connection information in the Windows registry. To ensure that the connector can write to the registry, either run Power BI as an administrator or use a User DSN for your connection instead of a System DSN.

User DSN

Complete the following steps to edit the DSN configuration:

1. Select Start > Search, and enter ODBC Data Sources in the Search box.
2. Choose the version of the ODBC Administrator that corresponds to the bitness of your Power BI Desktop installation (32-bit or 64-bit).
3. Select the system data source and click Configure.
4. Edit the information on the Connection tab and click OK.

System DSN

Configure the system DSN the same way as the user DSN, except you will need to switch to the System DSN tab before performing Step 3.

Connecting to Microsoft Active Directory

Set Server and Port for basic connectivity. Additionally, you can fine-tune the connection with the following:

• FollowReferrals: When set, the connector surfaces data as views from only referral servers. To modify data on a referral server, you must specify this server with Server and Port.
• LDAPVersion: Set this to the version of the protocol your server implements; by default, the connector uses version 2.
• UseDefaultDC: Set this to connect to the default Domain Controller and authenticate using the current user credentials.

Authenticating to Microsoft Active Directory

To authenticate requests, set the User and Password properties to valid Microsoft Active Directory credentials (e.g., set User to Domain\\BobF or cn=Bob F,ou=Employees,dc=Domain).

The connector uses plaintext authentication by default, since the connector attempts to negotiate TLS/SSL with the server. You can specify another authentication method with AuthMechanism.

See SSL Configuration for more information on TLS/SSL configuration.

Fine Tuning Data Access

The following properties control the scope of data returned:

• BaseDN will limit the scope of LDAP searches to the height of the distinguished name provided. Note: Specifying a narrow BaseDN may greatly increase performance; for example, a value of cn=users,dc=domain will only return results contained within cn=users and its children.
• Scope: This property enables more granular control over the data to return from a subtree.

Customizing Tables

The connector surfaces the columns most often needed from Microsoft Active Directory entities. However, if you need to work with other data, the tables are easy to modify. Tables are defined in schema files, which have a simple format.

See Working with Active Directory Tables for a guide to extending the default schemas or writing your own. To use custom schemas, set the Location property to the folder containing the schema files.