Joining a watsonx BI account

As an Administrator, Data analyst, or an Analytics consumer, you must be a member of your organization's IBM Cloud account before you can access your organization's watsonx BI account.

IBM Cloud account owners and account Administrators can invite Analytics consumers to join their organization's IBM Cloud account.

If you have never created an IBM Cloud account, you will be asked to register an account when you first join your organization's IBM Cloud account. This is a one-time registration, after which you can be invited to any IBM Cloud account. You can also create an IBM Cloud account here: http://cloud.ibm.com/

Click the Join now link in the email invite to join your organization's IBM Cloud account.
You are asked to log in with your IBMid. IBMids are assigned to IBM Cloud account members. If you have never created an IBM Cloud account, you are asked to register an account. This is a one-time registration.
Confirm that your information is correct and click Join account.
You are redirected to the home page of the IBM Cloud account that you were invited to. The Cloud account name displays in the header.
You can now access watsonx BI through this URL: https://dataplatform.cloud.ibm.com/wxbi/conversations

When you use watsonx BI, make sure that the selected account in the account switcher in the header is the one that has access to watsonx BI.
Initialize setup of watsonx BI.

watsonx BI initialize setup

(Optional) Select a prebuilt sample that you want to install. A project for the selected sample is created during installation.

Data analysts and Analytics consumers - Samples are a great resource to explore prebuilt metrics and semantic data models. If you choose to skip installing samples, you won't be able to access them later.

After watsonx BI's setup is complete, you are redirected to watsonx BI's Conversations page. If you were added as a collaborator to an existing project, you can start asking questions about the data in that project.

Conversations page in watsonx BI

Troubleshooting

Here's a look at how to troubleshoot errors that you might encounter as you set up watsonx BI:

Error: You don't have access to watsonx BI. Contact your administrator to request access.

You might see this error if:

Access errors when setting up watsonx BI
Scenario	Action
You are part of a Cloud account that does not have access to watsonx BI	The Cloud account owner must provision an instance of watsonx BI in the account and set it up before you can use watsonx BI.
You are part of a Cloud account with access to watsonx BI but you do not have access	Administrator must give you access to watsonx BI
watsonx BI is provisioned but not set up in the Cloud account	The Cloud account owner must set up watsonx BI before users in the account can use watsonx BI.

Error: Unable to connect to watsonx BI with the current account [account name]. If this is the one you want to work with, please contact your administrator. Otherwise select the right one from the account list in the header.

You might see this error if:

Access errors when setting up watsonx BI
Scenario	Action
You are a part of a Cloud account with access to watsonx BI, but your access was removed	The Cloud account owner can assign access to you for watsonx BI.
You are a part of the Cloud account with access to watsonx BI but watsonx BI has not been set up on the account	The Cloud account owner must set up watsonx BI before you can use it.
You are a part of multiple Cloud accounts and are trying to use watsonx BI with an account that doesn't have access	Select the right account in the account switcher that has access to watsonx BI and try again.

How do I find my IBM Cloud account owner?

To find your Cloud account owner:

From the Navigation Menu, choose Administration > Access (IAM).
From the avatar menu, make sure you're in the right account, or switch accounts, if necessary.
Click Users, and find the username with the word owner next to it.

Accessing watsonx BI after setup

To resume work in watsonx BI after logging out:

Go to https://dataplatform.cloud.ibm.com/wxbi/conversations.
Select the Dallas (us-south) region.
Log in with your IBMid.

Next steps

Familiarize yourself with watsonx BI's user interface.

If you're working with data (Data analyst), you can connect to a data source and start creating metrics. For more information, see Creating metrics for conversations.

If you want to ask questions about your data, start a conversation. For more information, see An overview of conversations and Asking questions in natural language.