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_power_bi's avatar
_power_bi
Icon for Helper I rankHelper I
2 days ago

Admin API is very slow

We have started to use the Power BI Service for internal and external reporting.  One of the gaps is the ability to see and report on refreshes and subscriptions (across the tenant). The monitoring app is great for current/recent refreshes, but we need a report for this. 

So, I connected to the admin API via PBI Desktop.  We don't have many workspaces or reports. We probably have under 300 reports in total. When I connect to the objects via the API, it is incredibly slow.  All I am doing is pulling in the objects (unfiltered), but it never completes or takes over an hour.  The objects are workspaces, semantic models, reports, and refreshes.

 

I even downloaded a connector to see if that works better. It makes the connection much easier, but it has the same trouble pulling from the API. 

 

Just curious if others experience the same thing and what Microsoft can do about this?  In contract, If I connect to Salesforce, ServiceNow, other common connectors, I have no problem pulling in thousands of records in only a few minutes.  

General Comment

1 Reply

  • SamInogic's avatar
    SamInogic
    Icon for Super User rankSuper User
    1 day ago

    Hi,

    The Admin API can be slow, especially when retrieving refresh history across the tenant. Unlike regular data connectors, it has API limits and may require multiple paginated requests.

    I’d suggest using filters to retrieve only the required workspaces and reports, and limiting refresh history to a specific date range. Also, check whether pagination is handled correctly, as some endpoints return only a limited number of records per request.

    For tenant-wide monitoring, the Power BI Activity Events API and Scanner APIs may be useful, depending on the data you need. However, refresh and subscription details may require separate endpoints.

    With fewer than 300 reports, a query taking over an hour seems unusually slow, so I’d check the API calls and pagination before assuming this is expected behavior.

    Hope this Helps!

    Thanks