Chaining multiple Power BI Datasets together via DirectQuery for Power BI Datasets

[equerystrian]

At some point in the recent updates, it became possible to chain together multiple Power BI Datasets together within a report that enabled the Preview feature of DirectQuery for Power BI Datasets and Analysis services https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/connect-data/desktop-directquery-datasets-azure-analysis-s...

My questions are: just because users can, should they?

• How should we steer users consuming and discovering they can combine shared datasets, aside from the inherent problems in not necessarily knowing how to set the relationships correctly?
• What sort of special performance issues would this chaining scenario create, especially for those with Premium Capacity that can see the spikes? It feels like chaining multiple full blown models together would present a special challenge to the PBI service. 
• Does anyone know of a way we'd be able to detect these chaining reports / reports in DirectQuery mode -- is this a job for the API's and/or PowerShell scripts?

Microsoft has already cautioned that OLS in these chained DQ PBI dataset reports might get unexpected results, and there's a long list of other considerations too. We can apparently discourage chaining but it's not shared dataset + Excel file that worries me, it's shared dataset 1 + shared dataset 2 + shared dataset 3 that worries me. It's still a preview feature and no doubt will keep evolving, but it's been evolving for a long time and I wonder if this is a step too far into flexibility. Looking to figure out how we need to say "Yes, you can do this AND here's what you should be cautious about" beyond the tech details in the considerations list. 

[v-eqin-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @equerystrian ,

Originally, establish a live connection to a shared dataset in the Power BI service, but there are many considerations and limitations to keep in mind, like:

• left-navigation and modeling are disabled.
• Calculated columns are disabled.
• Power Query Editor is not available
• Could not connect data from multiple sources
• ......

But with the previewed feature——using DirectQuery for Power BI datasets and Azure Analysis Services, we could add data from other data sources and do some data modeling ,which I think is very helpful. As the official document mentioned, Report authors who want to combine the data from their enterprise semantic model with other data they own, such as an Excel spreadsheet, or want to personalize or enrich the metadata from their enterprise semantic model, will find this feature especially useful.

Best Regards,
Eyelyn Qin
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