Introducing a Comprehensive Power BI Governance and Backup Solution - Open Source

**Moderators** - this is not spam....it genuinely is an open-source and automated script that leverages the Power BI REST API and Tabular Editor. I'm not trying to sell it. This is just for others to get use out of it. It has been shared with Microsoft's Power BI & Fabric Program Managers. The same post on Reddit is here: Happy Thanksgiving! Introducing a Comprehensive Power BI Governance and Backup Solution : r/PowerBI

I’ve worked with Power BI since 2018 and have loved every minute of it. To that end, I have made something I genuinely think many will get a lot of value from. It’s my form of thanks to everyone in the Power BI community for all the great years….

Backstory

Over the past 18 months, I’ve been actively working on a solution to address a significant challenge in Power BI: when a data model or dataflow is changed, what is the impact on all the visuals in reports that are connected to that model/dataflow, across all workspaces.

In our organization, our primary Org App has nearly 250 visible pages across 20 reports, all connected to the same model. This makes it difficult to track how and where specific fields, measures, and tables are used, increasing the risk of unintentionally breaking visuals or dashboards during model and dataflow updates. We have tried using Purview but that doesn't extend to the report/visual level. I eventually came across a Tabular Editor script made by Michael Kovalsky that helped extract metadata from reports.

Throw in 18 months of updates, automations, help from my good friend ChatGPT, many tears, lots of joy, a few more tears, and some final joy....and it's now to a point that I can share to the masses for their joy.

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What It Does

This solution provides a quick and automated way to identify where and how specific fields, measures, and tables are utilized across all Power BI reports and workspaces by analyzing the visual object layer. It also backs up and breaks down the details of your models, reports, and dataflows for easy review, offering a truly ‘complete’ view into your Power BI environment.

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Use Case

The main feature enables you to fully understand the downstream impact of data model changes, ensuring you don’t accidentally disrupt visuals or dashboards—especially when reports connected to a model span multiple workspaces.

Additionally, the tool backs up every model, report, and dataflow, providing a clear, comprehensive view of your entire Power BI environment, including dependencies. The results are presented in a Power BI model, making them easy to explore, analyze, and share with your team.

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Key Features

• Automated Impact Analysis

  • Quickly identify where and how specific fields, measures, and tables are used across all reports and workspaces.

• Comprehensive Backups

  • Back up every model, report, and dataflow across all workspaces.

• Detailed Insights

  • Gain a complete view, dependencies, and lineage of your models, reports, and dataflows

• User-Friendly Output

  • Results are presented in a Power BI model, facilitating easy exploration, analysis, and sharing.

Small example of the final Power BI output:
https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiNmMxYWQ2ZTItZDM4ZS00MGM1LTlhMDQtN2I1OTMwMzI0OTg2IiwidCI6ImUyY2Y4N2QyLTYxMjktNGExYS1iZTczLTEzOGQyY2Y5OGJlMiJ9

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I hope everyone enjoys!

Github link: https://github.com/chris1642/Power-BI-Backup-Impact-Analysis-Governance-Solution

TLDR: here is a solution that anyone should be able to run and automates backing up every model, report, and dataflow across all workspaces - and then gives you a complete breakdown of your entire power bi environment, even at the visual level of reports connected to a separate model....allowing for a true impact analysis for any model or dataflow changes.