PBI Dataflows have stopped communicating with Desktop

[BillyT_350]

Hello! I could use some help. The other day my dataflows "randomly" stopped communicating with Power BI desktop. Interestingly, the published reports in the Service to not appear to be affected; I can refresh the dataflows and their linked datasets in the Service with apparently no problem.

I have tested both Dataflow connectors in Desktop (the Power Platform / Dataflows and MSFT Fabric / Dataflows (beta) connectors), and both are affected by this problem. Below is the error I get.

These dataflows are all hitting an Azure SQL DB;; the same couple of DBs on the same server.

I'm running Desktop Version: 2.119.986.0 64-bit (July 2023)

I have been focusing on an unrelated database migration for the last couple of weeks, so it could have happened any time in the last 2-3 weeks. I think the last update to Desktop was on July 11th 2023.

Any idea what's going on here, and how I an fix it?

I have filed a support ticket, 2308040040007295.

[parry2k]

@BillyT_350 Thanks for the update and for sharing the solution. I had never seen this before, who would have thought of that? Good luck!

[BillyT_350 · Accepted solution]

Hey folks, so it's been about a month. We did a ton of testing with MSFT (mostly "did you try ctrl + alt +del?" stuff), but ultimately by chance our network people got involed, because this also impacted various Azure products, and we found out that it was actually an issue with DNS routing. Someone had added some DNS routing, which our network guy is still investigating. But basically the problem was these new DNS settings were redirecting connections to wabicancencdsa.blob.core.windows.net and other locations either circularly, or to nowhere. Consequentially, PBI desktop could not access the Dataflows, which apparently are stored there.

Additionally, we discovered that this was also preventing the Dataflows in the Service from updating, and so even reports in the Service were missing data, which caused a number of issues.

So, mystery solved. Thanks for all of your help!

[foodd]

@BillyT_350 , that is awesome!   This reminds me of an exact situation several years ago during a network rebuild, while I was also building out an IT OPS Dashboard that combined telemetry from the Cisco Gear and PRTG SNMP Sensor Data, detected DNS for four of the sites I managed in New England, and four in the Midwest as totally messed up beginning at COB on a Friday until early Sunday.   That report saved a great deal of pain, and it was love for Power BI from then on.

[parry2k]

@BillyT_350 beautiful, now can you re-authenticate dataflow in the Power BI desktop?

[BillyT_350]

@parry2k dumb question, what do you mean by authenticating the dataflow? I have tried re-submitting the creds uses by the dataflow to access the databases, and signing back in and refreshing the previews on Desktop.

do you mean like creating a new OData connection and plugging in the URL included in the error message, kind of like what is covered in this article (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-query/connector-authentication), or just re-entering the creds for the Dataflow connectors?

[parry2k]

@BillyT_350 just a double check, can you create a dataflow in the service and try to connect to the original dataflow? Also, can you make sure nothing is changed on permission? Also, can you make sure re-authenticate dataflow in the Power BI desktop under data source? There are a lot of possibilities as that why it is not working.

[BillyT_350]

@parry2k Yes, I am able to successfully create a dataflow or dataset in the Service which hits these dataflows:

I am the administrator, so none of the settings, permissions, etc. should have been changed. So far, all of the dataflows and their linked reports in the service have been able to refresh without reporting an error.

[foodd]

Oooh, that's awesome!    I am reminded of the words of the Solaris Administrator I mentored under long ago who had two standing rules.  Never say never, and **bleep** happens.

[parry2k]

@BillyT_350 this is weird, which desktop version are you using?

@foodd it is not a service issue, as OP mentioned, Power BI desktop is not able to connect to the dataflow.

[BillyT_350]

@parry2k I'm on Version: 2.119.986.0 64-bit (July 2023). I do not beleive we have anyone using older versions of desktop, since they started pushing updates.

Update the OP

[foodd]

As a test,  can you successfully connect to the same data flow while using the Excel Dataflow connector?  

[BillyT_350]

@foodd I didn't think to try that... Negative, I get the same error:

[foodd]

Sigh.   That punts it back to the Source Blob.   What else has changed I wonder.   You can read the metadata, though can't retrieve the data.  Are you able to make a new query connection directly to 

httpswwabicancencdsa.b10b.core.windowmet:443/d46a7cOf-3f91-4a40-gcf7-bfe57128e6eO/Dim%20Customer%20Key%20Accountcsv?snapshot-2023-07-30T13%3A31 %3A21.7986594Z

[foodd]

Please move this question over to the Service Forum where you will reach members who concentrate on those questions specifically.