Power BI report builder error to connect an external semantic model

[Scheneyder]

Hello Everyone,

My company shares a workspace with clients, for the client point of view is an external tenant.

I have all options enable for clients to use our semantic model in their own tenant. 

We built a paginated report with Power BI report Builder connected to the semantic model that lives in the same workspace shared with this client and published it.

The client are able to use the report on workspace online, visualize the data and export PDF's.

The client wants to modify the report, so he download the file and tried to open in his desktop, but he is getting the following error:

Response status code does not indicate success: 403 (Forbidden). ---------------------------- The connection either timed out or was lost. ---------------------------- Cannot create a connection to data source 'ABFoods_PrismDashboardUK'. ---------------------------- An error has occurred during report processing. ---------------------------- An error occurred during local report processing.

If he try to access this semantic model from power bi desktop it works.

If he tries to get data in power bi report builder and select semantic model it doesnt show our semantic model there

He also tried to connect via XMLA endpoint and it didn't work.

What could be the issue?

I also tried to change him on azure from Guest to Member and it didn't work as well.

[v-hjannapu]

Hi @Scheneyder,

I would also take a moment to thank @pcoley  ,  @Ritaf1983 for actively participating in the community forum and for the solutions you’ve been sharing in the community forum. Your contributions make a real difference.
 

I wanted to check if you had the opportunity to review the information provided. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions.

Regards,
Community Support Team.

[Kagiyama_yutaka]

I think the real blocker is that Report Builder just can’t bind to a model sitting in another tenant at all, so the only steady fix is opening the report once in ur own tenant and letting it hook back in; if it still won’t play, drop a copy of the model into the client’s tenant so they’re not crossing tenants anymore.

[Ritaf1983 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Scheneyder 

This looks less like a paginated report rendering issue and more like a cross-tenant authoring limitation.

The reason the client can view the paginated report and export PDFs in the Power BI Service is that the report is being rendered by the service. However, when the user downloads the RDL and opens it in Power BI Report Builder, Report Builder tries to create a local connection to the Power BI semantic model using that user’s identity. That is a different scenario from simply viewing the published report.

Power BI Desktop and Power BI Report Builder are not equivalent here. External semantic model sharing is documented mainly for building reports in Power BI Desktop through the external semantic model experience. Report Builder often does not show shared external semantic models in the same way, and a 403 Forbidden error is consistent with the client application not being allowed to create that connection across tenants.

I would still check the basics:

- The client has explicit Build permission on the semantic model, not only workspace access.
- The required tenant settings for external sharing are enabled.
- The workspace/capacity supports XMLA endpoint access if XMLA is being used.
- XMLA endpoint is enabled as required.
- The user is signing in with the correct identity/tenant context.

However, if those are already configured, changing the Entra user from Guest to Member may not solve it, because the issue is probably the cross-tenant authoring connection from Report Builder, not the ability to view the report.

The practical workarounds would be:

- Have the report authored/modified by a user in the provider tenant.
- Give the client a proper internal account in the provider tenant, if your governance allows it.
- Move/copy the semantic model or required reporting layer to the client tenant.
- Let the client build a regular Power BI report in Power BI Desktop over the external semantic model, if that meets the requirement.
- Keep the RDL development on your side and publish updated versions for the client.

So I would not treat this as a normal workspace role issue. The key difference is viewing a published paginated report vs. locally authoring an RDL in Report Builder against a semantic model from another tenant.

If this post helps, then please consider Accepting it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly

[pcoley]

Some possible issues:

The core issue is a known limitation with Power BI Report Builder + external (B2B Guest) users.

• The client can view the published paginated report in the browser (Service) because viewing uses the rendered version on Microsoft’s servers.
• However, Power BI Report Builder (desktop app) makes a direct connection to the semantic model using the XMLA endpoint / Live Connection. This connection has stricter authentication and permission requirements for external users.
• Even though Power BI Desktop works and he has Member access, Report Builder is more restrictive with cross-tenant scenarios.

Key limitations:

• Report Builder has limited / poor support for connecting to semantic models when the user is a Guest from another tenant.
• The semantic model often does not appear in the "Get Data" list inside Report Builder for external users.
• The 403 Forbidden error is very common in this exact scenario.

Recommended Solutions (in order of preference)

1. Best short-term workaround (Recommended)
   • Give the client Contributor (or higher) role in the workspace.
   • Ensure he has Build permission explicitly on the semantic model (go to the semantic model → Manage permissions → Add the user with Build).
   • Have the client edit the report directly in the Power BI Service (if the workspace allows it) instead of downloading and using Report Builder.
2. Have the client use a VM inside your tenant
   • Create a virtual machine in your Azure subscription.
   • Install Report Builder + Power BI Desktop there.
   • Log in with his guest account (or create a cloud-only account in your tenant).
   • This is the most reliable way for external users to do heavy editing of paginated reports.
3. Recreate / Maintain the report in the Service
   • Paginated reports can now be edited to some extent in the browser (limited capabilities).
   • Or you (internal team) maintain the .rdl file and publish updates.
4. Other options
   • Convert the paginated report to a Power BI Report (if the layout allows it) — these work much better with external users.
   • Use Power BI Embedded + custom application (more complex).

What you should check / try right now

• Confirm the client has Build permission on the semantic model (not just workspace access).
• In the semantic model settings → check if "External sharing" is enabled (if using in-place sharing).
• Make sure the workspace is on Premium / Fabric Capacity (this sometimes helps).

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Bottom line: This is a known gap/limitation with Report Builder for cross-tenant guests. Microsoft has better support for Power BI Desktop than for Report Builder in B2B scenarios.