Publishing failed for an unknown reason

[sgruber]

When trying to publish my report from Power BI Desktop to the Power Bi Service, I am getting the following error: Publishing failed for an unknown reason".

I have tried to get support on this from Microsoft as I am on a Pro Trial, but it doesn't let me (see that issue here: Re: Can't get support on Power BI Pro Trial and won't let me purchase Pro).

Nonetheless, I am hoping I can maybe get some guidance as to what is causing the error? I have searched the forums and haven't found an effect solution yet, other than that I must record my trace when the error happens. See the relevant parts below:

• DataMashup.Trace Warning: 24579 : {"Start":"2017-05-25T10:44:11.3956768Z","Action":"PBI.Win.UploadReportToPowerBIService","Message":"{\"backendUrl\":\"https://wabi-north-europe-redirect.analysis.windows.net/\",\"activityId\":\"bf83f7f5-2687-437c-b75e-... (PBIDesktop)","ActivityId":"edff9895-5892-4a99-bcec-e1d085c726e9","Process":"PBIDesktop","Pid":17156,"Tid":15,"Duration":"00:01:39.1570154"}
• DataMashup.Trace Warning: 24579 : {"Start":"2017-05-25T10:46:20.7282502Z","Action":"PBI.PQ.PublishingFailedInternal","Message":"{\"backendUrl\":\"https://wabi-north-europe-redirect.analysis.windows.net/\",\"activityId\":\"bf83f7f5-2687-437c-b75e-... (PBIDesktop)","ActivityId":"cffb3bca-3886-4bb0-8e92-e710ae87f571","Process":"PBIDesktop","Pid":17156,"Tid":1,"Duration":"-00:00:00.1690285"}

If it helps, My dashboard is made up of the following components:

• Matrix preview
• Table preview
• Hierarchy slicer
• Clustered bar chart

My data sources are:

• OLEDB connection to a local database
• Web query via an API call
• Some manually enetered lookup tables

I have replicated this same result on anothe rcomputer with another user. Any help in diagnosing what is causing this issue would be greatly appreciated!

[Greg_Deckler]

If you create a new file, do you get the same issue? For example, create a new file and just copy over the lookup tables. Publish. Then add in the web query. Publish. Add in the OLEDB source, Publish and then build reports and Publish iteratively. Interested if you can publish anything at all.

[sgruber]

Good idea, I'll give it a try and report back. Does the trace give any indication of the issue?

[sgruber]

I built it up step by step as you described. Was fine until I added the OLEDB query and when I tried to publish that version it succeded but said that it couldn't refresh the dataset and that I'd have to manually do it in the service (which makes senses I guess as it a local db. However, once I add the visuals to the dashboard and tried to publish, it failed with the same error as before ("unknown reason"), and even stepping back afterwards to just the data queries without the visuals did not resolve the error, until I removed the OLEDB query. So it does seem to be the OLEDB query, which makes sense I guess, just wish the error could be more descriptive, like "unable to connect to database". Anyway to set something like VPN settings for the Power BI Service to connect to a locally hosted database? 

[Anonymous]

Hi @sgruber,

>> Anyway to set something like VPN settings for the Power BI Service to connect to a locally hosted database? 

You can use personal gateway to manage these local databases.  If your dataset contains multiple data sources which need both personal gateway and on-premise gateway to refresh, it may cause the issue.

Regards,
Xiaoxin Sheng