Share your thoughts on DirectQuery for Power BI datasets and Azure Analysis Services (preview)

[tessahurr]

Hit Reply and let us know what you think of the DirectQuery for Power BI datasets and Azure Analysis Services.  To learn more about this feature, please visit this blog post or our documentation.

Here are some areas that we'd like to hear about in particular:

• Performance
• Query editor experience--the remote model query doesn't show up in the query editor and only in the data source settings dialog. What are your thoughts?
• Navigator experience
• Thoughts around governance and permissions for models that leverage this feature
• Nesting models, i.e. building a composite model on top of a composite model
• Automatic page refresh for live connect in composite models

Thanks and we look forward to hearing your feedback!

- The Power BI Modeling Team

[ludovicBI]

Hello,
We have build some Datasets with the Fact tables as import and the Dimensions as Direct Query from another PBI Dataset (DQ over AS).
The performance as very bad when we build data visualisation.
We would like to understand the performance of DQ over AS and we do not find a lot of documentation. Can we assume that the performance should be is equal to DQ "classic" or equal to Import (as it is also a pbi table).
For now it is more equal to a classic DQ and therefore bad performance for dimensions with more than a few hundreds of lines..
I am wondering if it will be possible when we use DQ over AS to have the option to get a "local" copy of meta data *AND* also data in the model to get better perfiormance .
something similar that broadcasting a table in databricks for exemple.
That would really be awesome for performance as the data of the table will be part of the model and the copy/synchronisation will be handle by power bi. In our hand we need the dimension to be updated only in the remote dataset.

Any thoughs on this ?
Any links for performance for DQ over AS will be great

[RajeshSethi]

We published the pbix file after adding another 'power bi dataset' (from within the same workspace) using the Home> Datahub Items > Power BI datasets. The report seems to work fine in the services browser. However, the report does not seem to load(and blank page is showing) in the organizational portal where it is embedded (using service principal). This required a preview feature to be enabled: DirectQuery for PBI Datasets and AS.

[Ruchita]

Hi Rajesh,

Are you connecting to the dataset with Live connection or DirectQuery? With DirectQuery, there is a problem in embedding the report. 

[Ruchita]

The embedded Power BI is currently not supporting the DirectQuery to Power BI datasets. So I have to use the Import method or the Live Connection. But for some reports, I need to make a composite model for which DirectQuery is required. It would be great if that can be supported in future releases.

Thanks,

Ruchita Gupta

[jeroenterheerdt]

⏰This feature was officially marked as generally available yesterday! We want to thank everyone who provided feedback during the preview time, as it shaped the feature to what it is today. Thank you all. Please read the blog post here: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/blog/announcing-general-availability-for-composite-models-on-power-bi-...

[lfp93pbi]

Created a report based on the composite model from a PBI dataset and a Sharepoint import. Once it is published on PBI Service the refresh of the composite dataset loses all the data from the sharepoint connection mantaining only the data from the underlying DirectQuery connection.

If I download the report after the dataset refresh on PBI Service, the data sources show only the live connection to the original dataset, it seems as if the refresh of the composite dataset will revert the feature of DirectQuery for PBI datasets to Live Connection.

Harsh lesson for to learn the day of deployment

[jeroenterheerdt]

Hi @lfp93pbi that is not supposed to happen. Can you please open an issue on issues.powerbi.com or reach out to support in another way so we can collect details from you?

[jpbarnard]

Useful feature, which avoids duplication of data flow and data model parts. However, a big spanner in the works is the lack of support for authentication by service principal.

We use Power BI Embedded in a big way and this shortcoming disables the feature for us. A report based upon this feature fails to display any data, since our web service principal fails to authenticate to the chained data sets.

Please, fix this lack of support for service principal.

[jeroenterheerdt]

Hi @jpbarnard thanks for your feedback. Unfortunately, we are not planning to support service principals, but please feel free to vote for it on ideas.powerbi.com. That will help us prioritize it.

[Jasonx123]

is this feature already suported?

[jpbarnard]

Well, that decision renders this feature useless for a substantial user community. I cannot think of a single, good technical reason why service principal authentication cannot be supported. This seems to be purely a marketing decision, which is regrettable. We are not impressed.

[Jasonx123]

is this feature already supported?

[Christophe93]

Hi dears

Any  GA date to give us  even  is not precise ,   please ? (Already on GA for tableau)  

All our data modeler are in a hurry  for this great feature (create transversal models from master datasets , golden  KPI  are safe & not duplicated  , possibility to create now cross ones , inherit dimensions RLS system etc …)

23/04/2023  still bugs for
-RLS  propagation issue  to composite model  from DQ model(s)

-Some columns format change automatically  during the  switch (Live DS --> DQ to DS) .. like dates format 

-Strangely some fact tables get automatic  dynamic M query parameters  after the switch !! ... or I'm dreaming 

DAX Queries performances sounds good 

[jeroenterheerdt]

I cannot give you a GA date here, but we are getting very close. The RLS "issue" you mentioned is something that we are not planning to add any time soon. If you are having issues with formats changing, please open an support ticket or use issues.powerbi.com to report this. Regarding the fact tables getting automatic dynamic M query parameters, not sure what you are seeing, but that does not ring a bell with me. Please also open a issue for this. thanks.

[Christophe93]

HI jeroenterheerdt

Sorry  no issue with  dynamic query M parameter  

Just with 2 fields  format who change during the swith 

[howellchrisj]

I apologize if this has been asked and answered, or not the correct forum, but recently, I imported a Power BI dataset (streaming dataset) into PBI Desktop.  It was working just fine, but last Thursday, I started to receive an error message that the "database doesn't exist or I don't have permission".  Permissions are not the issue; the error message may be related to "Add to Local Mode".  Did something recently change?

[datamodel]

Got some inside info on this, and it's probably because some of the older workspaces are being 'upgraded'. Try creating a new workspace for the 'source' dataset.

[datamodel]

We are experiencing the same issue. Any insight would be appreciated! Thank you!

[FraukjeC]

Would this help maybe?
https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/announcing-the-retirement-of-streaming-dataflows/

[ManuGP]

Hi! We have been using this feature for almost 2 years. There is one limitation that I see that no one commented on. 

I am now used to "Limited relationships" when connecting tables in DQ mode from different sources, or even btw imported and DQ tables. But when we have tables in different datasets in the same workspace I would have expected this to be considered the same source. 

Would be nice to have a single Power BI workspace considered as the same island and thus any 1:* and 1:1 relationships be considered "regular".

Our use case is that we have many datasets and the idea was to let some self service users with Power BI desktop knowledge to "mix and match" to build their own datamodel without needing to import any data as everything is already available in the same workspace. The limited relationship concept is a little bit tricky and harder to take into account for end users (specially since there is almost no warning in Power BI dekstop about what this entails). Some use cases (requiring regular relationship) that are easy to achieve with data imported in the same dataset cannot be done when using data that is already imported in the workspace BUT in different datasets.