Unable to Connect Power BI Desktop Reports to Published Semantic Models - Critical Issue

[jscheible]

Hello Power BI Community,

We are facing a critical issue that is severely impacting our organization's daily operations. As of yesterday (April 16, 2024), we have been unable to connect Power BI Desktop reports to published semantic models. The issue is widespread and affects all users attempting to use this feature, regardless of the specific user or machine.

Even when trying to connect a blank report to a model, we encounter the same problem. The steps we have taken with blank reports are:

1. Click "Get Data"
2. Choose "Power BI semantic models"
3. Click "Connect"

After clicking "Connect," a modal appears with the message "Working on it." This modal spins for approximately 15 seconds before being replaced by another modal stating, "Something went wrong. The remote server returned an error: (500) Internal Server Error." Screenshots below.

We have attempted to resolve the issue by clearing the cache and logging out and back in, but to no avail. There have been no recent changes to our workspace or server settings. Our organization has been using this feature daily for around 4 years, making this a critical issue for our business processes.

We are currently using the April version of Power BI Desktop. 

Has anyone else experienced this issue or have any insights on how to resolve it? We would greatly appreciate any assistance or guidance from the community. I currently have a ticket in with Microsoft and they say it is working on their end, and so far none of the troubleshooting suggestions from them have solved our issue.

Additionally, we noticed a blog post from Power BI yesterday that may or may not be relevant to this issue: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/on-premises-data-gateway-april-2024-release/. If anyone has further information on whether this post is related to the problem we are experiencing, please let us know.

Thank you in advance for your help and support in resolving this critical issue.

[jscheible · Accepted solution]

According to Microsoft, "there were sql latency/timeout issues last week which could have caused this issue." They appear to have resolved the issue and we are able to access Power BI semantic models from Power BI Desktop again.

[v-junyant-msft]

@jscheible ,

This error is a generic server-side error indicating that something unexpected happened on the server while processing your request.
It could be due to various reasons, such as misconfiguration, resource limitations, or issues with the semantic model itself.

Please ensure that all users attempting to connect to the semantic models have the necessary permissions. Specifically, users need Build permission for the semantic model they are trying to access.
Build permission for shared semantic models - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

If the issue is widespread across users, it might be worthwhile to review your Power BI tenant settings, especially those related to the use of semantic models across workspaces and data gateway settings. Adjustments here might inadvertently impact the ability to connect to semantic models.
What is the Microsoft Fabric admin portal? - Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn

Also, I would like to ask what is the data source for your semantic model? And what are the credentials to connect to that data source? And also what is the connection schema for that data source? Please check if the original data source for that semantic model is available and if the credentials are correct. If that data source uses a gateway, is that gateway working properly?

Best Regards,
Dino Tao
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.