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stanteitelbaum's avatar
stanteitelbaum
Regular Visitor
1 year ago
Solved

is it a direct query or import

hi i was surprised when my co worker told me she was getting a memory exception when trying to import our sales cube into pbi on her desktop.   and that as much as she didnt want to, was using direct...
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  • v-kpoloju-msft's avatar
    v-kpoloju-msft
    1 year ago

    Hi stanteitelbaum,

    Thanks for the follow up. From the screenshots you have shared, it is now clear that your Power BI file is using a Live connection to a SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) model.

    • In Live mode, you can create measures but not calculated columns that’s expected behaviour.
    • The “Storage mode” does not appear in the Properties pane because it's only available for Import or Direct Query models.
    • When you go to Data Source Settings and see the SSAS server prompt, that confirms it’s not an Import mode.

    So yes, your PBIX file is connected live, and not importing data, which is why your refreshes work fine and you are not running into memory issues.

    If your coworker is trying to import the full model into Power BI, that could cause memory exceptions, especially with large datasets (e.g., 66M rows). Instead, she could try:

    • Using a Live connection (same as yours),
    • Ensuring she's on the 64-bit Power BI version,
    • Or reducing data size during import via filters.

    Please refer to the below mentioned link:
    Connect to Analysis Services data in Power BI Desktop - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

    Hope this helps. If this post helps, then please give us ‘Kudos’ and consider Accept it as a solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

    Thank you for using Microsoft Community Forum.

MasonMA's avatar
MasonMA
Icon for Super User rankSuper User
1 year ago

Hi stanteitelbaum 

It's usually by looking at Model view/Power Query editor to tell whether it's an import mode or DirectQuery, isn't it? 

From your description, it might sound like your colleagues' RAM is not enough..., but i might be wrong. 

If the fact table has 66Million rows, it might be okay on some computers but not for all users. I'd consider using DirectQuery or Composite model. 

 

Thanks
Mason

  • stanteitelbaum's avatar
    stanteitelbaum
    Regular Visitor
    1 year ago

    thx Mason, i show below what i see in the model view.   normally i'd click transform to get to power query etc but when i click transform in this case, all is greyed except "data source settings".    that means "transform data" is greyed.    when i hit "data source settings" i see what/only i already know which is the name of the ssas db. 

     

    also, she'd like to avoid direct query if possible because of all the restrictions associated with DQ.   With DQ she says she cant add measures and columns.   which contradicts what im seeing because i seem to be able to add measures, but not columns.   i, not sure why you suggested composites but i fmemory serves that a modelk that can act as either DQ or import.