Scenario summary
The customer initially encountered a refresh failure with the following error:
To resolve this, the customer modified the Power Query (M) code to make it more robust, primarily by improving error handling and attempting to remove or handle blank values.
- Original M code was working but failed on refresh due to the error above.
- Updated M code successfully handled the error and allowed the refresh to complete.
Observed behavior
After applying the updated M code, the existing relationship between the RLS (Row-Level Security) table and the MOA table was automatically removed without any warning or notification.
As a result, the semantic model was left in a vulnerable state until the customer manually identified and fixed the broken relationship. During this period, RLS behavior was impacted.
Customer understanding
The customer understands why this happened from a technical perspective:
- The M code changes affected the underlying data shape (rows / key values).
- This caused the relationship to be invalidated.
However, the customer expressed concern that no warning was shown before or after applying the change, especially given the impact on RLS and model security.
Feedback / Feature consideration
The customer would have expected some form of safeguard, such as:
- A warning when applying query changes that affect columns or keys used in relationships (especially RLS-related relationships), or
- A notification indicating that model relationships were removed or invalidated as a result of the change, or
- A rollback or review mechanism when model-impacting changes are detected.
A warning or validation step when working with semantic models—particularly when changes affect relationships or RLS dependencies—could help prevent similar issues and reduce the risk of production-impacting scenarios.
