Forum Discussion
Importing in from SSAS Cube
I'm having trouble importing from an SSAS cube. It just gets stuck at the "Evaluating" stage and nothing ever happens. Any ideas?
It is the case that Power BI can only connect to SSAS Multidimensional Enterprise Edition (or BI Edition, though that has gone in SQL Server 2016):
https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/powerbi-desktop-ssas-multidimensional/
You can vote to try to have that changed here:
Sorry...
Chris
I've just had a second confirmation from Microsoft that DAX queries are supported in SSAS 2016 Multidimensional Standard Edition, and someone I know has tested Power BI Desktop with the same configuration and he says it works (though I haven't tested it myself). Are you sure you're using the latest version of everything?
Regards,
Chris
23 Replies
Hi Barry,
It sounds like you are trying to import more data from SSAS than Power BI can handle - Power BI stores all of its data in-memory, and I guess you don't have enough memory on the machine you're developing on. You have three options:
1) Work on a different machine with more memory on
2) Import less data. The key thing here will be no to import columns of data unless you need them (eg columns containing calculated values should probably not be imported if you can recreate the calculations in DAX after the import), and especially avoid importing columns with a large number of distinct values in them.
3) By far the best option is not to import the data but use a Live connection back to SSAS - if you do this, then memory on the desktop is not an issue. Is there a good reason why you need to import the data?
Regards,
Chris
Chris,
Thank you for the reply. What's odd is the data bases aren't that big, and shouldn't be taking up that much memory.
Good point on number 2. I have had some luck just picking and choosing and finding the data fields that hold things up. I could use the DAX statement at the start of it to filter down to just get a year's worth, etc., but I'm not familiar with how to do that.
Connecting live is great and that is the preferred method, but right now, Power BI doesn't allow you to change very much when connecting live to an SSAS cube. Even simple changes that can be done in Excel (like changing number formats, etc.) can not be done. Also, you aren't able to add columns or measures. Additionally, several of the visuals have more options open up (like averaging, summing, adding trend lines with inputted values (not pulled from fields).
If I could get some more options, I'd always connect live and never download anything.
I'm trying to figure out how to use an SSAS based excel report on Powerbi.com.
There has to be a way to connect an SSAS connected Power Pivot file to Powerbi.com so that it refreshes and funtions properly.
I'd like to use the charts I have from Excel in Powerbi.com.
Any tips?
To be clear, you are using Power Pivot to import data from SSAS into Excel, then uploading that workbook to Power BI? As far as I know, this should work. I guess you've seen these pages, and the links to the troubleshooting tips?
https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/powerbi-refresh-excel-file-onedrive/
https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/powerbi-service-excel-workbook-files/
Chris
