Reference Table in Power Bi vs. Sql Query or View...

[joelv67]

A little background. I have a logging DB. For one report (Historical), I am pulling in the Logs table and generating are report on that data.

In this Logs table, is also Start and End logs that I use to create some reports on Task Run Times.  I am currently pulling this data in seperately via a View that filters on the Sql side to only Start and End types of tasks.

My question is, this seems to be pulling some of the same data twice.  Would it be better to have my 2nd "query" reference the PowerBI "Logs" query as it's source vs. the Sql View.  My thought is that PowerBI already has the entire log table, so just refernce it internally for my new Query and then do manipulations to "Filter" out any Non Start/End tasks.

It is not clear if by doing so, I will be pulling in the Logs table twice or just once an then truly referencing the "in memory" PowerBi data for the new Query.

Thanks you

Joel

ps, A similar question if using the new experimental "Power Bi as a Datasource", does that reduce the load on the Sql server, referencing an existing Power BI dataset?

[v-qiuyu-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @joelv67,

If you retrieve data from SQL view in desktop, and need to do other data transformation for this query, I would suggest you reference the log table query in Power BI desktop directly, then do filter and transformation steps on Power BI desktop.

To use Power BI Service data source in desktop, it connects to dataset model which already published to service, willn't hit the SQL Server directly. For more information, see: Connect to datasets in the Power BI service from Power BI Desktop (Preview).

Best Regards,
Qiuyun Yu