Error Communicating with Analysis Services - Failed to create the MSOLAP command.

[ucmaoTWG]

Hello,

I am receiving the below error when trying to utilize the 'Create Paginated report (Preview)' from Powerbi Service. 

We currently have pro licenses and no fabric premium SKU. I have created paginated reports that are attached to our azure sql server perfectly fine but when it comes to the report server i am receiving this error, with the attached error logs below.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Could not connect to the data source.
There was an error communicating with Analysis Services. Failed to create the MSOLAP command.
Timestamp: 2025-03-04T17:28:50.532Z
Root activity ID: c908369f-a604-ff13-e30d-48e2abbac786
Session ID: 00000ff8b717489eb26642bbe8a027a4
Tenant ID: 00989d4d-a4a1-4563-8aab-6420833ac74b
Cluster: https://wabi-us-east2-b-primary-redirect.analysis.windows.net/
Report ID: null
Capacity ID: undefined
ReportViewerVersion: 2025.2.4.1758


EDIT: 03/04/2025-

Whenever i try and publish a report, my connection string is not active. This is what i can see- does anyone know if the inactive connection string is because of how our ENTRA login is set up to not allow windows connections?

[v-mdharahman]

Hi @ucmaoTWG,

As we haven’t heard back from you, so just following up to our previous message. I'd like to confirm if you've successfully resolved this issue or if you need further help.

If yes, you are welcome to share your workaround and mark it as a solution so that other users can benefit as well. If you find a reply particularly helpful to you, you can also mark it as a solution.

If you still have any questions or need more support, please feel free to let us know. We are more than happy to continue to help you.
Thank you for your patience and look forward to hearing from you.

[v-mdharahman]

Hi @ucmaoTWG,

I wanted to check if you had the opportunity to review the information provided. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions. If my response has addressed your query, please accept it as a solution so that other community members can find it easily.

Thank you.

[v-mdharahman]

Hi @ucmaoTWG,

May I ask if you have resolved this issue? If so, please mark the helpful reply and accept it as the solution. This will be helpful for other community members who have similar problems to solve it faster.

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Hi,@ucmaoTWG .I am glad to help you.

It looks like you had an error configuring your cloud gateway connection and the system says it can't access your AS data source

Connection string issue:

The connection string for the data source may be incomplete or misconfigured, such as incorrect server address, database name or port number.
You mentioned that your team has restricted windows authentication methods. I think this could potentially cause the issue.

If the ENTRA configuration does not allow Windows authentication and the data source (e.g. Analysis Services) requires Windows authentication, this can cause the connection to fail.
Can you please check that you have correctly configured the service body or user permissions when using Azure AD OAuth authentication.
I hope the following links are helpful.
URL:

Connection string properties (Analysis Services) | Microsoft Learn

Authentication methodologies supported by Analysis Services | Microsoft Learn

I hope my suggestions give you good ideas, if you have any more questions, please clarify in a follow-up reply.
Best Regards,
Carson Jian,
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[ucmaoTWG]

Thank you for your response- I do have a few follow up questions I hope you can clarity as we research this on our side as well.

1) The connection string is automatically generated when publishing the paginated report from the powerbi report builder utilizing the 'Add Power BI semantic model connection..." as the datasource. Furthermore, it also fails when utilizing the web-based create a paginated report (preview) option as well. Is it possible that both of these are failing to auto generate the correct connection string?

2) We do not have a dedicated analysis server in our azure tenant. We are currently utilizing the 'built in' shared analysis server that powerbi utilizes. We would still need to have the correct authentification methodology set up for this correct? 

Thank you for your assistance- this has been the most support i've received on this issue so far.

[Anonymous]

Hi,@ucmaoTWG .Thank you for your reply.
In fact, I don't think you need to set up a gateway connection for your paged reports anymore (at this point, both the data source and the paged reports are in the Power BI Service in the cloud, and there is no need for a gateway to act as a bridge, the system will automatically retrieve and update the paged reports)
The gateway is only needed if the data source and the report are not in the same location (whether it's a local enterprise gateway or a cloud gateway)
After my testing, I used pbix reports in Power BI Service (AS model in the cloud) as the data source after creating paged reports. The final paging report published to Power BI Service does not require a gateway connection (the system doesn't even give a button to set it up)
As you can see I can't change the data source credentials for this paging report and configure the gateway link. (The data source is semantic model i.e. AS model in the cloud)

For other paging reports made with local data sources you need to configure a gateway to complete the refresh. (The data source is a local SQL Server database.)

Below is my test:

Publish pbix to Power BI Service and use the semantic model (In Power BI Service)
create the rdl file in Power BI Report Builder.

Can not edit the RDL report.

I hope my suggestions give you good ideas, if you have any more questions, please clarify in a follow-up reply.
Best Regards,
Carson Jian,
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[ucmaoTWG]

Thank you for your follow up- it's good to know that I am seeing the same thing as you are.

Could you assist in checking your connection string for me? I believe at this point the error has to do with the connection but cannot pinpoint where the permissions need to change.

This is the connection string that is created when I publish the report from report builder to the service. As you can see, the connection is offline. There isn't an option to change the authentification method to windows auth either.

I believe that this is the root cause of these issues but i have no ability to modify the connection to accept windows auth as the cause. Would you know how to modify this so that I am able to bring this connection string online? 

[Anonymous]

Hi,@ucmaoTWG .Thank you for your reply.

It has come to my attention that you may have some misconceptions. I hope my suggestions below will help you.
1. Whether a gateway is required to create a paged report using semantic model on Power BI Service as a data source.
As you can see from my previous test in Report Builder, I did not set up any gateway connection.
The need for a gateway connection depends on where the report and the data source are located. If both are in the cloud (both stored in Power BI Service), there is no need to configure a gateway connection.
I don't think you need to create a gateway connection for the paged reports you produce.
2. About the connection string issue
If you are using other report's semantic model as data source in Power BI Service and want to see the connection string of that semantic model.

Semantic model> settings> Server settings

And you are using a cloud data source and creating the same cloud gateway connection. Windows authentication is not supported when the data source is in the cloud. You have to authenticate via OAuth 2.0.
The root cause of this is that the semantic model you are using is stored in Power BI Service and you can only access this semantic model by logging in through your Power BI Service account and not through your windows account (this is by design).

Connecting using a connection string is essentially the same as connecting graphically.
I recommend that you connect semantic models graphically rather than comfortable strings yourself to avoid data errors. (In Power BI Report Builder)

3. About Power BI semantic model (AS model) as a data source , service support for data source authentication.
Currently, the only authentication methods for semantic model are OAuth 2.0 and Basic.
I have reproduced your operation (making RDL report in service)

create rdl report 

I think where you are really having problems is with the connected semantic model.
As you can see I didn't set up any gateways during the whole test.
If you are having problems with your data source credentials. Then it is likely that you are having problems connecting to the data source gateway of the semantic model itself when you are connecting to the semantic model.

I hope my suggestions give you good ideas, if you have any more questions, please clarify in a follow-up reply.
Best Regards,
Carson Jian,
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[ucmaoTWG]

Thank you Carson, We have tested a few things based off of what you provided and have ruled out a few issues. 

Based on what you said, we have set up a new connection string, based off of OAuth2.0 credentials and verified that it can connect, pull, and publish semantic models that can be connected to by users through powerbi.

The semantic model connects to an Azure SQL Server with Azure Active Directory - Universal with MFA authentication utilizing our EntraID. 

When testing reports with this connection string, we return results within PowerBI Service, and powerbi desktop, so the OAuth connection to both is correct.


When we tested the creation of a paginated report, we're still getting the MSOLAP error even with the federated OAUTH2.0 connection through the connection string, and semantic model. 

my question is now- Is it possible that the analysis engine behind paginated reports is reading my on-premises active directory account credentials instead of the EntraID credentials?

You also mentioned this earlier- 

The root cause of this is that the semantic model you are using is stored in Power BI Service and you can only access this semantic model by logging in through your Power BI Service account and not through your windows account (this is by design).

We have never utilized service accounts, only regular login accounts. I have also tested trying to connect to the semantic model through powerbi desktop  and i'm getting an error as well in that instance- mimicing the steps you took above

I assume these two issues are both connected- do you have any insight into how the connection to a semantic model works for powerbi desktop? Could it have anything to do with my local AD connections not being linked to my Entra ID? 

[Anonymous]

Hi,@ucmaoTWG .Thank you for your reply.
Your understanding is correct, for paging reports, I think the system prefers to look for local geographic accounts as data source credentials.
According to the documentation for data sources supported by Power BI Pagination Reports, the system also requires users to configure the local Active Directory (AD) to integrate and map with Microsoft Entra ID (formerly known as Azure Active Directory) when using an Azure SQL database as a data source
URL:
Configure Microsoft Entra authentication - Azure SQL Database & SQL Managed Instance & Azure Synapse...
Supported data sources for Power BI paginated reports - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

For the service account I mentioned, it is in fact the account you use to log into Power BI Service (typically a Microsoft 365 account)
I suggest you read the above document carefully, I think it may help solve your problem. Pagination reports are generally more restrictive than PBIX reports

Going back to your error screenshot, I think this error may be caused by the fact that the semantic model you are connecting to has actually been modified in Power BI Service (maybe the storage location has been changed, or maybe the name information has been changed), so that Desktop can't find the corresponding model.
I recommend that you re-edit the pbix report corresponding to the semantic model you want to connect to in desktop, republish it to Power BI Service (set up the data source credentials and gateway connection), and then connect to the semantic model of the pbix report through Power BI Desktop. model through Power BI Desktop and check if the problem can be solved.
And maybe you can change the connection.

I hope my suggestions give you good ideas, if you have any more questions, please clarify in a follow-up reply.

Best Regards,

Carson Jian,

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