PBIRS reports dataset stored

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

Do you know where the dataset from uploaded report on the report server is stored when I don't use direct query or live connection? Is it stored under pbix file or somewhere else on the server? 

Thank you.

Regards,

Pawel

[Anonymous]

When you upload a PBIX file to PBI-SSSR Server it creates an entry in the ReportServer DB dbo.catalog. It also creates two entries in dbo.CatalogItemExtendedContent table. One of these is the visuals, m code etc, the other is the data blob.

If you take a PBIX that has imported data and rename it to .zip you can Unzip it. Inside you will find a file called DataModel. This is a super compressed blob of data. This is the thing that gets split out. Everything else is in the visuals blob.

I assume this is so that you can setup a scheduled refresh of the data and it just overwrites the data blob.

When you view a PBIX report the SSRS server magically stitches them back together somehow. Actually what it looks like it does is fire up a captive instance of SSAS tabular and feeds it the data blob. Your visuals are then connected to this temporary data source and as you slice and dice your charts the queries are sent to the captive SSAS instance. Once you've spun your report down the captive SSAS instance is quietly killed off.

S

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your response. I'm looking for a way to connect to the dataset from the other saved report on Report Server but this is not possible. This option is available on cloud version (Get data -> Power BI Service).

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

It doesn't look like that is available. The REST API doesn't expose an oData endpoint for the datasources used by the PowerBI reports. You can of course access DataSets using conventional datasources (not PBI attached just regular SSRS datasources) via oData from PowerBI reports

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/report-server/access-dataset-odata

If you created a datasource and then some datasets off the back of it you could use these in multiple PBI reports and refresh the datasets on schedule. Thus you could "share" datasets between reports. Sort of.