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Hello, I have a report in Power Bi Report Server that takes a long time to run in import mode and consumes 250GB of memory
I'm researching some forums and I came across some checks that could help,
This screen below is the Analysis Service configuration, if I make the changes here will it affect the execution of my reports?
Or does this Analysis Service have nothing to do with the Analysis Service that appears in the Task Manager?
Tks
Solved! Go to Solution.
Hi @Fernandostn ,
Thank you for reaching out to us on the Microsoft Fabric Community Forum.
I think the settings you're looking at belong to a separate Analysis Services (SSAS) instance, not the one used by Power BI Report Server. When you publish a report to Power BI Report Server (in Import mode), it uses a built-in, hidden SSAS instance behind the scenes
Because this instance is managed internally by Power BI Report Server, its configuration (like memory limits) can’t be changed through the SSAS properties window you’re viewing.
Please follow the below steps to improve performance:
Optimize your data model: remove unused columns, avoid high-cardinality fields.
Use Performance Analyzer in Power BI Desktop to see which visuals are slow.
Monitor server resources during report execution (especially memory usage).
Consider aggregations or splitting large reports into smaller ones if possible.
If this post was helpful, please give us Kudos and consider marking Accept as solution to assist other members in finding it more easily.
Thank you.
Hi @Fernandostn ,
Thanks for reaching out to the Microsoft fabric community forum.
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.
Best Regards,
Menaka.
Community Support Team
Hi @Fernandostn ,
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.
Best Regards,
Menaka.
Community Support Team
Hi @Fernandostn ,
I hope this information is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions or if you'd like to discuss this further. If this answers your question, please Accept it as a solution and give it a 'Kudos' so others can find it easily.
Best Regards,
Menaka.
Community Support Team
I appreciate the feedback
And are there any of these parameters that if I change them could improve the execute time?
Hi @Fernandostn ,
Thank you for reaching out to us on the Microsoft Fabric Community Forum.
I think the settings you're looking at belong to a separate Analysis Services (SSAS) instance, not the one used by Power BI Report Server. When you publish a report to Power BI Report Server (in Import mode), it uses a built-in, hidden SSAS instance behind the scenes
Because this instance is managed internally by Power BI Report Server, its configuration (like memory limits) can’t be changed through the SSAS properties window you’re viewing.
Please follow the below steps to improve performance:
Optimize your data model: remove unused columns, avoid high-cardinality fields.
Use Performance Analyzer in Power BI Desktop to see which visuals are slow.
Monitor server resources during report execution (especially memory usage).
Consider aggregations or splitting large reports into smaller ones if possible.
If this post was helpful, please give us Kudos and consider marking Accept as solution to assist other members in finding it more easily.
Thank you.
Hi @Fernandostn ,
Power BI Report Server (PBIRS) performance can be tricky to tune because the SSAS (Analysis Services) instance you see in Task Manager is actually managed “behind the scenes” by PBIRS, and its memory settings aren’t directly changeable from SSMS or typical SSAS config tools.
The Analysis Services instance PBIRS uses for Import models is a private, embedded SSAS Tabular engine. The standard SSAS config panels you see in Task Manager usually belong to other (non-PBIRS) services. PBIRS doesn’t expose memory settings for its internal SSAS in the UI, but you can adjust memory usage by editing the msmdsrv.ini file.
If you decide to tweak memory settings, here’s how:
Locate your PBIRS SSAS instance folder (typically under C:\Program Files\Microsoft Power BI Report Server\PBIRS\ASEngine\MSAS15.PBIRS\OLAP\Config\).
Open msmdsrv.ini in a text editor.
Look for the <Memory> section and carefully adjust these (example for a server with 32GB RAM):
<Memory>
<TotalMemoryLimit>80</TotalMemoryLimit>
<LowMemoryLimit>65</LowMemoryLimit>
<HardMemoryLimit>90</HardMemoryLimit>
</Memory>
If you have the option, some organizations run a dedicated SSAS Tabular server for huge models, then connect PBIRS reports via Live Connection. That’s a bigger architecture shift, but worth it at scale.
Power BI Report Server creates a "phantom" SSAS Tabular instance to host semantic models that you publish via PBIX. You can connect to it as "localhost:5132".
You can even install your own SSAS Tabular instance on the same server, in this case you should see 2 SSAS processes in the task manager.
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