Skip to main content
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

The Power BI Data Visualization World Championships is back! Get ahead of the game and start preparing now! Learn more

Reply
Fernandostn
Frequent Visitor

Report very slow

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?

 

Fernandostn_0-1746807104611.png

 

Fernandostn_1-1746815211158.png

 

Tks

 

 

1 ACCEPTED 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.

View solution in original post

7 REPLIES 7
v-menakakota
Community Support
Community Support

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  

 

 

Fernandostn
Frequent Visitor

I appreciate the feedback

And are there any of these parameters that if I change them could improve the execute time?

 

Fernandostn_0-1746807104611.png

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.

rohit1991
Super User
Super User

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:

 

  1. Locate your PBIRS SSAS instance folder (typically under C:\Program Files\Microsoft Power BI Report Server\PBIRS\ASEngine\MSAS15.PBIRS\OLAP\Config\).

  2. Open msmdsrv.ini in a text editor.

  3. 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.


Did it work? ✔ Give a Kudo • Mark as Solution – help others too!
R1k91
Super User
Super User

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.

 


--
Riccardo Perico
BI Architect @ Lucient Italia | Microsoft MVP

Blog | GitHub

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

Helpful resources

Announcements
November Power BI Update Carousel

Power BI Monthly Update - November 2025

Check out the November 2025 Power BI update to learn about new features.

Fabric Data Days Carousel

Fabric Data Days

Advance your Data & AI career with 50 days of live learning, contests, hands-on challenges, study groups & certifications and more!

FabCon Atlanta 2026 carousel

FabCon Atlanta 2026

Join us at FabCon Atlanta, March 16-20, for the ultimate Fabric, Power BI, AI and SQL community-led event. Save $200 with code FABCOMM.