Scheduled Refresh Failing in October 2020

[Lorenz33]

We are running Power BI Desktop (October 2020) on Windows Server 2012 R2 (Build 9600).

In early December we upgraded Power BI Report Server to the October 2020 version from the May 2020 version.

After server maintenance on January 10, a scheduled refresh for a Power BI Report uploaded to this server started failing with the message: Data refresh failed. Please try again later or contact your administrator.

This report has 2 SharePoint data sources. The authentication type is windows and a valid windows user name and password have been entered. When I click on "Test Connection" both are successful.

Everything is set up properly in the report. In Power Query, looking at the permissions in Data Source settings the credential type is Windows. We are able to refresh the report within Power BI Desktop. Since becoming aware of this issue the workaround has been to manually refresh the report in Power BI Desktop and then upload it to Power BI Report Server.

On the server we looked at this log: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Power BI Report Server\PBIRS\LogFiles\RSPowerBI_*.log

We found this error:

2021-01-21 07:40:20.6633|INFO|20|Model Refresh: isRefreshActive=False, incoming databaseName=dh7v6054-346c-2h7z-acr2-6x7c347890c2_-1234567890, databaseId=1234567890, activeModel.DatabaseName=dh7v6054-346c-2h7z-acr2-6x7c347890c2_-1234567890
2021-01-21 07:40:20.6633|ERROR|20|Error Processing Data Model Refresh: SessionId: c6vv2b89-2f79-231b-2m23-9x3b12345g12, Status: Error Failed to refresh the model, Exception Microsoft.AnalysisServices.OperationException: Failed to save modifications to the server. Error returned: 'The credentials provided for the SharePoint source are invalid. (Source at https://Sharepoint.Server/xyz.). The exception was raised by the IDbCommand interface.

I am looking for advice on how to get the automatic scheduled refresh working again and suggestions or solutions would be most appreciated.

[Icey · Accepted solution]

Hi @Lorenz33 ,

This is a known issue that has been submitted internally (ICM#: 216889995). Engineers are working on a fix. If there is any new message, I'll update it in this thread. Thanks for your understanding.

In addition, one workaround for reference:

1. Before the PBIX file is upgraded to the new format in the October 2020 version of PBI Desktop (Optimized for PBIRS), a backup copy is saved in the AppData folder: 

C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Power BI Desktop SSRS\TempSaves\Backups 

2. Open PBI Desktop and turn off the Enhanced Metadata option. Go to File -> Options and settings -> Options -> Global-Preview features -> then uncheck the option: 

 

3. Restart Power BI Desktop 

4. Reopen the backup PBIX file 

5. You should be able to use this version of the report and publish it to the PBIRS server. It is the v1 model and the same format as in May 2020 PBIRS. 

Best Regards,

Icey

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

[ge5536]

Hey Icey,

Is this known issue that was submitted limited to Sharepoint data sources? We appear to be facing a similar issue with our Oracle data sources. About 80% of our refreshes are failing after we applied a handful of Winwdows server patches.

Thank you!

[ge5536]

We are having a similar issue after our servers were patched on 1/17.

A high % of our refreshes hitting Oracled DBs are failing - though not all of them.

Do you happen to have a list of KBs that were applied against your PBIRS host? I wonder if there's something breaking PBIRS

[Lorenz33]

The following KBs were applied:

MS20-12-SO8-4592497
Security-only update
This security update includes quality improvements. Key changes include:
Addresses a security vulnerability by preventing applications that run as a SYSTEM account from printing to &quot;FILE:&quot; ports. To address this issue in the future, make sure your applications or services run as a specific user or service account.
Security updates to Windows Graphics, Windows Peripherals, and Windows Core Networking.

MS20-12-SO81-4592495
Security-only update
This security update includes quality improvements. Key changes include:
Addresses a security vulnerability by preventing applications that run as a SYSTEM account from printing to &quot;FILE:&quot; ports. To address this issue in the future, make sure your applications or services run as a specific user or service account.

MS20-12-SSU-4592510/4593175
Servicing stack update for Windows Server
This update makes quality improvements to the servicing stack, which is the component that installs Windows updates. Servicing stack updates (SSU) makes sure that you have a robust and reliable servicing stack so that your devices can receive and install Microsoft updates.

We are going to schedule a restart of the Power BI Reporting Server service to see if this helps. The problem is only happening on one report. On the same server the scheduled refreshes are still working for reports with 1 or 2 SharePoint data sources.

[FarhanAhmed]

We also faced the same issue with all refreshes after update. For that, we did the following  workaround 

- Backup the PBI ReportServer Database.

- Backup Encryption Keys thru PBI Report Server configuration.

- Uninstalled the PBI Report Server.

- Re-installed the PBI Report Server.

- Connect it with Previous Report Server DB

- Restore the Encryption Keys.

I know it's too much for asking but we also had all of our refreshes not working, but after that activity, we are fine now.