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sbatool's avatar
sbatool
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6 years ago
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Dataflow - linked entities in the same workspace - refresh not working automatically

Hi,

We have 3 dataflow entities in the same workspace, say:

  1. Entity1 contains history data
  2. Entity2 contains live data
  3. Entity3 uses Entity1 and Entity2 as linked entities to append them together (Entity1 and Entity2 have exactly the same column names and number of columns)

Based on the link below, the refresh logic should work automatically for Entity3 given all these entities are in the same workspace:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-dataflows-linked-entities

 

However, this is not happening in the case above. We need to refresh Entity 3 manually after the scheduled refreshes of Entity1 and Entity2 given they have enough time intervals in between.

 

Could someone please help by explaining why?

  • Hi sbatool,

     

    recording to the documentation I believe it should work indeed.

    But there are some Limitations and considerations:

    • There is a maximum of five referencing hops
    • Cyclic dependencies of linked entities are not allowed
    • The dataflow must reside in a new Power BI workspace
    • A linked entity can't be joined with a regular entity that gets its data from an on-premises data source
    • When a query (query A, for example) is used in the calculation of another query (query B) in dataflows, query B becomes a calculated entity. Calculated entities cannot refer to on-premises sources.

    Are any of those matching your case?

2 Replies

  • nickyvv's avatar
    nickyvv
    Icon for Most Valuable Professional rankMost Valuable Professional

    Hi sbatool,

     

    recording to the documentation I believe it should work indeed.

    But there are some Limitations and considerations:

    • There is a maximum of five referencing hops
    • Cyclic dependencies of linked entities are not allowed
    • The dataflow must reside in a new Power BI workspace
    • A linked entity can't be joined with a regular entity that gets its data from an on-premises data source
    • When a query (query A, for example) is used in the calculation of another query (query B) in dataflows, query B becomes a calculated entity. Calculated entities cannot refer to on-premises sources.

    Are any of those matching your case?

    • sbatool's avatar
      sbatool
      Icon for Helper I rankHelper I

      Thanks nickyvv for the prompt response.

      Yes, our case falls into one of the limitations/considerations that you've mentioned.