I want to remove a dataflow, is there any way to see if it is being consumed by someone?

[RBunting]

We have a group of dataflows that we built almost two years ago and I'm pretty sure that no one is consuming this content.  I'd like to remove them, but I need to reassure the administrators that this would have zero impact.  

is there any way to monitor/discover if a dataflow is being consumed by another report?

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi, 

 You can use data flow metrics.

https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/paginated-report-metrics-and-dataflow-metrics-now-available...

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Thanks,

Shanthakumar.

[v-henryk-mstf]

Hi @RBunting ,

Yes, you can use the lineage view function. You can see the lineage relationship between all projects in the workspace and all their external dependencies. It shows the connections between all workspace items, including connections to dataflows (upstream and downstream).

The prerequisite is that a pro account or a user with access rights to the workspace is required.

related document link: Data lineage - Power BI | Microsoft Docs

If there is still confusion, let me know immediately. Llooking forward to your reply.

Best Regards,
Henry

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[jeffshieldsdev]

I don't believe downstream dataflows consuming from the target dataflow outside of the current Workspace will be shown.

EDIT: yes, this is in the documentation too "Currently, the lineage view scope for dataflows is limited to what exists in the current workspace."

[jeffshieldsdev]

The Linage View won't show you all dataflows that may be consuming from the target dataflow.

In the past I've found dataflows that had an upstream dataflow deleted would become corrupted and uneditable. I would have to delete and recreate the dataflow downstream of the deleted one, which would get a new GUID and impact consumers downstream of that. It's possible this issue has been fixed.

After getting burnt a couple times, I no longer delete dataflows, just rename with prefix "zzOld_2021-06-16_".

[jeffshieldsdev]

I just tested this, and deleting upstream dataflows no longer corrupts downstream dataflows consuming from them--less risk in deleting now.

[aj1973]

Hi @RBunting 

In here you should get the answer